Georges Braque (1882-1963)
EXCEPTIONAL WORKS FROM THE TRITON COLLECTION FOUNDATION
Georges Braque (1882-1963)

L'oiseau de feu

Details
Georges Braque (1882-1963)
L'oiseau de feu
signed 'G Braque' (lower left)
oil and charcoal on paper laid down cradled panel
11 x 19 3/4 in. (28 x 50 cm.)
Painted circa 1954
Provenance
J. Richardson & D. Cooper, Uzès, a gift from the artist, circa 1955.
J. Richardson, New York.
Triton Collection Foundation, Netherlands, by whom acquired from the above in December 1999.
Literature
S. van Heugten, Avant-gardes, 1870 to the present: The Collection of the Triton Foundation, Brussels, 2012, p. 540 (illustrated p. 425).
Exhibited
Basel, Kunstmuseum, Douglas Cooper und die Meister des Kubismus, November 1987 - January 1988, no. 8, p. 200 (illustrated p. 74); this exhibition later travelled to London, Tate Gallery.
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Braque, The Late Works, January - April 1997, no. 30, p. 96 (illustrated p. 97); this exhibition later travelled to Houston, The Menil Collection.
The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, Parijs, Stad van de moderne kunst 1900-1960, October 2011 - January 2012, p. 204 (illustrated).
Rotterdam, Kunsthal, De collectie van de Triton Foundation, October 2012 - January 2013.

Brought to you by

Michelle McMullan
Michelle McMullan

Lot Essay

This painting was issued as one of a group of prints made after paintings and drawing of the period by Maeght, in collaboration with the artist (see Valier p. 294; Maeght 1020).


Christie’s is honoured to be offering for sale a significant group of works from the Triton Collection Foundation, which continues to evolve and grow in new areas. The last major de-acquisition from the collection took place in our salerooms in Paris in March 2015 when the Exceptional Works on Paper from the Triton Collection Foundation sale elicited huge interest from collectors around the globe: Those works, which had been collected by Triton’s Founders over many years, saw spectacular prices for top quality pieces, such as Camille Pissarro’s Paysannes travaillant dans les champs, Pontoise, which sold for €1,381,500 against a pre-sale estimate of €250,000-350,000, further to numerous world records achieved for works on paper by artists such as Claude-Emile Schuffenecker, Paul-Elie Ranson and Frédéric Bazille. This strong market reaction is in recognition of the eye with which they had originally been selected.

Over many years the Foundation has considered public access to its works as a fundamental pillar of its collecting ethos. A continuous dialogue with curators around the world and an extensive loan programme to over seventy museums globally has made this dream a reality and benefited exhibitions at the likes of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, the Seoul Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art. These collaborations have ensured that an international audience has consistently had the opportunity to appreciate the quality and breadth of the collection, which stretches from classic Impressionism through to Surrealism and beyond to Post-War work by the major American artists. The sales of the major works in this season’s auctions will give the opportunity to the Foundation to continue its excellent, philanthropic work.

The group of works being sold across our Impressionist sales here in London includes seminal examples of French Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and the European avant-garde, from Claude Monet’s luminous Vétheuil of 1879 to Jan Toorop’s resonating symbolist 1902 composition, Faith and Reward. Each of these works has been bought with a very discerning eye, and often the provenances of the pieces are as noble as the works themselves. We wish the Foundation great success with these sales as well as their future projects.

Jussi Pylkkänen
Global President, Christie’s

More from Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale

View All
View All