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PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ERIC AND SALOME ESTORICKEric and Salome Estorick were among the most pioneering collectors of modern art in post-war Britain, building an outstanding collection of diverse artworks from across the spectrum of the European avant-garde. While their later collecting activities focused primarily on Italian art of the twentieth century, which now forms the core of the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art in North London, the foundation of their personal collection lay in Eric’s interest in the Parisian avant-garde, fostered during his years as a student in New York. Born in Brooklyn in 1913 to Russian parents, Eric Estorick studied sociology at New York University during the early 1930s, earning a PhD in the subject before going on to teach at NYU. It was here that Eric first encountered the Gallatin Collection at The Museum of Living Art in Washington Square. Featuring masterpieces by Picasso, Léger, Miró and Matisse, this remarkable group of artworks inspired Eric to begin his own collecting journey, and would forever shape his idea of what a collection should aspire to be. In 1941, he published the first of his extensive biographies on Sir Stafford Cripps, before serving in the US Broadcast Intelligence Service during the Second World War. In 1946, while researching his second volume of the Cripps biography, Eric found himself in Paris, where he purchased drawings and paintings by some of the leading artists of the avant-garde, including Picasso, Braque, Gris and Léger.In 1947, he met Salome Dessau on board the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner while returning to New York, and the pair were married before the end of the year. It was during their honeymoon in Switzerland that the couple first came across the Italian Futurists, a discovery that sparked a life-long passion for Italian art that would dominate their collecting for decades to come. During the late 1950s, Eric moved into art dealing, acting as a representative for a number of important clients based in Hollywood, including Lauren Bacall, Burt Lancaster and Billy Wilder. Shortly afterwards, the Estoricks opened The Grosvenor Gallery in Mayfair, the largest private gallery in London at the time, which dedicated itself to showing ‘20th century modern masters and the developing talent of young artists, wherever they may be found.’ Through their pioneering exhibition programme the Estoricks brought a number of important artists to the attention of the British public for the first time, from El Lissitzky to Zoran Mušič and David Burliuk. Their private collection continued to grow alongside their professional activities, with new acquisitions often purchased on their trips abroad for the Grosvenor Gallery and brought back to the Estorick family home in St. John’s Wood. Their passion for works on paper flourished during this period, and it is this aspect of the Estorick’s private collection which is clearly celebrated in the works featured in this sale. Writing about the strange alchemy that drives a person to collect, Eric wrote: ‘There is no possibility of giving a simple answer to the question of how and why one has come to collect various works of art. Basically one is searching for freedom and creative art is part of that search… A collection for me is a living thing, not a fixity.’

Georges Braque (1882-1963)

Nature morte

Details

Georges Braque (1882-1963)
Nature morte
signed 'G Braque' (lower left)
pastel on paper
14 1/8 x 18 7/8 in. (35.9 x 48 cm.)

Provenance

E.L.T. Mesens, London.
Ian Gibson-Smith, London, by whom acquired in 1947.
Eric Estorick, London, by whom acquired from the above on 20 June 1957.
Private collection, Greece; sale, Sotheby's, London, 6 December 1961, lot 29.
Eric & Salome Estorick, London, by whom acquired at the above sale via A.E. Goldschmidt, London.

Exhibited

London, The London Gallery, The Cubist Spirit in its Time, March - May 1947, no. 42, p. 31 (illustrated pl. 23, p. 34; dated '1919').
London, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Georges Braque: An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings from Collections in England with Lithographs, 1909-1953, May - July 1954, no. 10 (dated '1919').

Special Notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

Brought to you by

Ottavia Marchitelli, Specialist Head of Works on Paper Sale

omarchitelli@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2980

Lot Essay

'Still-life has always been the specialty of Braque's genius. Seldom has painting been used to confer so much enchantment on such ordinary things: loaves of bread, knives, packets of cigarettes, fruit, flowers, and innumerable domestic accessories... So, from the lowliest objects Braque extracts a new poetry as he paints, and our experience of the world becomes fuller and more exciting. If we will look, Braque will teach us to see, and this, after all, is the highest function of the true artist.'
D. Cooper, 'Georges Braque: The Evolution of a Vision', in exh. cat., Georges Braque, Tate Gallery, London, 1956, pp. 14-15.

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