Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more

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.’

Marie Laurencin (1883–1956)

Danseuse espagnole

Details

Marie Laurencin (1883–1956)
Danseuse espagnole
signed ‘Marie Laurencin’ (upper right)
oil on board
8 5/8 x 6 3/8 in. (22 x 16 cm.)
Painted circa 1916

Provenance

Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin/Dusseldorf, by whom acquired by 1921.
Willy Streit, Hamburg; his sale, Paul Graupe, Hermann Ball, Berlin, 3 June 1931, lot 89.
Matthiesen Ltd, London.
Eric & Salome Estorick, London, by whom acquired from the above in 1955.

Literature

H. von Wedderkop, 'Marie Laurencin', in Junge Kunst, vol. XXII, Leipzig, 1921, (illustrated; dated '1915').
R. Allard, 'Marie Laurencin', in Les Peintres Français Nouveau, vol. X, Paris, 1925, p. 33 (dated '1918').
D. Marchesseau, Marie Laurencin: Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint, Tokyo, 1986, no. 128, p. 97 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Hamburg, Kunstverein, Kunst der letzten 30 Jahre aus Hamburger Privatbesitz, 1930, no. 122.

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. 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

More from Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper

View All