French Impressionism

While they were denigrated at first, these days the French impressionists enjoy an unparalleled reputation. Influenced by the scientific discoveries of their day, particularly by Eugène Chevreul’s law of colour contrast, they juxtapose their colours in free brush strokes, paving the way for abstract art.

The summits reached by Monet’s works almost make us forget the very lukewarm welcome his works received in 1874 at the first exhibition of impressionist paintings in Paris. He showed Impression, soleil levant (1872-73), a work which has since become emblematic of the movement, giving it its name. Over the last twenty years, Monet has accrued 262 million-plus sales, of which 23 results at more than USD 10 million! In June 2007 a Nymphéas painting reach a record, set at GBP 16,5 million Sotheby’s London (USD 32.7 million).
So great is Monet’s popularity that his works are highly sought-after in the British and American sales with no masterpieces to be found at auction in the other markets. The rare, relatively unspectacular paintings up for auction in France, for example, achieve no more than EUR 5 million. Recently a late work (1924-1925), Iris jaunes, from the collection of Alice Tériade, was sold by Arcurial Paris in October 2007 for EUR 2.8 million, or USD 4 million.

Monet does not, however, hold the sale record for the movement. Auguste Renoir is well out in front with Au Moulin de la Galette, which sold for USD 71 million at the peak of the 1990 speculative bubble. After the collapse in the market in the early 1990s and the gradual pick up in confidence, Renoir was the focus of speculative interest. His painting Femmes dans un jardin, for example, has come up for auction on four occasions since 1993, of which two between 2006 and 2007. In June 2006, the work went for GBP 4.4 million, or USD 8.1 million at Sotheby’s London before being resold in New York in November 2007 when it achieved USD 10.9 million.

The lucrative capital gain realised by Paul Cezanne’s magnificent Nature morte aux fruits et pot de gingembre was even more impressive: sold for the equivalent of USD 16.4 million in June 2000 (GBP 11 million, Christie’s), it was to bring the hammer down at close to USD 33 million just six years later (Sotheby’s NY, November 2006)!
Edouard Manet’s record again illustrates the robust health of the market. It was set in May 2004 for Les courses au Bois de Boulogne, a very complex and forceful composition coming from the Whitney collection, which changed hands for USD 23.5 million (Sotheby’s NY). This spectacular sale supplanted the previous record equivalent to USD 22 million, held by La rue Mosnier aux drapeaux, 1878 and set during the speculative frenzy of the 1989 New York sales (Christie’s). Manet produced some 400 paintings which represent just 4% of the work sold at auction. Many of the works on the market are prints (91% of transaction volumes) which are affordable at less than EUR 5,000. A number of very fresh prints on chine appliqué paper can, however, achieve more than USD 10,000, particularly the portraits of Berthe Morisot, and some paper-based works go for more than USD 50,000! This was the case in October 2004 for one of the artist’s favourite subjects, Les courses, which achieved USD 80,000 at Sotheby’s NY.

Paper-based works, drawings or prints by Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley and Armand Guillaumin, numerous Degas pastels and some photographs frequently come on the market. Degas pastels of dancers and women washing easily achieve more than USD 200,000 and sometimes more than USD 1 million: a Femme à sa toilette, for example, sold for GBP 1.5 million in June 2007 at Christie’s London (close to USD 3 million). On the other hand, simple charcoal sketches are affordable at under USD 20,000. Degas is the only impressionist to have really explored photography. His negatives are so rare and highly prized that some are more expensive than the drawings: in July 2004 Beaussant-Lefèvre presented five prints in Paris, of which one achieved five times its estimate, the bidding culminating at EUR 170,000!