Adesso

Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale

RESULTS

The Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale totalled £103.3 million. The auction was led by Pablo Picasso’s Femme assise, which sold for £43.3 million, a record price for any Cubist work, and the highest price for a painting sold in London in over five years. Cubism is considered to be Pablo Picasso’s most important contribution to Modern art and Femme assise comes from the series of canvases that revolutionised Picasso’s working methods and established his path to Cubism.

Amedeo Modigliani’s Jeanne Hébuterne (au foulard), one of the greatest portraits the artist painted of his most loyal muse, achieved £38.5 million, a record price for a portrait by the artist and the second highest price for a painting sold in London in over five years. Painted as a loving tribute, the portrait reveals a tender moment between a pioneer in the world of modern art and his lover. The painting provides a glimpse into one of the greatest and most tragic love stories in 20th-century art history.

At auction for the first time, Edvard Munch’s richly inked impression The Scream (Woll 38; Schiefler 32) soared above its estimate, selling for £1.8 million. The expressive and powerful work has transcended art history to reach a global consciousness and his lithograph of 1895 led to the image becoming one of the most iconic subjects in the history of art. This work was originally owned by the Norwegian industrialist and collector Olaf Schou who acquired it directly from the artist around 1900 and has remained in his family collection until now. 

AUCTION DETAILS

The June sale of Impressionist & Modern Art is led by two iconic female portraits: Picasso’s Cubist masterpiece Femme assise and Modigliani’s exquisite rendering of his last muse, Jeanne Hébuterne (au foulard).

The sale also includes a variety of paintings, sculpture and works on paper ranging from Impressionist and post-Impressionist works by Renoir, Sisley and Gauguin, to modern masters such as Léger, Giacometti and Miró, as well as notable examples of Surrealism and German and Austrian Expressionism.