Where Beauty Emerges from Dialogue 

Roberto Agostinelli and Jacques Grange on Four Decades of Taste

Brilliantly executed, this panel represents a rare example within sixteenth-century Venetian painting. It is, in fact, the interior decoration of the lid of a spinet or harpsichord. Likely detached from the instrument at the end of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century, it was probably enlarged at the same time to create a rectangular composition. Depicting the Muses, the panel can be compared to Concours entre les Muses et les Piérides, preserved at the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona, traditionally attributed to Tintoretto, which was likewise intended to adorn a spinet. The theme of deities gathered on Mount Helicon, celebrating the union of the Arts and Sciences, is particularly suited to the decoration of a musical instrument. Rooted in the Venetian artistic tradition, this subject was especially dear to Tintoretto, who revisited it repeatedly throughout his career.

Tintoretto

Some of the most well-known names in Photography are represented in Collection Roberto Agostinelli, including notable works by Irving Penn, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Robert Mapplethorpe.&nbsp; Hiroshi Sugimoto’s oversized, dramatic Sea of Japan, Hokkaido, taken over the span of several hours, is the clear centerpiece of the collection, while crisp, elegant fashion photographs in classic black and white by Lillian Bassman, Horst P. Horst, and William Klein are also well represented.

Photography

The Robert Agostinelli collection, with its dialogues between Jean-Michel Frank's furniture and works by Alberto and Diego Giacometti, Emilio Terry, and Christian Bérard, echoes the interiors designed by Frank in the 1930s. The decorator had enriched his ensembles with creations by artists of his time whom he admired and whose world, often tinged with surrealism, was in keeping with his “poor luxury.” In Roberto Agostinelli's collection, Jean-Michel Frank's minimalist furniture, such as the oak console table, the parchment coffee table, and the elegant glass tube floor lamps, interacts with Alberto Giacometti's creations. The latter is represented here by three major works: a rare Trépied à feuilles lamp, an Ecossais lamp, and a pair of andirons, identical to those Frank chose for the large living room of Nelson Rockefeller's New York apartment. His brother Diego, who worked alongside him during the 1930s, developed his own furniture repertoire after the Second World War. He is represented in Roberto Agostinelli's collection by two works: the table aux bouquetins, reminiscent of the bronze furniture found in Pompeii, and the rectangular coffee table with octagonal legs. Christian Bérard is another key artist in Roberto Agostinelli's collection, as he was in Frank's world. Frank met him at the Noailles' home and was captivated by his paintings featuring enigmatic characters and acid colors. He commissioned him to paint decorations and fabric patterns. The painter designed painted screens such as the one shown here, the Vierge Marie et ses deux pages, created in 1934 for Elsa Schiaparelli, an important patron of both artists. Finally, another artist from the Frank galaxy finds his place in the collection. On an X-shaped stool by Jean-Michel Frank, interior designer Jacques Grange chose to place a cushion upholstered with a tapestry made by Decour based on a pattern designed by architect and interior designer Emilio Terry for the Château de Groussay. Terry, Bérard, Alberto, and Diego Giacometti, Frank: Roberto Agostinelli and Jacques Grange have thus revived the harmonious correspondences that defined Frank's style in the 1930s. But their taste for dialogue between the arts prompted them to extend the story and give free rein to their own vision. Thus, furniture by Guy de Rougemont, Jansen, and Gio Ponti naturally found their place in a demanding and daring artistic dialogue.

The Jean-Michel Frank Galaxy

Italian design occupies an important place in Roberto Agostinelli's London interior. The collector was captivated early on by the modernity and creative freedom of the great masters of Italian design. Several historic pieces of furniture are therefore included in the sale. In the summer lounge, where the blue and white geometric ceramic walls evoke Gio Ponti's decorative creations, we notice an ‘Arlequino’ coffee table, an iconic piece by the famous Milanese designer. This table, which Gio Ponti produced in several variations, was presented at the Milan Triennale in 1957 and featured in several of his major interiors. Our version here is a rare example, probably one of the oldest. Another major work by Gio Ponti is the bookcase, a unique piece designed by the architect-designer for his apartment on Via Dezza in Milan. It is an exceptional and intimate testimony to Ponti's artistic vision of interior design, where the combination of functional solutions and constructive play guided his thinking.&nbsp; Also noteworthy is a rare armchair by Turin-based design duo Franco Campo and Carlo Graffi, whose collaboration lasted only eight years. With its fluid, anthropomorphic lines, it is a true sculpture, a feat of balance and construction, in the tradition of the creations of their former master, Carlo Mollino. Finally, in the large living room, Roberto Agostinelli and Jacques Grange chose the iconic Tre Pezzi armchairs created in 1959 by architects Franco Albini and Franca Helg, a sort of club chair revisited based on the structural and aesthetic possibilities of metal tubing. Here, they are paired with Alberto Giacometti's andirons, a table by Guy de Rougemont and a console table by André Dubreuil from Karl Lagerfeld's former collection, in an elegant and daring combination that brilliantly breaks down the barriers between eras and styles.

Icons of Italian Design

Paris

Chairman, Co-Worldwide Head of Design

Florent Jeanniard

Head of Sales, Design

Cécile Tajan

Associate Specialist, 20th Century Design

 Caroline Lescure Hebrard

Head of Department, 19th Century Continental Pictures

Olivier Lefeuvre

Associate Specialist, Old Masters &amp; 19th Century Paintings

Clémence Enriquez

Senior coordinator |  Furniture department | Head of sale | Silver department

Marine de Cenival

Cataloguer | Furniture and Silver 

Julia Cottin

Photographs

Aimee Pflieger

Cataloguer

Matt Parciak

Head of Contemporary Discoveries Sale | Associate Specialist

Armance Gay

Head of Modern Discoveries Sale | Associate Specialist

Joséphine Viat

Cataloguer, Impressionist &amp; Modern Art

Polina Kozlova

Meet our Specialists

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session 1

Roberto Agostinelli has built a collection that mirrors his discerning, free-spirited, and deeply personal taste. We are pleased to present an auction of pieces from his London residence, decorated by Jacques Grange, featuring major figures in the decorative arts, including Jean-Michel Frank, Alberto and Diego Giacometti, Guy de Rougemont, Gio Ponti, Christian Bérard, François-Xavier Lalanne, André Dubreuil, and Carlo Scarpa; photography by Irving Penn, Robert Mapplethorpe, Chris Levine, William Klein, Horst P. Horst, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Lillian Bassman, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Peter Beard; and modern and contemporary art by Man Ray, Bernard Boutet de Monvel, Pavel Tchelitchew, Carla Accardi, Latifa Echakhch, Jacopo Tintoretto, Édouard Vuillard, and Jacopo Confortini.

Collection Roberto Agostinelli | Une sélection, du Tintoret à Giacometti