For the third consecutive year, Sotheby’s Paris will present an evening sale entirely devoted exclusively to works on paper and coinciding with the Salon du Dessin. This sale will offer a significant selection of quality drawings which highlight key trends from the 19th century to the dawn of contemporary art.
Alongside important works by Degas and Picasso, several sections of the sale will focus on Surrealism. For example, Miró’s Chez le Roi de Pologne: Ubu Roi plate III is a major work combining the Catalan painter’s motifs and naïve, fanciful colours. Made in 1954 at the request of Tériade, the one-off work was intended to illustrate Alfred Jarry’s late-19th-century play Ubu Roi, which enthralled many Surrealists. They saw the fat, cowardly, treacherous Père Ubu as the embodiment of the anti-modern hero and the absurdity of always wanting more.
Magritte’s Les Grâces naturelles, from the same period, is a rare red chalk drawing featuring one of the Belgian painter’s emblematic, recurring motifs: the bird-plant. Raymonde Becquevort, founder of Brussels’ La Sirène gallery, bought this particularly graceful model of metamorphosis directly from Magritte in 1953. Ponge, Artaud and Michaux often visited her gallery, a meeting place of the Surrealist intelligentsia where words and images met. Another surrealist artist represented in the sale is Hans Bellmer with a fascinating and rare ensemble of erotic from a private French collection.
The search criteria did not match any available item; please modify your criteria.
Interested in bidding online for this sale? click here to register for BIDnow.
Watch live auctions, manage your account, sign up for updates, share your favourites, create wishlists and more.
Create An AccountWould you like to watch the live sale only or also participate in bidding?
Watch Live Sale Register to BidOnline Registration to Bid is Closed for this Sale. Would you like to watch the live sale?
Watch Live Salesale registration is closed because the sale is starting within 24 hours.
To participate in this sale please call the Bids Department
All successful registrations for this sale will show under the ‘Auctions’ section of ‘MyAccount’.
To participate in this sale please call the Bids Department