S otheby’s is pleased to present the October sale of 19th-Century Works of Art, spanning painting, sculpture, and works on paper across genres, schools, and styles. Highlights include a selection of paintings from the Collection of Paul Yeou Chichong, featuring Venetian canal views by Félix Ziem and Rubens Santoro, charming genre scenes by Joseph Bail, transcendent landscapes by Peder Mørk Mønsted, and Parisian city streets by Edouard Cortès. Additionally, the sale features paintings, drawings, and pastels from the Collection of Seymour Stein, including works on paper by Jean-François Millet, Jules Victor Clairin, Edward Burne-Jones, Simeon Solomon, Aubrey Beardsley, and Vilhelm Hammershøi. With enticing estimates, including property offered without reserve, this sale presents an opportunity for new as well as established collectors to discover this diverse category.
Monsieur Chichong’s interest in art sprang from his studies in France as a young man, when he traveled from French Polynesia, at first by boat and eventually by plane, beginning in 1952 and until he graduated from the École des hautes études commerciales de Paris— the first student of French Polynesian origin to do so. He decided to dedicate himself to his native Tahiti and through various business enterprises and companies became business leader as well as a civic leader and philanthropist.
Amassed over decades and across continents, the collection of Paul Yeou Chichong is an encyclopedic grouping of the art historical canon amassed through diligence and a love of art by a true connoisseur. The works assembled here represent celebrated 19th- and 20th-century artists that set international standards of subject, style, and taste from Barbizon landscapes to Belle Époque city views.
Seymour Stein, entrepreneur and co-founder of Sire Records, is best known for working with famed musicians such as Madonna, Talking Heads, and the Ramones. An avid collector across fine and decorative arts, the selection presented for sale highlights drawings, watercolors, pastels, and paintings by leading 19th- and 20th-century European and British artists.
