M asterpieces from this sale embody the spirit of artists working at the turn of the 20th century — visionaries who defied convention to forge a bold, modern language of art. Charting the historic threads and cross-continental exchanges linking Impressionism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and beyond, the Modern Evening Auction celebrates the pivotal developments that have shaped art history.
The Modern Evening Auction will feature highlights from The Armand Hammer Collection, Magnum Opus: A Private Collection of Exceptional Art and Objects Through the Ages, Picasso's Heroic Years: Masterpieces from a Prestigious Family, Shaping Modernity: Property from a Private American Collection and Expanding Horizons: The Hedreen Collection. These works and more will be viewable at Sotheby’s New York this November.
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Shaping Modernity: Property from a Private American Collection charts the defining moments in the evolution of modern art. Bringing together exceptional works by the artists who transformed painting between the 19th and 20th centuries, the collection highlights a series of breakthroughs that forever altered the trajectory of art history. The collection, beginning with Impressionism, spans the key Post-Impressionist movements such as Pointillism, Fauvism and reaches forward to the post-war figuration of Francis Bacon, each work embodies a willingness to challenge convention and pursue new possibilities of artistic expression.
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Characterized by raw energy, gestural brushwork and a return to archetypal subjects, the paintings of Picasso's final two decades, the period known as his "Heroic Years," have undergone a significant critical reappraisal, and are now widely seen as the artist’s final flourish. As the scholar Simonetta Fraquelli has written, the re-evaluation of this intensely creative period "has highlighted its undiminished power and originality," and the emotional depth and painterly freedom of these canvases would go on to exert a lasting influence on neo-expressionist painting from the early 1980s onward.
These works reflect both a growing awareness of mortality, as the artist sought to ward off death through a final burst of creativity, and a conscious decision to allow himself total liberty with style and subject. Having moved through so many phases of experimentation, he pared his language down, isolating the elements that fascinated him and rendering them in quick, spontaneous strokes, often on a grand scale and with a wit entirely his own. The recurring cast of characters found in the late work - the lovers, the musketeer, the painter and his model - can be read as a psychological projection of a complex and multifaceted identity, while his continuing dialogue with the Old Masters placed him firmly in the company of the canonical greats he admired. Many of these works take as their subject and inspiration his last wife, Jacqueline Roque, whose presence defines the years often called "l'époque Jacqueline."
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Sotheby’s will present a selection of works from Armand Hammer’s storied private collection, with proceeds benefiting the Armand Hammer Foundation and its mission of public good, offering collectors and institutions a rare opportunity to acquire paintings from one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated private collections.
The group of works is led by Edgar Degas' Trois danseuses (Jupes jaunes) and Mary Cassatt's Summertime, a jewel-toned view of leisure on the water. Together with works by Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and more, the November sales will showcase the breadth and quality of Dr. Hammer's collecting vision and his enduring appreciation for many of the defining figures of nineteenth and early twentieth-century art.
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Assembled over decades, the collection encompasses more than 900 works spanning millennia and continents — from Roman imperial marble, Old Master paintings, ancient Near Eastern ceramics, Islamic court carpets, and royal French furniture to Impressionist masterworks and exceptional 20th century design. Yet what distinguishes it is not its sheer breadth, remarkable as it is, but the intelligence that binds it. Across every medium and every era, a set of abiding preoccupations with the human form, with the dialogue between material and meaning, and with the enduring power of provenance holds the collection together as a coherent and discerning vision.
Together, the works continue the remarkable cross-category vision established by Magnum Opus, moving from the exceptional antiquities, Old Masters and decorative arts seen in October to these four distinctly modern explorations of the human form.
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Devoted philanthropists, active supporters of their native Seattle and Washington State, and passionate collectors for six decades, the Hedreens can rightly be considered pioneers, who were among the very first to place considerable emphasis on the visual and intellectual dialogues inherent in juxtaposing art from across the ages, assembling a collection that spans the 15th century to the present day. In addition to works offered in the The Now and Contemporary Evening Auction on November 16th, further works from the collection will be offered in the Modern Evening Auction.
