Among the finest collections remaining in private hands today, the Blaquier-Arrieta Collection charts the birth of modern art through paintings of a caliber rarely seen outside museums, and rarer still on the market. Spanning the first experiments of Impressionism in the early 1870s, through the radical innovations of Post-Impressionism, to the dawn of Fauvism that ushered in a new era of art, it is more akin to a private museum than a traditional collection: a once-in-a-generation opportunity to encounter the artists who redefined painting.

The story begins with the pioneers of Impressionism, who rejected academic convention for a new, direct engagement with modern life. Monet turned his eye to the Jardin des Tuileries; Degas found his subject in the leisure and spectacle of French life. Renoir's En Canot dates to 1877, the year the Impressionists first took their name, and stands among his finest boating scenes. Van Gogh painted his radiant view of Auvers-sur-Oise in the final months of his life, at the height of his powers. Cézanne's assertive Arlequin depicts his own son and marks painting's turn toward structure and abstraction. Gauguin's late Tahitian still life carries that same spirit of invention into a new register. The collection culminates with Derain and Vlaminck, whose liberated color announced the arrival of Fauvism.

Carlos Pedro Blaquier and Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier began collecting in the 1960s, working closely with leading galleries including Lefevre and Wildenstein to build this exceptional survey of Impressionist and Modern art. Their collecting reflected a broader commitment to scholarship, philanthropy and cultural stewardship. Many of the paintings carry storied provenances, once belonging to renowned collectors like Albert Lasker, Norton Simon and Lord Rothschild before entering the Blaquier-Arrieta collection.