Highlights from the Collection of Philanthropist Ruth Sharp Altshuler

Édouard Manet, Profil de jeune fille, circa 1880, oil on canvas. Estimate $1,800,000–2,500,000.

Manet transformed portraiture into a record of contemporary life, insisting that acquaintances, family and occasionally professional models endure prolonged and frequent sittings while he captured their essence on canvas. The subject of Profil de jeune fille has been debated for decades by scholars, oscillating between Ellen Andrée, the model-turned-actress featured in a number of Impressionist works, and Ellen André, daughter of fellow artist Edmond Alphonse André, a friend of Manet. Although her true identity is unknown, the woman’s character is uncovered via his brilliant painting technique of animated, varied strokes of vibrant colors that he transferred to the canvas with seeming spontaneity and deference.

Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale
14 May | New York

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Auguste Rodin, Esculape dit aussi Ex Voto, conceived circa 1903 and cast in an edition of 2 by the Alexis Rudier foundry, Paris; this example cast in April 1931, bronze. Estimate $500,000–700,000.

Esculape dit aussi Ex Voto is an extremely rare model by Auguste Rodin that demonstrates the artist’s immense skill in sensitively rendering human anguish in his sculpture—both physical and emotional. The model depicts the Greek god of medicine, Asclepius, cradling a wounded woman in a pietà-like hold. The individual figures derive from earlier models in the artist’s oeuvre and exemplify Rodin’s particular inventiveness in creating new assemblages to transform a subject.

Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale
15 May | New York

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Maurice de Vlaminck, Saint Michel, 1913, oil on canvas. Estimate $250,000–350,000.

Painted in 1913, Saint Michel reveals Vlaminck’s extraordinary ability to convey atmosphere and a sense of place through his highly accomplished and assured painterly language. Vlaminck’s interest in Cézanne is evident in the intensity of his brushstrokes and attention to light in the present work, while also demonstrating his departure from his Fauvist style of prior years.

Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale
15 May | New York

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Le Pho, Les Marguerites, 1940, oil on board. Estimate $8,000–12,000.

Le Pho’s oeuvre is a fascinating blend of the artistic styles of his native Vietnam imbued with the Impressionist techniques he adopted upon his arrival in Paris in 1930. Never is this more evident than in this semi-Impressionist study of flowers, with the oil paint handled with delicacy and a fluidity of stroke to create an intriguing dissonance of transparency and solidity.

Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale
15 May | New York

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Robert Reid, Lady by a Stream, oil on canvas. Estimate $60,000–80,000.

Robert Reid was the youngest member of the Ten American Painters, a loosely defined group of artists associated with French Impressionism. Born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Reid later studied at the Art Students League in New York and the Académie Julian in Paris. He is best known for his decorative impressionist paintings of elegant female figures posed in sunlit garden landscapes, such as the present work .

American Art
23 May | New York

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Frederick Carl Frieseke, La Coiffure, 1905, oil on panel. Estimate $100,000–150,000.

Frieseke’s artistic beginnings under the tutelage of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and his subsequent move to Giverny next to Claude Monet’s garden, led to a distinctly unique technique that combined the execution of the Impressionists with the Aestheticist compositions, such as is evident in Frieseke’s beautiful La Coiffure . Here, Frieseke depicts an intimate moment as a woman adjusts her hair in the privacy of her boudoir, captured with broad applications of uniform and murky tonalities.

American Art
23 May | New York

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Guy Carleton Wiggins, A Winter’s Day, New York, oil on canvas. Estimate $80,000–120,000.

Guy Carleton Wiggins was the son of the Barbizon School painter Carleton Wiggins. Although he had initially intended to study architectural draftsmanship, Wiggins later attended the National Academy of Design in New York, studying under William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri. His most iconic works, which often depict New York City streets in wintertime, showcase his continued interest in detailed urban architecture and Impressionist paint handling.

American Art
23 May | New York

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