Hello again. It's wonderful to be back here
at Sotheby's. This time, I'm here to introduce the Summer Season. A whole plethora of events, exhibitions
and sales running from Old Master to Modern and Contemporary, with a special
emphasis this year on portraiture. I'll be discussing some of the highlights,
and they really are highlights, with the experts at Sotheby's. There's a remarkable collection
of portraits on show from the great collections at Chatsworth House,
including work by Rembrandt, Sir Joshua Reynolds,
and a wonderful group of Lucian Freuds. The emphasis on portraiture has been very much inspired
by the scheduled reopening this year, much long awaited, of the National Portrait
Gallery here in London. There are also portraits by the likes
of Francis Bacon and indeed Andy Warhol. And all of these works have been gathered
together just for this season. So to begin with, here to talk with me about two of the highlights
from the Contemporary sale is Emma Baker. And Emma, I'd like to begin with this rather remarkable painting by Cy Twombly, 1970-- - yes, 1970.
- one of the Blackboard paintings, a rare thing. - Really rare but also very iconic as well. He started the series in 1968,
working between Rome and New York, and they have this incredible energy
to them in the cursive script, which has become so iconic of Cy Twombly’s work. - These great sort of looping curls
that seem to become more and more manic. - They do.
- The lower he goes down the canvas. What do you think
he was looking at to inspire him? I’ve always imagined, you know,
because he's got a studio in New York. He's got a studio in Rome. He could be looking at New York graffiti. He could be looking at some picturesque old peeling plaster
wall in Rome. - Totally. Absolutely.
- What do you think? - It's a real mixture I think, for Twombly. And he's this great master
of looking back through time, looking back through art history and picking up on things that are
very contemporary, but also very historic. So you have the sense that he's looking at
abstract expressionism, minimalism, all these artists that are very of the now,
in the late 1960s, 70s in New York. But also he's inspired,
incredibly inspired by ancient Rome, the high Renaissance. And that's definitely something you see
in this particular painting, I think. - He strikes me as an unusual artist
in the sense that he really does straddle Europe and America. He's got the studio in New York and the
studio in Rome, which is symbolic of that. And he's, is he looking at Jasper Johns,
the gray paintings? But could he also be looking at Leonardo da Vinci's
Deluge Drawing. - A hundred percent. Absolutely. And I think that's
what's amazing about these works. And I think that this painting
specifically, the use of red chalk does make you think of Leonardo's drawings,
makes you think of Renaissance cartoons, and the Deluges, the way that Leonardo
obsessively returned to this translation of like sublime nature,
is something that Twombly picks up on and is inspired by,
that obsessional repetition. And you see it in the rows of loops,
in the colors that he's using. And even in the scumbled background,
which looks like a Deluge in itself. - So modern American abstraction
with a renaissance twist. - Absolutely.
- An artist, he sort of he spans 2000 miles,
but also, in a sense, 2000 years. - A hundred percent, yep.
- Great. Now, the other work
that we're going to look at, which is actually with us here hanging behind us, which is wonderful to say,
is Frank Auerbach's Mornington Crescent,
actually made just a year before-- - Yeah.
- the Twombly, and like the Twombly is inspired by a modern urban fabric,
namely that of London. - Exactly. It's amazing, like how you have someone like Twombly
responding to the pace of New York, the feel of it, the contemporary art
that was happening there. And also on the other side of the pond,
you have Frank Auerbach responding to his very small,
dedicated area of North London where he lived and worked and has done
for the last half a century. And in these pictures, you really see
his dedication to the sense of place. And it almost becomes a psychological entity in itself,
very much like his portrayal of the sitters that come to his studio week
in, week out, for decades. And he observes them.
He does the same thing with his landscapes and the areas around Mornington Crescent,
Primrose Hill, Camden, Chalk Farm. But it's, it is these works
of Mornington Crescent, I think, in the 1960s where you see this
real confidence emerge in Auerbach's work. The color is just incredible
and the application of paint is so forceful that it's just that
they really are wonderful works. - They are. I mean, I've always felt that he's
depicting the energy of the city as much as what the city actually
looks like, the appearance of the city. You know, it's the idea of the city
as something that's ceaselessly rising, changing. It's the city that's always a building site. - Yeah, it's kind of like a living, breathing entity. And you get that here with the very sort
of vein-like marks, the pools of red. It has an organic quality,
like the pulsating heart of the city. - I like that, I like that.
I think that's really true. I think that's another aspect of it,
because of the way in which he uses the paint straight out of the tube
and uses it so thick. There's a great sensuality
about these images, almost, almost baroque--
- Yeah. - sense of equivalence
between the city and the body. - Yeah, totally. - And I think Auerbach's always
been very conscious of London as a city that has been scarred by events. - Yep.
- Scarred by the war. His teacher, David Bomberg,
did these amazing drawings of London during the Blitz,
at the height of the Blitz, showing St Paul's as if
to say it survived, the city survived. And some of the energy,
some of the rhythms, some of the almost handwriting
of those works by Bomberg, I think survives in a painting like this, even though it's 25 years later. - Definitely. And then you see the real contrast
in Auerbach's work from the mid 1950s, his landscapes of London,
which are about postwar sort of wreckage and postwar fallout, in the 1960s,
you see the color and like optimism and like a real growth
towards this rebuilding and recovering from the scars of war, which is very, very apparent in the amazing color
that you see here in this picture. - I absolutely agree. It’s sort of almost,
trauma has been left behind, and now there's this sense of optimism
and growth and energy and power, that these really have become in my mind, they've become some of the classic
paintings of British art of the 20th century. - Yeah, absolutely.
- Well, thank you, Emma. And do, do, if you can, you know,
come to see the pre-sale exhibition because this painting, it's worth it
just to see this picture on its own. Now we're going
to look at one of the real highlights of the Face to Face
sale of portraits. And it's a work by Lucian Freud who in fact,
was a close friend of Frank Auerbach. And here to talk about his remarkable
Night Interior is Tom. - Hi, Andrew.
- This is a wonderful picture to have, isn't it? - It really is. And I think we're incredibly
privileged to be able to showcase this extraordinary painting. I think it's hard to think of any other
artist more commonly associated with the portrait, in the last hundred years, than Lucian Freud.
And this is a prime example of a naked portrait, you know,
so synonymous with his entire work. - It’s an extremely unconventional portrait, you know, if it is merely a portrait,
perhaps it's a portrait and lots of other things besides. - Well, exactly. Obviously, it's you know,
it's this beautiful reclining nude in his studio. It feels very autobiographical. The studio was him,
his sitters were there for a long time, hours upon hours each day,
and it could go on for a year or so. So this picture really is a summation of
everything that encompasses Lucian’s work. And I think it is an extraordinary example
of his entire output. The sitter in this portrait is Penelope
Cuthbertson, and she is the sitter of about seven paintings
that he executed from 1966 to 1970. This is the finale, as it were, I think
for any portrait artist, especially Lucian. That synergy, that relationship with
the sitter, that ease is so important. - I think one of the things I love about
the picture is the way in which the relationship
between the setting and the person seems so organic-- - Yeah.
- and suggestive. There's a sense of the nighttime outside
in that wonderful dragged paint that depicts these darkened windows,
there’s the reflection of a light bulb, that almost looks like a fried egg. There's the cupboard,
it’s got Lucian’s overcoat and shoes in it. It's almost as if the room and the person
are all bound into one image of existence. - Yeah, it's this sort of vortex
and everything is surrounding the sitter, but, you know, it's all encompassing,
you know, everything for Lucian was a portrait, he said famously,
like, everything is a portrait. - Even a chair.
- Even a chair, exactly. And I think, you know,
you reference that sort of, the open closet on the left hand side of the composition,
and you see his coat and his boots dangling, that sort of reference of himself
within the painting beside her. It's really fascinating. And it, as you say, it's all encompassing. And I think that's
what makes this painting so special. Quite often with Lucian, you see more
close up portraits of sitters. But this has an extra element
which puts himself, his life, his sitters, all at one into to this
very beautifully executed painting. - It's unusual for me as well as in the sense
that often in Freud, particularly later, you have a sense of sitting being really
a vulnerable thing to do to him. - Yeah. - Whereas in this picture I feel as though
she's almost being looked after by him she’s like this almost like a sleeping baby in the studio
-yeah - There's something very,
very tender about this picture. - It's very, as you say, it's very tender. She, you know,
she feels comfortable in the environment. You know, as you say, it's,
you know, a darkened window outside. There's a palpable tension
and with the environment. But, you know, she is at ease. And I think that's what you see with a lot of Freud's paintings. You know, it is they are naked portraits,
but it's very much the sitter has control.
They control the pose. You know, he's he wasn't didactic in ordering his sitters
where to sit and how to pose. It was about being at ease. And, you know, I think part of the reasons why he's so successful at communicating the essence of his sitters
is because he took a long time painting. They felt at ease, relaxed
in the environments. And it's that connection
that happens over time. - Yeah, you certainly have that sense
of captured time preserved forever in the picture. It's a beautiful and a rare thing. - It is indeed. - So moving on
to some works of modern art, all of which are going to be sold
on the same evening. Now, Thomas, I hope we could start
with this rather remarkable picture by Munch,
a portrait of Karl Jensen-Hjell, if I've got the pronunciation right.
- Yes. It's a portrait of a painter,
a friend of Munch’s, who actually, the story of
the commissioning is rather wonderful, because Munch’s just returned from Paris. He went on a fact finding mission to Paris
to look at modern painting, and he wants to take on something
ambitious and Hjell wants a portrait. But the problem is materials. Materials are very expensive.
- It's a big picture he wants. - He wants a full length portrait. So a deal is struck. Hjell will pay for all the materials
and a dinner at the café of the Grand Hotel
in exchange for his portrait. - So Munch no doubt thinks this is fantastic. You know, he gets to get all his materials
paid for and a slap up meal. We probably now think, gosh,
that was a very, very good price indeed. But what a thing
that emerges from this deal. I mean, this
rather amazing picture of a man who almost like a specter
of sort of modern bohemian life, staring at us
quizzically with the monocle in his eye. I mean he's really something. - It goes
to the heart of what he's interested in, the spirit, the soul of the painter
and his own personal experience. And we get quite a lot of Hjell’s character
in this picture, far more so than you might do in a more studied,
more formal portrait. And this comes down to both the style
but also the casualness of the posture, the way that the light catches the monocle
and the lit cigar gives it immediacy and a certain
a real presence of the man. - And looking at the picture,
it just strikes me it's such a moment in in Munch’s personal history
that he's just taken on board this huge revolution that's gone on in
Paris, and he's brought that revolution in his head
and he's applied it to this painting. And I don't know that they'd ever
seen a painting like that, so informal. It must have really been something,
you know, to the contemporaries who first saw it. - It was a great surprise. I mean, people were shocked
by the informality of the pose, but the grandeur of the composition,
the fact that he paints a portrait of a painter,
not as a great statesman on this scale, but with such vivacity,
the liveliness of the brushwork, the intensity of
the colors and the tones, but at the same time,
the informality of his sitter. - I love the insouciance of the pose and the sort of, the truculent glimmer
in the monocle. It's as if he's challenging us, you know. You don’t think I'm important enough
for a full length portrait? It's got all of that
sort of youthful vigor about it. - Exactly. Still with his lit cigar. - How wonderful. Now to move on. You've also got another portrait,
if I can call it that. It's, the sculpture’s halfway between pure sculpture and portraiture,
but it's Giacometti's depiction from 1951 of his brother Diego in a rolled neck jumper. - Yes, I mean, Diego,
probably his most sort of long suffering sitter is the male portrait of choice
for Giacometti. He sculpts him from the very,
very earliest days of his artistic youth right to the very end. And Diego was employed
not only as a model, but he was a master technician,
a sculptor in his own right, someone who carefully applied
the patinas to his brother's works and prepared
works in process in the studio. So he's an integral part of his art,
both as subject and manufacturer. - It's got that wonderful sort of
gnarled quality, which I always perhaps, perhaps this is just me,
but I imagine that Giacometti’s studio was perpetually wreathed in cigarette
smoke from unfiltered Gauloises, I believe it was. You almost feel that
you can sort of sense the way in which the image of the brother
that he's sculpting is somehow seen through this miasma of smoke,
which then becomes a kind of metaphor for the existential uncertainty
of knowing any other human being, which is, of course, Giacometti's
great subject. - There is a sense with Giacometti,
certainly I always think that we have to remember him
as both sculptor and painter, that the way he illustrates the world,
the way that he fashions it is in this extremely sort of darting, questioning way that he goes back
and forth and back and forth, tweaking and adjusting at every single stage
the form itself. And so there is this amazing
sort of vacillation or flickering quality, even to something which is cast in bronze. This particular cast has been elevated
to a true sort of symbiosis of painting and sculpture,
because on top of the patina is oil paint. Giacometti has actually applied
his own colors to the surface, which helps to bring to life
the very surface itself. - And moving forward
to another cast sculpture, but very different, however,
from not that dissimilar period of history. This rather remarkable piece by Barbara
Hepworth. - Her Elegy III. I mean, it is one of the great works. It's monumental in scale. It has an ambition which hitherto
we very rarely see with Barbara because at that time
she's making a transition from working purely with carved material
to envisaging works in bronze. This broadens her reach, but also
the scale of her works, the monumentality. And to some extent it's
because she's inspired by the vastness of the landscape of Cornwall,
which surrounds her. And this work very, very closely references that. In particular,
there’s this most wonderful aqueous bluey green on the interior of the form, which echoes the color and light
as it plays on the Atlantic. But on the outside is
the scale of the Cornish landscape itself. - It reminds me of some of those remarkable
structures that you see cut out of the sides of cliffs by the sea
in Cornwall, these sort of almost sculpture
made by the elements. And I wonder if she's
sort of thinking of that kind of natural equivalence
or whether that's me being too literal. - I think, you know,
she certainly referenced the natural world throughout her life
and definitely comments on it as being a key source of inspiration. But I think she also,
she sought the essential forms, something that could be both evocative of landscape,
but also of the human state, human condition and the ovoid form
was the thing that she struck upon and developed into a universal form. - Yeah, so between figuration
and abstraction. And moving towards abstraction, something quite unlike anything we've
discussed so far, this rather remarkable, not huge, but certainly portentous,
oil painting by Kandinsky. In which it seems to me
that we really can feel him moving towards
that great break from figuration. He's still depicting a snow-filled landscape,
but everything's about to change. - Well, he was setting the scene. I mean, it's 1908, so right
at the very dawn of the 20th century. And it is before abstraction
finds its first and earliest form in either Kandinsky's
work or in Paris through cubism. But we do see that glimpse,
and it's that transition from naturalistically described
landscape to one which is filled with the vividness of color
and an expression of atmosphere. And that's something
that Kandinsky does in this, as you say, quite jewel-like format so beautifully. The colors and the, almost the temperature of the snow is beautifully evoked. And there's not
even a single white in this. This is what's extraordinary.
We’ve got a snow landscape, but everything is vivid purples, pinks,
blues, even a turquoise employed. - I think of him more, you know,
in this immediately pre-abstract phase of his life, I think of him
more as a painter of spring and summer, not so much as a painter of winter.
Is this an unusual painting? - It's quite rare, yeah.
We know that he went to Urfeld in the winter of 1908, and there are two pictures supposed
to have been done in the small village there, quite close to where he's living during
the summer months in Murnau but he's still traveling between Munich
and Murnau at that time. And so the winter landscapes are very,
very rare and this is an extraordinary
example of them. - Energy, vibrancy, life. Well, do come,
if you can, to see the exhibition before the sale itself,
which I believe is on the 27th of June. So now to two of the top highlights
from The Now Evening Auction. And with me to discuss them is Haleigh. First of all, I'd like to ask you
about this remarkable, extraordinary piece by Mark Bradford,
a painting that looks like a map. - It does, yes. So this painting is called
Stand Down Soldier, from 2018. And it's part of a very small series
Bradford executed based on an earlier installation he did for the Contemporary
Art Museum in St. Louis. And so much of Bradford's abstract
painting is concerned with social structures in America, issues
of race, issues of class. So this is an abstraction
that's very sort of grounded in real life and an abstraction that sort of moves away from the purity of minimalism
of the 1960s. His earlier abstract
practice looks to Agnes Martin for example. But over the course of his career,
his abstraction becomes much more complex, and we see this grid
sort of break down and dematerialize. And his abstract paintings
become very cartographic. They become sort of images
of maps of Los Angeles. And he would often
just walk around the city and scrape these merchant posters
and advertisement billboards off of buildings
and off of the streets of L.A. and he would apply these papers
onto canvas and then scrape them away. So he's using found material,
this very gritty debris from his home city. And sort of using this as his medium,
and in doing so, subverting the lofty grand
tradition of painting, really. He's not using oil or acrylic. - So a work of art
that looks like an abstraction, but is actually very, very much
the opposite. It’s very much about the real world and it’s-- - It's social abstraction.
- It’s social abstraction. And it's making us
think about the nature of social reality. -Exactly.
- Now to move to something very, very different, George Condo.
What's it called this picture? Harlequin...
- Harlequin’s Diary. - Harlequin’s Diary--
- In 2009. - And it's kind of a group portrait,
is that right? - It is. It's a group portrait of six
figures. There are two nudes that sort of
take the center stage of the portrait. But the most interesting
aspect of this portrait is the figure of the Harlequin, who has been rendered
throughout the history of art. And we think of Picasso's Harlequins,
of course, the way that Picasso sort of flattened the figure of the Harlequin
in a very sort of one dimensional way. And we see this cubist influence
on the surface of this painting as well. - It seems very much like a love affair
between George Condo and Picasso. This one, I mean, I think of George Condo,
as somebody -- it is completely-- who sort of appetitively devours the whole history of art and regurgitates
it in the form of his own style --exactly-- which is full of caricatures,
parodies, satires. - Yeah.
- But in this case, he seems to be particularly homing in
on the ghost of Picasso. - Absolutely. And he actually read Gertrude Stein's volume about Picasso
when he was a student. He really fell in love with Picasso's
work. But Condo’s really pushing Picasso's
cubism further, and he calls it psychological cubism. So he's looking much more at the very kaleidoscopic number of emotions
that humans feel. He's so interested in human consciousness,
and he wants to depict not only the external person
in a portrait, but he wants to also depict the internal feelings
and mental states of a person as well. So while there are six figures here, you know, it may be one figure
showing multiple different emotions. - Right. So it's cubism within cubism, wheels within wheels.
- Exactly. - A kaleidoscope within a kaleidoscope.
- A kaleidoscope within a kaleidoscope. - Well, thank you so much, Haleigh, for sharing that.
- Thank you, Andrew. Thank you. - So last but definitely not least,
two of the highlights from the Old Master Sale,
which takes place on the 5th of July. And here with me to discuss
them is Georgina. Now, Georgina,
I'd love to start with this amazing, rare portrait of Henry VIII’s last Queen,
the one who survived, Katherine Parr. - It is rare, as you say,
because it's one of only two surviving contemporary portraits of her. The other one is in the National Portrait Gallery. So it's very, very unusual to see it. And in fact, it was previously thought
to have been destroyed by fire. So it's even more exciting to have it
on the walls of our galleries. - And she's such an important person. I mean she can, I think, be credited with at least part
of the intellectual formation of Elizabeth I Katherine was a great intellectual, a scholar,
the master of several languages. And she seems to have given that,
you know, that ambition to be a learned lady to the great Queen
Elizabeth. - Absolutely. I think her personality
is being completely redefined. And she was an intellectual and a scholar
and she was also responsible for reconciling
both Mary and Elizabeth with Henry. And so they were restored
to the line of succession. So her influence on English history is
is really, really significant. - I mean, she's painted as a strong woman who's clearly got a very strong
sense of her own worth. - Yes.
- Her jewelry alone seems to be speaking volumes about her. - Well, the jewelry is actually
a really important part of this portrait and is part of the reason
why we know that it is Katherine Parr, because in the past, it was actually
mistaken for a portrait of Lady Jane Grey. It's this brooch that she's
wearing on her bodice, which means we know that it's Katherine Parr,
because that exact brooch is described in royal inventories of her jewelry. And the artist has clearly gone to a lot of trouble
to depict it as accurately as possible, even down to the number of diamonds
that make up the crown, on top of it. There are 15 described in this inventory,
and you can count them up. There are 15 there. We think it was probably painted
in the very last year of her life, so after Henry had died. - So in the past,
the picture has been attributed to Holbein and it's been considered
to be of the wrong person. But we now know it's
definitely of Katherine, and we think it's by a rather
mysterious painter called Master John, who...
What do we know about him? - Well, we don't know very much at all. I mean, it's really not surprising at this period
not to know about these artists, because the idea of an artist in their own
right as an individual was still not a notion
that was really recognized. They were more like craftsmen, really. So signatures and documentary evidence
is very, very scarce. There is a reference to a painter
called Master John in a list of expenses for Mary I,
when she was still a princess and various other portraits
have been grouped around this name. But really, I think there was a lot of artistic exchange going on between
the sorts of artists at this time. - Well, she certainly had a life
and there it is preserved forever in this remarkable painting.
Well, thank you. And the other picture is this remarkable depiction of Pentecost, circa 1490. Again, by a rather obscure painter,
known only as the Master of the Baroncelli Portraits. But what a wonderful thing it is. - It's an astonishing painting. It's really a painting
that deserves to be in a museum. And actually it has been on loan for the last ten years
at the Groeninge Museum in Bruges. - So the subject is Mary, and she's surrounded by her apostles. And it's at that moment
when the Holy Spirit, the dove of the Holy Spirit, descends,
and they are all miraculously endowed with the gift of being able
to speak every language under the sun so that the word of God
can be spread to all corners. And it's just got this wonderful sense
of a miracle. And yet, within it are embedded
some portraits of what must be, you know, the people who commissioned the painting. - Yes, so the patron himself
and his wife are included in the scene as if they’re there witnessing it--
- The sort of, these black garbed bookends. - Exactly. And the apostles themselves look quite
sort of alarmed and surprised as well, they might, with the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, here--
- Yes. Goodness me, I didn't know I could speak Chinese. - Exactly. So yes, it was clearly an important subject
for whoever commissioned it. - Well, I think it,
I mean to me, it's fascinating because I know that it was part of,
there was a massive upsurge in the creation of these
lay confraternities. Rich people getting together
and putting their money to the service of bringing the word of God
to poor people here, there preaching. So, I mean,
I imagine that some of the apostles who seem to me to have very much
the look of the bloke next door, are probably actually members
of this confraternity. And I suspect that the husband and wife
were patrons of this confraternity, and that it actually represents
a real group of real people. - Yeah, there's
a huge degree of characterization there, but also it's made so relevant
because this episode, which should be set in the Holy Land,
is actually set in a lovely Netherlandish interior with a huge stone
fireplace and floor tiles. And through the windows
you can see these wonderful details of Flemish houses, and couples walking,
and people on horseback, and a windmill. And it's only changed hands three times in the last 400 years,
which in itself is astonishing. But it also means that the painting
has been preserved in amazing condition. - It's absolutely fresh, fresh as a daisy. And I personally don't care
that it's not by one of the named artists of the Flemish Renaissance,
because for me it's got that sort of perfect genuineness
and it's executed at a totally high level of technical excellence. But above all, it's got this urgency of something
that was made for this group of people because they really wanted it,
they really believed it. And you can feel the faith. You know, you could almost feel it
coming off the surface of the picture. It's just a wonderful thing. So do please come and see it
at the preview for the Old Master Sale, and indeed the portrait of Katherine Parr,
because these are wonderful things. The Summer Season sales run from the end of June
to the middle of July. Do check the Sotheby's website for details
of the sale you're interested in. And I do hope you can come to some of the previews
to see the works in question in the flesh. Thank you for joining
me and see you again soon.
