Maurice de Vlaminck’s circa 1930 winter scene oil on canvas of the Normandy countryside, a signature example of Fauvism from the 20th century’s first movement in modern art, is expected to realize $70,000+ as part of Heritage Auctions’ Decorative Art & European Paintings Signature® Auction, June 15 in Dallas. The painting is offered as part of two days of auctions of paintings, decorative arts and a broad range of fine silver objects by highly sought makers.
“Vlaminck’s work is a signature example from his later years and is one of the many extraordinary pieces in this auction, led by a strong variety of 19th and early 20th Century examples,” said Brian Roughton, Managing Director of Fine Arts. “We expect strong interest, especially since it arrives on the heels of our successful Modern and Contemporary Art Auction.”
Giovanni Battista Torriglia’s The Soap Bubble, featuring his bubble-themed homage to rural family life, is also expected to reach $70,000. Another artist whose candid French scenes remain highly-sought after is Victor Gabriel Gilbert, whose The Fruit Seller is expected to bring $40,000.
Pierre-August Renoir’s Etude de tête de jeune femme, or Study Head of a Young Woman, is expected to bring $30,000+ and will be included in an upcoming catalog by the Wildenstein Institute. Rounding out the top offerings by French artists is Edouard-Léon Cortès’ Porte St. Denis, Paris, which is expected to bring $20,000 and a suite of four, 40-inch tall lithographs from Alphonse Mucha’s Les Fleurs, circa 1898, to include The Rose, The Iris, The Carnation and The Lily, which are expected to bring $20,000+.
Leading a strong selection of European furniture comes a Louis XV-style gilt bronze, satinwood and fruitwood vitrine attributed to Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener, which may bring $20,000+. Two pieces made after the models by Jean-Henri Riesener include a Louis XVI-style gilt bronze, mahogany inlaid commode, now in the collection of the Musée Condé and expected to bring $5,000+, and a Louis XVI-style gilt bonze, amaranth and tulipwood pedestal clock, designed after a model in the collection of the Louvre and expected to exceed $3,000+.
Among a solid selection of decorative arts is an important, Victorian three-panel tripod clock by Thomas Cole, which may fetch $15,000+, a Zuber & Cie 12-panel screen from France, depicting an oriental landscape, which may bring $15,000+ and a pair of monumental Italian Baroque-style patinated bronze figural andirons, 49 inches high, which are expected to cross the block for $15,000+.
A well-published earthenware vase by Austrian ceramicist Dame Lucie Rie is expected to bring $8,000+ to lead a strong selection of porcelain in the auction. Additional highlights include a 10-piece flight of Barr & Barr Worcester partial topographical service is expected to bring $4,000+, a Gertrud Natzler and Otto Natzler modernist ceramic bowl, may reach $3,000+, and a gilt Paris porcelain temple-form table ornament attributed to Darte Freres, from the Jean and Graham Devoe Williford Charitable Trust, the same trust that revealed a new world record for a Jerome Thompson painting, may sell for $3,000+.
An exquisite Rene Lalique glass Vitesse (Speed) automobile mascot, circa 1928, is expected to surpass $7,000+, and a Lalique Perruches vase, is expected to bring $5,000+, to underscore a fine selection of art glass by Degué, Gallé, Stevens and Williams and Charles Schneider, including a Schneider Le Verre Francais Chardons vase, circa 1925, which may bring $3,500.
Perhaps the most anticipated collection of art glass includes nine lots of Tiffany Studios Favrile glass tableware from the collection of Texas architect Wyatt Cephus and Mildred Sterling Hedrick, whose father Ross S. Sterling, was governor of Texas during the 1930s. Pieces are marked either L.C.T. Favrile or L.C. Tiffany-Favrile. The unique set includes yellow glass dinner plates, finger bowls, champagne stems, luncheon plates, bowls and even a matching pair of glass candlesticks all decorated with radiating air bubbles along scalloped rims.