Press Release London

For Immediate Release

London | +44 (0)20 7293 6000 | Matthew Weigman | Matthew.Weigman@sothebys.com Mitzi Mina | Mitzi.Mina@sothebys.com | Sarah Rustin | Sarah.Rustin@sothebys.com

Dedicated Surrealist Art Sale at Sothebys London To Be Highlighted By Major Ren Works by Salvador Dal and Ren Magritte, And Includes A Powerful Composition by Joan Mir That Symbolises Everything He Loved About His Country

Sothebys London today announces that its dedicated Surrealist Art Evening Sale on Tuesday 5
th

February

2013 will present exceptional works including one of Salvador Dals most accomplished portraits, Portrait of Mrs Harrison Williams (est. 1.5-2 million), Ren Magrittes arresting painting Les Belles Relations (est. 23 million) and Joan Mirs Le fermier et son pouse (est. 5.5-7.5 million), among others. Sam Valette, Sothebys Senior Director and Senior International Specialist, Impressionist & Modern Art, London, London said: Following the numerous record prices achieved for Surrealist works of art sold in Sothebys international auctions over the last two years,* and in response to the growing demand for works within this collecting field, we are delighted to be presenting for sale superb examples of works that have been selected specifically to appeal to the desires of discerning collectors. Highlighting the sale is Le fermier et son pouse (illustrated above, est. 5.5-7.5 million), an intense and brilliantly coloured painting by Joan Mir. The work was executed in 1936, a time when the artist was reaching wide-spread international recognition, with his works participating in now legendary Surrealist exhibitions including the International Surrealist Exhibition in London and Fantastic Art, Dada & Surrealism at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The painting depicts a Catalan farmer and his wife, surrounded by the landscape of Montroig and farm animals. Summarising the significance of this farm when working on a painting depicting it in 1928, Mir remarked that the work was: a rsum of my entire life in the country. I wanted to put everything I loved about the country into that canvas - from a huge tree to a tiny little snail. I don't think it makes sense to give more importance to a mountain than an ant (but landscape artists just can't see that).

The powerful composition Le fermier et son pouse from one of the most turbulent periods of Mir's career was painted in the lead-up to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in the summer of that year. For many decades the painting was in the collection of the great American film director Billy Wilder (of Some Like It Hot and Sunset Boulevard fame). The work was not seen in public until 1989, when Billy Wilders collection was sold at auction in New York. The fragmentation of the human body and depiction of isolated body parts in Ren Magrittes Les Belles Relations (ext. 2-3 million) is not only an important theme in the artists works, but also one that expresses the essence of Surrealism in general. It was this arresting work that was chosen as the icon of the now-famous Surrealist exhibition Two Private Eyes, held at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1999, featuring on the exhibition posters. The imagery of the present composition has its roots in Magrittes celebrated bowler-hatted man, which has undergone several metamorphoses in which the mans head has gradually disappeared, giving way to an impersonal assembly of its main parts. It is by combining the subject of a faceless modern man with the timeless and the unknowable, that Magritte questions our perception of reality and unveils the mystery hidden in everyday images.

One of Salvador Dals most accomplished portraits, Portrait of Mrs Harrison Williams, was commissioned directly from the artist and painted by him in 1943. Estimated at 1.5-2 million, the painting - offered for the first time at auction depicts Countess Mona Bismarck (1897-1983), who was at the time of the portrait married to Harrison Williams, reputed to be one of the wealthiest men in America. After their marriage in 1926 she swiftly became known as one of the most glamorous and beautiful women of her day; becoming the first American to be acclaimed as the best-dressed woman in the world by the luminaries of fashion. Dal's dazzling depiction of the legendary Mona Bismarck is filled with classical allusions and Surrealist symbolism making it one of the most ambitious pictures he had produced by this point in his career. The painting was executed just three years after Dal arrived in New York City, having fled Paris with his wife Gala in 1940. After his arrival, he was swiftly assimilated into the group of European Surrealists that had coalesced there at the outbreak of World War II. Together with them, he mingled with many of New Yorks social luminaries, receiving from them prestigious commissions for works such as this, and the portrait of Helena Rubinstein sold at Sothebys New York for $2.65m in May 2011. PLEASE SEE THE SEPARATE DEDICATED PRESS RELEASE FOR MORE DETAILS ON THIS WORK

Surrealism by Max Ernst (est. 1.5 -2 million) was painted in New York in 1942 a few months after the artists escape from war-torn Europe. Ernsts standing as one of the foremost Surrealist artists prompted Duchamp to request from him a painting for First Papers of Surrealism, the show that he was organising in New York. This exhibition, the first devoted to Surrealism since the outbreak of war, focused on the work of Ernst, Duchamp, Masson, Matta, Breton, Dominguez, Lam, Tanguy and many other artists who had fled Europe from Nazi persecution. The work to be sold

exemplifies the innovative techniques of representation that Ernst was developing in New York, and greatly influenced the next generation of American artists (it was among a group of Ernsts paintings from 1942 said to have been admired by Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell) and would prove influential on the emergence of Abstract Expressionism. Surrealism was exhibited in the Max Ernst 2005 retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Painted in 1941, Les Courtisanes (est. 1-1.5 million) is an exceptional example of Paul Delvaux's painting. As in his finest compositions, it

combines the motif of mysterious female nudes placed against a classically inspired architectural backdrop. Demonstrating the influence on Delvaux of Czanne - in the composition, spacing and individual poses of the nudes, and in the overall concept of a bathing scene - the painting depicts the figures on a balcony by the sea, dominated by the large sky. The nudes and semi-nudes that we see before us in the guise of bathers by the sea are no doubt the courtesans referred to in the title of the work.

Composition by Yves Tanguy (est. 400,000 - 600,000), which comes to the market for the first time in 80 years, was executed in a year that marked a watershed in the artists career - 1927. It was during this year that he began to create works that, through their ingenuity and beauty, firmly established the style which became the defining aesthetic of Tanguys art. He had by then become a highly accomplished painter and in complete command of a new personal Surrealist language which was often based on his childhood fascination with the sea. In the same year he was recognised by his fellow Surrealists by being given his first one-man show at the Galerie Surraliste in Paris. The luminous blue of the upper composition is enlivened by the presence of a biomorphic figure who stalks the ocean floor. Though Tanguy received no formal artistic training, his childhood summers spent near Finistre in Brittany, on the western coast of France overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, had a profound influence on his style. Composition is included in the forthcoming Yves Tanguy Catalogue raisonn.

Notes to Editors *Sothebys London Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale in June 2012 sale saw a record price achieved for any Mir Surrealist work of art, and any work by Joan Mir with the sale of Peinture (toile bleue) for 23.6 million (pre-sale estimate 15-20 million) Sothebys London February 2011 sale saw a record price at auction achieved for any work by Salvador Dal with the sale of Dal Portrait de Paul luard for 13.5 million (pre-sale estimate 3.5-5 million) from the private collection sale Looking Closely. Further auction records achieved in the field of Surrealist art include: The record price for a work on paper by Ren Magritte for Le Matre dcole for 2.5 million (pre-sale estimate 800,000-1.2 million) in Sothebys London February 2011 Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale The auction record for a work by Paul Delvaux with the sale of Les Cariatides for $9 million (pre-sale estimate $3-5 million) in Sothebys May 2011 New York Impressionist& Modern Art Evening Sale The auction record for a work by Andr Masson with the sale of Gradiva for 2.4 million (pre-sale estimate 1.5-2.5 million) in Sothebys December 2010 Paris Impressionist & Modern Art Sale The auction record for a work of art by Man Ray with the sale of Image deux faces for 2.4 million (pre-sale estimate 1.5-2 million) in Sothebys May 2012 Impressionist & Modern Art Sale In October 2012, Sothebys Paris staged the landmark single-owner sale of the Mis Collection, which achieved 19 million, a 2012. record for a collection in France during 2012 SOTHEBYS FOR MORE NEWS FROM SOTHEBYS Visit: www.sothebys.com/en/inside/services/press/news/news.html Follow: www.twitter.com/sothebys Join: www.facebook.com/sothebys & www.weibo.com/sothebyshongkong Watch: www.youtube.com/sothebys Sothebys has been uniting collectors with world-class works of art since 1744. Sothebys became the first international auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong (1973) and France (2001), and the first international fine art auction house in China (2012). Today, Sothebys presents auctions in 10 different salesrooms, including New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris, and Sothebys BidNow program allows visitors to view all auctions live online and place bids in real-time from anywhere in the world. Sothebys offers collectors the resources of Sothebys Financial Services, the worlds only full-service art financing company, as well as private sale opportunities in more than 70 categories, including S|2, the gallery arm of Sotheby's Contemporary Art department, as well as Sothebys Diamonds and Sothebys Wine. Sothebys has a global network of 90 offices in 40 countries and is the oldest company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (BID). Estimates do not include buyers premium and prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyers premium. Images are available upon request All catalogues are available online at www.sothebys.com or through Sothebys Catalogue iPad App.