On 12 May 2025, Christie’s carried out its 20th Century Evening Sale in New York City, a major test for the New York market this season and a vital one amid instability within the global economy. Amid ongoing trade wars and geopolitical tensions, this second evening sale for Christie’s was a barometer for determining the appetite of buyers in this climate.
This sale was preceded by Christie’s Leonard & Louise Riggio: Collected Works sale, which sold 37 of 38 lots and made nearly US$272 million. While Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black, and Blue was the highest selling lot, going for US$47.6 million, bidding across the sale was lackluster, and if excluding buyers' premiums, the sale total fell below the total low estimate for the sale.
As for the 20th Century Evening Sale, things seemed more positive. Following two lots withdrawn before the sale, including a Warhol estimated at US$30 million, all remaining 35 lots were sold, achieving a white glove result. With fees included, the sale reached a total of US$217 million. Excluding fees, the sale total of US$181 million exceeded the initial total low estimate of US$162 million.
Monet’s Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crépuscule led the sale, which sold for just over US$42.9 million after fees and was by far the highest-selling lot and the one that drew the most interest, over five minutes of intense back-and-forth bidding.
Following it, in terms of price, was a lot from the prized Bass collection, Mark Rothko’s No. 4 (Two Dominants) [Orange, Plum, Black], which went for around US$37.7 million.
Lot 50 A | Claude Monet (1840-1926) | Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crépuscule, Oil on canvas
Painted in 1891
100 x 65.1 cm
Provenance:
- Galerie Durand-Ruel et Cie., Paris (acquired from the artist, January 1892)
- Jean and Marie-Louise d’Alayer de Costemore d’Arc (née Durand-Ruel), Paris (by descent from the above, July 1949)
- Galerie Dufresne, Paris (acquired from the above, 1955)
- (probably) Acquired from the above by the family of the present owners, circa 1960
Estimate: US$30,000,000-50,000,000
Hammer: US$37,000,000
Sold: US$42,960,000
For the auction debut of this Claude Monet work, the bidder opened the sale of Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crépuscule at US$23 million, and subsequent bids raised the price of the painting by US$1 million.
There was strong interest in the lot, and successive bids rapidly drove up the price. Many came from Christie’s staff, representing their clients on the phone. After the initial flurry of bids, a protracted bidding war broke out between clients represented by Vice-Chairman, 20th and 21st Century Art, Europe, Keith Gill; his colleague standing directly to his right, Head of Department, Impressionist & Modern Art, Vanessa Fusco; and Senior Specialist, Impressionist & Modern Art, David Kleiweg de Zwaan.
Starting from US$28 million onwards, a bidding war broke out between their clients, with increments jumping around from as low as US$200,000 to as high as US$1.5 million. Despite a massive effort by Fusco’s client to win the lot, even jumping the bid from US$30.5 million to US$32 million, a lot of the back-and-forth bidding was between de Zwaan and Gill’s clients.
Gill’s client eventually won the lot with a hammer price of US$37 million, which amounts to just over US$42.9 million after fees. This was the first ever sale of this painting, previously loaned to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, after around five minutes of bidding.
Vanesa Fusco (left) next to Keith Gill (right) during the bidding for the Monet painting
By 1891, Monet and his family were living in Giverny, Normandy. In the countryside, he immersed himself in nature, working out of a barn and gaining access to the surrounding gardens, orchards, and rivers, the last one is where this lot was created. The story around the surrounding township and its trees ties in interestingly with the story behind this work.
This painting is part of a series of 24 works called Peupliers, the French name for the poplar tree. A rather slim tree that grows to be tall and arrowlike, it's extremely common in France, as they line grand châteaux, farmland, and riverbanks, including along the Epte, which goes through Giverny. In the spring of 1891, Monet found some of these trees at a point where the river bends into the shape of an S. He studied them for a year, with almost all of the two dozen paintings of the series painted from that very spot.
Seeking a vantage point along the river to paint, he built a studio boat, the Bateau Atelier. He rowed the modest craft from his property directly to the section of the river he wanted to be and anchored himself, painting what he could view from his boat. Because of the angle he viewed the trees, he directly captured on his canvas their vertically imposing nature.
An interesting story regarding the spot where the Peupliers series was painted was that while Monet was in the process of painting the works, the trees he was painting were to be auctioned and sold since they were planted as cash crops, and by June of 1891, the local timber merchant had deemed them ready for sale. Monet appealed this issue as far up as Giverny's mayor but was unable to sway their sale and cutting-down, with the painter lamenting on the matter that he had "quantities of new canvases that I must finish."
It was not until the day of the auction itself that he reached an agreement with the merchant, whereby he would jointly acquire the trees for a certain price. When the auction occurred, should the bids exceed what Monet paid, he would cover the losses. This bought him time to create works over the months that displayed the change in their color and density as the seasons cooled, before they were eventually cut down.
Claude Monet | Vue prise à Rouelles (1858) | Private Japanese Collection | The first known Monet work to feature the poplar tree
The painted water on the bottom of the painting. It's textured to look as if it's rippling on the surface
While this series was all about the poplar tree, the plant is a recurring motif in Monet’s work, dating back to 1858 with his first known work featuring the poplar being called Vue prise à Rouelles. However, it would not be until the Peupliers series that the trees would be the primary focus of Monet’s painting rather than just being in the background or an element within a wider scenery.
Part of what makes this painting stand out is how the trees are portrayed, as Monet paints in a way that draws the viewer's gaze in a specific way and creates this perception of motion and wind. The way the trees melt deeper into the left of the canvas displays a real sense of depth. The trees follow the length of the water, which itself is indicative of movement as it ripples on the surface.
The painting was one of fifteen selected by Monet to be included in an exhibition held in Paris in March of 1892, and the whole series of poplar paintings was strongly received by collectors and critics, especially when displayed as a group, as they showcased both the visionary cohesion and also tiny differences between each work.
Claude Monet | Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, automne (1891) | Sold for around US$36.4 million by Christie's New York, 2022
In 1892, Paul Durand-Ruel, an important French art dealer deeply associated with Impressionist painters, purchased the work from Monet. The painting stayed in his family until 1955, when Durand-Ruel’s granddaughter passed it onto another family who has held it in their collection for six decades up until this sale, with the work recently being on long-term loan to the Museum of Art in Boston, appearing in three separate exhibitions between 2014 and 2021.
Durand-Ruel would also acquire another painting from the Peupliers series in 1892, Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, automne. That painting switched hands several times before ending up in the collection of Anne Bass, the famed American philanthropist and art collector, in 1982. Bass owned the work until her passing in 2020, and it, along with her collection, has been slowly auctioned over the last few years. Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, automne was put up for auction in May 2022 during The Collection of Anne H. Bass sale, where it went for over US$36.4 million.
Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, automne, as the name suggests, was painted in the fall, and as such, its colors and ambience reflect the cooler season. It's a far brighter work compared to Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crépuscule, which is a painting depicting the same view but at twilight. As such, while they are practically identical in terms of framing and subject, their lighting and mood could not be more starkly contrasted.
The lot that was just sold has a mellow tone with purples and dark blues across it that give the impression of a setting sun. Compare that to the bright autumnal colors in the leaves of the other work in the series that proudly signify the change in season; additionally, that work's lighting shows the cloudiness and grey skies common to this time of year in Northern France, showing the variety of moods and light conditions Monet could capture on his canvas.
Lot 44 A | Mark Rothko (1903-1970) | No. 4 (Two Dominants) [Orange, Plum, Black], Oil on canvas
Painted in 1950-1951
170 x 192.1 cm
Provenance:
- Marlborough A.G., Liechtenstein, acquired directly from the artist, 1969
- Marlborough-Gerson Gallery Inc., New York, 1973
- Acquired from the above by Anne H. and Sid R. Bass, 1980
Estimate: On Request
Hammer: US$32,500,000
Sold: US$37,785,000
Bidding for the Mark Rothko painting opened at US$25 million, with the price of the lot rising in increments of US$1 million. The brief bidding session does not detract from the aggressiveness of the bidders, with the figure quickly jumping up to the eventual hammer price of US$32.5 million.
Bidders of the lot included various members of the Christie’s staff, including Post-War & Contemporary Art Chairman Alexander Rotter, who was bidding on behalf of this client on the phone. However, the lot ended up being won by a lady sitting on the right side of the auction room with the paddle number 294. The bidder will pay around US$37.7 million after fees are included.
This marks the first time this lot has been sold at auction, having previously exchanged hands privately or via gallery three times in the past, with the third time being when it ended up in the Bass collection.
Anne Bass, the previous owner of the lot, in 2010
Anne Bass (1941-2020) was an American investor, philanthropist, and art collector who, in addition to her support for various art institutions in Texas, such as the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, collected a vast array of paintings from artists such as Monet, Degas, Picasso, and Rothko. She was married to American billionaire Sid Bass (b.1942), who had made money through his family's holdings in fossil fuels, as well as being Disney's largest shareholder between 1984 and 2001. Sid, as of present, has an estimated net worth of US$3.6 billion, ranking around 1,050th in the world.
During their marriage, the couple would share in their love for art, acquiring works for their collection, including the just-sold Rothko in 1980 from a New York gallery. Additionally, when the two divorced in 1988, Anne received a settlement of US$200 million, the largest in Texas history at the time, and it would allow her to continue growing her wealth and collection, achieving a net worth of US$690 million by 2000. Also, included in the divorce for Bass was two properties including the Bass house in Texas where this Rothko was located.
Following her passing in 2020, Christie’s New York auctioned off a dozen works from her collection in May 2022. The sale, in which all lots were sold, achieved a result of just over US$363 million, including two Mark Rothko works among them. The second best-selling work of that sale was Rothko’s Untitled (Shades of Red), which went for US$66.8 million and was painted around a decade after this current lot was made.
The just-sold lot was hung in the Bass house, designed specifically for the Bass couple, and built in the early 1970s. Pieces by artists such as Gino Severini, Frank Stella, and Mark Rothko were displayed in it, with the creatively designed natural lighting used to naturally illuminate their works.
Mark Rothko | Untitled (Shades of Red) (1961) | Sold for around US$66.8 million by Christie's New York, 2022 | From the Anne Bass Collection
No. 4 (Two Dominants) [Orange, Plum, Black] in the Bass House, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo taken by Martien Mulder
The late 1940s to the early 1950s were a period of great development and creativity for the Abstract Expressionist movement. This painting comes from that period and is an early example of Rothko’s distinctive color fields that would dominate the rest of his work.
The painting marks a transition by Rothko away from his Surrealist-inspired works and towards a more simplified, streamlined, and cleaner style of painting. This is seen through the clean bands and blocks of colors that run in the work and the low amount of objects that are featured on the canvas, giving it a very minimalist look that prioritizes the role of the colors as the subjects, not necessarily the shapes they inhabit.
These colors were the way Rothko described the themes and message of the work, as they correlated with human emotions. The proximity of the colors to each other has been described as a “fugue state,” with the colors balancing against one another in one holistic structure. The colors Rothko often used were rather dark and fatalistic.
Regarding his usage of color as a main focus, Rothko stated that he sought to portray “tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.” Additionally, he stated that “And the fact that a lot of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions ... if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationship, then you miss the point.”
Mark Rothko
The lot also showcases Rothko’s usage of light in his work, with there being a hue that wraps around the central parts of the painting. This hue acts as a halo in the backdrop, giving it a glow that gives the black and burgundy an almost velvety feel as they are contained in the surrounding beige.
There is a philosophical connection to this style of lighting linked to Rothko’s study of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who discussed concepts of order and chaos. This can be translated to Rothko’s canvas, where the dark chaos engulfs and clashes with the orderly and illuminating light that warms the painting as a whole.
Rothko was also a fan of the European Old Masters, such as Rembrandt, from whom he also borrowed certain lighting cues, including contrast. The Dutch painter often used lighting contrasts to model space and dimension. Rothko integrated elements of that style and philosophy into his work as a way to draw his viewers' gaze to certain parts of a painting in subtle and deliberate ways across specific zones of color, a technique he applies to this painting.
Other Highlighted Lots:
Lot 54A | Gerhard Richter (b.1932) | Korsika (Schiff), Oil on canvas
Painted in 1968
86 x 91.1 cm
Provenance:
- Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne
- Galerie Ursula Lichter, Frankfurt
- Private collection, Germany, 1969
- Anon. sale; Christie's, London, 27 June 2000, lot 10
- MaxmArt, Mendrisio, Switzerland
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: US$9,000,000-12,000,000
Hammer Price: US$12,900,000
Sold: US$15,245,000
Lot 41A | Alexander Calder (1898-1976) | Gypsophila, Sheet metal, wire, and paint
Executed in 1949
134.6 x 121.9 x 38.1 cm
Provenance:
- Private collection
- Perls Galleries, New York, circa 1967
- Acquired from the above by Anne H. and Sid R. Bass, 1968
Estimate: US$6,000,000-8,000,000
Hammer Price: US$7,000,000
Sold: US$8,460,000
Lot 67A | Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) | Concetto spaziale, In piazza San Marco di notte con Teresita, Acrylic and colored glass stones on canvas
Executed in 1961
150 x 150 cm
Provenance:
- Toninelli Arte Moderna, Milan
- Private collection, Milan
- Anon. sale; Christie's, London, 6 October 2017, lot 106
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: US$6,500,000-8,500,000
Hammer Price: US$6,200,000
Sold: US$7,540,000
Lot 43A | Frank Stella (1936-2024) | Itata, Metallic powder in polymer emulsion on shaped canvas
Painted in 1964
196.9 x 341.9 cm
Provenance:
- Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
- Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles, 1965
- Jacques Kaplan, New York
- Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
- Philip Johnson, New York, 1966
- His sale; Christie's, New York, 10 May 1983, lot 39
- Acquired at the above sale by Anne H. and Sid R. Bass
Estimate: US$6,000,000-8,000,000
Hammer Price: US$5,800,000
Sold: US$7,068,000
Lot 53A | Remedios Varo (1908-1963) | Revelación (also titled El relojero), Oil on masonite | Newly set artist record
Painted in 1955
72.4 x 85.1 cm
Provenance:
- Carlos Riveroll, Mexico City
- Isaac Verbitzky, Mexico City
- Hanni Bruder Kafka, Mexico City
- Drexel Galería, San Pedro Garza García, Mexico
- Private collection, New York
- By descent from the above to the present owner
Estimate: US$3,500,000-5,500,000
Hammer Price: US$5,100,000
Sold: US$6,221,000
Lot 52A | Dorthea Tanning (1910-2012) | Endgame, Oil on canvas| Newly set artist record
Painted in 1944
43.2 x 43.2 cm
Provenance:
- Hans Richter, New York (acquired from the artist via Julien Levy, 27 January 1949)
- Julien Levy, New York; Estate sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 4 November 1981, lot 110
- Acquired at the above sale
Estimate: US$1,000,000-1,500,000
Hammer Price: US$1,900,000
Sold: US$2,349,000
Auction Details:
Auction House: Christie's New York
Sale: 20th Century Evening Sale
Date: 12 May 2025
Number of Lots: 35
Lots Sold: 35
Lots Unsold: 0
Sell Rate: 100%
Sale Total: US$217,004,800