French post-impressionist painter Henri Rousseau is best known for his naïve or primitive style. Entirely self-taught, he spent most of his life as a customs officer and did not go through academic training in any art institutions. His works, however, stood as a standard-bearer for generations of young artists and intellectuals, from Pablo Picasso to Robert Delaunay, André Breton to Max Ernst.
With less than 240 oil paintings by him known, his works are rarely seen at auctions; and his record was last set in 1993, when Portrait of Joseph Brummer sold for around US$4.4 million.
On 11 May, Christie's New York presented his 1910 canvas Les Flamants – painted in the year when he passed away – and attracted nearly eight minutes of intense bidding by at least three interested buyers. In the end, the lot sold for US$43.5 million with fees, greatly smashing his previous record.
Henri Rousseau's 1910 canvas Les Flamants greatly smashed the artist's previous auction record
Lot 34A | Henri Rousseau | Les Flamants, Oil on canvas (Auction record for the artist)
Created in 1910
113.8 x 162 cm
Provenance (Consolidated by The Value):
- Wilhelm Uhde, Paris (probably acquired from the artist, 1910, until at least 1912)
- Paul and Charlotte (Lotte) von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Berlin (by 1926)
- Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Berlin (1927)
- Elsa von Kesselstatt, Vaduz (by descent from the above, 1935)
- M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. and Rudolf Heinemann, New York (acquired from the above through Walter Feilchenfeldt, Zurich, 2 September 1949)
- Charles S. and Joan Whitney Payson, New York (acquired from the above, October 1949)
- By descent from the above to the late owner
- Payne Whitney Middleton (inherited from the above)
Estimate: US$20,000,000 - 30,000,000
Hammer Price: US$37,500,000
Sold: US$43,535,000
Auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen opened bidding for the lot at US$16.5 million and saw two bidders on the phone – represented by Conor Jordan, Deputy Chairman, Impressionist & Modern Art, Americas and Adrien Meyer, Co-Chairman of Impressionist & Modern Art repsectively – chase after the work.
When the bid reached US$28 million after roughly 14 bids, a gentleman in the saleroom stepped in, and from there onwards was a tug-of-war between the floor bidder and Conor Jordan's client.
After 18 more bids in steady US$500,000 increments, the lot was hammered at US$37.5 million, going to the bidder with Conor Jordan with paddle number 2148 for US$43.5 million – a new auction record for the artist.
His previous auction record was set in 1993, when Portrait of Joseph Brummer was sold at Christie’s London for £2.97 million (around US$4.4 million). Joseph Brummer was a Hungarian-born art dealer and collector, who founded Brummer Gallery with his brothers.
Conor Jordan won the lot for his client with paddle number 2148
Portrait of Joseph Brummer by Henri Rousseau was sold for £2.97 million at Christie’s London in 1993
Rousseau was born in 1844 in the small French town of Laval into the family of a tinsmith. He was forced to work there as a small boy, and led an ordinary, modest existence for much of his life, never having left France.
By 49, he took early retirement in order to devote himself full-time to his art. Rousseau moved to a studio in Montparnasse where he lived and worked until his death in 1910. He worked odd jobs to supplement his modest pension, giving lessons in music and art to children from the neighbourhood.
Separated from Paris’s artistic establishment, he taught himself to paint and devised his own methods of creation that were a far cry from the academic traditions of mimetic painting.
Rousseau spent most of his life as a customs officer
A photograph of Jardin des Plantes in 1906
Henri Rousseau | The Dream | Museum of Modern Art
How did Rousseau create his well-known jungle series when he actually never travelled outside France?
In fact, the sources for his plants and animals came from postcards, illustrated journals, dime store novels, encyclopaedias, botanical treatises and printed ephemera. Using a pantograph to enlarge these illustrations and translating them onto his canvases, Rousseau conjured entirely imagined arcadias.
He also visited Jardin des plantes and put together what he saw with his wild imagination. He is also said to have met soldiers who had survived the French expedition to Mexico (1862-1865) in support of Emperor Maximilian, and he listened with fascination to their recollections.
Rousseau said, ‘When I go into the glass houses and I see the strange plants of exotic lands, it seems to me that I enter into a dream. I feel that I’m somebody else completely.’
Les Flamants (partial)
Les Flamants (partial)
Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Pierre-Auguste Renoir are among Rousseau’s contemporaries. While he continued to work in a traditional vein, covering all of the classical genres, Rousseau’s unique vision set him apart from his contemporaries. His single-mindedness and confidence in his own abilities led Rousseau to become a somewhat eccentric figure.
Les Flamants is the only jungle painting in which Rousseau includes a body of fresh water in the composition. Here, a quartet of brightly-hued pink flamingoes gather together on the banks of a wide river. In the middle distance a sandbank stretches out into the water, three diminutive human figures stationed on the sand as if waiting for an unknown event to occur.
Unlike many of his other jungle compositions, which hinge on a dramatic act of violence or a moment of surprise at their center, there is a sense of peace and calm within the present scene, in which humans and animals exist in quiet harmony.
Joan Whitney Payson was the majority owner and president of the New York Mets
Rousseau was believed to have created fewer than 240 oil paintings in his lifetime. Many of his works are now in the collection of public institutions. Privately owned works with a provenance that goes back to the artist are even rarer.
Les Flamants was most likely purchased directly from the artist by Wilhelm Uhde. An early champion of Rousseau’s art, Uhde counted himself among the painter’s circle of close friends and was with him when he died.
The painting was subsequently bought by Paul and Lotte von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Berlin-based art collectors who amassed an extraordinary group of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works through the 1920s, as well as a number of important early paintings by Picasso. After the couple divorced, Les Flamants remained in Paul's collection, and subsequently passed to his second wife, Elsa, with whom it remained throughout the Second World War.
In 1949, the painting was purchased by the American collectors, Charles S. and Joan Whitney Payson in New York. A member of the renowned Whitney family, Joan led an eccentric life: along with her philanthropic endeavors, she was passionate about horse racing, and was also the majority owner and president of the New York Mets.
Other highlight lots that crossed the US$10 million mark:
Lot 42A | Pablo Picasso | Nature morte à la fenêtre, Oil on canvas
Painted on 18 January 1932
129.7 x 162.3 cm
Provenance:
- Estate of the artist
- Marina Picasso, Paris (by descent from the above)
- Jan Krugier, Geneva (acquired from the above)
- By descent from the above to the present owner
Estimate on request (Expected to fetch in the region of US$40 million)
Hammer Price: US$36,000,000
Sold: US$41,810,000
Lot 20A | Ed Ruscha | Burning Gas Station, Oil on canvas
Painted in 1966-1969
51.1 x 99.1 cm
Provenance (Edited by The Value):
- James Sowell, Texas
- Donald Marron, New York
- Larry Gagosian Gallery, New York
- Ira Young, Vancouver, 1988
- James Corcoran Gallery, Santa Monica
- Acquired from the above by Alan and Dorothy Press, 1991
Estimate: US$20,000,000 - 30,000,000
Hammer Price: US$19,000,000
Sold: US$22,260,000
Lot 36A | Georgia O'Keefee | Black Iris VI, Oil on canvas
Painted in 1936
91.4 x 60.9 cm
Provenance (Edited by The Value):
- An American Place, New York
- Mrs. Jacob Gould Schurman III, San Francisco (acquired from the above, 1946); Estate sale, Christie's, New York, 21 May 1998, lot 199
- Curtis Galleries, Minneapolis, Minnesota (acquired from the above)
- Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Acquired from the above by Paul G. Allen, 2001
Estimate: US$5,000,000 - 7,000,000
Hammer Price: US$18,000,000
Sold: US$21,110,000
Lot 37A | David Hockney | Early Blossom, Woldgate, Oil on canvas
Painted in 2009
91.4 x 182.9 cm
Provenance (Edited by The Value):
- PaceWildenstein, New York
- Acquired from the above by Paul G. Allen, 2009
Estimate: US$5,000,000 - 7,000,000
Hammer Price: US$16,500,000
Sold: US$19,385,000
Lot 39A | David Hockney | The Gate, Oil on canvas
Painted in 2000
152.4 x 193 cm
Provenance (Edited by The Value):
- Galerie Lelong, Paris
- L.A. Louver, Los Angeles
- Private collection, Italy
- Private collection, New York
- Anon. sale; Phillips, New York, 16 November 2016, lot 12
- Acquired at the above sale by Paul G. Allen
Estimate: US$6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Hammer Price: US$12,400,000
Sold: US$14,670,000
Lot 38 A | Georgia O'Keefee | White Calico Rose, Oil on canvas
Painted in 1930
76.2 x 91.4 cm
Provenance (Edited by The Value):
- An American Place, New York
- Dr. Leo and Edith Mayer, New York (acquired from the above, 1931)
- Else and Lloyd McKean, Scarsdale, New York (bequest from the above, 1972)
- Washburn Gallery, New York (1980)
- Edward R. Downe, Jr., New York (acquired from the above, 1980)
- Anon. sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 5 December 1985, lot 237A
- A. Alfred and Judith Taubman, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (acquired at the above sale)
- Acquired from the above by Paul G. Allen, 2001
Estimate: US$6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Hammer Price: US$11,000,000
Sold: US$13,060,000
Lot 31A | Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Square de la Trinité, Oil on canvas
Painted in Paris in 1878-1879
54.3 x 65.4 cm
Provenance (Edited by The Value):
- Nicolas-Auguste Hazard, Orrouy; Estate sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1-3 December 1919, lot 207
- Galerie Bernheim-Jeune et Cie., Paris (acquired at the above sale)
- Paul Rosenberg, Paris (acquired from the above, 10 February 1920)
- Charles S. Carstairs, New York
- M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York (on consignment from the estate of the above, 1928)
- Carroll Carstairs, New York (acquired from the above, by 1929)
- M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York (on consignment from the above, November 1933)
- Helen and Murray Snell Danforth, Providence, Rhode Island (acquired from the above, December 1933, then by descent to Sophie F. Danforth)
Estimate: US$4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Hammer Price: US$10,000,000
Sold: US$11,910,000
Lot 44A | Gerhard Richter | Spoleto, Oil on canvas
Painted in 1984
200 x 180.7 cm
Provenance (Edited by The Value):
- Sperone Westwater, New York
- Acquired from the above by Jacques and Emy Cohenca, 1985
Estimate: US$8,000,000 - 12,000,000
Hammer Price: US$9,500,000
Sold: US$11,335,000
Lot 35A | David Hockney | Felled Trees, Oil on canvas
Painted in 2008
121.9 x 152.4 cm
Provenance (Edited by The Value):
- PaceWildenstein, New York
- Acquired from the above by Paul G. Allen, 2009
Estimate: US$4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Hammer Price: US$9,000,000
Sold: US$10,760,000
Auction Details:
Auction House: Christie's New York
Sale: 20th Century Evening Sale
Date: 11 May 2023
Number of Lots: 54
Sold: 44
Unsold: 10
Sale Rate: 81.5%
Sale Total: US$328,779,600