Jim Dine (B. 1935), The Face in the Rage of Red, 1986. Estimate: $20,000-30,000. Photo: Bonhams.

NEW YORK, NY.- Bonhams presents Dance of Death, a curated selection of macabre masterpieces from the collection of the late Richard Harris. The sale will take place from October 21 – November 1 and will feature an extraordinary group of over 115 works focused on the iconography of death.

After retiring in 2001 from his business as an antique prints dealer in Chicago, Harris began to amass a distinctly unusual group of works which he called the “Visual Gateway to the Conversation about Death.” The outstanding selection features works in a range of mediums from vernacular photography and ephemera to masterpieces of sculpture, drawing, print and painting. The collection stems from what Harris called his “unquenchable curiosity to investigate the visual subject of Death” and it highlights our everlasting quest to make peace with this universal, inevitable part of life.

Two highlights of the sale are striking paintings by celebrated Flemish artists from the 17th century. Allegory for War by Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1878), a dramatic battleground scene featuring where Death is depicted through fighting animals and gods and symbols of ill luck, is estimated at $30,000 – 50,000. Vanitas still life with a bouquet and a skull, c.1642 by Adriaen van Utrecht (1599-1652), estimated at $20,000 – 30,000, includes a human skull, gold coins, flowers, and books in a haunting still-life. Pavel Tchelitchew’s (1898-1957) work The Living Shell (1944) is another highlight of the sale, estimated at $25,000 – 35,000, and inspects the human form through a diagrammatic depiction of the human head, neck, and spine. Jim Dine’s (b. 1935) The Face in the Rage of Red (1986), estimated at $20,000 – 30,000, approaches representations of death through the lens of Pop Art. In the work, the prolific American artist paints a skull, a widely used icon throughout his oeuvre, surrounded by abstracted swathes of color.

Lot 16. Property from the Collection of Richard Harris. Adriaen van Utrecht (Antwerp 1599-1653), Vanitas still life with a bouquet and a skull, inscribed and dated 'Vanitas Dominatum/et omnia vanita/ecit ano 1643' (lower right), oil on canvas, 67.5 x 86.2 cm. Estimate: $20,000-30,000. Photo: Bonhams.

Provenance: Lucius O'Callaghan, RHA, RRIA, Dublin, by 1952
Christie's, London, 12 October 1956, lot 83 (as Pieter de Ring, bt Chance)
Christie's, London, 25 November 1966, lot 40 (as Pieter de Ring)
With Otto Naumann, Ltd., New York (as Pieter Adriensz. van de Venne), where purchased by
Collection of Dr and Mrs Edgar P. Richardson, Philadelphia in 1989, by whom offered
Sotheby's, New York, 29 May 2003, lot 33.

Exhibited: London, Royal Academy of Arts, Dutch pictures, 1450-1750: Winter Exhibition 1952-1953, cat. no. 226 (as Pieter de Ring, with incorrect measurements, lent by O'Callaghan)
Bath, Victoria Art Gallery, Flower Painting 1652-1952, 1953, cat. no. 13

Literature: B. Haak, 'De vergankelijk-heidssymboliek in zestiendeeeuwse portretten en zeventiende-eeuwse stillevens in Holland II, Antiek, vol. II, no. 9, April 1968, pp. 399-412
P. Mitchell, European Flower Painters, 1973, p. 212-3, ill (as by Pieter de Ring)
B. Haak, The Golden Age: Dutch Pictures of the Seventeenth Century, 1984, p. 127, fig. 243 (as by Pieter de Ring)
J. Briels, Peintres Flamandes en Hollande au debut du Siecle d'Or 1585-1630, 1987, p. 264, fig. 333 (as by Pieter de Ring)
'Paintings Sold in the Past', Otto Naumann Ltd. Inaugural Exhibition of Old Master Paintings, 1995, ex. cat., part II, under 1989, ill (as by Pieter Az. van de Venne)
F. Meijer, 'Some Flower paintings by Adriaen van Utrecht (1599-1652), a Still Life of Fruit by Constancia van Utrecht (after 1606-after 1647) and a portrait of Adriaen and Constancia', Oud Holland, 109, 1995, pp. 165-169, ill., fig. 2 (as by Adriaen van Utrecht).

Note: Previously attributed to Pieter de Ring on the basis of the ring in the centre of the composition, Dr Fred Meijer first identified and published the present painting as by Adriaen van Utrecht in 1995 in Oud Holland (see literature). Although Adriaen van Utrecht's oeuvre consists mostly of market scenes and still lifes of game, fish, and vegetables, a few floral still lifes by him have recently come to light, including a Vase of Flowers, signed and dated 1642.

The collection also features a number of photographs by eminent photographers such as Robert Mapplethorpe (1948-1989) and Irving Penn (1917-2009). Mapplethorpe’s Skull Walking Cane, estimated at $10,000 – 15,000, and Penn’s Ospedale, estimated at $10,000 – 15,000, feature macabre props in their eerie photographs. A sculptural highlight from the sale is a Carved Boxwood Memento Mori Figure (17th/18th century) in the manner of Hans Leinberger (active 1511-1530), estimated at $15,000 – 25,000, which features a standing skeleton, partially flayed. A Carved Limewood Figure of Kronos, attributed to Johann Wolfgang von der Auwera (1708-1756) and estimated at $10,000 – 14,000, depicts the winged figure of time standing with a scythe.

 Lot 2. Property from the Collection of Richard Harris. Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989), Skull Walking Cane, 1988. Gelatin silver print; flush-mounted, the photographer's estate stamp, signed and dated in ink by Michael Ward Stout, executor, and with title, date, and edition '10/10' in ink on the reverse, framed; 58.8 x 49.5 cm, sheet 60.3 x 50.8 cm. Estimate: $10,000-15,000. Photo: Bonhams.

Provenance: Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, 2003

 Lot 12. Property from the Collection of Richard Harris. Carved Boxwood Memento Mori Figure, 17th-18th century, in the manner of Hans Leinberger (German, active 1511-1530); 11 1/4 x 7 x 7cm. Estimate: $15,000 – 25,000. Photo: Bonhams.

 Depicting a partially flayed standing skeleton.

Lot 72. Property from the Collection of Richard Harris. Carved Limewood Figure of Kronos, attributed to Johann Wolfgang von der Auwera (German, 1708-1756), 18th century; 30 x 10.1 x 11.4cm. Estimate: $10,000 – 14,000. Photo: Bonhams.

 Provenance: With label for Kunsthandlung Julius Bohler, Munich.

The winged figure of time depicted standing with a scythe.

Additional highlights of the sale include: 

Lot 7. Property from the Collection of Richard Harris. Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, from The Apocalypse (Bartsch 64, Meder, Hollstein 167, Schoch Mende Scherbaum 115), 1498. Woodcut on laid paper with Flower on Triangle watermark (Meder 127), a richly inked impression from the 1511 Latin text edition, trimmed to the platemark, framed; 39.4 x 28.1cm. Estimate: $20,000 – $30,000. Photo: Bonhams.

 Lot 47. Property from the Collection of Richard Harris. German School, 16th century, An Allegory of the Bible, oil on panel, 69.6 x 136.5 cm. Estimate: $18,000 – $25,000. Photo: Bonhams.

Provenance: Baron von Waldthausen, Bassenheim
Lempertz, Cologne, 21 May 2005, lot 708

 Lot 113. Property from the Collection of Richard Harris. Robert Arneson (1930-1992), Nuke News, 1983, bronze, 66 by 59 by 48.3 cm. Estimate: $15,000 – $25,000. Photo: Bonhams. 

 Lot 4. Property from the Collection of Richard Harris. Odilon Redon (1840-1916), Vers une Autre Image..., also titled L'Ange et La Mort, signed with the artist's initials 'Od.R.' (lower left), graphite on paper, 16.6 x 13.9 cm. Estimate: $15,000 – $20,000. Photo: Bonhams.

Provenance: Arï Redon Collection, Paris (the artist's son).
Mira Jacob Collection, Paris (acquired from the above); her sale, Sotheby's, Paris, September 23, 2004, lot 16.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner. 

Exhibited: Paris, Galerie Le Bateau-Lavoir, Odilon Redon, Dessins, Eaux-fortes, Lithographies, 1969, no. 6.

Literature: C. Fegdal, 'Les Débuts d'Odilon Redon,' in Dernières Nouvelles des Arts, Paris, 1929, pl. VI (illustrated; titled 'L'Ange à la tête de mort').
A. Wildenstein, Odilon Redon, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint et dessiné, vol. II, Mythes et légendes, Paris, 1994, no. 959 (illustrated p. 106).

Lot 98. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), La Chronique Médicale, signed with the artist's monogram (lower left), black Conté crayon on paper, 15.6 x 32 cm. Executed in 1891. Estimate: $12,000 – $18,000. Photo: Bonhams

Provenance: Gabriel Tapié de Céleyran, Paris.
D. Davey Collection, London.
Herbert and Ruth Schimmel Collection, New York; their sale, Sotheby's, New York, March 23, 2001, lot 89.
Gary Bruder Fine Arts, New York.
Acquired from the above by the present owner on June 18, 2004.

Literature: M. Joyant, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, vol II, 1864-1901, Paris, 1927, p. 195.
G. Jedlicka, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Berlin, 1929, no. 130 (illustrated p. 313).
M. G. Dortu, Toulouse-Lautrec et son œuvre, vol. 5, Catalogue des Dessins, New York, 1971, no. D3153 (illustrated p. 515).

Note: As described by Gerstle Mack in his 1938 publication Toulouse-Lautrec, the work was executed in 1891 as a study for the cover of the medical journal founded by Dr. Cabanès. Cabanès rejected the drawing for being too macabre, however, the work was later published after Lautrec's death in the February 15, 1902 issue of the journal.