NEW YORK, NY.- Painted in 1937, René Magritte’s Le Principe du plaisir (The Pleasure Principle) is an entrancing portrait depicting Edward James, one of the most influential patrons of Surrealist art, who was introduced to Magritte by Salvador Dalí in 1937. Commissioned directly by James, the present portrait was rendered from a photograph of the patron that was taken according to the artist’s specifications by fellow Surrealist, Man Ray. Magritte envisioned the concept for the present work before ever meeting James – in 1936, the artist included an ink sketch resembling the oil on the first page of a hand-made book honoring the Surrealist poet, Paul Éluard. 

Lot 21. Oskar Kokoschka (1886 - 1980), Joseph de Montesquiou-Fezensac. Signed with the initials OK (lower left). Oil on canvas, 31 1/4 by 24 7/8 in., 79.5 by 63.3 cm. Painted in 1910. Estimate 15,000,000 — 20,000,000 USD. Lot sold 20,395,200 USD to an anonymous. Record for the artist at auction. Courtesy Sotheby's.

A masterpiece from the pinnacle of Kokoschka’s early portraiture, Joseph de Montesquiou-Fezensac is a harbinger of Expressionism and a token of the seismic shift that was occurring in the visual arts at this time, which would only be shaken by the complete destruction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I. The present work was painted during Kokoschka’s visit to the Mont Blanc sanatorium in Leysin in the Swiss Alps where he met the subject, a patient who would go on to become the Duke of Fezensac in 1913. Kokoschka’s portraiture at this time broke convention in almost every aspect, with his primary aim to bring the invisible inside of a person – what he would come to call his “soul paintings” – to the surface. The artist’s treatment of medium in Joseph de Montesquiou-Fezensac is one of the most refined and unusual of his oeuvre. 

Joseph de Montesquiou-Fezensac is known to have been with Alfred Flechtheim by 1927. It was sold by Alex Vömel – a member of the Nazi party who took over Flechtheim’s Düsseldorf Gallery – to the National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm in 1934. In the 1950s, the work was transferred to the Moderna Museet, where it remained until it was returned to Flechtheim’s heirs earlier this year. As in the past, the Flechtheim heirs are expecting to use some of the proceeds for charitable causes, and for Holocaust remembrance and education purposes. 

Lot 25. Ludwig Meidner (1884 - 1966), Apokalyptische Landschaft (Apocalyptic Landscape). Signed with the initials LM and dated 1912 (lower right & on the reverse). Oil on canvas, 37 by 42 7/8 in., 94 by 109 cm. Painted in 1912. Estimate 12,000,000 — 18,000,000 USD. Lot Sold 14,072,800 USD to an anonymous. Record for the artist at auction. Courtesy Sotheby's.

Executed in 1912 near the brink of the Great War, Apokalyptische Landschaft is a cataclysmic and arresting urban scene that reflects the social, political, emotional and artistic upheaval in Germany at the time. With his tremendous visionary powers, Meidner anticipates the destruction of Europe and the recurrent conflict that was to blemish the future course of the 20th century. 

The harrowing dual-sided image is one of approximately 15 paintings from Meidner’s series of apocalyptic landscapes executed between 1912 and 1916. Strikingly modern, the works from this series show Meidner looking at the formal experiments of both the German Expressionists and the Italian Futurists and act as a testimony to the incredible artistic innovation of this period. There are very few works from the series remaining in private hands, with important examples in international institutions including the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, the Saint Louis Art Museum in Missouri and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

From the top ten:

Lot 19. Egon Schiele (1890 - 1918), Dämmernde Stadt (Die Kleine Stadt II) (City in the Twilight (The Small City II)). Signed Egon Schiele and dated 1913 (center left). Oil and black crayon on canvas, 35 5/8 by 35 1/2 in., 90.5 by 90.1 cm. Painted in 1913. Estimate 12,000,000 — 18,000,000 USD. Lot Sold 24,572,500 USD to an anonymous. Courtesy Sotheby's. 

Painted during a pivotal year for the artist, Dämmernde Stadt was purchased in 1928 by Elsa Koditschek, a young Jewish widow living in Vienna. During the course of her harrowing persecution by the Nazis following the annexation of Austria in 1938, the work was forcibly sold in payment of alleged debts to the very person who helped Elsa survive. Sotheby's presented the work through a private restitution agreement between the present owners and Elsa’s heirs.

Lot 6. Wassily Kandinsky (1866 - 1944), Improvisation auf Mahagoni (Improvisation on Mahogany).Signed Kandinsky (lower left). Oil on mahogany panel, 25 by 39 1/2 in., 63.5 by 100.2 cm. Painted in 1910. Estimate 15,000,000 — 20,000,000 USD. Lot Sold 24,233,800 USD to a Private European Collector. Courtesy Sotheby's.

Lot 8. Wassily Kandinsky (1866 - 1944), Zum Thema Jüngstes Gericht (On the Theme of the Last Judgement). Signed with the artist's monogram (lower left). Oil and mixed media on canvas, 18 1/2 by 20 1/2 in., 47 by 52 cm. Painted in 1913. Estimate 22,000,000 — 35,000,000 USD. Lot Sold 22,879,000 USD to a Private European Collector. Courtesy Sotheby's.

Lot 22. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880 - 1938), Das Soldatenbad (Artillerymen). Signed E. L. Kirchner (lower right). Oil on canvas, 55 1/8 by 59 1/8 in., 140 by 150 cm. Painted in 1915. Estimate 15,000,000 — 20,000,000 USD. Lot Sold 21,975,800 USD to an Anonymous. Courtesy Sotheby's. 

Painted in 1915, immediately following Kirchner’s release from military service, the arresting canvas represents the psychological realities of war. Executed in his fully developed Expressionist pictorial style, the monumental work daringly explores the anxieties brought on by modernization in the early-20th century, while continuing to develop the artist’s preoccupation with the human body that he held since his earliest days as a member of Die Brücke. Prior to its voluntary restitution earlier this year, Das Soldatenbad had resided in the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York for three decades. As in the past, the Flechtheim heirs are expecting to use some of the proceeds for charitable causes, and for Holocaust remembrance and education purposes.

Lot 4. Wassily Kandinsky (1866 - 1944), Le Rond rouge. Signed with the artist's monogram and dated 39 (lower left); signed with the artist's monogram, dated 1939and numbered 66i (on the reverse). Oil on canvas 35 by 45 3/4 in., 89 by 116 cm. Painted in April 1939. Estimate 18,000,000 — 25,000,000 USD. Lot Sold 20,621,000 USD to an Anonymous. Courtesy Sotheby's.

Lot 7. Maurice de Vlaminck, Paysage au bois mort (Ramasseur de bois mort). Signed Vlaminck (lower left). Oil on canvas,25 3/8  by 31 5/8 in., 64.5 by 80.5 cm. Painted in 1906. Estimate 12,000,000 — 18,000,000 USD. Lot Sold 16,669,500 USD to an Anonymous. Courtesy Sotheby's.