NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announces that Classic Week, a marquee series of seven live and online auctions that feature pieces from antiquity to the 20th century. Sales will be held from 8-23 April and include Old Master paintings and sculpture, European Art, Antiquities, Books and Manuscripts and two single-owner auctions, The Kagan Collection and The Elaine and Alexandre Rosenberg Collection of illuminated manuscripts and early printed books. The exhibition at Christie’s Rockefeller Center will be by appointment only starting 17 April.

European Art
21 April 2PM

Christie’s European Art sale offers a curated selection of works from one of the most diverse and revolutionary eras in the history of art. Spanning from the years following the French Revolution into the early 20th century’s Art Nouveau style, the category encompasses nearly 90,000 artists from the many movements of the era. From the landscapes of the Barbizon painters to the bustling cities of the Belle Époque, the sale also includes works from the Victorian, Orientalist, Realist, German and Academic schools, among others. All the elegance and transformation to modernity that the 19th Century embodies is captured in the paintings and sculptures presented in this sale. The sale features an en plein air work by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, one of earliest commissions by Jean-François Millet, and a portrait by Paul-César Helleu once owned by John Singer Sargent. 

Lot 16. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (French, 1796-1875), La Rencontre matinale sur les hauteurs de Sèvres, signed 'COROT' (lower right), oil on canvas, 9 ½ x 15 in. (24.1 x 38.1 cm.) Painted circa 1850-1855. Estimate USD 150,000 - USD 250,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.

Lot 31. Property from the Robert and Nettie Benenson Foundation. Paul-César Helleu (French, 1859-1927), Harpiste assise à l'éventail, signed twice 'Helleu' (lower right), pastel on canvas, 47 x 43 ¼ in. (119.3 x 110.5 cm.), once owned by John Singer Sargent. Estimate $120,000-180,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.

Additional highlights include works by Léon Lhermitte, Jean-François Raffaëlli, Hughes Merle, Sir Alfred J. Munnings and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, among others.

Lot 2. Léon Augustin Lhermitte (French, 1844-1925), Église au soleil, signed 'L. Lhermitte.' (lower left), pastel and black chalk on paper on canvas, 21 ¼ x 15 ¾ in. (54 x 39.4 cm.). Executed in 1919. Estimate $120,000-180,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.

Lot 36. Jean-François Raffaëlli (French, 1850-1924), Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, Paris, signed 'J F RAFFAËLLI' (lower left), oil on canvas, 25 3/8 x 22 5/8 in. (64.5 x 57.5 cm.). Estimate $150,000 - USD 250,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.

Property from the Brooklyn Museum, sold to sup. port museum collections. Lot 67. Hugues Merle (French, 1823-1881), Thoughts of the Future, signed and dated 'HUGUES MERLE./1864' (lower left), oil on canvas, unframed, 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm.). Estimate $60,000 - USD 80,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.

Lot 60. Sir Alfred James Munnings, P.R.A., R.W.S. (British, 1878-1959), The Gold State Coach at the Royal Mews, oil on canvas, 29 ¾ x 36 1/8 in. (75.6 x 91.8 cm.) Painted circa 1936. Estimate $60,000 - USD 80,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.

Lot 57. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, O.M., R.A., R.W.S. (British, 1836-1912), Venus and Mars, signed and inscribed 'L Alma Tadema OP CCLXXXVII-' (on the ledge, center right), oil on panel, 23 x 11 ¼ in. (58.42 x 28.6 cm.) Painted in May 1888. Estimate $50,000 - USD 70,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021.