Relief "Nude female figure from behind IV» is estimated at 25-35 million dollars

On the evening auctions Christie's «The Art of Impressionism and Modernism," which will be held on 3 November in New York, the top lot will be a monumental bronze sculpture by Henri Matisse "Nude female figure from behind IV», which is a fourth embodiment of a relief, "Standing with his back to the viewer, and perhaps the most ambitious and memorable of all. This series of four bronze reliefs in human growth is well recognized as the greatest achievement of modernist sculpture of the twentieth century. Each of the sculptures were made 12 casts, their best specimens are now in the world's leading museums such as the London gallery the Tate, the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Upcoming auctions will be the first in the history of the practice of auctioning event, in which one of these sculptures exhibited at public sale. Experts auction house expects the price of its reach 25-35 million dollars. Of the 12 bronze casts made with this sculpture in private hands today, there are only two, one of which will be put up for sale.

Conor Jordan, the head of the New York Department of Art and Impressionism Modernism Christie's, said: "The coming auction presents a unique opportunity for every collector who shares the view that the works of Matisse's series of" Standing with his back to the viewer "is a milestone in the history of modernist sculpture. For 20 years, starting with the first and ending with the fourth version of "Stand back," Matisse their creations illustrated the change in the visual language of figuration to abstraction. The final sculpture was a real highlight - a way that turned the art of the twentieth century ».

If we consider all of the series together, we can trace the development of creative research by Matisse himself, who first turned to the bas-reliefs in 1909, creating a detailed and naturalistic image of a solitary female figure, on which the viewer looks back - her left arm raised up and clings to the edge of the wall, while the right is bent behind his back. This initial work does not come down to our days, but her idea in a slightly revised version survived a first relief "was his back to the viewer." Over the years Matisse repeatedly made changes to the "Stand back", resulting in 1913 had a second option, and in 1916-1917 - the third. With each new interpretation of Matisse, the situation changed as the shape itself and the surface against which it is located, thus trying to achieve an ideal image of a female figure.

Around 1930, more than two ten years after the first attempt, Matisse poured fourth sculpture "Standing with his back to the viewer, which became the most vivid embodiment of topics, which owned them for many years. More sophisticated and refined sculpture now had a clear architectural landscape, dividing the figure of a woman for three symmetrical zones - head, hair and spine fused in a columnar shape in the center of the work. Pleased with the result, Matisse kept the plaster cast sculptures in his studio until his death. Experts believe that the desire for simplicity and spatial composition of the relief could inspire the creation of Matisse in the later years of one of his finest paintings - "Big Blue Dress" (1937), which is now in the collections of the Museum of Art in Philadelphia.

For all works created within the series, the grandson of artist Gérard Matisse expressed his biographer Hilary Spurling suggested that if she is fully devoted himself to the study of these sculptures, you could find in them a reflection of life Matisse, for which it was characterized by an unusual balance, always on the verge.

Despite the fact that the sculpture "Standing with his back to the viewer is always presented as a series, allowing the viewer to trace the change of a female figure with first to the fourth option, Matisse never took them as a series, the more that never in his lifetime they were not exhibited in the group. Each cast was cast in bronze in 12 instances between 1948 and 1981. Complete a series of four sculptures are currently nine museums. Each bronze relief of up to 183 centimeters tall and weighs over 270 kilograms.

In the last year the price of the outstanding sculptures Nouveau greatly increased, due to high demand of collectors around the world for high quality work of the Impressionists and modernists. In June, Christie's auction for 52.6 million dollars went under the hammer unique sculpture by Amedeo Modigliani "Head", which hit Record price for the artist and became the most expensive piece sold to France . In May, at auction at Christie's in New York of unprecedented value in 53.2 million dollars has reached a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti from the outstanding collection of Mrs. Sidney F. Brody.

Other top lots of the upcoming evening sale "Impressionist and Modern Art" should be called work Leger, Rodin and Morandi from collection of Max Palevsky , and and creation of Caillebotte, Pissarro and Seurat from the collection of Walter and Phyllis Shorenstayn.

Source: press release Christie's