Dutch Still Life Versus Pop Art

Paintings and drawings—both old and modern—bore the prestigious signatures of Rodin, Lichtenstein, and Viallat, alongside that of a brilliant artist from the Netherlands.

A painting by Rachel Ruysch, sold for €115, 000, depicting roses, St. John’s wort, carnations, false gentian, and a poppy about to bloom on an entablature with insects, took first place in the auction. The work is a canvas mounted on panel, showcasing the still-life and floral bouquet techniques mastered by this painter, who was renowned in her time. Fred Meijer and Marianne Berardi, authors of her monograph currently in progress, have confirmed the attribution and date this previously unseen work to around 1690. The mood shifted dramatically with a lithograph by Roy Lichtenstein, *Shipboard Girl* (1965), which sold for €42,500. It is a color offset print, a signed proof, from a Leo Castelli Gallery edition in New York (Graphic Industries, Inc., New York, 68.5×51.8cm). Claude Viallat, meanwhile ,was represented by a *Toile peinte au colorant* (1968), which fetched €31,875. It should be noted that the artist used methylene blue and vinyl applied to fabric (199x185cm)for this work, which also bears his studio labels stapled to it. As for the *Composition* (1942), executed in pastel and charcoal by Nicolas de Staël (see Gazette No.22), it sold for €23,125. It is worth noting that this drawing (23.5×31.5cm) , signed and dated “42,”is one of the painter’s very first abstract compositions. Auguste Rodin was also represented with two drawings, the first titled *Standing Nude Woman Combing Her Hair*, which sold for €21,250. Created around 1908 in graphite and stump on vellum (20×31.2cm) and signed, it will be included in the catalog raisonné of Rodin’s drawings and was accompanied by a certificate of inclusion from Christina Buley-Uribe. The second was a *Study of Movements* in watercolor, wash, and graphite on paper, signed (32x25cm), which sold for €17,500.