Records & Results: Old Master Through Modern Prints

Zapata Sets Print Record for Diego Rivera at $45k

 

With seven records and a standout selection of Latin American art, our sale of Old Master Through Modern Prints on Thursday, May 2 offered works by the greatest innovators in the field.

 

Black and white lithograph print of a soldier and a horse walking by Diego Rivera.
Lot 363: Diego Rivera, Zapata, lithograph, 1932. Sold for $45,000, a record for any print by Rivera.

 

Latin American Art

The house’s largest-ever offering of Latin American prints and originals proved to be popular. Of the selection Todd Weyman, Vice President and Director of Prints & Drawings, remarked:

“While bidding on our multiple platforms was spirited as usual in this auction, with many international buyers, it was especially heightened during our first-ever focused, standalone catalogue of Latin American Art, where we set a record for any lithograph by Diego Rivera, and records for color Mixografia prints by Rufino Tamayo.”

 

A mixografia print of two sliced watermelons and a small apple by Rufino Tamayo.
Lot 414: Rufino Tamayo, Sandias con Manzana, color mixografia, 1985. Sold for $22,100, a record for the print.

 

Highlights included two 1932 lithographs by Rivera: Zapata, which brought $45,000, a record for any print by the artist, and El Sueño (La Noche de los Pobres), which earned $27,500. Mixografia prints by Tamayo found success with Dos Personajes atacados por Perros, 1983, selling for $23,400, and a record was set for Sandias con Manzana, 1985, at $22,100.

 

Pablo Picasso

A run of works by Pablo Picasso included the 1934 aquatint Garçon et Dormeuse à la Chandelle ($35,000), the 1934 portfolio, Lysistrata, with a complete set of six etchings ($31,200).

 

An abstract black and white lithograph of a woman by Pablo Picasso.
Lot 267: Pablo Picasso, Tête de Femme, lithograph, 1945. Sold for $21,250, a record for the print.

 

Tête de Femme, lithograph, 1954 ($21,250, a record for the print), and Sueño y Mentira de Franco, 1937, a pair of etchings representing the artist’s earliest political work ($18,750).

 

Modern Luminaries

 

An abstract figure in red and black by Joan Miró.
Lot 328: Joan Miró, Danseuse Créole, color aquatint & etching, 1978. Sold for $35,000, a record for the print.

 

Records for Joan Miró color aquatints included Danseuse Créole, 1978, at $35,000 and L’Etranglé, 1974, at $27,500. The 1947 color pochoir print L’Enterrement de Pierrot by Henri Matisse set a record at $27,500, and M. C. Escher’s classic woodcut, Sky and Water I, 1938 earned $31,200.

 

George Stubbs

 

A black and white etching of a tiger and a sleeping leopard by George Stubbs.
Lot 132: George Stubbs, Two Tygers (or A Tiger and a Sleeping Leopard), etching, 1788. Sold for $45,000, a record for the subject.

 

The top lot in the sale was George StubbsTwo Tygers (or A Tiger and a Sleeping Leopard), etching, 1788, which garnered a record for the subject at $45,000. Also of note was James A. M. Whistler’s etching Long Venice, 1879-80, which brought $20,000.

Lot 89: Rembrandt van Rijn, Self Portrait Drawing at a Window, etching & drypoint, 1648. Sold for $27,500.

 

Complete Results.

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