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.
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.”
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).
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
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
The top lot in the sale was George Stubbs’ Two 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.
