This auction offers a distinguished selection of paintings, works on paper, sculpture and prints from important private and museum collections. Works by Impressionist masters including Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissarro are complemented by an exciting assortment of works on paper by Modernists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Joan Miró, as well as major prints by Edvard Munch. The sale features a wonderful group of sculpture by Aristide Maillol, Auguste Rodin and Henry Moore as well as a striking selection of School of Paris portraiture and abstraction. Vibrant examples by Latin American Modernists such as David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera round out the sale’s offerings.

The fluted white oil bottle depicted in Natura morta (Still Life) appears in some of Giorgio Morandi’s earliest work from the mid-1910s, and is perhaps the most recognizable and iconic of all his subjects (estimate $1/1.5 million). Morandi repeatedly painted the same objects over the course of several decades, and the groupings begin to take on the feel of family gatherings to those familiar with his work. Morandi’s profound influence on contemporary art is indisputable, including the work of Wayne Thiebaud, Agnes Martin, Philip Guston and Sean Scully, and even extends to contemporary architect Frank Gehry.

While many of Edgar Degas’ works from this rare and early period are formal portraits or history paintings, Buste de jeune femme presque nu (Bust of Young Woman Almost Nude) foreshadows his obsession with beauty and line (estimate $350/450,000). Here the artist synthesizes the frieze-like technique inspired by his trips to Italy in the 1850s, with the “exotic” appeal and radical cropping of the Japanese prints that intrigued his generation. The painting’s first owner was George Jay Gould, the son of Jay Gould, an infamous “robber baron” who made his fortune as a financial speculator and railroad magnate. George Jay Gould was a successful financier in his own right and amassed an impressive collection of Dutch, Italian and Impressionist art.

Like his peers Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall found inspiration in the warm, colorful atmosphere of the Côte d’Azur, ultimately settling in the town of Saint-Paul-de-Vence with his wife Vava Brodsky after his return from the United States in 1948. Devant la fenêtre (In Front of the Window), executed circa 1974-75, is a reflection on the artist’s career, as well as the places and motifs that fueled his artistic production (estimate $200/300,000). Whether open or closed, windows have traditionally served as a frame through which the artist depicts the dreamlike merging of the idylls of the past.