This fall's semiannual sale of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings was the highest-grossing sale of its kind at Swann Auction Galleries, demonstrating clearly that the market for quality works on paper is strong.
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The most exciting lot to watch at auction was Egon Schiele's Schlafender Mann. Schiele's short life and career makes finished watercolors such as this one scarce. Attesting to this rarity, the lot soared over its high estimate to $905,000, setting a house record for the highest-priced item to sell in a 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings sale.
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Pablo Picasso's color linoleum cut Femme assise au Chignon and Salvador Dalí's wonderfully weird portfolio Les Caprices de Goya, both set auction records at $55,000.
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Full results can be found here.
Lot 423: Egon Schiele, Schlafender Mann, watercolor, pencil and black crayon, 1910.
Sold September 24, 2015 for $905,000.
Lot 424: Gustav Klimt, Urmarmen Akte, pencil drawing, 1908.
Sold September 24, 2015 for $125,000.
Schiele's mentor and leader of the Vienna Secession movement, Gustav Klimt, followed up strongly as the second highest lot in the sale with his sensuous drawing Urmarmen Akte. Klimt and Schiele met in 1907, and Klimt facilitated Schiele's entry into the 1909 Internationale Kunstchau and afforded him connections to various wealthy patrons. Tense bidding put the drawing at $125,000, more than twice its high estimate.
Lot 389: Pablo Picasso, Femme assise au Chignon, color linoleum cut, 1962.
Sold September 24, 2015 for $55,000.
Lot 600: Salvador Dalí, Les Caprices de Goya, portfolio of 80 heliogravures from Goya’s etchings reworked by Dalí with drypoint and stencil coloring. Sold September 24, 2015 for $55,000.
Swann Vice President and Director of Prints & Drawings Todd Weyman said, "Collectors are prepared to bid just as aggressively on quality drawings as they are on important oil paintings, showing that desirable examples of an artist's draughtsmanship are strongly sought after, particularly when they exhibit an artist's celebrated attributes."
Full results can be found here.