A Bid for Recovery : Sotheby’s, Christie’s Fall Auctions Reach for Middle Ground

Recession or not, here comes another auction season. Sotheby’s and Christie’s New York auction houses are set to sell about $150 million of Impressionist and modern art Tuesday through Thursday and an additional $90 million of contemporary art the following week.

There’s a $10-million Leger, a $9-million Pissarro, a $7-million Johns and a $6-million Mondrian--all for the taking by anyone who has the credit or the cash.

But, as an undeniable sign of the times, there is no $82.5-million Van Gogh; May 15, 1990, when Vincent van Gogh’s “Portrait of Dr. Gachet” was sold for that unfathomable sum, appears to be a long time ago.

The November sales are the traditional autumn high of the art market in New York, but this fall’s auctions will do well to establish a stable middle ground for two fields of art that skyrocketed in the late ‘80s and plummeted last year. The lineup this month suggests a modest attempt to rebuild confidence one step at a time. More works are offered than in comparable sales last spring. Estimates of total sales are up too, but the numbers are roughly equivalent to those in the mid-’80s, before the boom that went bust.

Despite the cautious mood, 33 pieces from the renowned Burton and Emily Hall Tremaine collection offer potential excitement at Christie’s. Eighteen of them will go on the block Tuesday night in an auction of 60 Impressionist and modern artworks, valued at a total of $51 million to $80 million.

“Le Petit Dejeuner,” Fernand Leger’s post-Cubist painting of three monumental nudes taking tea in a mechanistic sitting room, bears the highest pre-sale estimate, $8 million to $10 million. The 40x53-inch painting, circa 1921, is a smaller version of “Le Grand Dejeuner,” Leger’s masterpiece at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Other Tremaine works slated for sale on Tuesday night include Piet Mondrian’s abstract “Composition” ($4 million to $6 million), Juan Gris’ Cubist still life “Pears and Grapes on a Table” ($3 million to $4 million), and “Premier Disque,” a colorful abstraction by Robert Delaunay ($2 million to $3 million).

A four-part series of landscape paintings, “The Four Seasons,” by French Impressionist Camille Pissarro will also be offered Tuesday night, by an unidentified European collector. The estimated selling price for the ensemble is $7 million to $9 million.

Four other works slated to go on the block Tuesday night at Christie’s have been the latest focus of an ongoing controversy about the sale of works from museum collections. Two paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, one by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and one Edouard Vuillard are among 14 works offered for sale by Brandeis University to create an endowment for the university’s Rose Museum--a move that has been criticized by the Assn. of Art Museum Directors. If the four paintings are sold for their highest estimated prices, they will bring a total of$5 million.

Sotheby’s will host its big fall auction of Impressionist and modern art on Wednesday night, offering 70 lots valued at a total of $48 million to $65 million. The most expensive pieces, valued at $3 million to $4 million each, are Alfred Sisley’s Impressionist landscape “Bord du Loing a Saint-Mammes” and Constantin Brancusi’s bronze, stainless steel and wood sculpture “The Fish.”

Among other multimillion-dollar pieces are “Delights of the Poet,” a 1913 painting of a desolate piazza by Giorgio de Chirico ($2.5 million to $3.5 million) and Aristide Maillol’s bronze sculpture “The Three Nymphs” ($2 million to $3 million).

The next week, when the auction subject shifts to contemporary art, Christie’s will lead on Nov. 12 with a sale of 68 lots valued at a total of $28 million to $37 million. Once again, works from the Tremaine collection will be the prime attractions. Jasper Johns’ “Device Circle”--a splashy 1959 work that explores the process of painting by including the tool (in this case a wood slat) that created it--is the most expensive ($5 million to $7 million). Next is Willem de Kooning’s 1960 abstraction “Villa Borghese” ($2.5 million to $3.5 million).

Sotheby’s will stage its premier fall sale of contemporary art on Nov. 13, offering 82 works at an estimated total value of $33 million to $43 million. Big names are plentiful, but prices never exceed the $5-million high estimate for Johns’ 1959 painting “Jubilee.”

No one seems to be expecting a quick return to the time--only two or three years ago--when Johns’ “False Start” commanded $17 million and De Kooning’s “Interchange” was sold for $20.68 million, let alone the split second when the $82.5-million Van Gogh hit a pinnacle before the art market’s fall. But if the November sales live up to the most optimistic predictions, they will multiply the meager take of last spring.

Christie’s high estimate of $80 million for its big Impressionist and modern art auction more than triples the $23-million total realized in a smaller sale last May; Sotheby’s expected high of $65 million makes a similar leap from its $18-million spring auction. The situation is much the same in contemporary art. Christie’s $37-million high estimate for its contemporary art auction more than triples the $11 million toted up last May; Sotheby’s high estimate of $43 million doubles the total sales in its $21-million spring auction of contemporary art.