Pauline Karpidas Collection Book

Oliver Barker

Emma Baker

by Dawn Ades

by Alyce Mahon

FOREWORD

BY OLIVER BARKER CHAIRMAN, SOTHEBY’S EUROPE

For more than 25 years, I have been fortunate to observe Pauline Karpidas and the qualities that mark her as a collector of rare distinction—none more striking than her profound well of loyalty. It is a gift she extends to her collaborators, an unwavering quality that has won her the company and friendship of many of the great art world figures of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with whom she has cultivated deep connections and championed careers with insight and steadfast dedication. It is no overstatement to recognise Pauline as one of the most respected collectors today and it has been a privilege to enjoy our connection, witnessing the passion, intellect, and energy that have shaped her exceptional homes and, in truth, the cultural landscape of our time.

In 2023, Sotheby’s Paris offered the collection from Pauline’s legendary retreat on the Greek island of Hydra, an event that transported visitors to the ancient place where she indulged her love of the contemporary. With immense pride, we now present the collection from Pauline’s London residence, an apartment that overlooked Hyde Park—a sanctuary where she gathered the objects that trained her instinctive eye, with walls lined with masterpieces from the Surrealists and Pop Art pioneers to icons of contemporary design.

More than simply revealing her collecting journey, however, the London auctions will mark a celebration of Pauline’s unapologetically bold vision and kaleidoscopic taste, offering the most tantalising glimpse into the wonder and joy of her world. The essays contained herein by Emma Baker, Dawn Ades, and Alyce Mahon trace an exceptional collecting career from its formative years, examining Pauline’s

unique significance in the long legacy of Surrealist collectors, and pay testament to the remarkable works she brought into living dialogue.

My first encounter with Pauline came in the mid1990s, through an introduction by the late Michel Strauss, the head of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art department for over four decades—during which he gave me my first job—and the man who served as Pauline’s contact in the business. It was a time before the dispatch of WhatsApp messages became a channel of communication with collectors, a time, as she once described to me, “when collecting art was still a conversation and an intellectual journey.”

The moment I first entered Pauline’s apartment, I was awe-struck by the singular atmosphere of the space: the home itself a living work of art where Surrealist masterpieces rubbed shoulders with Les Lalanne sculptures and Andy Warhol’s late-career Pop icons, all set against interiors by David Gill, Francis Sultana, and Jacques Grange, including the iconic animal print carpet. Stepping inside felt like stepping into another world—a Gesamtkunstwerk of Surrealist imagination and postmodern bravura. It reflected her innate ability to collect objects of the highest quality, and to curate an immersive world where each artwork amplifies the next. This was a heady space filled with stories; a modern-day salon akin to that of Gertrude Stein, where collecting and friendships with some of the art world cognoscenti of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries were made manifest amongst objects previously owned by luminaries of the pre-war period. By definition, it was a true monument to a life of passion lived in the pursuit of great beauty and intellectual endeavour.

“ULTIMATELY,

THE LIFE I’VE HAD IS A VERY RARE LIFE. I REALISE HOW FORTUNATE I HAVE BEEN TO HAVE HAD SO MANY WONDERFUL PEOPLE AROUND ME WHO TAUGHT ME ABOUT ART HISTORY, COUTURE, JEWELLERY, DESIGN, AND THE WAY TO SEE THE WORLD THROUGH THE EYES OF A CONTEMPORARY ARTIST. FOR ALL OF THIS I AM ETERNALLY GRATEFUL.”

PAULINE KARPIDAS

Pauline belongs firmly in the tradition of the Grand Dame collectors—visionary patrons such as Gertrude Stein, Peggy Guggenheim, and Dominique de Menil—whose daring shaped the cultural imagination of their eras. From her beginnings in Manchester to her cosmopolitan life in Athens, the creative ferment of 1970s London, and her regular visits to New York, she has always sought out the pulse of contemporary culture.

Her evolution into the collector we honour today was guided by a circle of artists and gallerists— none more significant than Alexander Iolas. His counsel helped her refine her eye and define her distinctive path. It was in 1976 that Pauline’s passion for Surrealism was born, with acquisitions of works such as Magritte’s La Statue Volante, courtesy of Iolas, anchoring what would become a collection of extraordinary range and coherence. The spirit of Alexander Iolas—patron to many of the artists she collected in this era, from de Saint Phalle and

Picabia to Magritte and Fontana—threads through the narrative, reinforcing her deep ties to the avant-garde and her unwavering commitment to both excellence and legacy.

Pauline’s collection is distinguished not only by the calibre of individual works but by the intelligence of their dialogue. Many pieces carry distinguished provenance—having passed through the hands of Edward James, Julien Levy, Hélène Anavi, and the Picasso family—yet each was chosen as part of a larger conversation across time and style. The unity of the collection is undeniably its greatest triumph. It is the

embodiment of harmony between art, environment, and intellect—a seamless fusion of visual brilliance and philosophical depth. The dialogue between objects is not limited to painting and sculpture; it extends through the very bones of her home.

This holistic aesthetic vision is underscored by an extraordinary library of monograph publications, texts on Jungian psychoanalysis, and philosophy— evidence of the cerebral framework underpinning Pauline’s collecting. Surrealist masterpieces by Óscar Domínguez, Leonora Carrington, Yves Tanguy, and Victor Brauner speak to this fascination with the subconscious, mirroring both the dreamscapes found in her books and her own lifelong fascination with inner worlds, and indeed the revelations of our dreams. Meanwhile, the presence of Warhol’s dreamlike de Chirico appropriations in her bedroom reinforces the extreme care taken in her curatorial choices.

The female nude reappears in many of the most remarkable images of Pauline’s collection, notably explored by Picabia, Dalí, and de Chirico. Her many sculptures also take the female form as their starting point: from Magritte and Giacometti to the Lalanne, Bourgeois, and Warren. In this way, the collection embraces the motif for both its historical gravitas and contemporary energy. Pauline’s eye for harmony was evident too in even the smallest details, such as the salon blinds meticulously crafted by Sultana to cast a golden light, imbuing the space with the same radiance she brought to each acquisition.

The release of a collection of this calibre inevitably stirs reflection. Several years ago, before we began planning this series of auctions together, Pauline told me with characteristic humility: “It doesn’t feel like mine—I feel removed from it. I feel I’ve just been a curator of this … it’s been a long journey, it’s been a career and an education.” In that sentiment lies the essence of a great collector. She saw herself not as an owner but as a steward, and the collection was never static. It evolved over fifty years, becoming an extension of a life spent in pursuit of meaning and connection.

Now, as these works stand at the beginning of new chapters in other collections, they do so not as isolated treasures but as echoes of a singular, visionary whole. Her legacy lives on in the spirit of inquiry and dedication that drew each piece into her orbit. Few have built a collection of such consistent distinction.

The journey she undertook was all-consuming: the reading, the encounters with artists, the counsel she sought, and her willingness to immerse herself in the world of ideas and images. That devotion—that constant state of becoming —is what makes Pauline not merely a collector but a patron of the arts in the highest sense.

On behalf of all of us at Sotheby’s, I am enormously grateful to Pauline and her family for entrusting us with her extraordinary legacy—an expression of the loyalty we have come to cherish. This sale is not only a celebration of a lifetime of collecting but a heartfelt tribute to a woman whose profound influence as a patron of the arts will resonate for generations to come. To share in the life of this collection, even briefly, is a privilege I do not take lightly. And to present it here in London—its spiritual home—is an honour beyond measure.

AN EYE FOR PROVENANCE

The extraordinary calibre of works presented here owes much to their esteemed provenance. It is an exceptional achievement that practically every work in the Karpidas Collection boasts a distinguished history of ownership. Many belonged to the collections of legendary figures such as Marina Picasso and Roland Penrose. Moreover, various provenances list celebrated cultural figures including the Surrealist artist Kurt Seligmann and wife Arlette (Ballon-Cœur by Ernst and Aurenche); English historian and poet Sir Herbert Read (Femmes et lampes by Paul Delvaux); and French poet and leading Surrealist Paul Éluard (Le Piano by Óscar Domínguez).

Many of these pieces also came from marketchanging single-owner sales. Guided by Alexander Iolas and Michel Strauss at Sotheby’s, Dinos and Pauline participated in some of the most prestigious auctions in history. Perhaps the watershed moment was the sale of William N. Copley’s collection on 5 and 6 November 1979 at Sotheby’s Parke Bernet in New York. William N. Copley (1919–1996)—also known as CPLY—was a New York-born artist, gallerist, writer, and patron who amassed a significant collection with a particular focus on Surrealist art. In 1948, he opened The Copley Galleries in Beverly Hills, exhibiting works by Magritte, Ernst, Tanguy, Matta, Cornell, and Man Ray. This venture was short-lived, closing only one year later. In 1951, Copley moved to Paris to focus on painting, and it was there that his passion for collecting truly flourished. He supplemented the pieces acquired during his gallery years with works by Jean Arp, Victor Brauner, Dorothea Tanning, Hans Bellmer, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Giorgio de Chirico, and Francis Picabia, among others. Over time, Copley’s collection became the largest assemblage of Surrealist art in private American hands.

On 5 and 6 November 1979, seeking to alleviate the burden of owning such a monumental collection, Copley sold most of the works acquired between 1947 and the mid-1970s in a record-breaking auction. At the time, it achieved the highest total on record for a single-owner sale in the United States. It was during this sale that Yves Tanguy’s Titre inconnu and Giorgio

de Chirico’s La Guerra and Portrait de Guillaume Apollinaire (the latter now reattributed to Max Ernst) were acquired for the present collection.

Similarly, Salvador Dalí’s Messager dans un paysage Palladien originally belonged to the ostentatious and enigmatic Surrealist patron Edward James (1907–1984), who likely acquired it directly from the artist almost immediately after it was completed around 1936.

Born into immense family wealth, James was educated at Eton and Oxford and seemed destined for a conventional upper-class English life. However, his eccentric character and talents led him elsewhere. As the James sale catalogue explains: “After leaving university he lived for the most part in Paris, where he soon became attached to the avant-garde circle around Éluard and Breton. He wrote poetry, much of which was published under the pseudonym Edward Selsey. He financed the Surrealist magazine Minotaure, which was published between 1933 and 1939, contributing poetry and essays himself […] Of the Surrealist

Brassaï, Gertrude Stein’s Apartment, 1956

painters, his chief friends were Dalí, Magritte, and (later) Leonora Carrington. It was Dalí’s portrait of Marie-Laure, Vicomtesse de Noailles, which so inspired James that he went especially to Spain to find the artist. Thus began a notable period of patronage culminating in 1937–38, when Edward James took Dalí’s entire output in return for a generous allowance […] Circa 1940, Edward James went to the USA, and the Parisian Surrealist circle in which he had moved was equally dispersed. After the war, James continued to

spend most of his time in America” (“Introduction,” in Auction Catalogue, Christie’s, London, 28 Works from the Collection of Edward James, 5–6 November 1981, n.p.).

In 1964, James donated his considerable estate in West Sussex to a charitable trust and established the Edward James Foundation in 1971. Following his death, the Foundation sold many items from the West Dean estate in 1986. It was from this second James sale at Christie’s that Dalí’s Messager dans un paysage Palladien was acquired. Photographed in James’s

Catalogue cover for the sale of paintings, drawings and sculpture from the Julien Levy Collection, Sotheby’s New York, 4 & 5 November 1981

Catalogue cover for the sale of paintings, drawings and sculpture from the André Meyer collection, Sotheby’s New York, 22 October 1980

Catalogue cover for the sale of twenty-eight works from the Edward James collection, Christie’s London, 30 March 1981

bedroom at Monkton House—a hunting lodge on the borders of his West Dean estate built by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1902—this piece formed an integral part of James’s principal home. During the 1930s, James redesigned Monkton House with the aim of moving “away from that cottagey look” of Lutyens (Edward James in conversation, in: The Secret Life of Edward James, 1978, television documentary presented by George Melly). By painting the exterior purple, adding pillars of palm trees, plaster drapes beneath the windows, and padding the interior with fabric, James transformed Monkton into an eccentric homage to Surrealism.

Also from Monkton are the suite of prints by Pablo Picasso, framed in wonderfully eccentric Louis XIV-styled white frames, as per Dalí’s own suggestion. Indeed, largely decorated by Dalí, Monkton remains one of the most ambitious and unconventional homes in design history, and its influence was evident in Pauline’s home at The Lancasters.

In addition to these important acquisitions, the collection comprises countless other works with distinguished histories of ownership. Victor Brauner’s Nous sommes trahis was purchased from the André Breton Estate sale at Calmels Cohen; Magritte’s Tête was acquired from the Magritte Studio sale at

Catalogue cover for the sale of contemporary art from the estate of the late Robert C. Scull, Sotheby’s New York, 11 & 12 November 1986

Catalogue cover for the sale of the Hélène Anavi collection of Surrealist and post-war art, Sotheby’s London, 27 & 28 March 1984

Catalogue cover for the sale of the Barnet Hodes collection, Christie’s New York, 12 November 1984

Sotheby’s; works by Man Ray were obtained from the Estate of Juliet Man Ray sale at Sotheby’s; while four works on paper by Max Ernst and Man Ray came from the single-owner sale of the eminent Surrealist dealer Julien Levy. Such is the calibre of this collection that almost every work’s provenance includes names such as Hélène Anavi, André-François Petit, Barnet Hodges, Marcel Jean, and André Meyer. Indeed, these pieces were acquired not only for their artistic merit but also for the remarkable lives they have led.

Catalogue cover for the sale of the collection of Man Ray, Sotheby’s London, 22 & 23 March 1995

Catalogue cover for volume IV of the sale of the Edward James collection from West Dean Park, Christie’s London, 5 June 1986

Catalogue cover for the sale of the Andy Warhol collection, Sotheby’s New York, 2 April – 3 May 1988

Catalogue cover for the sale of the remaining contents of the studio of René Magritte, Sotheby’s London, 2 July 1987

A SELECTION OF WORKS PREVIOUSLY IN THE KARPIDAS COLLECTION

AND SOLD AT SOTHEBY’S

SALVADOR DALÍ LE SOMMEIL

1937

Sold privately at Sotheby’s ANDY WARHOL 200 ONE DOLLAR BILLS

1962

Sold at Sotheby’s New York, 11 November 2009

ANDY WARHOL SHADOW (RED)

1978

Sold at Sotheby’s New York, 10 May 2011

ANDY WARHOL SELF-PORTRAIT (FRIGHT WIG)

1986

Sold at Sotheby’s New York, 17 November 2016 WOLS VERT STRIÉ NOIR ROUGE (GREEN STRIPE BLACK RED)

1946-47

Sold at Sotheby’s London, 26 June 2019

IVAN KLIUN SPHERICAL SUPREMATISM 1920s

Sold at Sotheby’s London, 26 November 2019

RENÉ MAGRITTE L’OVATION

1963

Sold at Sotheby’s New York, 28 October 2020

PABLO PICASSO HOMME À LA PIPE

1968

Sold at Sotheby’s London, 19 June 2019

PABLO PICASSO BUSTE D’HOMME

1969

Sold at Sotheby’s New York, 4 November 2009

PABLO PICASSO NU COUCHÉ

1967

Sold at Sotheby’s London, 8 February 2011

PABLO PICASSO NATURE MORTE À LA TÊTE CLASSIQUE ET AU BOUQUET DE FLEURS 1933

Sold at Sotheby’s New York, 12 November 2019

HENRI MATISSE FENÊTRE OUVERTE: ETREAT 1920

Sold at Sotheby’s London, 24 June 1996

Salvador Dalí’s Le Sommeil, 1937 © 2025 SALVADOR DALI, FUNDACIÓ GALA-SALVADOR DALÍ, DACS

DE CHIRICO

ERNST

ERNST & AURENCHE DALÍ MAGRITTE

GIORGIO DE CHIRICO

Although Giorgio de Chirico was never formally aligned with the Surrealist group, his early works exerted a profound influence on the development of Surrealist aesthetics. Born in Greece to Italian parents and trained in Athens, Florence, and later Munich, de Chirico fused classical references with Symbolist legacy and German metaphysical philosophy to articulate a new pictorial language that explored the uncanny and the unknowable. His paintings from the 1910s—marked by melancholic, sun-drenched piazzas, incongruous shadows, and enigmatic objects, as seen in the proto-Surrealism of La Guerra—set the stage for what André Breton would later recognise as foundational to Surrealism. These early ‘metaphysical’ compositions generate a sense of temporal suspension and latent narrative that the Surrealists would eagerly embrace in their pursuit of the unconscious.

De Chirico’s wartime experience and subsequent meeting with Carlo Carrà in Ferrara solidified what would become the Scuola Metafisica. Though he later distanced himself from modernism and criticised his early work, the visual strategies he pioneered— dislocation, dreamlike spatiality, and ontological ambiguity—remained central to Surrealism’s exploration of irrationality. His early paintings offered a model for employing traditional techniques to conjure deeply untraditional, destabilising worlds, and artists such as Max Ernst, René Magritte, and Yves Tanguy owed much to his metaphysical vision.

Carl Van Vechten, Portrait of Giorgio De Chirico, 1936

COLLECTION

GIORGIO DE CHIRICO

LA GUERRA (THE WAR)

signed G. de Chirico (centre right) oil on canvas

34.1 by 26.8 cm. 13⅜ by 10½ in. Executed in 1916-17.

Formerly in the collections of André Breton, Gordon Onslow Ford and William N. Copley.

GIORGIO DE CHIRICO

NUDO

signed G. de Chirico (upper right) oil on canvas

70.8 by 54.7 cm. 27⅞ by 21⅝ in. Executed in 1911.

Formerly in the collections of René Gaffé and Roland Penrose.

RITRATTO DI ALEXANDER IOLAS

(PORTRAIT OF ALEXANDER IOLAS)

GIORGIO DE CHIRICO

signed G. de Chirico (lower right) pencil on paper

38.3 by 26 cm. 15⅛ by 10¼ in.

Executed circa 1937.

GIORGIO DE CHIRICO

BAGNI MISTERIOSI (MYSTERIOUS BATHS)

signed G. de Chirico (lower right)

pencil on paper

28.1 by 22.4 cm. 11 by 8⅞ in.

Executed in 1934.

MAX ERNST

The international scope of Surrealism can be clearly traced through the trajectory of Max Ernst’s career. His earliest contributions emerged as part of the Cologne Dadaists, creating works characterised by collage, which he described as “a meeting of two realities on a plane foreign to them both.” This reveals a simultaneity of Dadaist thought across different European centres—while Marcel Duchamp was similarly doctoring images in Paris, exemplified by his infamous L.H.O.O.Q., Hannah Höch was developing photomontage techniques in Berlin. Whereas Höch used images cut from magazines to satirise contemporary cultural and gender politics, Ernst preferred to explore mechanical and biological themes. Similarly, Claude Cahun’s photographic superimpositions, contemporaneous with Höch’s, broached the gender spectrum, reflecting Surrealism’s belief in the fluidity of sexual identity.

Ernst subsequently spent the 1920s and 1930s in Paris as a key member of the Surrealist movement, working alongside Breton, Tanguy, Carrington, and Masson, among others, while developing his own distinctive Surrealist idiom. A notable work from this period is Ernst’s Portrait de Guillaume Apollinaire (1934), a striking charcoal drawing long misattributed to Giorgio de Chirico. Bearing a forged signature backdating it to 1913, the drawing exemplifies Surrealism’s complex play with authorship, originality, and artistic appropriation.

The outbreak of war and his brief internment prompted Ernst, along with several contemporaries, to flee France for the United States. Carrington, Ernst’s lover in Paris, also fled abroad, settling in Mexico among a new nexus of Surrealist artists. In New York, the Surrealist exiles flourished. Although Matta had been introduced to Surrealism through Breton in 1920s Paris, he exhibited alongside Ernst, Masson, Tanguy, and Breton in the now infamous Artists in Exile exhibition in New York in 1942. It was also here that Ernst met—and later married—the American artist Dorothea Tanning, who became another leading figure in Surrealist art. Their presence in the United States profoundly influenced a slightly later generation of American artists such as Joseph Cornell, who was especially inspired by Ernst’s poetic conception of collage.

The post-war years brought increased international recognition for Ernst, culminating in the award of the Grand Prix at the Venice Biennale in 1954. During this period, many of his radical sculptural experiments from the 1930s and 1940s were cast in bronze for the first time. Notable examples include Jeune homme au cœur battant and La Plus belle, which oscillate between abstraction and figuration. Their simplified, humorously humanised geometric forms encapsulate the concept of play, a principle foundational to the earliest tenets of Surrealism.

Michel Sima, Max Ernst with La Parisienne (Lot

in the background

MAX ERNST

PORTRAIT DE GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE

inscribed G. de Chirico (lower right) charcoal, pastel and gouache on paper  62 by 55.1 cm. 24⅜ by 21¾ in. Executed in 1934.

Formerly in the collections of Paul

Éluard, René Gaffé, Roland Penrose, Marcel Zerbib and William N. Copley.

MAX ERNST

JEUNE HOMME AU CŒUR BATTANT OR SATEUR DE MUR OR OISEAU VOLE

with the foundry mark MODERN ART FDRY. N.Y. bronze height (including base): 65.5 cm. 25¾ in.

Conceived in 1944; this example cast by the Modern Art Foundry, Long Island between 1953 and 1956 in an edition of 8 unnumbered casts. 3 additional posthumous casts were produced by the Modern Art Foundry, Long Island in 1994.

MAX ERNST

LA PLUS BELLE

inscribed max ernsT and numbered 00/5 bronze height: 180 cm. 70⅞ in.

Conceived in 1967; this example cast by the Fonderia Fratelli Bonvicini, Verona between 1969 and 1974 in an edition of 9 casts. 7 additional posthumous casts were produced by the Modern Art Foundry, Long Island in the late 1990s.

MAX ERNST LOPLOP PRÉSENTE

signed  max ernst (lower right); dedicated  á mon très cher ami Joë Bousquet  (lower left) collage, pencil and frottage on paper

48.5 by 64.5 cm. 19⅛ by 25⅜ in.

Executed in 1931.

Formerly in the collection of Joë Bousquet.

L’OISEAU MAGNÉTIQUE

MAX ERNST

signed max ernst (lower right) oil, wax crayon, gouache, pastel, pencil and collage on plywood

46.7 by 39 cm. 18⅜ by 15¼ in. Executed in 1968.

COQUILLAGE MER VERTE

signed max ernst and dated 64-65 (lower right); dated 1965 and inscribed une armée de harengs (on the stretcher) oil on canvas

62.4 by 76 cm. 23⅝ by 29⅞ in.

Executed in 1964-65.

MAX ERNST

MAX

ERNST LOPLOP PRÉSENTE

signed max ernst and dated / 1930 (lower right) pencil and frottage on paper 31.1 by 22.8 cm. 12½ by 8⅞ in. Executed in 1930.

Formerly in the collection of Julien Levy.

MAX ERNST LOPLOP PRÉSENTE

signed max ernst and numbered 5/6 (lower right) oil and collage on plaster 99.2 by 120.6 cm. 39⅛ by 47½ in. Executed in 1929-68. This work is number 5 from an edition of 7.

MAX ERNST

JEUNE FEMME EN FORME DE FLEUR OR FEMME FLEUR OR FIGURE PRINTANIÈRE

bronze height: 36.2 cm. 14¼ in.

Conceived in 1944 and cast between 1954 and 1961 in an edition of 9 unnumbered casts; 1 by Roman Bronze Works, Inc., New York in 1954; 4 by the Modern Art Foundry, Long Island in 1955; and 4 by the Modern Art Foundry, Long Island in 1961. 3 posthumous signed and numbered casts were produced by the Modern Art Foundry, Long Island in 1999.

MAX ERNST

LA PARISIENNE

inscribed Max Ernst, numbered 2/9 and with the foundry mark Susse Fond Paris bronze height: 78.5 cm. 30⅞ in.

Conceived in 1950; this example cast by Susse Fondeur, Paris between 1958 and 1973. This work is number 2 from an edition of 9 plus 1 zero cast and 4 lettered HC casts.

MAX ERNST

LE PÈRE: “VOTRE BAISER ME SEMBLE ADULTE, MON ENFANT, VENU DE DIEU, IL IRA LOIN. ALLEZ, MA FILLE, ALLEZ EN AVANT ET...”

signed max ernst (on the artist’s mount)

collage mounted on paper sheet: 24.3 by 19.3 cm. 9½ by 7⅝ in. artist’s mount: 30 by 23.3 cm. 11⅞ by 9⅛ in.

Executed in 1929-30.

Formerly in the collection of Julien Levy.

MAX ERNST

“...JUSQU’À ÉPUISEMENT COMPLET DES BEAUX DANSEURS!”

signed max ernst (lower right) collage mounted on paper sheet: 24.7 by 19.4 cm. 9¾ by 7⅜ in. artist’s mount: 29.8 by 24.4 cm. 11¾ by 9⅝ in. Executed in 1929-30.

Formerly in the collection of Julien Levy.

MAX ERNST

COMPOSITION AUX OISEAUX

signed  max ernst (lower right) oil and frottage on canvas in the artist’s frame 55 by 46 cm. 21⅝ by 18⅛ in. artist’s frame: 73.2 by 55.2 cm. 28¾ by 21⅝ in. Executed  circa 1931.

Formerly in the collection of Jacques Kugel.

MAX ERNST & MARIE-BERTHE AURENCHE

Formerly in the collection of Kurt

BALLON-CŒUR

signed  Marie Berthe Max Ernst  (lower right) oil on canvas

72.7 by 59.9 cm. 28⅝ by 23⅝ in. Executed in 1930.

and Arlette Seligmann.

FROM SURREALISM TO POP: PAULINE KARPIDAS AND ALEXANDER IOLAS

BY EMMA BAKER

Pauline Karpidas belongs to the last of the twentieth century’s indomitable fellowship of Grande Dames; women whose deep commitment and influential patronage fundamentally shaped the way art is collected, exhibited and appreciated today. From Gertrude Stein and Peggy Guggenheim, to São Schlumberger and Dominique de Menil, Pauline’s name bookends a chronicle of art world bohemia in which high-society tradition blended with avantgarde radicality. A heady mix of artists, gallerists, intellectuals, patrons and socialites brought forth a mythology characterised by theatrical personalities, glamourous soirées and notorious encounters.

Gertude Stein’s cerebral salons of the 1920s, Peggy Guggenheim’s unconventional lifestyle and patronage of Abstract Expressionism in the 1940s, Sau Schlumberger’s extravagant parties of the 1960s, and Dominique de Menil’s intellectual dedication and steadfast philanthropy, all constitute moments in a vital story that Pauline Karpidas would become an indelible part of. In many ways, Pauline’s important contribution forms the final act in this bohemian tale of twentieth century art history. A key figure within this story, and the single biggest influence for Pauline, was the flamboyant and keenly astute dealer Alexander Iolas. It was their meeting in 1974 at Iolas’s Athenian mansion that ignited a life dedicated to art, beauty and philosophy; the beginning of what Pauline would describe to me as her “beautiful journey”. From modest means came grand accomplishments: Pauline’s story is an extraordinary tale of transformation. With Iolas playing fairy godmother, it is the art world’s answer to the classic Cinderella fairytale.

Born Pauline Parry in 1942 to a working class family in Manchester, Pauline’s upbringing was one of humble beginnings and hard graft. When her father became unable to work owing to epilepsy, her mother took on the role of principal breadwinner as an early-morning cleaner. By the age of 12 Pauline had started working odd jobs at the local market, and by 15 she had enrolled in secretarial school for a local timber merchants. With an industrious attitude and a vivacious, theatrical personality—she was constantly singing at work and even played Eliza Doolittle in a local youth production—Pauline became an office PA at 18 and began modelling at 19: an early career that jump-started an abiding love affair with travel and fashion. In her 20s, driven by an ever-pervasive entrepreneurial spirit, she began running a clothes boutique in Athens. The shop was named My Fair Lady (after Pauline’s longtime affinity with Audrey Hepburn’s Eliza) and it was here that Pauline would meet her future husband, Constantinos Karpidas.

Constantinos Karpidas (known to everyone as Dinos) was a highly successful engineer from a middle class family of Greek engineers and merchants. An eccentric character with a keen intellectual wit and poetic sensibility, Dinos belonged to the new jet-set; an international circle where aristocratic tradition met the avant-garde. Pauline’s own artistic nature and innate vivacity saw her flourish amongst this creatively inclined and well-heeled crowd. With great consequence, it was this milieu that brought Pauline and Dinos into the orbit of the notoriously outré and gifted art dealer, Alexander Iolas.

With his furs and fondness for provocative costume, Iolas was a sartorial spectacle whose natural proclivity as a performer commanded the attention of everyone around him. He could hold court in five languages and cast an entire salon under his spell; he knew everybody who was anybody, and was as wonderfully chaotic and mercurial as he was charismatic and brilliant. Indeed, Iolas’s theatricality was only equal in measure to the scrupulous conviction with which he supported his artists and the generosity he showed his exclusive coterie of loyal friends and collectors. Boasting a ledger that ran the gamut of great twentieth century art from Picasso, Ernst, Magritte and Dali, to Les Lalanne, Fontana, Ruscha, Rauschenberg and Warhol, Iolas’s legacy today places him as the most important art dealer of the second half of the twentieth century. It is no exaggeration to say that it was his undeniable influence that charmed the Karpidas Collection into being.

Iolas was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria to wealthy Greek parents. Alexandria of the fin de siècle was a place of fabled cosmopolitan sophistication and a poetic cultural heritage; a fitting origin-story for an individual who welcomed drama of mythological proportion and embodied exotic cultural fluency. The son of prosperous cotton-merchants, Iolas spurned the family business and instead went on to enjoy a highly successful first career as a ballet dancer in both Europe

and America. It was not until the mid-1940s that Iolas came to art in a second act that was even more brilliant than the first.

In 1945 the Hugo Gallery opened in New York— later renamed Alexander Iolas Gallery—and from here Iolas established an exceptional reputation with exhibitions of the European avant-garde. Surrealism was Iolas’s first great love; taking on the mantle after Julien Levy—the eminent dealer who introduced New York to the Surrealists in the 1930s—Iolas staged

Fig. 1, Maria Mulas, Alexander Iolas © BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

Fig. 3, Alexander Iolas Gallery in Paris

© ELENI - KOUTSOUDI IOLAS ARCHIVE

Fig. 2, Postcard from Alexandria, circa 1900

an extraordinary programme, showcasing work by the Surrealist greats Max Ernst, René Magritte, Salvador Dali, Dorothea Tanning, Giorgio de Chirico, Man Ray, Leonora Carrington, Victor Brauner, and Leonor Fini among many others. With the art world’s good and great at his fingertips, Iolas had a hand in forming many of the most important private art collections of the 20th Century. It was through Iolas that Dominique de Menil, no less, developed her great eye as a collector.1 Tellingly, the aforementioned rollcall reads as a star-studded framework that is today reflected in the masterpieces on view at The Menil Collection in Houston; a list and level of quality that would moreover come to form the core of Pauline’s own collection. By the time Pauline and Dinos had properly befriended him in the mid-1970s, Iolas had spent almost three decades building collections and cementing the careers of so many major artists via an ever expanding trans-Atlantic fleet of galleries from Paris and New York, to Geneva, Milan, Madrid and Athens. Decades before Larry Gagosian launched his gallery empire, Iolas had already established the model.

Iolas did not so much consider himself an ‘art dealer’ in the sense of chasing monetary success through art trades (though his opulent lifestyle would suggest otherwise); he was driven instead by an utter belief in, and passion for, the work of his artists. This was a principle he also applied to his collectors: Iolas selected his clients on the basis of their character, not the depth of their pockets. In 1965 for Paris Vogue, Iolas described this very attitude to art historian Maurice Rheims: “I am not an art dealer just to sell paintings. My collectors are friends, friends that I make fall in love with what I do, with what I see… I think all of my friends have a divine je ne sais quoi about them that attracts me to them. They have something of me, something that plays into my culture. I adore people that have the sublime, the divine about them… Only those who are gifted with a poetic sensibility are my friends; I love to be around them because they carry the poetry of the world with them. What I want in life, because now I no longer want to dance, is to bring poetry through my paintings. Earning money, that’s not my goal. I believe in the preponderance of the spirit.”2 By the mid 1970s, having already achieved so much, the tenured gallerist was in the process of winding down his activities. After almost 30 years spent on the go between his galleries in New York and Europe, Iolas looked to ‘return’ to Greece and retire at his newly completed vast marble mansion built on family land just outside of

Athens. That Iolas effectively brought himself out of retirement for Pauline and Dinos is a true testament to the kindred spirit of their relationship and the seriousness of Pauline’s ambitions.

Dinos first met Iolas at a cocktail party in 1973; however, it was one year later, when Iolas was introduced to Pauline for the very first time, that the beginning of a great friendship, mentorship, and collaboration truly began. Pauline’s memory of that first meeting is marked both by eccentricity and a sincere resolve at the prospect of putting a collection together. Explaining her first impressions of Iolas at his mansion in Agia Paraskevi, Pauline recalled: “As I walked in, I just could not believe my eyes, this whole baronial hall was filled with all the great masterpieces, and I had no idea who they were; it was Max Ernst, Tanguy, Picasso, Dorothea Tanning, Man Ray, Yves Klein, all the greats, and I just said wow!… The next morning, I got in the car and went running round, and there he was, having his hair dyed, along with his sort of houseboy who was just five foot tall… I said to Iolas ‘Get up, we have to talk’. And he asked ‘We have to talk?’, and he made this wonderful flick of his white towel that turned it into a sort of Turkish turban… So that was the start of a great journey with a great mentor; he was the one who said, ‘You must train your eye, you must visit every museum in every city, you must read and understand about the twentieth century.’ …As Iolas said to Dinos, it will take ten years to put ten masterpieces together. And it did take ten years to put those ten masterpieces together… it wasn’t just about buying a work of art instantly. Instead you discovered it, you pondered on it, you asked questions about it… As Iolas said to me, ‘You know, I don’t get out of bed to buy one painting.’”3 And that he did not: together they would assemble an extraordinarily broad yet intrinsically linked compendium of outstanding pieces via the most important dealers, galleries, and auctions of the day.

Pauline and Dinos became part of art world high-society: alongside Iolas they mixed with a host of influential characters from artists, gallerists and intellectuals to socialites, philanthropists and aristocrats. There was Pierre Matisse and his wife Teeny Duchamp, Max Ernst and Bill Copley, Edward James and John Richardson, Jan Krugier and Paloma Picasso, Nan Kempner and Sao Schlumberger; they met Peggy Guggenheim and Dominique de Menil; were well acquainted with Andy Warhol and his Factory stalwarts Fred Hughes and Bob Colacello; and became great personal friends with Les Lalanne and Iolas’s righthand man Andrė Morgues who encouraged Pauline to wear

1 “I was very lucky because I learned also from a great dealer, Alexander Iolas… he had a great eye – and I would trust his judgement. I had to learn. When he told me, ‘Take it, you have to have it,’ like the Metaphysical by de Chirico, he just told me to take it and I trusted his eye – his judgement… I bought it on his word, on faith…” Dominique de Menil, quoted in Exh. Cat., New York, Paul Kasmin Gallery, Alexander the Great: The Iolas Gallery, 1955-1987 2014, p. 44

2 Alexander Iolas in conversation with Maurice Rheims, Paris Vogue, August 1965, reprinted in Exh. Cat., New York, Paul Kasmin Gallery, Alexander the Great: The Iolas Gallery, 1955-1987 2014, pp. 34-42

3 Pauline Karpidas, “Alexander Iolas”, interviewed by Adrian Dannatt, in ibid., pp. 78-79

couture and introduced her to Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé. Under Iolas’s instruction Pauline attended the right events, set to work devouring books on art and philosophy, and saw every major exhibition. For Pauline, it was the beginning of a great schooling that would last a lifetime.

Aside from the collection itself, nowhere is this intellectual journey more evident than in the stacked shelves of Pauline’s library at The Lancasters in London. A veritable wunderkammer of art objects sat nestled amongst important tomes spanning philosophy, psychoanalysis and art history; books that show signs of wear and tear, read cover-to-cover in support of a truly intellectual life. Sat amongst these books for many years, Claude Lalanne’s copper bust of Pauline provided an ever-meditative presence. Bearing an expression of repose and calm, Pauline’s eyes are closed and peaceful as though immersed in a dream;

with her hair transformed into a veil of leaves she is both Daphne in metamorphosis and Athena the sage; a mythological embodiment of both transformation and wisdom.

The very sagacity that brought the collection into being—this mixture of dedication, trust in Iolas, and an innate eye for quality—is no less underscored by the rich history that accompanies nearly every piece. To this end, not only did Iolas oversee acquisitions directly from artists or via notable dealers, he also encouraged Pauline and Dinos to look to auction. With the economic boom of the 1980s came the first great spike in the art market. The value of important masterpieces began its steep ascent, and in turn, major 20th Century works of art were beginning to come to auction. Ever with his finger on the pulse, Iolas directed Pauline to the salesrooms of Sotheby’s and Christie’s as they presided over once-in-a-

Fig. 4, Detail of the Library shown in the London home of Pauline Karpidas

lifetime presentations of critically important private collections and estates. It was at the former in 1975 that Pauline made a lasting impression on the great Sotheby’s expert Michel Strauss. In his memoirs, Strauss recalled their meeting with great fondness and in some detail; as the following words convey, this was the beginning of a friendship that would last a lifetime:

“One afternoon I happened to be in the gallery when a young woman came in from the street, dressed in a T-shirt and jeans and asked whether she could see the pictures as she had just read about the sale in the press. She introduced herself as Pauline Parry and I was, of course, delighted to show them to her, influenced in part by the fact that she was a very pretty and friendly girl. I could see that she loved looking at them and hearing some of the stories I was telling her about the collection. As she was leaving the building she asked if she could have two tickets for the sale. My immediate thought was that as so many people were going to want to attend and seating was limited in the saleroom, I couldn’t just hand out tickets to pretty girls who took my fancy. I mumbled something noncommittal and to fob her off, asked her where the tickets should be delivered when they became available on the day before the sale. To my surprise she gave as an address 5 Grosvenor Square. Intrigued, I gladly sent her the tickets. She turned up for the sale looking very glamorous in evening dress and magnificent diamonds, accompanied by an older man. They proceeded to buy two of the lots: a Camille Pissarro of a peasant woman and her child sitting in an orchard for £65,000 and a beautiful painting by Edgar Degas of two dancers in bright yellow tutus waiting in the wings to come on stage which they bought for £100,000.

A few years later Pauline married Dinos Karpidas, her companion at the Kahn-Sriber sale. He had already been buying some important works from his friend and fellow Greek, Alexander lolas, the famous, flamboyant dealer of Surrealism and the painter René Magritte in particular. Iolas had sold him several important late paintings by Picasso in the early 1970s at a time when few people understood the importance of the late work. Pauline soon plunged herself into that world and, with all the passion and knowledge she could muster, she subsequently became one of the great collectors of Picasso, Surrealism and cuttingedge Contemporary Art.”4

As Strauss recalls, Pauline and Dinos became a force to be reckoned with on the auction circuit, and, over the course of the next two decades, they would play a crucial role in some of the most prestigious events in auction history.

Offered on 5th November 1979 at Sotheby’s Parke Bernet, New York, The William N. Copley Collection presented the largest private assemblage of Surrealist

art in American hands. Bill Copley (whose artistic moniker was CPLY) was a New York born artist, gallerist, writer, and patron who amassed a substantial collection via his association with the Surrealists. For the Sotheby’s sale, Copley parted with a majority of the works he had acquired between 1947 and the mid-1970s in a record-breaking auction that, at the time, achieved the highest total on record for a private collection sale in the United States. It was from this sale that Yves Tanguy’s Paysage au nuage rouge, Giorgio de Chirco’s La Guerra and Max Ernst’s Portrait d’Appollinaire were crucially acquired. Following Copley, Pauline truly immersed herself in the world of auction. In 1981, in a feat of saleroom bravery and nerve, Dalí’s Surrealist icon Le Sommeil became a cornerstone of the Karpidas Collection. This painting—among the most famous and important artworks of the Surrealist movement - first belonged to the poet, esteemed Surrealist advocate and patron, Edward James (1907-84). In 1981 when James’s collection was presented at Christie’s London, this painting graced the sale catalogue’s front cover. As soon as this masterpiece arrived on the auction block on the evening of 30th March, a fierce bidding war ensued. The National Galleries of Scotland competed strongly for the painting, however, it was the Karpidas’ who won the battle that night and this Surrealist treasure remained with Pauline for many years in London. Dalí’s Messanger dans un paysage palladien of 1936—with its playful gilt frame encasing an ink drawing on pink paper—also originated from

Fig. 5, Claude Lalanne’s Tête de Pauline shown in Pauline Karpidas’ London Home

4 Michel Strauss, Pictures, Passions and Eye: A Life at Sotheby’s London, 2011, p. 138

the same collection: this piece had resided in James’s bedroom at the Surrealist-inspired gesamtkunstwerk of Monkton House, a hunting lodge in West Dean renovated under the auspices of Dalí himself.

The Karpidas’s participation as auction buyers would continue with aplomb over the next decade or so. In reviewing the provenance of each piece, the collection as a whole represents a who’s who of the first major single-owner collection auctions in art market history. Picasso’s Violon was acquired from the Andre Meyer sale (Sotheby’s New York, November 1980); four works on paper by Max Ernst and Man Ray came from the single owner sale of the great Surrealist dealer Julien Levy (Sotheby’s New York, November 1981); Wols’s Vert Strié Noir Rouge came from the Hélène Anavi Collection sale (Sotheby’s London, March 1984); René Magritte’s Tête hailed from Sotheby’s sale of the artist’s studio contents (Sotheby’s London, July 1987); and Victor Brauner’s Nous Sommes Trahis was bought from the André Breton Collection (Hôtel Drouot, Paris 2003). These are but a handful of examples. Such is the calibre of this collection that almost every work’s provenance lists a rich history of names from Leo and Gertrude Stein, André-Francois Petit, and Barnet Hodes, through to Marcel Jean, Kay Sage Tanguy and Roland Penrose. Following discerning advice from Iolas, these pieces were not only acquired for their artistic merit, but also for the lives lived by the artworks themselves.

As the collection grew, Pauline became increasingly confident and her interests more mercurial and broad. At the same time as acquiring works by Magritte, Ernst, Tanguy and Dalí, Pauline and Dinos began to seek pieces by pioneering artists of the next generation. To this point, not only was Iolas the great dealer of late Surrealism, he also had a keen

eye for the most cutting edge and daring developments in post-war and contemporary art. Alongside exhibitions of earlier twentieth century masters, Iolas staged formative shows of Wols, Lucio Fontana, Jannis Kounellis, Joseph Beuys, Pino Pascali, Martial Raysse, Niki de Saint Phalle and Les Lalanne across his trans-Atlantic gallery empire. For Pauline, Iolas’s keen direction and broad remit laid the groundwork for a masterfully fluid dialogue in which the fullflowering of Surrealism’s influence is unmistakably redolent in the collection’s later twentieth century holdings. From the existential bodily manipulations of Bacon and Giacometti, to the post-war abstractionism of Wols, Roberto Matta and Cy Twombly, the spaceage forms of Fontana, through to Warhol’s iconic Pop idiom and even the most contemporary works in the collection, Iolas’s collection-building approach was broad-minded and ambitious. With Surrealism as both lodestar and nucleus, and Iolas setting the guiding principles, Pauline undertook an approach collecting and patronage that was encompassing, focused, and set to last for next 50 years and beyond.

One of the most significant aspects of the collection’s trajectory, and a huge part of Pauline’s personal journey, was the influence of Andy Warhol. For Iolas, who introduced Pauline and Warhol in the late 1970s, the iconic Pop artist’s career was just as meaningful an accomplishment as his dealings with the Surrealists. Widely acknowledged as the ‘Man Who Discovered Warhol’, Iolas played an instrumental role throughout Warhol’s career: it was Iolas that gave Warhol his very first exhibition in 1952, and it was Iolas with whom Warhol collaborated to produce his very last body of work: a series based on Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. The joint brainchild of Iolas and Warhol, these works were designed to fill an exhibition

Fig. 6, Edward James with Salvador Dalí’s Le Sommeil at West Dean © 2025 SALVADOR DALI, FUNDACIÓ GALA-SALVADOR DALÍ, DACS

space in the Palazzo Stelline in Milan; a building located directly across the street from Santa Maria delle Grazie—the home of Leonardo’s masterpiece. First exhibited at the very end of 1986, the subject and timing of these works would turn out to be poignantly prophetic for both artist and dealer. The Last Supper series made its debut only weeks before Warhol’s unexpected death in early 1987, and within months, this commission would also prove to be Iolas’s swan song: in June 1987 Iolas died at the age of 80. With neat symmetricality, both Warhol and Iolas’s careers began and ended with each other.

Pauline and Dinos would become friends with Warhol and familiar with the Factory and its cast of characters during the last ten years of the artist’s life. At the behest of Iolas, the couple first visited Warhol’s Factory in 1978 in order to have their polaroids taken for a double portrait commission. This meeting

would mark the beginning of a dedication to Warhol that was fuelled by intense admiration and mutual friendship. A great lover of the designs of Belperron and JAR, Pauline would find a fellow enthusiast in Warhol. The two bonded over a shared love of ostentatious jewellry and at one stage Warhol even proposed an artwork/jewellery trade after Pauline showed him some of her pieces during a dinner party at the Karpidas’s London home. It was during this same fateful evening that, encouraged by Pauline and Iolas, Warhol conceived a new group of paintings based on the wonderful suite of six Picasso works on paper acquired by the Karpidas’ from Marina Picasso in 1978.

Executed in 1985 and titled, Picassoesque, Warhol’s rendition of Pauline’s suite of black and white works on paper forms a jubilant reimagining that fits seamlessly into the artist’s contemporaneous canon of ‘Art

Fig. 7, Andy Warhol, Portrait of Pauline Karpidas, 1978 © 2025 THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS, DACS

after Art’: Warholian versions of great art historical masterpieces. Where the Karpidases had bolstered their collection by acquiring important pieces from Warhol’s 1960s oeuvre at auction—including the record-breaking acquisition of 200 One Dollar Bills (1962) at the Robert and Ethel C. Scull Collection sale at Sotheby’s in 1986— the couple were fervent advocates and astute supporters of Warhol’s late work. Portrait of Man Ray (1974) and the works after de Chirico and Munch establish a wonderful link to the earlier Twentieth Century collection-core, while the crucial inclusion of examples from Warhol’s Last Supper (1986) and the prophetic ‘fright-wig’ Self-Portraits (1986) delivered a holistic survey of Warhol’s opus that is both personal and unique to the Karpidas Collection. Of the latter, Pauline would come to play an integral role on the occasion of the 1986 Self-Portraits’ debut at Anthony d’Offay’s Dering Street gallery. Following the private view, Pauline hosted an exclusive ‘Self-Portrait Supper’ for Warhol at the Café Royal. As thanks, Pauline received an intimately scaled pink self-portrait inscribed ‘To Pauline love Andy Warhol’ on the reverse: a wonderful tribute to their friendship and pendent to the colossal white ‘fright-wig’ that Pauline later bought at auction at Sotheby’s New York in 1997.

As the 1980s drew to a close, Pauline’s mentorship with Iolas had come to an end. Following an intense programme of reading, visiting museums and galleries, meeting artists, talking to dealers, listening to Iolas’s advice and devoting her life to a pursuit of contemporary art and theory, Pauline had developed an acute eye and artistic sensibility that was entirely her own. Where Pauline’s collecting journey began in 1974 under Iolas’s mentorship, the famously selective dealer now deemed her apprenticeship complete, declaring: “Pauline, you’re on your own.”5 With an exciting next chapter ahead, Pauline looked to the very cutting edge of contemporary art and became a patron in the manner of the great Grande Dames before her, working closely with the likes of Larry Gagosian, Per Skarstedt, and Sadie Coles to build an extraordinary collection of twenty-first century art. Pauline’s prescient support of some of the most important artists of the last 20 years, alongside the wonderful exhibitions she staged on Hydra during the late 1990s and 2000s, is utter testament to this. Indeed, although the apprenticeship was over, Pauline’s intellectual journey and rich programme of patronage had only just begun.

5

Fig. 8, Pauline Karpidas asked artists to her workshops on Hydra and instructed them to ‘sunbathe, gossip and swim’ © 2025 JOHNNIE SHAND KYDD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, DACS IMAGES

The author in conversation with Pauline Karpidas, 2018

SALVADOR DALÍ

Salvador Dalí’s arrival in Surrealist circles in Paris in 1929 had an immediate impact; as Breton wrote, “It is perhaps with Dalí that all the great mental windows are opening.” The Spanish artist quickly became a figure of central importance, advancing the Surrealist cause not only through his enigmatic paintings but also through his critical writings, poetry, creation of Surrealist objects and gestes, and films produced with Luis Buñuel. Although influenced by Breton’s approach to Surrealism via automatism, Dalí’s principal contribution was the invention of ‘critical paranoia’—his term for the controlled use of freely associated imagery and subjects derived from selfinduced hallucinations. He developed a distinctive panoply of dream imagery reflecting a Freudian preoccupation with eroticism, death, and decay. These images—molten timepieces, outlandish animals, anthropomorphic objects, and eerie landscapes—were all rendered with scrupulous realism; Dalí delighted in the paradox of depicting the surreal and irrational through the visual language of verisimilitude.

Messager dans un paysage Palladien originally belonged to Edward James, a great patron and advocate of the Surrealist movement. Acquired directly from the artist, it resided for many years in James’ Surrealist-inspired home, Monkton, West Dean. In 1978, the work was featured in the documentary The Secret Life of Edward James, where it can be seen hanging on his bedroom wall at Monkton.

MESSAGER DANS UN PAYSAGE PALLADIEN

pen and ink on pink paper

50.2 by 63.2 cm. 19¾ by 24⅞ in.

Executed circa 1936.

SALVADOR DALÍ

Formerly in the collection of Edward James.

SALVADOR DALÍ HOMMAGE À NEWTON

inscribed Dalí, numbered 1/8 and with the foundry mark C. Valsuani cire perdue bronze

height (including base): 131.5 cm. 51¾ in.

Conceived and cast in 1969 by the Valsuani Foundry, Paris. This work is number 1 from an edition of 8 plus 4 artist’s proofs and a further unnumbered cast outside this edition.

Formerly in the collection of André-François Petit.

SALVADOR DALÍ

PORTRAIT DE GALA GALARINA

signed Gala Salvador Dalí, dated 1941 and inscribed Le dessin est la probité de l’art Ingres (lower right) pencil on paper

63.6 by 50 cm. 25 by 19⅝ in.

Executed in 1941.

Formerly in the collection of Edward James.

SALVADOR DALÍ

CANNIBALISME DES OBJETS, TÊTE DE FEMME AVEC

SOULIER

signed Salvador Dalí and dated 1937 (lower left) gouache, brush and pen and ink on paper

63 by 47.8 cm. 24¾ by 18¾ in. Executed in 1937.

Formerly in the collection of Edward James.

RENÉ MAGRITTE

Like his contemporary Salvador Dalí, Magritte’s approach to Surrealism relied upon a precise, illusionistic technique to construct the irrational, often hallucinatory scenes characteristic of the movement’s desire to disconcert and disorientate. However, whereas other Surrealists sought to access the subconscious through automatic methods— such as frottage, decalcomania, or the depiction of expansive dreamscapes—Magritte generated a comparable atmosphere through the revelation of hidden affinities between everyday objects. His compositions often hinge on the juxtaposition of unlikely elements, inversions of scale, or the displacement of familiar items into unfamiliar contexts. Even his early peinture-poésie interrogates the nature of the object as part of a broader enquiry into linguistic and pictorial systems of representation.

Magritte’s work challenges conventional modes of perception and the presumed stability of meaning, disrupting the transparency of representation and prompting viewers to question the relationships between image, object and language. Works such as La Statue volante and La Race blanche demonstrate Magritte’s capacity to invest seemingly classical and ordinary subjects with new and unsettling identities, encouraging a reappraisal of the logic of representation and the limits of visual certainty.

His meticulous, restrained technique heightens the sense of cognitive dissonance, reinforcing the enigmatic and elusive qualities of his compositions. In doing so, Magritte’s œuvre embodies Surrealism’s project to destabilise accepted ways of seeing and understanding the world—not through chaos or fantasy, but through a precise and poetic visual language that remains as conceptually provocative as it is formally refined. Magritte’s work has made a profound impact on the visual language employed by subsequent generations of artists, particularly within Pop and post-war art.

Eddy Novarro, René Magritte

STATUE VOLANTE

RENÉ MAGRITTE LA

signed  Magritte  (lower left); signed again and titled (on the reverse) oil on canvas

96.7 by 129.7 cm. 38⅛ by 51⅛ in.

Executed in 1958.

RENÉ MAGRITTE

LA RACE BLANCHE

signed Magritte (lower right) gouache on paper

26.3 by 26.4 cm. 10½ by 10⅝ in.

Executed in 1937.

in the collections

Formerly

of E. L. T. Mesens and Dimitrije Mitrinovic.

RENÉ MAGRITTE TÊTE

painted plaster height: 32 cm. 12⅝ in.

Executed circa 1960. This example is 1 of 2 unique variants.

Formerly in the collection of Georgette Magritte.

RENÉ MAGRITTE

LES MENOTTES DE CUIVRE

painted plaster height: 37 cm. 14⅝ in.

Executed in 1936. This work is unique.

Formerly in the collection of Charles Ratton.

RENÉ MAGRITTE

SANS TITRE

DESSIN

signed Magritte (lower left) brush and pen and ink on paper

32.6 by 46 cm. 12⅞ by 18⅛ in.

Executed in 1928.

Formerly in the collection of E. L. T. Mesens.

RENÉ MAGRITTE

LE MONDE PERDU

signed Magritte (lower centre) brush and pen and ink on paper

32.6 by 46.3 cm. 12⅞ by 18¼ in.

Executed in 1928.

Formerly in the collection of E. L. T. Mesens.

RENÉ MAGRITTE

L’USAGE DE LA PAROLE

signed Magritte (lower right)

brush and pen and ink on paper

32.5 by 46.3 cm. 12¾ by 18¼ in.

Executed in 1928.

Formerly in the collection of E. L. T. Mesens.

RENÉ MAGRITTE

LA RACE BLANCHE

inscribed Magritte and numbered 5/5 bronze height: 52.5 cm. 20⅝ in.

Conceived in 1967; this example cast by Fonderia Artistica Bonvicini, Verona in 1967. This work is number 5 from an edition of 5 plus 1 artist’s proof.

RENÉ MAGRITTE

UNTITLED (LE SENS PROPRE)

74.8 by 55.8 cm. 29½ by 22 in.

Executed in 1927.

signed Magritte (lower right) oil on canvas

Formerly in the collections of E.L.T. Mesens and Harold Diamond.

RENÉ MAGRITTE

MADAME RÉCAMIER DE DAVID

inscribed Magritte, numbered 0/5, dated 1967 and with the foundry mark Fonderia Artistica, Gi. Bi. Esse Verona-Italy

bronze

lamp: 184 cm. 72½ in.

chair: 192 cm. 75⅝ in.

pedestal: 48.8 cm. 19¼ in.

Conceived in 1967; this example cast by Fonderia Artistica Bonvicini, Verona in 1967 in an edition of 8.

MASSON DOMÍNGUEZ

TANGUY

CARRINGTON

ANDRÉ MASSON

André Masson stands as one of the most significant early adherents of Surrealism, particularly through his experimentation with automatic drawing and spontaneous mark-making. Masson’s practice was deeply aligned with the Surrealist aim of accessing the unconscious and bypassing rational control.

Having studied at the Académie Royale des BeauxArts in Brussels and later based in Paris, Masson joined Breton’s circle in the early 1920s and became a leading practitioner of automatism, a technique that allowed him to visualise the unfiltered psyche through line and gesture. His automatic drawings— often dense, chaotic, and suggestive of both eroticism and violence—capture Surrealism’s fascination with the intersection of desire and destruction.

In the 1930s, Masson’s style grew more figural and mythological, exploring archetypal themes with visceral intensity, as seen in his 1939 painting La Femme paralytique. His engagement with the horrors of the Spanish Civil War expanded Surrealism’s political and psychological dimensions. After being declared a “degenerate” artist by the Nazis, Masson fled to the United States, where his improvisational approach had a formative influence on Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock. His practice— spanning psychic automatism, classical mythology, and wartime trauma—exemplifies Surrealism’s evolving concern with the unconscious as a site of both poetic creation and psychic rupture.

Man Ray, Portrait d’André Masson, circa 1930, Centre Pompidou, Paris

ANDRÉ MASSON

LA FEMME PARALYTIQUE

signed andré Masson (lower right) oil on canvas

113.7 by 146.1 cm. 44¾ by 57½ in. Executed in 1939.

Formerly in the collection of Simone Collinet.

ANDRÉ MASSON

CORRIDA MYTHOLOGIQUE

Executed in 1936.

Formerly in the collection of Fernande Schulmann-Métraux.

signed  andré Masson.  (lower left) pen and ink on paper

50.4 by 65.5 cm. 19⅞ by 25¾ in.

ÓSCAR DOMÍNGUEZ

In the shifting shadows between dream and reality, Óscar Domínguez conjured visions that pulse with elemental force and uncanny beauty. Born in Tenerife in 1906, his early life amid volcanic landscapes profoundly shaped his artistic imagination. In 1934, he moved to Paris, where he quickly immersed himself in the vibrant avant-garde of Montmartre and joined André Breton’s Surrealist circle. Domínguez emerged as a vital figure within the movement, forging a practice defined by restless experimentation and psychological depth. His art traverses painting, sculpture, and objets surréalistes, harnessing automatism and symbolic imagery to explore desire, transformation, and the unconscious.

Throughout his career, Domínguez blurred boundaries —between the organic and mechanical, the sacred and profane, the seen and unseen—creating works that evoke both mystery and immediacy. His imagery, rich with biomorphic forms and metamorphic landscapes, channels the tension between improvisation and control, dream logic and sharp formalism.

In this collection, works such as Le Piano (1934), which translates musical improvisation into a haunting fusion of sound and image, and Exacte sensibilité (1935), a striking hybrid of painting and sculptural assemblage, exemplify Domínguez’s unique ability to animate the surreal psyche through innovative form and texture. His work remains a powerful testament to Surrealism’s capacity to unlock hidden realms of imagination and emotion.

Michel Sima, Óscar Domínguez in his studio, circa 1951 © 2025 ADAGP, PARIS AND DACS, LONDON

ÓSCAR DOMÍNGUEZ

LE PIANO

signed  Oscar-X. (lower left) oil on canvas

77.6 by 90.8 cm. 30½ by 35¾ in. Executed in 1934.

Formerly in the collections of Paul Éluard and Roland Penrose.

ÓSCAR DOMÍNGUEZ

EXACTE SENSIBILITÉ

signed  Oscar Dominguez and dated  1935 (lower right) oil on canvas with plaster, iron pipe, metal rod, spatula, plastic and sphere in the artist’s frame

54 by 90 cm. 21¼ by 35½ in. artist’s frame (with collage elements): 69 by 117 by 12 cm. 27⅛ by 46 by 4¾ in. Executed in 1935.

Formerly in the collection of Marcel Jean.

YVES TANGUY

Yves Tanguy’s meticulously rendered dreamscapes are among the most enduring visual expressions of Surrealism’s preoccupation with the unconscious and the unknown. Inspired to become a painter after encountering Giorgio de Chirico’s work in a gallery window, Tanguy joined the Surrealist group in Paris in the mid-1920s and quickly developed a distinctive vocabulary of infinite horizons, muted skies, and enigmatic biomorphic forms. His technique— scrupulously detailed yet fantastically unreal—echoed the movement’s desire to visualise states of psychic dislocation and dreamlike logic.

Tanguy’s 1928 painting Titre inconnu exemplifies the movement’s interweaving of trauma, repression, and poetic ambiguity. His forms—strange, plasmic objects that seem to hover between matter and metaphor— embody the Surrealist fascination with liminality and transformation. After relocating to the United States during the Second World War with fellow artist Kay Sage, Tanguy continued to develop his practice in exile. His later works reflect a subtle shift towards American landscapes, yet remain tethered to Surrealism’s commitment to visualising the inner life through symbolic, ungraspable terrain.

George Platt Lynes, Yves Tanguy, 1938, Collection SFMOMA Fund of the ‘80s purchase

PLATT

YVES TANGUY

TITRE INCONNU

signed YVES TANGUY. and dated  28 (lower right) oil on canvas

91.6 by 73 cm. 36 by 28¾ in. Executed in 1928.

Formerly in the collections of Raymond Queneau, Georges Hugnet, Simone Collinet and William N. Copley.

LEONORA CARRINGTON

Leonora Carrington’s contribution to Surrealism lies in her singular ability to construct visionary worlds grounded in esoteric symbolism, myth, and the occult. Born to a wealthy English father and Irish mother, Carrington resisted convention from an early age, and her immersion in Surrealist circles in Paris in the late 1930s—through her relationship with Max Ernst and friendships with Breton, Dalí, and others— ushered in a body of work that combined narrative complexity with dream logic.

Her paintings, such as The Hour of the Angelus, are populated by chimeric creatures, alchemical symbols, and archetypal figures drawn from Celtic myth, Medieval alchemy, the Tarot, and Mesoamerican cosmology. These richly layered images often depict female protagonists negotiating identity and transformation in worlds where time is cyclical and boundaries between human and animal, waking and dreaming, are fluid. Challenging the canon of Surrealism, Carrington’s œuvre foregrounds the feminine experience and the mystical, expanding Surrealism’s reach into new mythopoetic realms.

Herman Landshoff, The painter Leonora Carrington in her Greenwich Village apartment, circa 1942

© SCALA, FLORENCE

LEONORA CARRINGTON

THE HOUR OF THE ANGELUS

signed  Leonora Carrington (lower left); indistinctly signed again (on the reverse) tempera on panel

60.2 by 91.1 cm. 23¾ by 35⅞ in.

Executed in 1949.

PICABIA

MAN RAY

ERNST & MAN RAY

HÖCH

BRETON, HUGO, KNUTSON & TZARA

FRANCIS PICABIA

A mercurial and provocative figure, Francis Picabia occupied a vital, if often antagonistic, position within the early histories of both Dada and Surrealism. Initially rooted in Impressionism, he soon embraced Cubism before becoming a pivotal figure in the New York and Zurich Dada movements, where his mechanical drawings and iconoclastic imagery fundamentally challenged established aesthetic norms and anticipated Surrealism’s anti-rationalist tendencies. Although briefly associated with Breton’s Surrealist group in the 1920s, Picabia notably rejected the movement’s formal doctrines such as automatism, favouring instead layered and ambiguous “transparencies” that interrogated notions of figuration and abstraction alike.

During the 1940s, Picabia’s œuvre increasingly engaged with strategies of appropriation and the collision of high and low cultural signifiers, incorporating motifs from popular media, advertising, and mass culture alongside canonical art historical references. This deliberate hybridisation served as a critique of hierarchical cultural distinctions and prefigured postmodernist approaches to pastiche, irony, and the destabilisation of authorship. Paintings such as Deux amies exemplify this approach, presenting psychologically complex explorations of desire and identity through a fusion of popular imagery and painterly abstraction. Politically, Picabia’s work and stance must be understood within the context of fascist ascendancy and the suppression of avant-garde art by the Nazi regime. His artistic production during this period functions as a form of cultural resistance, challenging authoritarian ideologies through subversion, ambiguity, and the celebration of the irrational. His late-period paintings—characterised by eclecticism and vividness—continue to resist fixed interpretation, embodying a sustained interrogation of identity, meaning, and artistic freedom. Picabia’s legacy thus occupies a critical nexus between Surrealism and the emergent postmodern condition, marking him as both an innovator and a figure of political and artistic dissent.

Francis Picabia, 1930

FRANCIS PICABIA

DEUX AMIES

signed Francis Picabia (lower left) oil on board

75.6 by 105.9 cm. 29¾ by 41¾ in. Executed  circa  1940-41.

Formerly in the collection of Oswald Oberhuber.

FRANCIS PICABIA

HOMME ET FEMME AU BORD DE LA MER

signed  Francis Picabia and dated  1935 (lower left) oil and Ripolin on canvas 116 by 89.1 cm. 45¾ by 35⅛ in. Executed in 1935.

FRANCIS PICABIA

UNTITLED (ESPAGNOLE)

signed  Francis Picabia (lower right) oil and ink on board

104.3 by 75.1 cm. 41⅛ by 29⅝ in. Executed  circa 1925-26.

Formerly in the collection of Renée Albouy-Moore.

SURREALISM THROUGH ITS COLLECTORS AND COLLECTIONS

BY DAWN ADES

PROLOGUE

Surrealism has had a complex, fascinating and paradoxical relationship with art and with the artists associated with the movement. To begin with, there is virtually no mention of the visual arts in the first Surrealist Manifesto (1924) by André Breton. This is surprising, given the background to its formation and the interests of its founders, who were themselves collectors. Secondly, despite the fact that Surrealism is probably best known internationally through its visual manifestations, it was never an art movement and cannot be identified through any particular style, unlike, say, Cubism or German Expressionism. It is different in kind from these “isms”. Why, then, have so many artists been drawn to and lived with it? What attracted them? Some were inherited from Dada— Max Ernst and Jean Arp, for example. Arp, whose miraculous Feuille se reposant is represented in the Karpidas collection, explained that “I exhibited along with the Surrealists because their rebellious attitude towards ‘art’ and their direct attitude towards life were as wise as Dada…’’1 For them, and for the many artists who followed, what seemed to pass as ‘art’ was worthless and had lost touch with lived experience. They were in revolt against modernism and sterile stylistic exercises. The appeal of Surrealism to artists lay outside any of the conventional paths through technique, style, subject, etc. It corresponded initially to a drastic sense of loss following the catastrophe of the First World War, after which it seemed as if the entire cultural and social landscape had been wiped out. As Breton put it, “…in the eyes of the artist the

exterior world had suddenly become empty… The model of yesterday, taken from the exterior world, no longer existed and could no longer exist. The model that was to succeed it, taken from the internal world, had not yet been discovered.”2 That discovery was to be made by Surrealism.

SURREALISM

Surrealism was launched, in the autumn of 1924, with Breton’s Manifesto, a Bureau for Surrealist Research where people were invited to come in off the street to tell their dreams, and a journal, La Révolution Surrealiste, the first great Surrealist review, which ran from 1924 to 1929.

In the Manifesto of Surrealism, painting is mentioned only in a footnote; the primary concerns of the movement in formation are with language, poetry, life, and an unknown region to be explored, such as the unconscious. The Manifesto’s definition of Surrealism, while not excluding a visual dimension, is concerned with the nature of thought and how to express it:

“Surrealism. Pure psychic automatism, by which we intend to express, either verbally, or in writing, or in any other way, the real functioning of thought. The dictation of thought in the absence of any control exerted by reason, and outside any aesthetic or moral preoccupations.”

So, it is not just rational, conscious thought, but the whole internal world that lies beyond this, including what Freud called the subconscious or unconscious, which may reveal its workings in dreams.

1 Jean Arp, Collected French Writings London, 1973, p. 35

2 André Breton, “Genesis and Perspective of Surrealism”, in Peggy Guggenheim, ed., Art of this Century, New York, 1942, p. 17

“SURREALISM. PURE PSYCHIC AUTOMATISM, BY WHICH WE INTEND TO EXPRESS, EITHER VERBALLY, OR IN WRITING, OR IN ANY OTHER WAY, THE REAL FUNCTIONING OF THOUGHT. THE DICTATION OF THOUGHT IN THE ABSENCE OF ANY CONTROL EXERTED BY REASON, AND OUTSIDE ANY AESTHETIC OR MORAL PREOCCUPATIONS.”

EXTRACT FROM THE SURREALIST MANIFESTO FROM 1924

Unlike many manifestoes in the art world, the Surrealist Manifesto does not set out a programme or specific direction to follow, but proposes enquiry and exploration—Breton mentions as a precedent Columbus setting off for the New World, not knowing what he might find. The idea of automatism seemed to indicate a way forward. The Manifesto, in fact, started life as a Preface to Breton’s latest experiments in automatic writing, which were published with it as “Soluble Fish.” It wasn’t easy: the state of mind to write automatically, which demanded the suspension of conscious control of thought but enough consciousness to write sentences, was hard to attain. When achieved, the results were wonderful—texts full of startling poetic images.

The possibilities for artists, given there being no prescribed method or practice, were virtually endless. The first issues of La Révolution Surrealiste are dominated by photographs, film stills, objects, popular art, sketches by Giorgio de Chirico and Ernst, and the free pen-and-ink drawings by André Masson. The most convincing example of visual automatism, Masson’s drawings start as unconsciously as any careless doodle and flower into fragments evoking bodies, breasts, architecture, leaves and fruit. Other experiments in automatic processes were to include Ernst’s invention of frottage and decalcomania, as well as the vast field of the “optical unconscious” in photography, stunningly represented by Man Ray. Hence the fact that there is no single identity to visual Surrealism.

Automatism was necessarily, in the view of the Surrealists, present in the creation of the startling image, the unexpected juxtaposition of unrelated things.

MAX ERNST AND THE SURREALIST IMAGE

It was an exhibition of collages by the Cologne Dadaist Max Ernst in Paris in 1921 which provided the spark that lit the Surrealist fuse. This was still at the height of Dada in Paris, whose participants were the future Surrealists, but already they were looking beyond dada negation. In his introduction to the catalogue for Ernst’s exhibition, which included extraordinary photocollages such as Nightingale, (acquired immediately by Paul Éluard), Breton recognised that photography and film had fundamentally changed conventional modes of expression, and articulated a concept of the image that was to become fundamental for Surrealism: the juxtaposition of two or more distant realities to create a new image. “…the marvellous ability to reach out, without leaving the field of our experience, to two distinct realities and bring them together to create a spark… Doesn’t such an ability make the person who possesses it better than a poet…?”3

Ernst—the poet-artist—had created the collages from a mixture of cut-up media—photographs, paint, wallpapers, whose juxtaposition created new images, unanticipatable associations and analogies. So the idea of the superior reality of images reached only in dream or some automatic process was there even before Surrealism was founded, and was embodied in the collages Ernst managed to send to Paris— though he was still stuck in post-war Germany. Ernst distinguished his collages/photo-montages, which he made in Cologne, from those of the Berlin Dadaists, such as Hannah Höch, whose work he regarded as too socio-political. Höch’s suggestive feminist photomontage Priesterin is in this collection.

3 André Breton, “Max Ernst”, in Robert Motherwell, ed., Max Ernst: Beyond Painting, New York, 1948, p. 177

There are collages by Ernst from a slightly later period in the Karpidas collection which pursue a similar idea in a different way—this time working not with photography but looking back to nineteenth century engravings. Ernst made a number of collageengravings, his ingenuity never flagging, and created three collage-novels with them, perhaps the first graphic novels: La femme 100 têtes, 1929, Rêve d’une petite fille qui voulut entrer au Carmel, 1930, (translated by Dorothea Tanning, 1982) and Une semaine de Bonté, ou les sept éléments capitaux, 1934. The images in the novels have captions underlining their iconoclastic, erotic and witty character. The two collages here are the originals for two of the plates in Rêve d’une petite fille: the opening scene from the first chapter, with the caption “Le Père: “ Votre baiser me semble adulte, mon enfant. Venu de Dieu, il ira loin. Allez, ma fille, allez en avant et…” (‘The Father: “Your kiss seems adult, my child, Coming from God, it will go far. Go, my daughter, go ahead and…”’), and another plate from the same chapter, “…jusqu’à épuisement complet des beaux danseurs!” (…until the beautiful dancers are completely exhausted). The two collages came from the collection of Julien Levy, the New York dealer, who put on ground-breaking shows of Surrealist artists in the 1930s, when they were virtually unknown outside France. They may well have been among the collages he showed in Ernst’s first solo show in the United States, Exhibition Surrealiste MAX ERNST, in November 1932.

Collections of Surrealism are a very interesting way of approaching the rich and varied work of the many artists who have aligned themselves at some point with the movement. Collections made by the Surrealists themselves and collections of Surrealism are not quite the same. The Surrealists—most notably Breton himself, his wife Simone and the poet Paul Éluard—collected the works of their friends and colleagues, wrote about them and organised exhibitions to display them. These activities were part of the lifeblood of the movement and their choices played an important role in the long evolution of visual Surrealism. What this could be, as we shall see, was much disputed.

Breton, Simone and Éluard shared the hunting instinct of the true collector. Among Breton’s earliest

Fig. 1, Giorgio de Chirico, Il cervello del bambino (The Child’s Brain), 1914, Moderna Museet, Stockholm

purchases, probably in 1922, was de Chirico’s The Child’s Brain, 1914, a key painting from de Chirico’s metaphysical period (1912-18), which he kept until 1964, two years before his death. He had glimpsed the painting, from a bus, in the window of Paul Guillaume’s Gallery and been transfixed. De Chirico was to be a central but controversial figure in the development of Surrealist painting.

Breton was also a passionate supporter of Picasso, and several Picassos passed through his hands. He had reluctantly taken a post in the early 1920s advising the couturier and collector Jacques Doucet, and managed to persuade Doucet to buy, and Picasso to sell, the Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907, now in MoMA, which had remained rolled up in Picasso’s studio, for 25,000 francs.

The works he and Simone bought were never regarded as trophies, but objects with special kinds of power and expressive communication. Breton scrutinised the compulsion to possess behind his own collecting and speculated that it was not just ownership, having the painting or object in one’s power: caresser du regard ou les changer d’angle, being able to look at it, handle, move it about, but the hope of seizing its power for himself: “l’espoir de m’approprier certains pouvoirs qu’électivement à mes yeux ils détiennent.”4

Obliged frequently to sell, Breton wrote movingly of this painful necessity:

“As, over the course of my life, I have been far from being able to keep all these paintings that I had managed to bring into my home, I distinguish quite well from those which it was not too cruel for me to part with, those that I have never ceased to regret, even that I find it difficult to forgive myself for having had to give up to another fate than mine. I limit myself to mentioning, among the latter, Mystery and Melancholy of a Street, by de Chirico, Woman with a Mandolin, by Picasso, and above all The Bride by Duchamp.”5

Paul Éluard, by contrast, had deeper resources and amassed large collections. Both he and Breton bought not only work by their contemporaries but non-Western art, a strong feature in the Surrealists’ collections. In 1931 the “Collection André Breton and Paul Éluard” of African, American and Oceanian sculpture, with over 300 pieces, was exhibited at the Ratton Gallery, then sold at the Hôtel Drouot. Both continued to collect in this field, notably North West Coast First Nations art.

While like all collectors, Éluard bought and sold occasionally, two of his Surrealist collections were sold en bloc. The first, at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris in 1924, on the eve of his dramatic departure to the Far East to start a new life (he was eventually persuaded home by his wife Gala and Max Ernst), had included Ernst’s Le Rossignol Chinois, eight de Chiricos and five Picassos. The second was a private sale to his friend Roland Penrose in 1938. Penrose bought Éluard’s entire collection for £1,600, as stipulated by Éluard; it contained “six de Chirico’s, ten Picasso’s, forty Ernst’s, eight Miró’s, three Tanguy’s, four Magritte’s, three Man Ray’s, three Dalí’s, three Arp’s, one Klee, one Chagall and various other paintings and objects.”6

A number of works in the present sale have passed through these or other significant Surrealist collections. Among the “other paintings” in Éluard’s collection, for example, was Le Piano, 1934 by Oscar Dominguez, a prominent figure among the Surrealist group in Paris in the 1930s. Tanguy’s Titre Inconnu, 1928, and Masson’s La Femme paralytique, 1939, were in the collection of Simone Collinet, as she became after her divorce from Breton.

4 André Breton, “C’est à vous de parler, jeune voyant des choses…”, in revue XXe siècle: Art et Poésie depuis Apollinaire, 1952 and Perspective Cavalière, 1970, Paris, p. 17

5 André Breton, “À l’œil nu”, in revue XXe siècle: Art et Poésie depuis Apollinaire 1952, n.p.

6 Jean-Charles Gateau, Paul Éluard et la peinture Surrealiste (1910-1939), Geneva, 1982, p. 359

7 The exhibition travelled to Rotterdam and Hamburg.

Fig. 2, Max Ernst, Le Rossignol Chinois, 1920, Ville de Grenoble /Musée de Grenoble –J.L. Lacroix © 2025 ADAGP, PARIS AND DACS, LONDON

Collections of Surrealism assemble works according to the tastes and interests of the collector, sometimes emphasising one or other aspect of the movement, or focussing on the work of a particular group or artist. Lindy and Edwin Bergman built up an unrivalled collection of Cornells, for example, while their fellow Chicago collector Joseph Shapiro was drawn to Roberto Matta. There are often different connections, placing works in new contexts, and each collection has its own character. Four of the greatest were featured in the exhibition Surreal Encounters: Collecting the Marvellous. Works from the Collections of Roland Penrose, Edward James, Gabrielle Keiller, Ella und Heiner Pietzsch (Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh 2016).7 Of these only Roland Penrose was a member of the Surrealist movement.

I have always thought of Pauline Karpidas’s collection in the context of Surrealism. It contains a wide range of works by Surrealist artists, many with provenances from Surrealist collections. I first met Pauline through my research on Dalí, and benefited from her generosity with loans, for example Dalí’s 1936 painting Le Sommeil (formerly in the Karpidas collection).

Le Sommeil came from another of the great collections of work by Surrealist artists, built up by Edward James. Further works by Dalí in the Karpidas collection were also acquired from James’s collection, including the wonderful 1941 Portrait de Gala Galarina, the 1937 drawing Cannibalisme des objets, tête de femme avec soulier, and the ink drawing in a moulded frame, Message dans un paysage Palladien, dated circa 1936. This date is plausible, given that the two famous pairs of shaped panels, each titled Couple aux têtes pleines de nuages, also date from 1936. Dalí and James had met in early Spring 1935, and by this time were close friends. James bought Couple aux têtes pleines de nuages (now in the Boijmans Museum) from Dalí’s exhibition at the Reid and Lefevre Gallery in London in June 1936, which coincided with the International Surrealist Exhibition at Burlington Gardens, organised by Penrose and Herbert Read, who owned the Delvaux Femmes et lampes. In December 1936 Dalí and James signed a contract in which James promised to buy all Dalí’s works produced between June 1937 and June 1938 for the sum of £2,400. The ink and tempera work Cannibalisme des objets probably entered the collection under this agreement. James was a somewhat unusual collector in that he tended

to become not only close to the artists he admired, knew personally and collected but wished to engage creatively with them. He had a role in the creation of Dalí’s Surrealist object, Téléphone Aphrodisiaque, for example, and may have been involved, at least in the practical commissioning and construction, in the shaped frames.

Pauline Karpidas’s collection has a distinctive character, as revealed in photographs of the apartment. The predominant subject is the human body, usually female, often nude, frequently transformed or metamorphosed according to the desires or fears of the artist. They range from Magritte’s wonderful 1958 La Statue volante almost monochrome, with an extraordinary illusion of physical presence in the torso—to the mysterious absence in Victor Brauner’s Nous sommes trahis, 1934, which belonged to Breton; or from Hans Bellmer’s Untitled pen and gouache drawing on black paper of his jointed doll, unusually including the head of a girl gazing at the reconstructed limbs. Interconnections and dialogues between the works come thick and fast: Höch’s Priesterin and Magritte’s brilliant take on the Venus de Milo in the unique painted plaster piece Les Menottes de cuivre remind us of the turn to the classical in the 1920s which erupted in many forms. In this context there is a fascinating strand of heads and portraits with

Fig. 3, Salvador Dalí, Couple aux têtes pleines de nuages, 1936, Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Purchased with the support of Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rembrandt Association, Cultuurfonds, Erasmus Foundation, and Stichting Bevordering van Volkskracht / Fotografie: Studio Tromp © 2025 ADAGP, PARIS AND DACS, LONDON

unexpected resonances—a marble Roman head of the Greek hero Meleager forms an unexpected ally in Man Ray’s Autoportrait, which, looking in an entirely different direction, also invites comparisons with Claude Cahun’s photograph of an object assembled from found bits and pieces as a “portrait” of the Surrealist poet Benjamin Péret, Portrait of André Gide after Benjamin Péret

The whole setting with the highly colourful furniture and decorations, amber, gold and scarlet, enhances this sense of a lively interaction between the works in a joyful environment. The rare collaborative painting between Max Ernst and Marie-Berthe Aurenche, Ballon-Cœur, floats aloft while Niki de Saint Phalle’s luminous green and pink elephant Ganesh trumpets beneath next to Lalanne’s sculpture, Caroline Enceinte, of a pregnant Caroline with a cabbage head.

Did Pauline set out to create a Surrealist collection? Whether or not, the collection has added its own approach, embracing the playful, erotic and spectacular side of Surrealism, going on to explore continuities in contemporary art and design.

THE PROBLEM AND TRIUMPH OF PAINTING

Artists have continued to be attracted to Surrealism, its ideas, stance towards art and championing of the “interior model”, in which painting has played a major role, thereby establishing works of art as key components in the movement. But this nearly didn’t happen. There were strong views at the start about the future of any visual expressions of Surrealism; some held that the old methods—painting and sculpture—were not feasible, and turned their back

on the art world altogether, arguing instead for new mediums like cinema, and the vibrancy of street culture. “Automatism” in this context still had to be defined. In the first issue of La Révolution Surrealiste (1924) the article “Les yeux enchantés”, (by Max Morise), attacked painting. The scapegoat was de Chirico, whose metaphysical paintings, in which interiors and haunted city squares were “beyond the real”, as if seen in a dream, were the epitome at the time of the Surrealist image. The argument was that, as Surrealist as the image may be, drawn from dream or hallucination, its expression could not be automatic, immediate, given the necessary intervention of a conscious translation and the demands of the medium. Painting requires too much conscious application ever to qualify as automatic.

The idea that painting could not qualify as Surrealist horrified Breton. Taking over editorship of La Révolution Surrealiste from issue 4 in July 1925, he wrote a series of texts on “Surrealism and Painting”, to defend the theoretical position of painting. To exemplify his argument, he reproduced a constellation of masterpieces by artists including Miró, Ernst and Masson, de Chirico and, unexpectedly, Picasso.

Breton’s perception of Picasso’s Cubism is quite different from the way it is normally understood—in formal terms and as the pathway towards abstraction (which Picasso himself never took). For Breton, Cubism, in fragmenting material forms and splintering perspective, challenged the narrow conception of imitation that governed painting and opened the way for the imagination. “L’Homme à la clarinette remains as a tangible proof of our unwavering proposition that the mind talks stubbornly to us of a future continent, and that everyone has the power to accompany an ever more beautiful Alice into Wonderland.”8 This radical take on

8 André Breton, Surrealism and Painting, London, 1972, p. 6

Fig. 4, André Breton, “Second Manifeste du surréalisme,” La Revolution surréaliste, vol. 5, no. 12, 15 December 1929

Cubism is refreshing and in the current sale there are interesting ambiguities where both responses are valid, for example with some of the Laurens sculptures.

When, after discussing Picasso and Braque, Breton comes to de Chirico, his reasons for not foregrounding him become clear. De Chirico is denounced for his current practices, not the “metaphysical paintings”: giving in to commercial pressures, repeating early works and embracing traditional techniques. Ernst, Man Ray and Masson were the only artists close to the movement included in the articles on Surrealism and painting in La Révolution Surrealiste. When Le Surrealisme et la peinture was published as a book, in 1928, Breton added Picabia, Miró, Tanguy and Arp, with lavish illustrations including fifteen de Chiricos.

The final issue of La Révolution Surrealiste (1929) reinforced painting as a Surrealist medium, with the introduction of two new recruits: Salvador Dalí and René Magritte. The illustrations opened, though, with de Chirico’s La Guerra (War), 1916, followed later by La Politique. These two works, with their commanding and unexpected titles, are among the most mysterious and least figurative of de Chirico’s metaphysical period, with their strong geometric shapes and abstract notations. A landscape by Tanguy from the same period as Titre inconnu, 1928, often known as Paysage au nuage rouge, places abstract forms in a land—or perhaps sea-scape with horizon and sky, simultaneously recognisable and uninterpretable. The contrast with Dalí and Magritte— who had their own different approaches—is striking. In Dalí’s Accommodations of Desire and Illumined Pleasures his new, illusionistic technique renders objectively his private worlds.

Magritte galvanised the ambiguous and treacherous relationship between word and image. The ink drawings in this collection, L’Usage de la parole, Dessin sans titre and Le Monde perdu, which belonged to Magritte’s fellow Belgian Surrealist E.L.T. Mesens, are marvellous examples of his dexterity and wit, from the same period as his contributions to La Révolution Surrealiste. Both the arbitrary nature of a word’s designation of something and the fact that a word is not itself the thing it designates—as in the famous painting

La Trahison des images, (Ceci n’est pas une pipe – a painting of a pipe is not a pipe)—are the prompts for these careful, delightful philosophical speculations. In Le Monde perdu, each of the organically interlinked shapes contains a word or phrase indicating things different in kind: two of which could be conceived visually, the other two, for different reasons, not. Dalí and Magritte were the strongest voices, in this important issue of La Révolution Surrealiste, for alternatives to the idea of automatism, which Dalí, for one, found too passive a process.

AUTOMATISM VS THE DREAM IMAGE

The tension between Automatism and the dream image was the theme of Breton’s essay for Peggy Guggenheim’s exhibition Art of This Century in New York in 1942. Definitively excluding Dalí was one of its intentions: Breton attacks his “ultra-retrograde technique” and cynical self-promotion, stating that since 1936 he “has had no interest whatsoever for Surrealism.” Rejecting the “setting up of dream images in the form of trompe-l’œil”, Breton re-asserts the “current of Automatism”. Acknowledging that a degree of premeditation may be necessary in the composition of a painting or a poem and that the current may flow

Fig. 5, René Magritte, Various case materials related to La Révolution surréaliste, December 1929

© 2025 ADAGP, PARIS AND DACS, LONDON

underground, Automatism is nonetheless essential for artists to “embrace the whole psycho-physical field, of which consciousness is only a small fraction.” The centrality of Automatism had been re-affirmed in the work of Roberto Matta, one of the last recruits to the movement just before the War. The spontaneity of his first paintings and drawings, encouraged by his friend the English Surrealist artist Gordon Onslow Ford, was to persist throughout his life. His first experiments with the free use of paint led to the “psychological morphologies”; the extraordinary worlds he created, ambiguous in terms of scale—cell-like forms that suggest both the minuteness of the brain and the vastness of the cosmos. After moving from Paris to New York in 1939, Matta continued his visions in paintings and drawings of great originality, as in The Modern Sphinx – l’incomunicable, 1943, which suggest new dimensions in time and space.

One of the masterpieces in this sale, André Masson’s La femme paralytique, 1939, engages with the catastrophe engulfing Europe, the growth of Nazism and the coming war. Painted after an engraving by Géricault, Masson turns the passer-by into a fleeing, vulnerable woman. The interlocked and contrasting colours and shapes—the red of the woman’s hair which bleeds into the bricks and echoes in the revolutionary bonnet on the Cock’s head, the horse, military and processional, who exists uncannily

in different spaces—express forcibly the disintegration and threats faced by Europe. Curiously, this has the effect of a rhythmic unity that Breton described as being achieved through Automatism, although there are few obvious signs of spontaneity. “I maintain that [Automatism] is the only mode of expression which gives full satisfaction to both eye and ear by achieving rhythmic unity (just as recognisable in an automatic drawing or text as in a melody or a bird’s nest)…”9 Automatism, for Masson, was always present even if underground.

Surrealism was, from its inception, a kind of collective. The need for interaction, communal activity, daily attendance at the café, was essential, and play was pursued seriously. The Cadavre exquis was one of many games the Surrealists played—based on the child’s game of Head, Body and Legs, a paper is folded after each intervention so that the previous ones are invisible. What fascinated the Surrealists were the strange coincidences within the imagery of the different participants. The example here, Cadavre exquis, with Breton, Valentine Hugo, Greta Knutson and Tristan Tzara—including artists and poets— demonstrates the principle that anyone can join in. Such collaborative and improvisational practices were integral to the movement’s efforts to subvert conventional modes of artistic production and to expand the possibilities of creative expression.

9 Breton, op. cit., 1942, p. 21

Fig. 6, Théodore Géricault, La femme paralytique, 1821, Wellcome Collection

MAN RAY

Man Ray, born Emmanuel Radnitzky in the United States, is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in Surrealism and the broader avant-garde. His diverse practice encompassed photography, painting, film, and sculpture, and he is especially renowned for his innovations in photographic techniques such as the rayograph, an early form of photogram created without a camera.

Collaborating closely with leading Surrealists like André Breton and Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray played a crucial role in defining Surrealism’s visual and conceptual agenda. His portraits of fellow artists and evocative images of objects and bodies transformed everyday reality into enigmatic and poetic visions. Man Ray’s career also reflects a playful defiance of artistic categories—his forays into film and assemblage reveal a commitment to chance, spontaneity, and the subconscious that aligns with core Surrealist principles. His legacy endures as one of Surrealism’s most inventive and charismatic interpreters, whose work continues to inspire contemporary artists across multiple media.

Unknown photographer, Portrait of Man Ray

RAY

TRUST / DACS, LONDON / BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

MAN RAY

LA FILLE DE LA COSTE

signed with the initials MR and dated  40 (lower right); signed  man Ray, titled and dated  1940 (on the verso) watercolour, pen and ink on paper

25 by 34.5 cm. 9⅞ by 13⅝ in.

Executed in 1940.

Formerly in the collection of Patti Cadby Birch.

MAN RAY CHACUN SA CHIMÈRE

signed MAN RAY and dated 1937 (lower right); titled (lower left) pen and ink on paper

26.8 by 34.8 cm. 10½ by 13⅝ in.

Executed in 1937.

Formerly in the collections of Benjamin Lees and Gilbert Kaplan.

MAN RAY PÊCHAGE

signed with the initials MR, titled and numbered 2/9

plastic peaches, cotton wool and oil

assembled in a wooden box

36 by 24 by 11.5 cm. 14⅛ by 9⅜ by 4½ in.

Conceived in 1969 and created by Galleria Il Fauno, Turin in 1972. This work is number 2 from an edition of 9 plus 3 artist’s proofs.

MAN RAY AUTOPORTRAIT

bronze, eyeglasses and newspaper assembled in a wooden box

inscribed  Man Ray, numbered  1/5 and with the foundry mark  C. Valsuani cire perdue (on the bronze); signed Man Ray, titled, dated 1933 and numbered 1/3 (on the wooden box)

35.5 by 21 by 12.2 cm. 14 by 8¼ by 4⅞ in.

Conceived in 1932 and created by Arturo Schwarz, Milan in 1969 in an edition of 3. The bronze element cast by the Valsuani Foundry, Paris in the late 1960s in an edition of 5.

Formerly in the collection of Juliet Man Ray.

MAN RAY

NON-EUCLIDEAN OBJECT

inscribed  Man Ray, numbered  7  and with two silver hallmarks (on the polyhedral element) silver polyhedron, rubber tubing, and steel cylinder mounted on a wooden base height: 48 cm. 18⅞ in.

Conceived in 1932; this example created in 1973 by Richard Binder, Brussels. This work is number 7 from an edition of 9 plus artist’s proofs.

MAX ERNST & MAN RAY NUDE

signed max ernst (lower right)

silver print photogram after a frottage 29 by 22.3 cm. 11⅜ by 8¾ in.

Executed in 1930.

Formerly in the collection of Julien Levy.

MAN RAY BY ITSELF I

inscribed man Ray, numbered 9/9 and with the foundry mark F.N.B. Bruxelles (on the base); inscribed MAN. RAY., titled and dated 1918. (on the back)

bronze

height (including base): 43.2 cm. 17 in.

Conceived in wood in 1918; this example cast in bronze by Fonderie Nationale de Bronzes, Brussels in 1966. This work is number 9 from an edition of 9 plus artist’s proofs.

Formerly in the collection of Arturo Schwarz.

HANNAH HÖCH

Hannah Höch, a pioneering figure in the Berlin Dada and later Surrealist circles, radically transformed collage and photomontage into potent instruments of social and political critique. Her work interrogates identity, gender roles, and the mechanisms of mass culture with a nuanced irony and incisive visual wit. Höch’s photomontages combine cut-up images from fashion magazines, advertisements, and political propaganda to expose the fragmentary and constructed nature of modern subjectivity.

Her critique of Weimar-era Germany’s social order, including its gender norms and nationalist rhetoric, marked her as one of the few women artists actively engaged in avant-garde politics at the time. Despite political persecution under the Nazi regime, Höch continued to produce work in seclusion during the 1930s and 1940s, developing a distinct style that was both formally rigorous and conceptually innovative. Her legacy endures through her influence on feminist art and contemporary collage practices, with work populated by cyborgs, domestic scenes, and fantastical hybrids that anticipate postmodern explorations of identity and representation.

Römer Willy, Hannah Höch talking to puppets representing her daughters Pax and Botta, Germany, Berlin, Art Library (Kunstbibliothek SMB)

PRIESTERIN

signed with the initials H.H. (lower right) collage with gold and wash mounted on card image: 30.7 by 21.5 cm. 12 by 8½ in.

Executed in 1930-34.

Formerly in the collection of Steven Mazoh.

HANNAH HÖCH

Formerly in the collection of Fernand C. Graindorge.

ANDRÉ BRETON, VALENTINE HUGO, GRETA KNUTSON & TRISTAN TZARA

CADAVRE EXQUIS

pastel on black paper

23.9 by 31.8 cm. 9⅜ by 12½ in.

BRAUNER TANNING

MATTA

BELLMER

DELVAUX FINI

PENROSE WOLS

VICTOR BRAUNER

Victor Brauner occupies a critical position within the Surrealist movement as a painter deeply committed to the symbolic, the esoteric, and the exploration of psychic trauma. Born in Romania and educated in Bucharest, Brauner’s early experiments traversed Expressionism, abstraction, and Dada, but it was in Paris—where he relocated in 1930— that his engagement with Surrealism crystallised. There, under the influence of André Breton and in the company of Tanguy and Giacometti, Brauner began producing works drawing on mythology, the occult, and dream states. His visionary imagery— characterised by hybrid creatures, totemic figures, and disfigured bodies—embodied Surrealism’s desire to penetrate beneath surface reality and access the deeper structures of the unconscious.

A pivotal motif in Brauner’s œuvre is the eye, which appears in many early paintings pierced, displaced or occluded—a premonition that became eerily prophetic when he lost his own eye in 1938. This event, which Brauner interpreted as fated, reinforced his belief in the symbolic resonance of artistic imagery and underscored the Surrealists’ interest in prophecy, chance, and inner vision. During his wartime exile in southern France and later in Switzerland, Brauner’s symbolic vocabulary expanded to include esoteric scripts, tarot imagery, and Egyptian motifs—marking a shift from collective Surrealist mythology towards a more private cosmology. Yet throughout, his commitment to painting as a revelatory act remained closely aligned with Surrealism’s metaphysical and psychological concerns.

Denise Colomb, Victor Brauner, 1957

VICTOR BRAUNER

NOUS SOMMES TRAHIS

signed  VICTOR BRAUNER, dated  1934.  and dedicated  A ANDRÉ BRETON, (lower right) oil on canvas

96.8 by 130 cm. 38⅛ by 51¼ in.

Executed in 1934.

Formerly in the collection of André Breton.

VICTOR BRAUNER SÉDUCTION

signed  VICTOR BRAUNER and dated  1962 (lower right) oil and pencil on canvas

115.7 by 88.8 cm. 45½ by 35 in.

Executed in 1962.

VICTOR

BRAUNER VICTOR VICTORIOS

signed with the monogram and dated 20.III.1949. (lower right); titled (lower left) oil on canvas

55.4 by 46.5 cm. 21⅞ by 18¼ in.

Executed on 20 March 1949.

VICTOR BRAUNER

81

Formerly in the collection of André-François Petit.

LA SAISIE

signed  Victor Brauner  (lower right) oil on canvas

by 64.6 cm. 31⅞ by 25½ in.

Executed  circa 1932-33.

VICTOR BRAUNER LE PÈRE INSOLENT

signed  VICTOR BRAUNER and dated  28.X.1944 + 23.6.1945  (lower right); titled (lower left) oil and encaustic on board

64.5 by 49.5 cm. 25⅜ by 19½ in.

Executed in 1944-45.

Formerly in the collections of Benjamin Peret and Maria Martins.

VICTOR BRAUNER RETRACTÉ DE LA BOUCHERIE

signed VICTOR BRAUNER and dated III. 1951. (lower left) oil on canvas

59.4 by 73 cm. 23⅜ by 28¾ in.

Executed in March 1951.

DOROTHEA TANNING

Dorothea Tanning’s multifaceted practice—as a painter, sculptor, writer, and set designer—epitomises Surrealism’s expansiveness and its capacity to embrace both personal mythology and formal innovation. After discovering Surrealist art in New York in the early 1940s, Tanning met and later married Max Ernst, joining a circle that included Yves Tanguy, Joseph Cornell, and André Breton. While Tanning herself resisted the Surrealist label, her early paintings, such as Katchina and Her Soul, clearly engage with the Surrealist vocabulary: dreamlike interiors, uncanny transformations, and a pervasive sense of psychological disquiet.

Tanning’s Surrealism was notable for its distinctive emphasis on female subjectivity and embodied metamorphosis. Her figures, often adolescent girls or hybrid female forms, are caught in states of flux— becoming plant, furniture, or animal—conveying a deeply personal exploration of identity and desire. Her later shift towards abstraction in the 1950s retained this interest in transformation, as forms dissolved into ambiguous folds and vortexes that evoke the unconscious without relying on overt symbolism. Though she eventually returned to poetry and prose, her visual art remained tethered to Surrealism’s central themes: the permeability of boundaries, the instability of self, and the power of the irrational. Tanning’s work thus stands as both an extension and a reconfiguration of Surrealist aesthetics through a distinctly feminine lens.

Constantin Joffe, Dorothea Tanning, Vogue 1944

DOROTHEA TANNING

KATCHINA AND HER SOUL

signed Dorothea Tanning and dated ‘51 (lower right) oil on canvas

60.8 by 20.3 cm. 23⅞ by 8 in.

Executed in 1951.

Formerly in the collection of Gloria de Herrera.

A DINNER PARTY OF DELIGHTS: THE COLLECTION OF PAULINE KARPIDAS

BY ALYCE MAHON

In his 1931 essay “Unpacking My Library”, the cultural critic Walter Benjamin writes, “Collectors are people with a tactical instinct; their experience teaches them that when they capture a strange city, the smallest antique shop can be a fortress, the most remote stationery store a key position. How many cities have revealed themselves to me in the marches I undertook in pursuit of books!”1 Benjamin is discussing his collection of books and the work of accumulation and orchestration involved in its evolution, but his words perfectly apply to the art object, its collection over time, and the tactical instinct of British collector and arts patron Pauline Karpidas. Her work as a collector over the past fifty years has involved travel, meetings, memories, and conversations with gallerists and artists, embodying what we might describe as a fusion of tactical instinct across moments of choice and chance.

It is not surprising that she has cited Alexandre Iolas (Constantinos Koutsoudis, 1908–1987), the Egyptian-born Greek-American art gallerist, as a mentor figure for her work as a collector. While he may be best known for discovering Andy Warhol and launching the Pop artist’s career in New York in 1952, Iolas was a key promoter of both established and emerging artists and was especially important for his support of women artists. He held a critical position in the transatlantic art market in the second half of the twentieth century, working in Paris and New York before the outbreak of the Second World War and thereafter bringing European and American artists together—including Victor Brauner, Max Ernst,

Leonor Fini, Man Ray, and Dorothea Tanning—in the Jackson-Iolas Gallery in New York and then at Iolas galleries in Paris, Milan, Rome, Geneva, Madrid, and Athens. Alongside Warhol, all these artists are represented in the Karpidas collection.

Karpidas is to be lauded for a comparable spirit of passion and purpose in her amassed private collection, viewing her role as art “custodian”—reminding us that a collector both cares for and future-proofs the artworks they own. Amongst her London collection is a gathering of very brilliant but diverse works by women painters, sculptors, and designers that beautifully map the evolution of the European and American avantgardes and their legacies in contemporary art. The custodial role need not conflict with the market-driven, either; as we know, recent sales of women’s art have led to greater recognition and visibility for women artists in public and private spheres. This is not simply in the sense of ‘discovering’ the work of women artists and bringing them from the margins to the centre of the art world, but, more importantly, in acknowledging their rightful place there from the start.

The collection includes pioneering women of the international avant-garde, notably Leonora Carrington (1917–2011), Dorothea Tanning (1910–2012), Hannah Höch (1889–1978), Leonor Fini (1907–1996), Claude Cahun (1894–1954), Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010), and Niki de Saint Phalle (1930–2002). It also holds works by younger living artists who may be seen as central to the advancement and expansion of those women artists’ legacies. In their fascination with mythic thinking, personal narratives, and memory, artists Liz Craft (b.

1 Walter Benjamin, “Unpacking my Library”, 1931, in Jo Steffens, ed., Unpacking My Library: Architects and their Books, New Haven, 2009, p. 3

1970), Mari Eastman (b. 1970), Aneta Grzeszykowska (b. 1974), Rachel Harrison (b. 1966), and Milena Muzquiz (b. 1972) also use art as commentary on the world, from the local to the global.

When viewed as an intergenerational cohort, these artists undoubtedly traverse styles, nationalities, and media, but they may be said to share a bold expressiveness—whether through technical experimentation, colour play, or storytelling. If collecting is understood as the acquisition and orchestration of objects for display, it is not only each individual work by a woman artist that merits our attention but also the ways in which their placement in Karpidas’ London home allows for a dynamic visual experience.

Karpidas’ collection does not profess to be an artwork or to have a political agenda, of course, nor is it female-only—it includes exceptional works by male artists. Nevertheless, there is a feminist principle at work. Her collection presents a shared, egalitarian use of space for female and male artists, and a sense of dialogue in the ways in which the works are then installed across function rooms and in-between spaces, again without hierarchy. Further, the display might be said to be feminist in design: it defies historical linearity or a particular narrative and enjoys its own busyness.

I suggest her collection as a visual experience within her domestic architectural space might be understood as a kind of ‘dinner party’. I use the term fully conscious of its gendered associations—the domestic home as the place of female work and care, as it represents a superb collection of art cultivated and prepared by a woman within the family space, radically animating the architectural place and the visual space at once. Judy Chicago’s feminist installation titled The Dinner Party, 1979, now housed in the Brooklyn Museum, is a ceremonial gathering in honour of 39 marginalised ‘mistresses’ of Western culture. Through the motif of the dinner, Chicago’s installation calls attention to a matriarchal past and women’s capacity to be prime symbol-makers.

In Karpidas’ London home, colour, figuration, and play are the characteristics that strike the eye upon entering. As all flow across works hung either side of the fireplace, drawings that follow the staircase wall, figurines that almost clutter shelves, and the exciting way that every angle and vista is animated by art. Groupings spark conversations, views encourage debate, and the difference in media and scale ensures all vantage points are included. In this way, the collection goes beyond objecthood; it collects and shares diverse personae and ideas.

Fig. 1, Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1974-79, Brooklyn Museum, New York. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation, 2002.10

© 2025 CHICAGO WOODMAN LLC JUDY CHICAGO / DACS

The avant-garde believed in the collective spirit for art, exhibitions, and their experience. For example, Surrealists used their group exhibitions to offer a microcosmic view of a non-hierarchical world, to initiate the public into their aesthetic views. André Breton’s personal collection also emphasised diversity, both in spanning Dada, Surrealist, Oceanic, and IndoAmerican artworks, and in displaying them as if a gathering of curiosities had escaped from their cabinet and found their own conversations with each other, as evidenced today in its permanent display as Le Mur de l’atelier d’André Breton at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

On viewing Karpidas’ collection, one might note how both Surrealists Hans Bellmer (1902–1975) and Leonor Fini wield the ink pen like a scalpel in their corporeal drawings, or how Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning, who shared a 33-year life together, both draw on the palettes of the landscapes in which they lived despite different subject matter; or, more teasingly, how the riotously coloured animal forms of Niki de Saint Phalle, such as Dog Vase and Serpent figurine, seem to challenge the classicism of the sculptures of Henri Laurens (1885–1954), such as his plaster Femme avec Oiseau, 1932. De Saint Phalle liberates the animal from allegorical narratives and instead her animals are part Pop Art, part Folk Art, as witnessed in the brightly painted polyester sculpture Serpent and suite of almost child-like Worms drawings.

It must also be noted that there are some beautiful examples of collaborations between male and female artists in the collection that also have a ludic mood.

A pastel on paper Cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse) drawing from circa 1930 that is a collective work by André Breton (1896–1966), Valentine Hugo (née Gross, 1887–1968), Greta Knutson (1899–1983) and Tristan Tzara (1896–1963), is a point in case. Breton, who had launched the Surrealist movement with a manifesto in Paris in 1924, and Hugo, an artist with whom he enjoyed an affair for a period across July 1931 to May 1932, here join their friends the Swiss artist Knutson and her husband, the Dada leader Tzara. As a foursome of artists and lovers, the collaborative drawing allowed for improvisation but within a game structure that the Surrealists adapted from a Victorian parlour game. Each artist contributed to the page without seeing what the other artists had contributed, and in this way

the cadavre exquis both emphasised the importance of chance and communication at once. For this drawing, the game opened with a limited choice of colours (blue, white, yellow) and resulted in a landscape image with recognisable elements (a bird cage, a serpentcome tiger, a city skyline), that are made strange through their bizarre union and this concertina process of folding and covering. The result is a bizarre, collaged image of details that are dream-like in their illogicality. At the same time, and in the spirit of the game, it invites the spectator to join or to complete it with the mind’s eye. The four artists produced a series of these drawings together in 1930-31, and Breton explained it as an important liberatory practice: “What excited us about these games is that no single mind could have made what they created, and that they had a great deal of power of drift […] With the Exquisite Corpse we found a way-finally-to escape our selfcriticism and fully release the mind’s metaphorical activity.”2 The best art collections enjoy such drift. Indeed, it is tempting to think of Karpidas’ collection as a form of rhizomatic game, with works being added and the overall shape of it constantly shifting, evolving, and altering the overall landscape of the group of works en route

2

Fig. 2, Mur de l’atelier d’André Breton © CENTRE POMPIDOU, MNAM-CCI/PHILIPPE MIGEAT/DIST. RMN-GP / 2025 ADAGP, PARIS AND DACS, LONDON

André Breton, Le surréalisme et la peinture, Nouvelle edition revue et corrigée, 1928-1965, Paris, 1965, pp. 289

One of the highlights of this collection is the work by British Surrealist Leonora Carrington. Curiously, the British collector and Surrealist patron Edward James, who was an avid supporter of Carrington, described himself as a “guardian” of art when discussing his work as a collector. Once, in a letter to Carrington, he pointed out the ‘ward’ of his name derived from the Saxon for ‘Guardian’, cementing his sense of custodial duty.3 James also emphasised his sense of collecting as involving the care and curation of his purchased works in staging them across historical periods and in every part—stairway to fine dining rooms—of his living spaces. For example, he staged Carrington’s paintings in his collection at Monkton House alongside High Renaissance altarpieces and was known to use candles to light their display so as to better illuminate their sacred aura. James was critical for Carrington’s early success as a painter

as he organised a major exhibition for her at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York (24 February – 13 March 1948), one that helped put her firmly on the global stage. The museum quality work The Hour of the Angelus, 1949, by Carrington in this collection emerges from this historical moment in her career and her personal life. It was painted in Mexico, where Carrington fled in 1943 after a mental breakdown and incarceration by her family in an institution in Santander in Spain, and followed her marriage in 1946 to Chikki (Emerico) Weisz (1911–2007), and the birth of her two sons, Gabriel (b. 1946) and Pablo (b. 1947).

Edward James began to visit her in Mexico City in 1949 and was excited by her great embrace of Mexican culture and its emergence in new works as she fused it with her established interests in Surrealism, Celticism, and Occultism. These interests emerge in The Hour of the Angelus in her choice of medium and the story

3 Edward James, Unpublished letter to Leonora Carrington, 1953, Edward James Archive West Dean College, Chichester

Leonora Carrington, The Hour of the Angelus, 1949

telling of the composition. She employs egg tempera, her medium of choice in the second half of the 1940s and presents a narrative as if like a storyboard: we read it horizontally as a sequence of events. In this compositional trait, Carrington draws on her great love of Florentine masters.4 The fine brushstrokes and surface play that we see in the painting—as Carrington adds to and scrapes back the paint on the surface, also allows for a beautiful sense of the antique as well as a mood of otherworldliness. We note how the detailed setting of this religious hour or moment of prayer is typical of her œuvre of the period too: she paints an outdoor but walled garden which hovers between the house as a space of repression and imaginary escape. The young girls in the pastoral setting are involved in various forms of creative games and play, from lacrosse to egg-and-spoon to skipping. Their Victorian style white dresses and long tresses recall a peculiarly British art tradition, notably the muses of the Pre-Raphaelite artists, but Carrington subverts such nostalgia by including strange animal or part animal creatures. They emerge from the shadows and as equals in this scene—they are playmates, their manes echo the unbridled hair of the girls, and there is a sense that they each and all morph between

human and bestial. Here we have a gathering of Alice in Wonderland-like girls, a character beloved by the Surrealists for her leap of the imagination as she runs after the white rabbit and down a rabbit hole “never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.”5 Together these details may be read as defying her aristocratic English upbringing and the life it could have offered her, continuing her satirical style in her short story The Debutante where she writes of a young debutante who liked nothing more than to visit the zoo—“I went so often that I knew the animals better than I knew girls of my own age”, and far more than joining her mother’s fancy dinner parties.6 Equally it allows us to compare the painting to Crookhey Hall, 1947, where we also find a whitedressed girl in the foreground of the composition, and a garden scene outside the titular Carrington family home. While the artist’s niece Joanna Moorhead reads The Hour of the Angelus as a reflection of Carrington’s “unhappy schooldays […] teenage girls play while being spied on by menacing creatures”, I see it as a much more positive painting in which females and creatures are allies, joined in green nature.7 When asked by Hans-Ulrich Obrist about the animals in her work and if their presence related to the fact she

4

5 Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland”, 1865, in Alice in Wonderland Collection, Blackpool, 2016, p. 8

6 Leonora

7 Joanna Moorhead, The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington London, 2017, p. 203

Giulia Ingarao, “Leonora Carrington in Florence: The Revelation of the ‘Spiritual of the Primitives’”, in Alessandra Buccheri, Guilia Ingarao, Emilia Valenza, eds., From the Visual to the Visionary: Surrealist Trajectories in Art Sesto San Giovanni, 2023

Carrington, “The Debutante” in André Breton, Anthology of Black Humour Paris, 1997, p. 395

Fig. 3, Leonora Carrington, Crookhey Hall, 1986, National Museum of Women in the Arts, New York © 2025 ESTATE OF LEONORA CARRINGTON / ARS, NY AND DACS, LONDON

“I’M NOT AN EXPERT ON RELIGION. BUT I THINK THAT ALL RELIGIONS HAVE SOMETHING, PLENTY OF GODDESSES AND GODS. I THINK THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF THEM, AND I ALSO THINK THAT WE DON’T KNOW THE MEANING OF THE WORD GOD. I THINK THERE ARE ANIMAL GODS, THERE ARE MICRO GODS OF ALL THE SUBATOMIC WORLDS.”

LEONORA CARRINGTON

was literally surrounded in life by animals, including horses, or something else, Carrington replied, “Yes, horses, because I like horses, dogs and cats. And I also do human animals, because I think that we are also animals”.8 She also explained her view of religion with reference to humans and animals alike: “I’m not an expert on religion. But I think that all religions have something, plenty of goddesses and gods. I think there are thousands of them, and I also think that we don’t know the meaning of the word god. I think there are animal gods, there are micro gods of all the subatomic worlds.”9 If the titular hour of the Angelus is understood as a pause of prayer, then her words remind us to view faith from a much wider perspective. Carrington always paid careful attention to her titles, and while this one ostensibly denotes a prayer which commemorates the annunciation made to Mary by the Angel Gabriel, in nodding to that cultural association it also defies the Western art tradition in which images of the significance of the Angelus prayer usually include the detail of a church, as seen in Jean-François Millet’s The Angelus (1857–1859). Where Millet’s painting reinforces the presence and institutional power of the Church, Carrington portrays Nature as the only Church worth venerating. Carrington was very close to the ArgentinianItalian painter Leonor Fini. They met in Paris in 1937

and shared a revolutionary spirit and refusal to be pinned down by the label ‘Surrealist’. The series of works on paper by Fini in this collection, all titled Tête, share with Carrington an interest in shapeshifting and metamorphosis. In these works, Fini employs ink and watercolour to wash female profiles into more abstracted creatures, turning flesh and face into a mood for thought. One, dated 1950, powerfully reveals how she mastered the medium of watercolour to allow a more improvised, fluid drawing style, letting the image emerge from the work of the water, and enjoying the element of chance for the resultant composition as line bleeds into something more mineral. The female face takes on a striking, Medusa-like, form as serpentine curls of hair arch away from her brow as this sense of form becoming more formless unravels with the watering down of the brush stroke. As with her Gérard de Nerval-inspired Aurélia drawings or sphinx oil paintings of the period, such as Little Hermit Sphinx, 1948, in the Tate Collection, Fini crafts images of triumphant and regenerative femininity. In her œuvre, women are neither limited to the role of muse or mistress, as many male artists presented them, nor to the role of wife and mother, as patriarchal society expected.10 Fini’s Tête drawings are also part of her turn to guardian and sorcery imagery, where Fini looks to matriarchal mythology and witchcraft to fashion a world of greater freedom for males and females alike. She believed the act of painting itself was “an activity linked to ancient sources, which go back to gardener birds, to the courtship rituals of animals, which have been handed down to us through the discovery of play and magic by the first men.”11 While links between women and nature are commonplace in Western culture, it is usually to emphasise woman’s passivity and irrationality in contrast to man’s activism and rationality. In contrast, Fini emphasises woman as an active creature, and as a healer and figurehead, but with the capacity to move from active to passive. However calm or spell-binding the heads of the females are in these drawings, they always harbour a threat in their profound gaze as in keeping with the archetype of the Great Mother they hold the power of life and death.

8

2014, p. 159

9 Ibid., p. 160.

10 Alyce Mahon, “La Femininité triomphante: Surrealism, Leonor Fini, and the Sphinx”, Dada/Surrealism Iowa City, no. 19, 2015

11 Leonor Fini quoted in Peter Webb, Sphinx: The Life and Art of Leonor Fini New York, 2009, p. 215

Leonora Carrington interviewed by Hans Ulrich Obrist, “An approach to a Reality that we do not yet Understand”, in Exh. Cat., Dublin, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Leonora Carrington: The Celtic Surrealist

Claude Cahun’s photography equally engages with representations of alternative forms of femininity. Her 1935 photographic portrait of the Surrealist couple André Breton and Jacqueline Lamba—whom he met at the Café de la Place Blanche in Paris in 1934 and married in 1935—defies the idea of identity and image as fixed, whilst also showing her allegiance to Lamba as an artist rather than as a simple passive muse to the Surrealist leader. Multiplying their faces, Cahun makes masquerade the subject of their joint portrait: that is, performing one’s masculinity or femininity for the benefit of the other. Born Lucy Schwob, Cahun’s chosen artist name was gender-neutral, and she lived openly with her life partner Marcel Moore (born Suzanne Malherbe, 1892–1972). In her art and writings, she gave visual representation to what we would today understand as a queer stance, writing in Aveux non avenus (Disavowals, 1930): “Masculine/ feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that suits me.”12

Louise Bourgeois’ Echo I, 2007, one of six editions cast from the artist’s clothing, explores hard and softness as painted bronze seems to defy its own solidity in its representation of draped, rumpled cloth. The artist both abstracts the body that wore the clothing and allows the abstracted form to suggest breathing lungs or a heart pulsing— stretched inanimate clothing becomes animate and anthropomorphic. Where her Femme Maison series of works from the 1940s used the familiar and domestic to render a sense of repression and containment, and her Personnage sculptures of the 1950-60s were more totemic in keeping with the search for their paired back minimalism, Echo I extends her interest in the familiar made strange.

Not unlike her use of “abandoned” clothing in her Cell installations of the 1990s, personal clothing and textiles more broadly are employed as found materials in her sculptural work to demarcate presence and absence simultaneously. We are presented with a sense

12 Claude Cahun, Disavowals: Or, Cancelled Confessions, Boston, 2007, p. 151-52

Fig. 4, Attilio Maranzano, Louise Bourgeois, Cell (Clothes), 1996 © FONDAZIONE PRADA, MILAN / 2025 THE EASTON FOUNDATION/VAGA AT ARS, NY AND DACS, LONDON

“THE COLLECTION OF PAULINE KARPIDAS OFFERS FOOD FOR THOUGHT THAT IS BOUNTIFUL IN ITS GATHERING OF PEOPLE AND PLACES, IMAGES, AND IDEAS, AND ACROSS MOMENTS OR MEMORIES IN TIME. THE FINAL JOY OF IT IS THAT IT IS JUST TOO FABULOUSLY MUCH FOR ONE SITTING.”

ALYCE MAHON

that the domestic object embodies repressed memories and desires, as the choice of title—Echo—intimates. As Bourgeois once stated, “Clothing is also an exercise of memory. It makes me explore the past: how did I feel when I wore that? They are like signposts in the search for the past.”13

No matter the scale of Bourgeois’ work, the spectator’s body is invited into a “fantastic reality,” where the body of the viewer and the artwork meet and a play of projections occurs.14 Karpidas’ collection may be understood in similar terms: the art begins in a real home but transforms it into a fantastic universe, with no two people seeing it the same way, yet all finding that it sparks enjoyment.15 A collection involves “poles of disorder and order,” to quote Benjamin once more, and it is the space between these states that is so exciting. A collection housed in a home invariably invites such polarity and play, too. It cannot be viewed in one take but is better appreciated as a kinetic portfolio of works representing lived moments across artists, their collectors, and different moments in time. To return to the analogy of a dinner party, the collection of Pauline Karpidas offers food for thought that is bountiful in its gathering of people and places, images and ideas, and across moments or memories in time. The final joy of it is that it is just too fabulously much for one sitting.

13 Louise Bourgeois, Destruction of the Father, Reconstruction of the Father: Writings and Interviews 1923-1997 London, 2000, p. 363

14 Mignon Nixon, Fantastic Reality: Louise Bourgeois and a Story of Modern Art Boston, 2005

15 W. Benjamin, op. cit., p. 5

DOROTHEA TANNING

DAUGHTERS

signed Dorothea Tanning (lower right); signed Dorothea Tanning., titled and dated 1983 (on the reverse) oil on canvas

130 by 96.7 cm. 51¼ by 38⅛ in.

Executed in 1983.

DOROTHEA TANNING

SIMPLIFIED BOTANY - THE SEA

50.6 by 38.1 cm. 19⅞ by 15 in.

MATTA

Executed in 1966.

signed D. Tanning and dated 43 (lower right); titled (lower left) pen and ink and pencil on board

Executed in 1943.

LES CHANTS DE LA RETINE (CUBE HONNI AVEUGLANT) oil on canvas

HANS BELLMER MILLE FILLES

signed Bellmer (lower right); signed HANS BELLMER, dated 1939 and inscribed (on the reverse) oil on board

48.4 by 30 cm. 19 by 11⅞ in.

Executed in 1939.

UNTITLED

HANS BELLMER

pen and gouache on black paper

32.4 by 26 cm. 12¾ by 10¼ in.  Executed in 1937-38.

Formerly in the collection of Roland Penrose.

signed P. DELVAUX and dated 4-37 (lower right) pen and ink, watercolour, gouache and pencil on paper 48.4 by 64.5 cm. 19 by 25⅜ in. Executed in 1937.

Formerly in the collection of Herbert Read.

PAUL DELVAUX FEMMES ET LAMPES

LEONOR FINI

TÊTE (INSPIRED BY GÉRARD DE NERVAL’S POEM AURÉLIA)

signed twice  Leonor Fini  and dated  1950 (lower right) watercolour, brush and pen and ink on paper

46 by 32.4 cm. 18⅛ by 12¾ in.

Executed in 1950.

LEONOR FINI TÊTE DE FEMME

signed Leonor Fini (lower right) watercolour, brush and pen and ink on paper

34.5 by 27.7 cm. 13⅝ by 10⅞ in.

Executed circa 1975.

LEONOR FINI TÊTE DE FEMME

signed Leonor Fini (lower right) watercolour, brush and pen and ink on paper

45.2 by 30.5 cm. 17¾ by 12 in.  Executed circa 1975.

LEONOR FINI TÊTE DE FEMME

signed twice Leonor Fini (lower right) brush and pen and ink on paper

41.5 by 29.5 cm. 16⅜ by 11⅝ in. Executed circa 1975.

ROLAND PENROSE

UNTITLED

brush and pen and ink on card

27.9 by 38.1 cm. 11 by 15 in.

Executed in 1946.

WOLS TÊTE GROTESQUE

signed (lower right) graphite, Indian ink and watercolour on paper

19.2 by 12.5 cm. 7½ by 4⅞ in.

Executed circa 1940.

PICASSO MATISSE

A. GIACOMETTI

D. GIACOMETTI

PABLO PICASSO

Picasso is widely acknowledged as the greatest artist of the twentieth century. His fiercely independent artistic character is almost unique in the history of art, making it fitting that this remarkable collection includes a wonderfully diverse selection of his works. His protean creative powers enabled him, throughout his career, to develop new styles and ideas, often reinventing his own earlier concepts.

Celebrated as a pioneer of Cubism, Picasso’s engagement with Surrealism—both in aesthetics and thematic content—significantly enriched his practice. The fragmented perspectives and distorted figures in works such as Buste d’homme, alongside the graphic and emotionally charged portraits of his muses, like Profil gauche de femme avec résille dans les cheveux and Buste de femme, resonate with Surrealism’s interest in the subconscious and the irrational, even as he maintained an artistic autonomy distinct from formal Surrealist circles.

Picasso’s fascination with myth, dream imagery, and symbolic figures such as minotaurs and harlequins closely aligns with Surrealist preoccupations. These recurring motifs act as archetypes navigating desire, fear, and transformation—central concerns for Surrealist artists seeking to reveal hidden psychological realities. Moreover, his willingness to both draw on and disrupt traditional proportions and conventional space, as in Nu couché, echoes the movement’s challenge to rational representation.

Although Picasso never fully embraced Surrealism’s collective manifesto or automatism techniques, his inventive manipulation of form and bold exploration of the psyche profoundly influenced many Surrealist painters. His ability to synthesise the classical and the avant-garde, the rational and the dreamlike, positions him as a critical precursor and interlocutor within Surrealism’s broader artistic trajectory.

Picasso’s art is highly autobiographical, yet it also constitutes, in many ways, a history of twentieth century art. Born in the latter half of the nineteenth century and living until the 1970s, his life and work spanned the birth, death, and regeneration of countless artistic ideas. His obsessive promotion of his own myth ensured his canonisation well before middle age.

Irving Penn, Pablo Picasso at La Californie, Cannes, 1957

PROFIL GAUCHE DE FEMME AVEC RÉSILLE

DANS LES CHEVEUX

dated 7.12.53. (upper left); indistinctly dated 7.12.53. (upper right)

brush and pen and ink on paper

65 by 50 cm. 25⅝ by 19¾ in.

Executed on 7 December 1953.

Formerly in the collection of Marina Picasso.

PABLO PICASSO

signed Picasso and dated 12.8.69. (upper right) pen and brush and ink on paper 50.4 by 65.4 cm. 19⅞ by 25¾ in.

Executed on 12 August 1969.

Formerly in the collection of Prinz Franz von Bayern.

PABLO PICASSO NU COUCHÉ

PABLO PICASSO

HOMME À LA PIPE ET FEMME

signed Picasso (lower right); dated 22.12.70. and numbered I (upper centre) brush and pen and ink on paper 50 by 65.2 cm. 19¾ by 25⅝ in.

Executed on 22 December 1970.

Formerly in the collection of Sigmund E. Edelstone.

PABLO PICASSO NU ET DEUX TÊTES

signed Picasso (lower left); dated 23.12.70. (upper centre) pastel and brush and pen and ink on paper 50 by 65.2 cm. 19⅝ by 25⅝ in.

Executed on 23 December 1970.

Formerly in the collection of Sigmund E. Edelstone.

Executed on 10 January 1968.

PABLO PICASSO BUSTE DE FEMME

signed Picasso (upper left); dated 10.1.68. and numbered II (lower left); dated 10.1.68. and numbered II (on the verso) brush and ink, felt-tip pen and pencil on paper

47.7 by 58.2 cm. 18¾ by 22⅞ in.

L’ÉCUYÈRE AU BALLON ET DEUX PERSONNAGES

8.3.68.

Executed on 8 March 1968.

PABLO PICASSO

signed Picasso, dated

and numbered II (upper right)

pencil and brush and ink on paper

49 by 75.2 cm. 19¼ by 29⅝ in.

PABLO PICASSO LE GARÇON COURONNÉ

signed Picasso and dated 1er.janvier.67. (upper right)

wax crayon and pen and ink on paper

46 by 54.7 cm. 18⅛ by 21½ in.

Executed on 1 January 1967.

LES MÉTAMORPHOSES D’OVIDE [EIGHT WORKS]

eight etchings printed in black with black remarques on parchment papers each sheet (approx.): 33 by 27 cm. 13 by 10⅝ in.

Executed in 1931; these impressions are proofs aside from the total edition of 145, printed by Louis Fort, Paris, published by Albert Skira, Lausanne.

PABLO PICASSO

PABLO PICASSO

POT À DEUX ANSES (DÉCOR VISAGE D’HOMME BARBU)

dated 23.8.52. and with the Madoura ceramic stamp

bronze height: 31.5 cm. 12⅜ in.

Conceived on 23 August 1952; this example cast by the Godard Foundry, Paris in June 1955 in an edition of 2.

Formerly in the collection of Marina Picasso.

PABLO PICASSO TÊTE DE FEMME (JACQUELINE)

dated 19.2.61. and with the foundry mark C. Valsuani cire perdue

bronze

height: 26 cm. 10¼ in.

Conceived on 19 February 1961; this example cast by the Valsuani Foundry, Paris in an edition of 2.

Formerly in the collection of Marina Picasso.

PABLO PICASSO BUSTE D’HOMME

dated 6.2.68. (upper left) oil and Ripolin on canvas

81 by 64.8 cm. 31⅞ by 25⅝ in

Executed on 6 February 1968.

HENRI MATISSE

NU CAMPÉ, BRAS SUR LA TÊTE OR NU DEBOUT, BRAS SUR LA TÊTE OR NU DEBOUT, LES BRAS LEVÉS

inscribed  Henri Matisse  and with the initials  HM, numbered  6/10 and  /10  and stamped with the foundry mark  C. Valsuani cire perdue

bronze

height: 26 cm. 10¼ in.

Conceived in 1906; this example cast by the Valsuani Foundry, Paris circa 1930. This work is number 6 from an edition of 10.

ALBERTO

GIACOMETTI

FEMME, ÉPAULE CASSÉE [TROISIÈME VERSION]

signed  A. Giacometti, numbered  5/6 and with the foundry mark  Susse Fd. Paris

bronze height: 68.5 cm. 27 in.

Conceived  circa  1958-59; this example cast by Susse Fondeur, Paris in 1964. This work is number 5 from an edition of 6.

Formerly in the collection of Josef and Lea Steegmann.

DIEGO GIACOMETTI

In the subtle interplay between function and fantasy, Diego Giacometti forged a sculptural language that blurs the boundaries between utility and poetic form. Born in 1902 in Borgonovo, Switzerland, into a creative household that included his painter father Giovanni and his brothers—the sculptor Alberto and architect Bruno—Diego’s artistic sensibility was shaped through a profound familial dialogue. His early years were steeped in a tradition of artistic craft, which deeply influenced his approach.

Moving to Paris in the 1920s, he immersed himself in the vibrant cultural milieu alongside his brother Alberto, whose towering presence in modern sculpture both inspired and distinguished Diego’s own path. While Alberto’s work was often monumental and introspective, Diego’s practice embraced intimacy and whimsy, imbuing everyday objects with an uncanny vitality.

Giacometti’s œuvre spans furniture, decorative arts, and small-scale sculptures, characterised by meticulous attention to texture and a fascination with the organic. His forms—often wrought from bronze and wrought iron—oscillate between abstraction and figuration, capturing the subtle tensions of light, shadow, and material presence. Throughout his career, Diego pursued a singular vision of the domestic as a stage for transformation, where chairs, tables, and lamps become enigmatic actors charged with narrative and life.

Signature works such as his Berceau low table reveal a masterful synthesis of craftsmanship and surreal vitality, grounded in an artisanal tradition that honours the tactile qualities of material. Diego Giacometti’s legacy endures as a quiet but profound voice within twentieth century art, offering a lyrical counterpoint to the grand narratives of modernism. His work invites us to reconsider the everyday world as a locus of enchantment, where the functional and the fantastic coexist in harmonious balance.

Sabine Weiss, Diego Giacometti in Alberto’s studio with Alberto Giacometti’s ‘Tête de Diego’, 1966

DIEGO GIACOMETTI

BERCEAU LOW TABLE, PREMIÈRE VERSION

patinated bronze and glass top

40.5 by 143.5 by 41.5 cm. 16 by 56½ by 16⅜ in.

Executed circa 1963.

LIPCHITZ ARP

LAURENS

GARGALLO

ARCHIPENKO

GAUGUIN

JACQUES LIPCHITZ

LA FEMME AU SERPENT

inscribed J Lipchitz, numbered 7/7 and with the artist’s thumbprint bronze height: 61 cm. 24 in.

Conceived in 1913; this example cast between 1941 and 1973. This work is number 7 from an edition of 7.

JEAN ARP

FEUILLE SE REPOSANT

bronze length: 60.7 cm. 23⅞ in.

Conceived in 1959; this example cast by Georges Rudier Foundry, Paris between 1960 and 1977. This work is number 1 from an edition of 5 plus 1 zero cast.

HENRI LAURENS

Although Henri Laurens is most often associated with Cubism, the formal and thematic evolution of his sculptural practice intersects significantly with Surrealist concerns. Trained initially as a stonemason and later influenced by friends such as Picasso and Braque, Laurens developed a sculptural language rooted in geometric abstraction and volumetric exploration. However, in the post-war years, his work evolved towards a more organic, lyrical style, increasingly engaged with mythological subject matter and bodily transformation.

In works such as Allégorie, his abstracted female forms—often suggestive of ancient fertility figures or aquatic deities—resonate with Surrealism’s interest in the archetypal and the erotic. Though not a formal member of the Surrealist group, Laurens shared their preoccupation with symbolic metamorphosis and the fusion of the animate and inanimate. His sinuous, undulating figures evoke a sense of dreamlike sensuality and mythic timelessness, aligning him— if peripherally—with the movement’s poetic and psychological aims.

inscribed with the monogram, numbered 1/6 and with the foundry mark C. Valsuani cire perdue bronze length: 66 cm. 26 in.

Conceived and cast in 1945 by the Valsuani Foundry, Paris. This work is number 1 from an edition of 6.

HENRI LAURENS ALLÉGORIE

HENRI LAURENS

FEMME DEBOUT AU MIROIR

inscribed with the monogram alabaster

height: 21.9 cm. 8⅝ in.

Carved in 1920-21. This work is unique.

HENRI LAURENS

FEMME AVEC OISEAU

inscribed with the monogram; inscribed again with the monogram (on the interior)

plaster

height: 38 cm. 15 in.

Conceived in 1932.

Formerly in the collection of Claude Laurens.

HENRI LAURENS

TÊTE DE FEMME

numbered VI. (on the interior) terracotta

height: 34.6 cm. 13⅝ in.

Conceived in 1920. This work is number 6 from an edition of 6.

HENRI LAURENS

LA CORBEILLE

inscribed with the monogram, numbered 3/6 and with the foundry mark C. Valsuani cire perdue

bronze

height (including base): 30 cm. 11⅞ in.

Conceived in 1939; this example cast by the Valsuani Foundry, Paris. This work is number 3 from an edition of 6.

HENRI LAURENS

LA MUSICIENNE À LA HARPE

inscribed with the monogram, numbered 3/6 and with the foundry mark C. Valsuani cire perdue

bronze

height: 39.5 cm. 15½ in.

Conceived in 1937 and cast by the Valsuani Foundry, Paris. This work is number 3 from an edition of 6.

HENRI LAURENS

LA CENTAURESSE

inscribed with the monogram, numbered 5/6 and with the foundry mark C. Valsuani cire perdue

bronze

height (including base): 40.3 cm. 15¾ in.

Conceived in 1953; this example cast by the Valsuani Foundry, Paris. This work is number 5 from an edition of 6 plus 1 zero cast.

HENRI LAURENS

BAIGNEUSE (FRAGMENT)

inscribed with the monogram, numbered 0/6 and with the foundry mark C. Valsuani cire perdue bronze height: 57.5 cm. 22⅝ in.

Conceived in 1931; this example cast by the Valsuani Foundry, Paris. This work is number 0 from an edition of 6 plus 1 artist’s proof.

HENRI LAURENS

LA JEUNE SŒUR

inscribed with the monogram, numbered 4/6 and with the foundry mark C. Valsuani cire perdue

bronze

height: 29 cm. 11⅜ in.

Conceived in 1949; this example cast by the Valsuani Foundry, Paris in 1951. This work is number 4 from an edition of 6.

HENRI LAURENS

FEMME ASSISE

inscribed with the monogram, numbered 1/6 and with the foundry mark E. Godard cire perdue

bronze

height (including base): 21.5 cm. 8½ in.

Conceived in 1928-29; this example cast by the Emile Godard Foundry, Paris. This work is number 1 from an edition of 6.

HENRI LAURENS

FEMME COUCHÉE

inscribed with the monogram and with the foundry mark C. Valsuani cire perdue

bronze

length: 61 cm. 24 in.

Conceived in 1925; this example cast by the Valsuani Foundry, Paris in a likely edition of 6.

HENRI LAURENS

FEMME COUCHÉE

inscribed with the monogram terracotta length: 36.5 cm. 14⅜ in.

Conceived in 1928 and cast in an edition of 6.

HENRI LAURENS PAMELA

inscribed with the monogram, numbered 2/6 and with the foundry mark C. Valsuani cire perdue bronze length: 29.3 cm. 11⅝ in.

Conceived in 1943; this example cast by the Valsuani Foundry, Paris. This work is number 2 from an edition of 6.

PABLO GARGALLO

MASQUE D’ARLEQUIN SOURIANT (2ÈME VERSION)

inscribed P. Gargallo and dated 1927 soldered copper width: 29 cm. 11⅜ in.

Executed in 1927. This example is the second version of 5 unique variants.

ALEXANDER ARCHIPENKO

LE REPOS

inscribed Archipenko, dated 1911 and numbered 4/6

Ex N. 2.

bronze

height: 35.5 cm. 14 in.

Conceived in 1911; this example cast in 1963. This work is number 4 from an edition of 6.

PAUL GAUGUIN

VASE EN FORME DE BUSTE DE JEUNE FILLE

signed P. Gauguin

glazed stoneware with coloured glass and gold

height: 22 cm. 8⅝ in.

Executed circa 1889. This work is unique.

LES LALANNE

LES LALANNE

François-Xavier Lalanne was born in 1927 in Agen. After the Second World War, he moved to Paris to train as a painter at the Académie Julian. He lived in the artistic hub of Montparnasse’s Impasse Ronsin where he met Constantin Brancusi, who introduced him to the Surrealist circle, including Max Ernst and Man Ray, which significantly influenced his style. Born in 1925, Claude Lalanne studied drawing at the Atelier de la Grande Chaumière before turning to sculpture. The pair met in 1952 during François-Xavier’s first exhibition at Galerie Cimaise, Paris, and later married in 1967.

In Claude and François-Xavier’s first joint 1964 exhibition Zoophite at the J. Gallery, Paris, they revealed their hybrid sculptures that incorporated the surreal elements of the animal and botanical world with the functionality of everyday objects. The exhibition caught the attention of Alexander Iolas who later exhibited their work globally. The name “Les Lalanne” was in fact coined at their 1966 show at Iolas’ Paris gallery. While each created their own works, they shared a vision inspired by nature, challenging the boundaries between art and utility, beauty and function.

François-Xavier Lalanne was fascinated by animals—whether real, imagined or symbolic—and translated a bestiary composed of monkeys, rhinos, elephants, camels, and hippos into a whimsical body of work, suffused with a reverent stillness and timelessness. Drawing on his experience working at the Louvre, the Egyptian and Assyrian rooms informed his arsenal of imagery. Sheep—inspired by Homer’s Odyssey—became one of his favourite subjects. Grouped or solitary, headless or complete, cast in bronze or covered in fleece, his sheep often doubled as seats: sculpture with function.

Like François-Xavier, much of Claude Lalanne’s work was defined by precision. Using techniques such as moulding, impression, and electroplating, she translated the delicacy of the vegetal world into enchanting objects—tables, chairs, mirrors and even precious jewellery—combining function with whimsical allure. Fantastical worlds collide in her work, for example, her iconic cabbage-headed figures—whether fused with human bodies or chicken legs—exemplifies her hybrid creations, prompting François-Xavier’s remark, “The cabbage is to Claude what the acanthus leaf was to Greek art.” (Daniel Marchesseau, The Lalannes, Paris 1998, p. 32). The series even became synonymous with Pop culture as the title of Serge Gainsbourg 1976 album L’Homme à Tête de Chou attests.

The success of the pair was immediate. Their works were either acquired or sometimes commissioned by prominent collectors such as Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, the Rothschilds, and the Noailles. The duo exhibited together around the world in galleries and museums during their lifetime. Most notably, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs presented a major and critically acclaimed retrospective in 2010.

Edouard Boubat, FrançoisXavier and Claude Lalanne, Ury, 1969

© ARCHIVES LALANNE

CAROLINE ENCEINTE

monogrammed C.L., stamped CLAUDE LALANNE, dated 2012 and numbered 7/8 twice (to the hip and to the base) patinated bronze 159 by 53 by 43 cm. 58⅝ by 20⅞ by 16⅞ in.

Executed in 2012. This work is number 7 from an edition of 8.

CLAUDE LALANNE

UNIQUE CHOUPATTE

monogrammed  C.L., stamped  LALANNE, dated  2003, numbered  1/1 and inscribed PP/KK (on a metal label) patinated and galvanized copper

32.5 by 36 by 32.5 cm. 12⅝ by 14⅛ by 12⅝ in. Executed in 2003. This work is number 1 from an edition of 1.

CLAUDE LALANNE

CLAUDE LALANNE

TWO UNIQUE CROCODILE STOOLS

gold patinated bronze

(i) monogrammed  C.L., stamped LALANNE, dated  99 and numbered 1/2 K (along the top edge);

(ii) monogrammed  C.L., stamped LALANNE, dated  99 and numbered 2/2 K (along the top edge)

height: 46 cm. 18⅛ in. each

diameter: 33 cm. 13 in. each

Executed in 1999. This work is number 1K and 2K from an edition of 2.

FRANÇOIS-XAVIER LALANNE

SINGE ATTABLÉ OCCASIONAL TABLE

monogrammed  F.X.L., stamped  Lalanne, dated  2003 and numbered  1/8 (to the back)

gilt patinated bronze and glass top

49.5 by 55 by 52 cm. 19½ by 21⅝ by 20½ in.

Executed in 2003. This work is number 1 from an edition of 8 plus 4 artist’s proofs.

CLAUDE LALANNE

UNIQUE FEUILLES FRAME

gold patinated bronze and galvanized copper

36 by 41 by 11 cm. 14⅛ by 16⅛ by 4¼ in.

Executed in 2005. This work is unique.

CLAUDE LALANNE

UNIQUE FEUILLES DE CHOU FRAME

stamped LALANNE and dated 97 (to the back)

galvanized copper and bronze

31 by 31 cm. 12⅛ by 12⅛ in.

Executed in 1997. This work is unique.

CLAUDE LALANNE

UNIQUE FEUILLE DE ROSEAU FRAME

galvanized copper and bronze

36 by 29 by 4 cm. 14⅛ by 11⅜ by 1⅝ in.

This work is unique.

UNIQUE STRUCTURE VÉGÉTALE BED

monogrammed C.L., stamped LALANNE, dated 2012 and numbered 1/1 (to the footboard)

gold patinated bronze

230 by 183 by 198 cm. 90½ by 72 by 78 in.

Executed in 2012. This work is number 1 from an edition of 1.

CLAUDE LALANNE

UNIQUE ENTRELACS BENCH

monogrammed  C.L., stamped  CLAUDE LALANNE, dated  2013 and numbered  1/1 (to a rail)

gold patinated bronze and patinated bronze

46 by 180 by 30 cm. 18⅛ by 70⅞ by 11⅞ in.

Executed in 2013. This work is number 1 from an edition of 1.

CLAUDE LALANNE

UNIQUE STRUCTURE VÉGÉTALE MIRROR AND WALL LIGHT

monogrammed C.L., stamped LALANNE, dated 95 and numbered 1/1 (to an edge of the mirror)

gold patinated bronze, galvanized copper, mirrored glass

297 by 149 by 15 cm. 117 by 58¾ by 6 in. (mirror) 126 by 49cm. 49½ by 19¼ in. (wall light)

Executed in 1995. This work is number 1 from an edition of 1.

CLAUDE LALANNE

FRANÇOIS-XAVIER LALANNE UNIQUE PETIT RHINOCÉROS MÉCANIQUE CONDIMENT HOLDER

with the original Saint-Gobain glassware set commissioned by the original owner, comprising two vinegar dispensers, one oil dispenser, one mustard pot, one salt shaker, two pots and two spouted vessels

patinated copper and Saint-Gobain glass

24 by 53 by 15.5 cm. 9½ by 20¾ by 6⅛ in.

Executed in 1976. This work is unique.

FRANÇOIS-XAVIER LALANNE

AUX CANARDS TABLE

monogrammed F.X.L., stamped  LALANNE, dated  94 and numbered  2/8 (to the stretcher)

gold patinated bronze, wood and marble

75 by 249 by 108 cm. 29½ by 98 by 42½ in Executed in 1994. This work is number 2 from an edition of 8.

PAIN-PIEDS

monogrammed C.L., stamped LALANNE, numbered 2/8 (to a foot)

galvanized bronze and gilt patinated bronze

16 by 65 by 17.5 cm. 6¼ by 25½ by 6¾ in.

Designed in 1971. This work is number 2 from an edition of 8.

CLAUDE LALANNE

GANESH

monogrammed fxL, numbered 1/8 (on a foot); with the foundry’s mark  bocquel fd.  (to the back) patinated bronze 42 by 31 by 25 cm. 16½ by 12¼ by 9⅞ in. Executed in 2001. This work is number 1 from an edition of 8.

FRANÇOIS-XAVIER LALANNE

LAPIN CHOU I

monogrammed C.L., stamped LALANNE, dated 98 and inscribed HC0/00 (on the underside of the body)

by 31 by 14 cm. 9½ by 12¼ by 5½ in.

Executed in 1998. Hors commerce proof from an edition of 8

CLAUDE LALANNE

gold patinated bronze

24.5

monogrammed CL, stamped LALANNE, dated 2000, and numbered 8/8 (underneath the body) patinated bronze and galvanized copper 29 by 49 by 20 cm. 11⅜ by 19¼ by 7⅞ in.

Executed in 2000. This work is number 8 from an edition of 8.

CLAUDE LALANNE

MARCASSIN II

UNIQUE AUX PAPILLONS LANTERN

monogrammed C.L., stamped LALANNE, dated 2012 and numbered 1/1 (on a branch)

gold patinated bronze

262 by 76 by 79 cm. 103½ by 30 by 31⅛ in.

Executed in 2012. This work is unique.

CLAUDE LALANNE

UNIQUE STRUCTURE VEGETALE MIRROR

gold patinated bronze and galvanized copper monogrammed C.L., stamped LALANNE, dated 87 and numbered 1/1 (to an edge) 193 by 67 by 14 cm. 76 by 26⅜ by 5½ in.

Executed in 1987. This work is number 1 from an edition of 1.

CLAUDE LALANNE

UNIQUE STRUCTURE VÉGÉTALE MIRROR

monogrammed  C.L., stamped  LALANNE,  dated  1996 and numbered 1/1 (to an edge)

gold patinated bronze, galvanized copper and mirrored glass 198 by 87 by 21 cm. 77⅞ by 34¼ by 8¼ in.

Executed in 1996. This work is number 1 from an edition of 1.

CLAUDE LALANNE

UNIQUE STRUCTURE VÉGÉTALE MIRROR

monogrammed  C.L.,  stamped  LALANNE, dated  95 and numbered  1/1  (to the edge)

gold patinated bronze, galvanized copper and mirror glass 196 by 74 by 17.5 cm. 77⅛ by 29⅛ by 6⅞ in.

Executed in 1995. This work is number 1 from an edition of 1.

CLAUDE LALANNE

FRANÇOIS-XAVIER LALANNE CONSOLE VÉGÉTALE

monogrammed fxl, stamped LALANNE, dated 2012 and numbered 1/8 C (to an edge)

gold patinated bronze

87 by 185 by 52 cm. 34¼ by 74¾ by 20½ in.

Executed in 2012. This work is number 1C from an edition of 8.

UNIQUE TABLE AUX SERPENTS

inscribed P, monogrammed C.L., stamped Lalanne, dated 2017 and numbered 1/1M (to the edge)

gold patinated bronze and galvanized copper

49 by 93 by 91 cm. 19¼ by 36½ by 35¾ in.

Executed in 2017. This work is number 1M from an edition of 1.

CLAUDE LALANNE

FRANÇOIS-XAVIER LALANNE

CONSOLE VÉGÉTALE

monogrammed  FXL, stamped  LALANNE, dated  2011  and numbered 1/8A (to an edge) gold patinated bronze 85 by 185 by 51 cm. 33½ by 72⅞ by 20 in. Executed in 2011. This work is number 1A from an edition of 8.

CONSOLE VÉGÉTALE

monogrammed fxl, stamped LALANNE, dated 2011 and number 1/8 B (to an edge)

gold patinated bronze

84 by 184 by 51.5 cm. 33 by 72½ by 20⅛ in.

Executed in 2011. This work is number 1B from an edition of 8.

FRANÇOIS-XAVIER LALANNE

Photo of Pauline and Constantine Karpidas with Pauline wearing a Lalanne necklace

© 2025 ADAGP, PARIS AND DACS, LONDON

CLAUDE LALANNE UNIQUE ORCHIDÉE BROOCH

galvanized copper

10 by 12.5 by 3.5 cm. 4 by 4⅞ by 1½ in.

Executed circa 2000. This work is unique.

galvanized copper diameter: 12 cm. 4¾ in.

Executed circa 1985. This work is unique.

CLAUDE LALANNE

UNIQUE PAPILLON NECKLACE

UNIQUE SERPENT BROOCH

stamped LALANNE (to the underside)

Executed in 1994. This work is unique.

CLAUDE LALANNE

galvanized copper

25 by 10 cm. 9⅞ by 4 in.

stamped  LALANNE (on a leaf); stamped  ARTCURIAL PARIS (to the inside)

copper and leather

19.5 by 19.5 by 4.5 cm. 7¾ by 7¾ by 1⅝ in.

Designed circa 1989.

CLAUDE LALANNE ORCHIDÉE HANDBAG

gilt

PAIR OF UNIQUE PHYSALIS EARRINGS

Executed circa 2000. This work is unique.

CLAUDE LALANNE

stamped LALANNE (to the underside) each

galvanized copper

7 by 4 cm. 2¾ by 1½ in. each

WARHOL KOONS

ANDY WARHOL

A protean and emblematic figure of post-war American art, widely regarded as the Father of Pop Art, Andy Warhol occupies a complex position at the intersection of popular culture, commercial media, and avant-garde practice. Initially trained as a commercial illustrator, Warhol quickly transformed the visual language of consumerism into an innovative artistic idiom through his pioneering use of silkscreen printing.

Throughout his career, the influential gallerist Alexander Iolas played a pivotal role in Warhol’s commissions and the dissemination of his work. Often credited as the man who discovered Warhol, Iolas staged his first solo exhibition in the summer of 1952, featuring Warhol drawings inspired by Truman Capote’s writings. Iolas would remain a close collaborator for decades, ultimately commissioning Warhol’s final series of paintings dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper in 1986.

Warhol’s early works from the 1960s embody a dispassionate repetition and mechanised detachment that both celebrate and critique the burgeoning celebrity culture and capitalist commodification of the postwar era. In the 1970s and 80s, Warhol’s œuvre expanded beyond the confines of Pop imagery into more experimental realms, encompassing abstract gestures and provocative explorations of identity. The Oxidation paintings exemplify a deliberate subversion of the gestural grandiosity associated with Abstract Expressionism, while the Ladies and Gentlemen series challenges prevailing social hierarchies by foregrounding marginalized subjects within the conventions of high art portraiture. These later works reveal Warhol’s enduring commitment to interrogating cultural norms and the complex dynamics of visibility and representation.

In his final decade, Warhol engaged in a sustained dialogue with the canon of art history, reworking iconic images by Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, and Giorgio de Chirico through his characteristic silkscreen process. By cropping, distorting, and chromatically altering these familiar masterpieces, Warhol destabilised their authoritative aura, transforming revered artworks into stylised pastiches that reflect the mutable status of cultural icons in the age of mass reproduction. Series such as Art from Art, Reversal, and Retrospective articulate a sophisticated meditation on authorship, mortality, and the endless circulation of images in contemporary society. Far from mere pastiche or commercial spectacle, these late paintings attest to Warhol’s persistent interrogation of artistic legacy, fame, and the mediation of meaning, situating him as a pivotal precursor to postmodern appropriation and conceptual art.

Warhol photographed in London, November 1975

ANDY WARHOL

THE SCREAM (AFTER MUNCH)

signed and dated 84 (on the overlap)

in 1984.

acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas

132.4 by 97 cm. 52 by 38¼ in.

Executed

ANDY WARHOL

MADONNA AND SELF-PORTRAIT WITH SKELETON’S ARM (AFTER MUNCH)

signed and dated 84 (on the overlap)

acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas

129.7 by 180.4 cm. 51⅛ by 71 in.

Executed in 1984.

Formerly in the collection of Rupert

Jansen Smith

signed, titled, numbered  6/6 and dated 74  (on the overlap)

and silkscreen ink on canvas

101 by 101 cm. 39¾ by 39¾ in.

Executed in 1974.

ANDY WARHOL MAN RAY

acrylic

ANDY WARHOL

THE POET AND HIS MUSE (AFTER DE CHIRICO)

acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas

127 by 106.5 cm. 50 by 42 in.

Executed in 1982.

JEFF KOONS

Emerging in the 1980s—a decade marked by the rise of media spectacle and postmodern appropriation— Jeff Koons quickly asserted himself as a key figure in the radical dismantling of the established hierarchies between high and low culture, originality and reproduction. Embracing the aesthetics of mass production and consumer desire as central motifs, Koons re-contextualised everyday objects as aspirational relics. The New and Equilibrium, saw encased vacuum cleaners displayed for their newness and basketballs meticulously suspended in aquarium tanks, transformed into polished icons of contemporary life. Through painstaking fabrication processes—from glass casting to industrial finishing— these banal commodities were elevated, oscillating between celebration and critique of the relentless commodification and spectacle saturating late capitalist culture.

Koons’ œuvre is characterised by its radical redefinition of artistic labour and authorship. Eschewing direct handcraft, he employs teams of fabricators to realise his meticulously conceived concepts, a strategy that situates him within a lineage extending from Duchamp to Warhol. The Statuary series, initiated in the mid-1980s, exemplifies this approach by monumentalising kitsch objects and cultural archetypes in polished stainless steel. Likewise, Koons commissioned master artisans from Southern Germany and Northern Italy to produce the polychromed wooden sculptures for the Made in Heaven series. Works such as French Coach Couple and Poodle destabilise boundaries between historical opulence and contemporary spectacle, transforming banal imagery into objects of contemplation and desire.

In other bodies of work such as the Banality and Antiquity series, Koons persistently negotiates the tensions between commerce, art history, and popular culture. His signature sculptures—Balloon Dog and Balloon Venus among them—combine seductive surfaces with layered conceptual concerns, reflecting a world where value is determined by visibility, circulation, and effect rather than traditional aesthetic criteria.

Jeff Koons with Poodle photographed at Made in Heaven, Sonnabend Gallery, New York, 1991

JEFF KOONS / BOB ADELMANS

JEFF KOONS

POODLE

incised with the signature, dated ‘91 and numbered 3/3 (on the underside) polychromed wood

58.4 by 100.3 by 52.1 cm. 23 by 39½ by 20½ in. Executed in 1991. This work is number 3 from an edition of 3 plus 1 artist’s proof.

JEFF KOONS

FRENCH COACH COUPLE

stainless steel

43.2 by 39.4 by 29.8 cm. 17 by 15½ by 11¾ in.

Executed in 1986. This work is the artist’s proof aside from the edition of 3.

BOURGEOIS

WARREN

FONTANA

SAINT PHALLE

PERRY

LOUISE BOURGEOIS

Louise Bourgeois is a renowned innovator of twentieth century art who worked in a wide range of media, materials, subjects and themes; categorising or situating her work in one distinct artistic movement is not possible. She was linked to Surrealism, American Abstraction and Feminist Art, and is best known for her large-scale sculptures and installations. Her work deals with themes of motherhood and family, sexuality and the experience of the female body as well as the revelations of the subconscious. Bourgeois referred to her practice as an unraveling of her psyche, linking her work to the psychoanalytical theory of Karl Jung and Sigmund Freud, and imbuing much of her work with ideas of jealousy, anger and loneliness, while simultaneously exploring underlying sexual tensions.

Her early work focused on printmaking and painting, but she later expanded her approach to sculpting in plaster, wood and bronze on varying scales. Surrealism’s preoccupation with the subconscious greatly influenced her. In this way, much of her work evokes and returns to her relationship with her parents, whether it’s admiration for her mother or resentment for her father. Later her marriage to art historian Robert Goldwater and the complexities of her role as both a wife and mother would engender further investigations into motherhood as in works like Echo I, 2007. Such works elicit Bourgeois’ capacity to manipulate everyday objects—clothes in this case— into incredibly evocative and resonant forms that are palpably material in their tactility.

Recognition for Louise Bourgeois’ work coincided with the second-wave feminist movement of the 1980s and the growing trend in art making and critical thinking opened new avenues for subjectivity and being. Her first full-scale retrospective in 1982 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, is testament to this, and she subsequently approached her work with a newfound vitality and energy at the age of seventy. By merging marginal standpoints into the formal rigour of contemporaneous artistic innovation, Bourgeois had paved the way in pioneering new avenues for female subjectivity, or more broadly, for an expression of embodiment that celebrated Otherness and rallied against a proscriptive historical narrative of whitemale hegemony.

Louise Bourgeois

LOUISE BOURGEOIS

ECHO I, 2007

stamped with the initials and foundry mark, numbered 1/6 and dated 07 (on the base)

painted bronze and steel

193 by 43.1 by 35.5 cm. 76 by 17 by 14 in.

Executed in 2007. This work is number 1 from an edition of 6 plus 1 artist’s proof.

REBECCA WARREN

FASCIA IV

bronze on painted MDF plinth sculpture: 140 by 53 by 34 cm. 55⅛ by 20⅞ by 13⅜ in.

plinth: 59 by 33 by 26 cm. 23¼ by 13 by 10¼ in.

Executed in 2011. This work is number 2 from an edition of 6 plus 2 artist’s proofs.

LUCIO FONTANA

CONCETTO SPAZIALE, NATURA [THREE WORKS]

i. incised with the initials and numbered 1/2 (on the underside)

ii and iii. incised with the initials and numbered EA (on the underside) bronze, in three parts

i. 43.5 by 51.5 by 50 cm. 17⅛ by 20¼ by 19⅝ in.

ii. 32 by 40 by 35 cm. 12⅝ by 15¾ by 13¾ in.

iii. 29 by 39 by 36 cm. 11⅜ by 15⅜ by 14⅛ in.

i. Executed in terracotta in 1959-60 and cast in bronze at a later date.

This work is number 1 from an edition of 2 plus 1 artist’s proof.

ii and iii. Executed in terracotta in 1959-60 and cast in bronze at a late date. This work is the artist’s proof aside from an edition of 2.

NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE

SERPENT À DEUX TÊTES

incised with the signature and numbered E.A. I/III (on the base); stamped with the editor’s stamp (on the underside of the snake)

acrylic on polyester with iron base

23.7 by 28 by 12.3 cm. 9⅜ by 11 by 4⅞ in.

Executed in 1982. This work is the first of 3 artist’s proofs aside from the edition of 7.

NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE

MY LOVE WHERE SHALL WE MAKE LOVE?

[SIX WORKS]

each signed and numbered from editions ranging from 75 to 100, one inscribed épreuve d’artiste

six screeprints in colours on wove paper

smallest sheet: 49.5 by 57.5 cm. 19½ by 22⅝ in.

largest sheet: 50.5 by 72.5 cm. 19⅞ by 28½ in.

Executed in 1968-69. These impressions are numbered and inscribed variously from or aside editions of 75 and 100.

NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE DOG VASE

stamped with the signature, numbered 11/50 and dated NA-2012-11 (on the underside)

acrylic on polyester resin

52 by 23 by 38 cm. 20½ by 9 by 15 in.

Executed in 2000. This work is number 11 from an edition of 50 plus 10 artist’s proofs.

NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE

DOG VASE

stamped with the signature, numbered  2/50 and dated NA-2012-2 (on the underside)

acrylic on polyester resin

52 by 23 by 38 cm. 20½ by 9 by 15 in.

Executed in 2000. This work is number 2 from an edition of 50 plus 10 artist’s proofs.

NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE

THOËRIS - HIPPO LAMPE

stamped with the signature and numbered 8/8 (on a plate affixed to the left foot); stamped with the editor’s stamp (on the left foot)

acrylic and gold leaf on polyester resin, bulbs and electrical system on metal base

sculpture: 90 by 31 by 37 cm. 35⅜ by 12¼ by 14⅝ in.

base: 12.1 by 30 by 70.1 cm. 4¾ by 11¾ by 27⅝ in.

Executed in 1990. This work is number 8 from an edition of 8 plus 4 artist’s proofs.

NIKI DE SAINT PHALLE GANESH

stamped with the signature and the editor’s stamp and numbered 1/8 (on the side of the left foot)

acrylic and gold leaf on polyester resin, bulbs and electrical system on metal base

sculpture: 96 by 45 by 60 cm. 37¾ by 17¾ by 23⅝ in.

base: 4.9 by 32 by 32 cm. 1⅞ by 12⅝ by 12⅝ in.

Executed in 1996. This work is number 1 from an edition of 8 plus 4 artist’s proofs.

GRAYSON PERRY

THEM AND US

glazed ceramic, in three parts

i. 64 by 33 by 33 cm. 25¼ by 13 by 13 in.

ii. 38.5 by 29 by 28 cm. 15⅛ by 11⅜ by 11 in.

iii. 68 by 33 by 33 cm. 26¾ by 13 by 13 in.

Executed in 2001. This work is unique.

DUBREUIL BONETTI

ANDRÉ DUBREUIL

André Dubreuil was born in Lyon, France, in 1951. He studied at the Inchbald School of Design in London, where he spent a formative year immersed in both design and the dynamic cultural life of the city. During this time, he connected with a broad network of artists active in London’s vibrant creative scene.

Deeply inspired by 18th-century decorative arts, Dubreuil developed a distinctive style that blended historical references with contemporary materials and forms. He began his career as a decorative painter and antiques dealer, before shifting his focus to furniture design in the mid-1980s. His breakthrough came with the sculptural “Spine” chair, a bold expression of his signature fusion of baroque fantasy and wrought-iron craftsmanship.

Working primarily with metal, Dubreuil created both unique and limited-edition pieces distinguished by a poetic sensibility. Alongside contemporaries such as Tom Dixon and Mark Brazier-Jones, he played a pivotal role in shaping the British avant-garde design movement of the 1980s.

Dubreuil’s work has been widely exhibited, with major showings at institutions including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. His pieces are also part of numerous prestigious private collections around the world.

Celebrated for his visionary approach to craftsmanship, André Dubreuil remains a central figure in the modern revival of the decorative arts.

Unknown photographer, André Dubreuil

© PHOTO: CECCOTTI COLLEZIONI

ANDRÉ DUBREUIL

UNIQUE SPECTACULAIRE DESK

patinated steel, engraved copper, coloured enamel and glass

75.5 by 187 by 101 cm. 29¾ by 73⅝ by 39¾ in.

Executed in 2012. This work is unique.

ANDRÉ DUBREUIL

UNIQUE GRAND LAMPADAIRE

patinated steel, patinated iron, patinated copper and glass beads

220 by 72 by 72 cm. 87½ by 28¼ by 28¼ in.

Executed in 2014. This work is unique.

ANDRÉ DUBREUIL

UNIQUE TABLE

patinated steel, wrought iron, painted wood and marble top

262 by 136 by 74 cm. 103⅛ by 53½ by 29⅛ in.

Executed in 2012. This work is unique.

ANDRÉ DUBREUIL

PAIR OF UNIQUE LAMPS

painted copper and enameled copper

height: 70 cm. 27½ in.

diameter: 43 cm. 17 in.

Executed in 2012. This work is unique.

ANDRÉ DUBREUIL

PAIR OF FLOOR LAMPS

patinated steel, painted copper and glass beads

159 by 43 by 25 cm. 62⅝ by 17 by 9 in.

Executed in 2013. This work is unique

ANDRÉ DUBREUIL

UNIQUE MIRROR

patinated steel, enameled copper and enameled cabochons

109.5 by 74.5 by 2.5 cm. 43 by 29¼ by 1 in.

Executed in 2012. This work is unique.

ANDRÉ DUBREUIL

UNIQUE MIRROR

painted and enameled copper, patinated steel and coloured glass beads

107 by 153 by 17.5 cm. 42 by 60¼ by 7 in.

Executed in 2012. This work is unique.

ANDRÉ DUBREUIL

UNIQUE CONSOLE

steel, engraved copper and colored glass beads

81 by 158 by 66 cm. 31⅞ by 62¼ by 26 in.

Executed in 2012. This work is unique.

MATTIA BONETTI

Originally from Lugano, Switzerland, Mattia Bonetti studied design at the Centro Scolastico Industrie Artistiche. He moved to Paris in 1972, beginning his career as a textile designer, style consultant and art photographer before turning to furniture design in 1979.

Bonetti creates unique or limited-edition pieces that combine creativity with technical precision. His work spans private interiors and public commissions worldwide, from the Montpellier tramway to cathedral choir designs. In 1987, he developed Christian Lacroix’s visual identity, and his packaging for Nina Ricci won a design award in 1992. His furniture was also featured in Jacques Grange’s 2009 redesign of the Mark Hotel in New York.

Mattia Bonetti’s work is exhibited in major museums including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, the Centre Pompidou and Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

Mattia Bonetti © REGIS DE SAINTDO / ADAGP, PARIS

BONETTI UNIQUE BOOKCASE

MATTIA

Macassar ebony, santos mahogany, walnut and patinated bronze

636 by 627 by 82 cm. 250⅜ by 246⅞ by 32¼ in.

Executed in 2011. This work is unique.

SET OF TEN UNIQUE DINING CHAIRS

monogrammed M.B. (on the editor’s plaque to the underside) each patinated bronze, iron and leather upholstery edited by David Gallery, London

126 by 50 by 59 cm. 49½ by 19½ by 23¼ in. Executed in 2011. This work is unique.

MATTIA BONETTI

UNIQUE AFRIKANIST LOW TABLE

monogrammed MB (to the side)

stained and gilded wood, patinated bronze, patinated steel, enameled glass and ceramic beads

height: 32 cm. 12½ in.

diameter: 189 cm. 74⅜ in.

Executed in 2011. This work is unique.

MATTIA BONETTI

UNIQUE BAYA SOFA

monogrammed  M.B. (to the base) gilt and stained wood and silk upholstery 93 by 243 by 103 cm. 36 ½ by 95 ⅞ by 40 ½ in. Executed in 2011. This work is unique.

MATTIA BONETTI

SIX UNIQUE WINDOWS MIRROR

patinated bronze and églomisé mirrors edited by David Gill Gallery, London

269 by 30 by 10 cm. 106½ by 11⅞ by 4 in. each Executed in 2011. This work is unique. Together with six bronze toggles for blinds.

MATTIA BONETTI

MATTIA BONETTI

PAIR OF UNIQUE DOOR MIRRORS

patinated bronze, églomisé mirror and oak edited by David Gill Gallery, London 338 by 295 cm. 133⅛ by 116⅛ in. each

Executed in 2011. This work is unique.

UNIQUE TABLE

monogrammed M.B. (to the back); monogrammed M.B. (on the editor’s plaque inside the drawer) partially painted wood, Makassar ebony and patinated bronze

MATTIA BONETTI

edited by David Gill Gallery, London 65 by 65 by 48 cm. 25½ by 25½ by 19 in. Executed in 2011. This work is unique.

UNIQUE BEDSIDE TABLE

monogrammed M.B. (to the back); monogrammed M.B. (on the editor’s plaque inside the drawer)

painted wood, patinated bronze and patinated wrought iron edited by David Gill Gallery, London

64 by 64 by 50 cm. 25¼ by 25¼ by 19½ in.

Executed in 2011. This work is unique.

MATTIA BONETTI

UNIQUE CHEST OF DRAWERS

monogrammed M.B. (to the back of the lower drawer); monogrammed M.B. (on the editor’s plaque inside a drawer) painted wood and patinated bronze edited by David Gill Gallery, London 89 by 136 by 74 cm. 35 by 53½ by 29⅛ in. Executed in 2011. This work is unique.

MATTIA BONETTI

UNIQUE DESK WITH BOOKCASE

MATTIA BONETTI

painted wood, glazed ceramic, patinated bronze and patinated wrought iron 81 by 393 by 53 cm. 31⅞ by 154¾ by 20⅞ in.

Executed in 2012. This work is unique.

UNIQUE CHEST OF DRAWERS

monogrammed M.B. (on the editor’s plaque inside a drawer)

MATTIA BONETTI

painted wood

edited by David Gill Gallery, London

78 by 176 by 60 cm. 30¾ by 69¼ by 23⅝ in.

Executed in 2011. This work is unique.

UNIQUE BED

silk and white gold gilded wood

MATTIA BONETTI

TWO UNIQUE BEDSIDE TABLES

monogrammed M.B (on the editor’s plaque) each; one table incised M.B. (to the ceramic base) faux lapis lazuli scagliola veneer, Macassar ebony, glazed ceramic, gilt bronze and silvered wrought iron edited by David Gill Gallery, London (i) 61 by 80 by 53 cm. 24 by 31½ by 20⅞ in. (ii) 61 by 80 by 51 cm. 24 by 31½ by 20 in.

MATTIA BONETTI

195 by 348 by 200 cm. 76¾ by 137 by 78¾ in.

Executed in 2011. This work is unique.

Executed in 2011. These works are unique.

ELIZABETH GAROUSTE & MATTIA BONETTI

UNIQUE SIDEBOARD

monogrammed B.G. three times and stamped DAVID GILL

GALLERY (to the bronze elements);

monogrammed M.B. (on the editor’s plaque inside)

stained sycamore, maple, oak, silver-plated bronze and iron

edited by David Gill Gallery, London

95 by 143 by 45 cm. 37½ by 56¼ by 17¾ in.

Executed in 1995. This work is unique.

ELIZABETH GAROUSTE & MATTIA BONETTI

UNIQUE SIDEBOARD

monogrammed B.G. four times and stamped DAVID GILL

GALLERY (to one door)

monogrammed M.B. (on the editor’s plaque inside one door) stained sycamore maple, oak, silver-plated bronze and iron

edited by David Gill Gallery, London

95 by 155 by 44 cm. 37½ by 61 by 17¼ in.

Executed in 1995. This work is unique.

UNIQUE SIDEBOARD

monogrammed B.G (to each door and side bronze elements); monogrammed M.B (on the editor’s plaque inside)

Executed in 1995. This work is unique.

ELIZABETH GAROUSTE & MATTIA BONETTI

gold painted wood, patinated bronze and patinated wrought iron

edited by David Gill Gallery, London 84 by 320 by 43 cm. 33 by 126 by 17 in.

MATTIA BONETTI

UNIQUE BED

oak and fabric upholstery

edited by David Gill Gallery, London

138 by 188 by 215 cm. 54¼ by 74 by 84⅞ in.

Executed in 2011. This work is unique.

MATTIA BONETTI

UNIQUE AFRICANIST STOOL

monogrammed M.B. and stamped DAVID GILL

GALLERY (to the underside)

stained sycamore, wrought-iron, glazed ceramic, stained hide and fabric upholstery

edited by David Gill Gallery, London

height: 40 cm. 15⅞ in.

diameter: 41.5 cm. 16⅛ in.

Executed in 2013. This work is unique.

ELIZABETH GAROUSTE & MATTIA BONETTI

EMPEROR LAMP

stamped DAVID GILL LONDON (to the back) patinated bronze, fabric and fringe shade

edited by David Gill Gallery, London 66 by 38 by 37 cm. 26 by 15 by 14½ in. (excluding shade)

Designed in 1999. This work is from an edition of 30 plus 2 proofs and 2 artist’s proofs.

MATTIA BONETTI UNIQUE BOOKSHELF

patinated bronze and Macassar ebony

219 by 35 by 377 cm. 86¼ by 13¾ by 143⅜ in.

Executed in 2011. This work is unique.

ELIZABETH GAROUSTE & MATTIA BONETTI

PAIR OF UNIQUE FLOOR LAMPS

gold leaf patinated wrought iron, parchment and leather shades

edited by David Gill Gallery, London

213 by 35 by 25 cm. 83⅞ by 13¾ by 10 in. each

Executed in 1995. This work is unique.

CAHUN BRASSAÏ

DALÍ & HORST

BEATON

CLAUDE CAHUN

PORTRAIT OF JACQUELINE LAMBA AND ANDRÉ BRETON

dated 1936 (in the margin)

ferrotyped gelatin silver print

18 by 15.5 cm. 7 by 6⅛ in.

Executed in 1936.

PORTRAIT OF ANDRÉ GIDE AFTER BENJAMIN PÉRET

titled in pencil, possibly by the photographer (on the reverse)

ferrotyped gelatin silver print

22.5 by 17 cm. 8⅞ by 6⅝ in.

Executed in 1936.

CLAUDE CAHUN

BRASSAÏ

GERTRUDE STEIN’S APARTMENT

the photographer’s  81 Rue du Faub. St-Jacques Paris XIV studio stamp with annotations in coloured pencil (on the reverse) ferrotyped gelatin silver print

28.5 by 21.5 cm. 11¼ by 8½ in.

Executed in 1956.

SALVADOR DALÍ & HORST P. HORST

COSTUME FOR SALVADOR DALI’S DREAM OF VENUS

pen and ink on gelatin silver print

24.5 by 19 cm. 9⅝ by 7½ in.

Executed in 1939. This work is unique.

FASHION FOR VOGUE (VERA ZORINA)

the photographer’s From the Beaton Studio Sotheby Parke

Bernet stamp, a British Vogue stamp and with annotations in pencil and ink

24

Executed in 1937.

SIR CECIL BEATON

SELECTED PORTRAITS OF MICK JAGGER AND ROBERT FRASER (2 PHOTOGRAPHS)

signed in ink (on the image); the photographer’s Cecil Beaton

Photograph and

2 gelatin silver prints each 15.5 by 24 cm. 6⅛ by 9½ in.

Executed in 1967.

SIR CECIL BEATON

(on the reverse); signed in ink (on the mat)

gelatin silver print

by 19 cm. 9½ by 7½ in.

From the Beaton Studio Sotheby Parke Bernet stamps and with title Mick Jagger in ink (on the reverse)

ROMAN, EGYPTIAN, ARABIAN, AND NEPALESE

WORKS OF ART

A ROMAN MARBLE HEAD OF MELEAGER

CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.

turned to his left, with parted lips, deep-set eyes, and short hair slightly swept up above the forehead. height: 31 cm. 121/2 in.

AN EGYPTIAN PORPHYRITIC DIORITE JAR

LATE PREDYNASTIC PERIOD/3RD DYNASTY, CIRCA 3200-2640 B.C.

of broad rounded form with pierced lug handles and wide flat rim.

diameter: 18.4 cm. 71/4 in.

A SOUTH ARABIAN ALABASTER

HEAD OF A MAN

QATABAN, CIRCA 3RD CENTURY B.C/1ST CENTURY A.D.

with tapering columnar neck and oval face with short beard, triangular nose, and drilled arched eyebrows, the almondshaped eyes with remains of shell(?) inlay, the eyebrows and a circular hole beneath the mouth formerly inlaid. height: 27 cm. 105/8 in.

A LARGE GILT-COPPER ALLOY

height: 115 cm. 451/4 in.

FIGURE OF CHINTAMANI

LOKESHVARA

NEPAL, 19TH CENTURY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The production of this exceptional book has been made possible through the contributions of many individuals. We would like to extend our particular thanks to Pauline Karpidas, Panos Karpidas, and Courtney Westerburg for their invaluable support.

We are also deeply grateful to the many contributors who played a role in shaping this publication, with special thanks to Dawn Ades, Emma Baker, Barney Hindle, and Alyce Mahon.

Furthermore, this book is the result of countless hours of dedication by the entire team at Sotheby’s, led by Oliver Barker. In particular, we would like to thank Jonathan Wills for his wonderful design, as well as Lysander Adair, Philip Alsop, Oana Barbu, Clara Besomi, Thomas Boyd-Bowman, Lorenzo Brunetti, Eliza Chubb, Heath Cooper, James Davis, Geraldine Donaldson, Julia Fischel, Ashley Flight, Raffaella Gorenflos, Sofia Gurevich, James Haldane, Ed Hall-Smith, Simon Hiscocks, Dalia Hodari, Florent Jeanniard, Gareth Jones, Melica Khansari, Caroline Lescure Hebrard, Kate Lowe, Molly McGehee, Mitzi Mina, Julie Noble, George North, Jodi Pollack, Zak Sajid, Lindsay Simon, Lydia Soundy, Alicia Stockley, Philip White, Emilie Wille, Margaret Wood, and Aleksandra Ziemiszewska for their many contributions to this catalogue.