A Claude Monet water lily painting is poised to fetch up to £40 million at auction this month, headlining Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary Evening sale alongside a rare portrait of his first wife. The two significant works offer a unique glimpse into the revolutionary artistic journey of the Impressionist master.
Leading the sale is Nympheas, painted in 1907, which carries the highest estimate ever placed on a work by the artist to come to auction in Europe, expected to sell for between £30 million and £40 million.
Sotheby’s describes the piece as a "lyrically ethereal and luminous view of Monet’s famed water lily pond at Giverny," belonging to the pivotal group of water lily paintings created between 1904 and 1909.
Joining it is Camille assise sur la plage a Trouville, an intimate early portrait of his beloved wife Camille, captured on the Normandy coast during the summer of 1870. This exceptionally rare work, one of only a few featuring his first wife – who died aged 32 in 1879 – to ever appear at auction, is estimated to achieve between £7 million and £10 million.
The painting has never been exhibited or offered for sale in the UK and has only been shown publicly once, in Paris in 1970.
Sotheby’s highlights that the paintings "encapsulate both the origins and culmination of Monet’s revolutionary artistic practice, drawing on two of his most enduring sources of inspiration: his water garden at Giverny, and his beloved wife Camille."
Helena Newman, Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe and Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art Worldwide, commented: "Seen side by side, this extraordinary ‘reunion’ brings together two defining works by Claude Monet."
She added: "Painted in 1870, the portrait of Camille reads almost as a manifesto of his pioneering plein air approach, and is remarkable for its freshness, spontaneity and immediacy of vision. Set beside the water lilies – arguably Monet’s defining and most recognisable body of work – painted almost half a century later, one can trace the extraordinary arc of his artistic evolution. In many ways, the painting of Camille reveals the origins of everything that followed, visually laying the foundations for all the revolutionary language Monet would go on to create, one that would ultimately alter the course of Modern art."
Both paintings are being offered from the same private collection. Nympheas remained in the collection of renowned patron and collector Anne Bass for nearly four decades, while Camille assise sur la plage a Trouville formerly belonged to Peggy and David Rockefeller.
After being part of major American collections for generations, both works will now be presented in London for the first time. Sotheby’s states the pair offer a "compelling through-line across Monet’s artistic evolution that would ultimately set to alter the course of art history."
Monet painted approximately 250 oil paintings of water lilies during his lifetime. The Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary Evening auction will take place in London on June 24.
