IN A RUSH
OF COLOUR

TOP RESULTS
FOR LOISEAU
& RODIN

Gustave Loiseau’s winter scene ‘Tournedos-sur-Seine’, painted in bright, atmospheric colours, features his characteristic brushwork. The artist had formative encounters with Bernard, Gauguin and others in Pont-Aven around 1890. Apparently, the plein-air painting practised there was very much in line with his own artistic intentions. His exhibitions at the Paris Salon des Indépendants from 1893 and his contact with the influential Parisian art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel around this time would be crucial to his later successful career. The price achieved at our auction is the second-highest ever realised worldwide for a work by Loiseau.

Auguste Rodin’s watercolours form an exciting counterpoint to his magnificent sculptural oeuvre in bronze. With astonishing ease, the artist manages to capture the essence of his subject on paper. The economical use of form and colour in his watercolours, which he only began to produce in his later years, enabled Rodin to develop a timelessly modern and expressive formal language, as his ‘Femme nageant’ from circa 1898/1900 impressively demonstrates. The realised price of CHF 145 000 is one of the highest auction results ever for a watercolour by Rodin.