Latest Sale continues to report luxury findings and news from the Business Directory. This week we focus on Fine Art and the sale of Claude Monet’s 1908 painting “Le Grand Canal showcasing the Venetian waterscape.” The sale of this iconic 73cm x 72cm oil on canvas painting sold at Sotheby’s Impressionist, Modern Art and Surrealist Auction held in London on Tuesday evening 3rd February 2015 reached $35.6M (£23.7m).
The painter of light’s work with dynamic, animated views of Santa Maria della Salute had previously been on loan from the National Portrait Gallery in London for eight years since 2006 is the highest price paid ever for a Monet Venice view series painting. This infamous painting is filled with nuances of the ‘air’, or what he called ‘the envelope’ – the surrounding atmospheric conditions, the reflection of light on water created by the infamous Venetian haze – that became the principal factor of variation with these motifs’ (J. Pissarro, ibid., p. 50).
This poetic work of art was completed during what has been referred to as the peak of his career during a three-month trip where he travelled from his home in Giverny, Normandy, France with his wife at the invitation of Mary Young Hunter to the Palazzo Barbaro, a wealthy American who had been introduced to the Monets by John Singer Sargent. Monet trip to Venice in October 1908 culminated in the 28th May 1912 “Claude Monet Venise” exhibition in Bernheim-Jeune, Paris France showcasing his 37 paintings of Venice.
Image: Courtesy Sotheby’s