KOLLER VIEW 4/23

8 Félix Vallotton Vallotton’s forty or so paintings of sunsets, created between 1910 and 1925, are among his boldest pictorial creations and play a prominent role in his overall oeuvre. All were inspired by the countryside around Honfleur, where the artist spent his summers from 1909. ‘Coucher de soleil, nuages bleus’, which was in a private collection for decades and was included in the exhibition ‘The Sunsets’ in Bern and Martigny, Switzerland in 2004 and 2005, is a particularly impressive work from this group. Félix Vallotton (1865–1925). Coucher de soleil, nuages bleus. 1918. Oil on canvas. 46 × 54 cm. Estimate: CHF 750 000/1 000 000 Emil Nolde Emil Nolde, who began an apprenticeship as a com- mercial artist in St Gallen at age 24, maintained con- nections with Switzerland throughout his life; the Alpine world made a lasting impression on the artist. Two years after the death of his wife Ada, the artist married Jolanthe Erdmann in 1948. Their honeymoon took him to Switzerland for the last time. He made the watercolour ‘Mountain Lake’ during this final trip to the Alps. In his preferred watercolour technique, Nolde once again conjures up a colour-intensive and won- derfully harmonious depiction of the Swiss mountain landscape. Emil Nolde (1867–1956). Mountain lake. 1948. Watercolour on Japan paper. 26.5 × 45.6 cm. Estimate: CHF 80 000/120 000 Pablo Picasso Like many of his contemporaries, Picasso admired the works of the Baroque poet Luis de Góngora y Argote, which were peppered with metaphors and allegories. In 1948, the artist illustrated twenty of Góngora’s poems with ornamental motifs, small dra- wings and twenty portrait etchings. It is probably no coincidence that Picasso painted this portrait of a woman from 1949 on the printed cover of one of these ‘livres artis- tiques’, for it is dedicated to two of his artist friends, the French-Russian writer Elsa Triolet and her husband, the Surrealist poet Louis Aragon. Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). Portrait of Françoise Gilot. 1949. Ink and watercolour on paper. 38 × 28.5 cm. Estimate: CHF 180 000/280 000 AUCTIONS 1 DECEMBER 2023 SWISS ART Laura Koller lkoller@kollerauctions.com IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART Jara Koller jara.koller@kollerauctions.com ONLINE CATALOGUES www.kollerauctions.com ©Nolde Stiftung Seebüll © Succession Picasso / 2023, ProLitteris, Zurich