Over the Moon
A Tintin drawing makes a record in Paris and a not-toofrightening Bacon will be at the Royal Academy
THE fake news—les infox —that Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon was vigorously refuted on November 20 at the Artcurial sale in Paris devoted to the World of Hergé. Proof positive was the original 10¼in by 11½in ink, ecoline and watercolour drawing showing that the American astronaut was welcomed to the Moon by Tintin, Capt Haddock, Snowy and Prof Calculus, who had first landed there in the 1950s (Fig 1).
As it was drawn by Hergé in 1969 at the time of the Apollo 11 mission, who could doubt that it was true?
The price of €573,000 (£481,583), a European record for a coloured Hergé drawing, provides further support for this view. What is not explained (although it may be in one of the books, Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon, which I have not read for a while) is how Calculus had managed to produce a welcoming bunch of roses.
Artcurial, incidentally, has an almost familial connection to Hergé. It is part of the Dassault industrial group and is based in the former townhouse of the eminent aircraft designer Marcel Dassault; he appeared as the manufacturing tycoon Laszlo Carreidas in Flight 714 to Sydney and in the unfinished Tintin and Alph-art.
Given the splendour of its Monaco premises, Artcurial had no need to remodel itself during the various lockdowns, unlike the Drouot auction hub in Paris, which took the opportunity for a thorough overhaul of its tired sale rooms and warehousing.
All in all, Artcurial had a good year across the board and it was instructive, if in some respects saddening, to see how the €169 million annual total was composed: 48% came from 20th- and 21th-century art, 21% from collectors’ cars and automobilia, 18% from jewellery, watches and other luxury accessories and only 13% from all the fine-art categories. This includes not only Old Master paintings, drawings and prints, but Asian and Islamic art, furniture, works of art, books and manuscripts.
For much of my life, I have believed that I would find it impossible to live in any way happily with a Francis Bacon painting, although I have come to respect his work much more than I did. Now, I believe I could probably be comfortable with one of his comparatively late bullfighting series, particularly the 1969 Study for Bullfight No.1, on my wall—given space and an unfeasible amount of money. It will be in the forthcoming ‘Bacon—man and Beast’ show at the Royal Academy (Artist of the week, January 27, 2021), so I will see if my feelings really have changed.
The integrated dance movements of bull and toreador are mesmerising, as aficionados say the fights are in reality. At 78in by 58in, size might still be a deterrent, but at Artcurial in November there was one of the edition of 150 coloured lithographs (Fig 2) that Bacon made of it in 1971. This was a slightly more manageable 63in by 47¼in, and the price of €44,200 (£37,149) was nothing at all compared with even a minor Bacon painting.
Another autumnal lot that appealed to me was a rare, fine and unusually intact late-13thor early-14th-century Persian Ilkhanid lustre pottery star tile decorated with a fox in a landscape (Fig 3), measuring 8¼in point to point. It was inscribed with the Throne Verse, āyat
al-kursī, which is one of the most frequently recited verses of the Quran as it brings both physical and spiritual protection. The tile provoked strong competition, resulting in a price of €123,500 (£105,026) over the €7,000 estimate.
Artcurial will also be offering a highly important collection of 100 18th-century portraits of the French royal family, courtiers, statesmen and figures of the Enlightenment on February 15. Several will be by Mme Vigée-le Brun (one a portrait of Queen Marie Antoinette), as well as a superb self-portrait by Van Loo. I look forward to reporting on the sale.
Another remarkable collection was sold by Sotheby’s in Paris on December 17. Claude Sorbac, who died aged 100 last March, was the son and grandson of great collectors, but much was lost during the Second World War. His own passion was for Lalique, and he was able to find good examples when remaking his fortunes in South America. René Lalique is chiefly remembered now for his glass creations, but he was first famous as an Art Nouveau jewellery designer and, eventually, Sorbac sold off his glass to focus on that element. He then refined his holdings, so that the collection at Sotheby’s, offered on behalf of his eight children, comprised only 39 fascinating pieces.
The top lot, which he had bought from a Lalique descendant in 1976, was an ivory, horn, enamel and diamond hair comb modelled as a Cattleya orchid (Fig 5); it sold for a mid-estimate €738,500 (£626,645). A 1904–05 tiara (Fig 6), made of glass, enamel and diamonds and featuring purple pansies and perhaps lilies-ofthe-valley, made €163,800 (£138,405). This was the perfect Art Nouveau adornment, but what of ‘Chanteclar’, a truly extraordinary shoulder-spanning collar with paired roosters constructed of openwork leather, embroidered silk, glass and a citrine (Fig 4), which made €138,600 (£117,176)?
One of the smallest items, apparently the favourite of Sorbac’s 27-year-old youngest daughter Claire, made €126,000 (£106,988). This was the Papillon de Nuit (night moth) brooch (Fig 7) with moving wings decorated in cloisonné enamel and diamonds. It was made in about 1900.
Next week Beauty and beasts