A rguably one of the artist's finest creations, Rembrandt’s self-portrait sold for £14.5 million, and set the scene for an auction filled with masterful examples of portraiture through the ages. The jewel-like canvas was joined by a number of works from masters of the genre, including Henri Matisse’s elegant and sensuous 1942 painting Danseuse Dans un Intérieur, Carrelage Vert et Noir that inspired energetic bidding from several clients around the world, bringing £6.5 million.

Other works include Jenny Saville’s mesmerising Stare III which reached £3.1 million and Kehinde Wiley’s Alexander I, Emperor of Russia which sold for £175,000, demonstrating that his stock continues to rise after his commissioned portrait of President Barack Obama was recently unveiled in the White House.

Works exploring abstraction were represented in almost every category, with Andrew Graham-Dixon asserting the very genesis of the concept can be traced in part to the drapery of fabric in the work of the Old Masters, right through to artists of the 19th century who began to challenge the limitations of figurative painting, and began a pioneering journey in towards abstraction.

One of the finest examples of Joan Miró's 'dream paintings', many of which reside in museum collections around the world, Peinture (Femme au chapeau rouge) – which was once owned by fellow artist Alexander Calder – is an extraordinary example of an artist at the height of his creative experimentation, and after a lengthy bidding battle went on to achieve £22.3 million.

David Hockney’s Pool on a Cloudy Day with Rain (Paper Pool 22),from his celebrated Paper Pool series sold for £4.9 million. The series is comprised of a limited number of vibrant, unique works that marry Hockney’s most enduring and acclaimed motif with an entirely new artistic technique involving wet paper pulp and vivid coloured dye.

T he sale was anchored by one of the most important and comprehensive collections of works spanning the 19^th and 20^th centuries, encompassing artists working in different styles and media, but all concerned with the same crucial questions about representation. Notable highlights include Pablo Picasso’s tender and intimate 1931 portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter Femme endormie which sold for £7.3 million, and Fernand Léger’s 1914 Nature morte which found a buyer for £12.2 million.

Other notable works in the collection include a sculpture, Femme debout, by Alberto Giacometti and Kandinsky's Murnau - Schloss und Kirche II (Murnau - Castle and Church II) which sold for £10.6 million and £1.3 million respectively.

Bronzes by Giacometti and Henry Moore from this collection underline the different approaches that artists took: Moore’s abstracted figures drew on the natural world, whereas Giacometti turned to man’s inner psyche as inspiration for his highly-stylised figures. The collection was 100% sold and achieved £44.7 million.

Comprising works of sculpture that narrate the earliest phases of her ascent as an artist in New York, through to the fabric pieces and emotive gouache works which bespeak a reflective ‘Old Age’ style, the collection was put together by European collectors and together delivers a nuanced insight into the grand legacy that Bourgeois left behind.

In contrast to the Surrealists such as Ernst, Dalí, and Breton whose works exoticised the female hysteric, and Dorothea Tanning’s anatomical aberrations in streamlined soft form, Bourgeois’s unwieldy and macabre rag-dolls invoke an overriding sense of pain and suffering – a pronounced trait of the artist’s late work. The 2004 sculpture Arched Figure sold for £1.2 million, and additional works from the collection are still available for bidding in the Contemporary Art Day Sale.

Contemporary Art

Louise Bourgeois, The Architecture of Memory: Works from a Private Collection

E lsewhere in the sale, there were a number of auction records set, with Henri Laurens's 1920 cubist composition Le Boxeur one of the notable examples, selling for six times its high estimate at £2,055,000.

The strength of sales for British art was reinforced when Orpheus (Maquette I), a sculpture by one of Britain's most important Modernists, Dame Barbara Hepworth, provoked a bidding war on the phones and in the saleroom, driving the price up to nearly four times its estimate, soaring to £1.2 million. Alongside this, Cedric Morris' Cabbages made its auction debut for a record-breaking £350,000.

Casting back to the Dutch Masters, Bellotto's recently-restituted Dresden, A View of The Moat of The Zwinger has remained relatively unknown for much of the 20^th century, but this evening burst on the scene and rose significantly past its estimate to £5,437,400.

This monumental cross-category sale ushers in a new era for Sotheby’s; leading the way in saleroom innovation in the global marketplace, and achieving a total of £149,730,290.

As this first-of-its-kind marquee sale draws to a close, the summer season continues throughout the week with the last few days of bidding in the online Day Sales for Old Master Paintings and Drawings, Impressionist and Modern Art, Modern and Post-War British Art and Contemporary Art.