A Legacy of Beauty: The Collection of Sydell Miller

Among the finest of its kind, Nymphéas takes center stage this season, making its auction debut.

Monet’s Masterpiece, Nymphéas

Monet’s Masterpiece, 'Nymphéas'

Spanning Edgar Degas’ distillation of dance to Pablo Picasso’s elegant and dignified ode to Françoise Gilot and the dynamic abstracted forms of Joan Miró, Henry Moore and Willem de Kooning, A Legacy of Beauty: The Collection of Sydell Miller Evening Auction encapsulates a century of innovations in sculptural figuration by the foremost artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

A century of the evolving concept of three-dimensional form comes to the fore.

The Figure in Bronze

The global upheaval of World War I prompted the European avant-garde to reevaluate the artistic advancements of Cubism and adjacent movements as part of a broader cultural shift termed the Le rappel à l’ordre–the call to order. Embracing the rationality and stability offered by referents of antiquity and academic tradition, such artists re-integrated figuration into their oeuvre. Exemplified by masterworks by Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger and Henri Laurens in A Legacy of Beauty: The Collection of Sydell Miller Evening Auction, these artists merged artistic tradition with an abstract visual lexicon to herald an entirely novel creative idiom.

Reality made new: the Cubists’ response to World War I.

A Call to Order

The Collection of Sydell Miller showcases many unique works by François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne directly commissioned by Sydell Miller, marking the first time many of these magnificent designs will be seen publicly. François-Xavier Lalanne’s "Troupeau d'Éléphants dans les Arbres" Table and Claude Lalanne’s unique “Nénuphars” Consoles speak to Miller’s life-long passion and quest for beauty. Both of these extraordinary designs encapsulate the essence of Les Lalannes’ whimsical and sculptural oeuvre, as well as the artists’ fascination with the animal kingdom and natural world.

Les Lalannes

Claude Monet’s gestural water lilies and distillation of naturalistic light and color marked the advent of a seismic aesthetic shift that would change the canon of art history forever thereafter. From Monet’s deconstruction of representational form came Sydell Miller’s curated collection, charting the colossal milestones in the evolution of abstraction that rippled from the impact of Impressionism through the Twentieth Century, exemplified by the revolutionary reinventions of form of Wassily Kandinsky, Yves Klein, Franz Kline and other masters of abstraction.

The Modern era’s evolution towards abstraction.

The Dissolution of Form

New York

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EVP | Chairman, Americas

Lisa Dennison

Benjamin Doller

EVP | Chairman, Worldwide Head of Impressionist and Modern Art

Helena Newman

SVP | Vice Chairman, Global Fine Arts

Simon Shaw

Vice Chairman, Modern Art

Sharon Kim

SVP | Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, Americas

Julian Dawes

SVP | Head of Auctions, Modern & Contemporary Art, Americas

Scott Niichel

SVP | Global Head of Research, Modern

Edith Eustis

SVP | Senior Specialist

Frances Asquith

VP | Senior Specialist, Head of Modern Evening Auction

Allegra Bettini

AVP | Specialist, Modern Evening Auction

Sara Land

Cataloguer | Modern Evening Auction

Genevieve Richardson

Pre-Sale Experience Coordinator, Impressionist & Modern Art

Jonathan Boos

Impressionist & Modern Art Contacts

EVP | Chairman, Contemporary Art

Grégoire Billault

SVP | Head of Contemporary Art

David Galperin

VP | Head of Contemporary Marquee Auctions

Lucius Elliott

AVP | Specialist

Carly Gamson

Associate Specialist

Rachel Sigismondi

Contemporary Art Contacts

Chairman | Co-Worldwide Head of 20th Century Design

Jodi Pollack

SVP | Head of 20th Century Design, Americas

Carina Villinger

Associate Specialist, Head of Sale, 20th Century Design

Margaret Wood

20th Century Design Contacts

The New York Sales at Sotheby’s this November will present a series of auctions showcasing masterworks spanning over a century of artistic production. The sales feature the major artistic movements of the 19th, 20th and 21st century, from the innovations of the Impressionists to the groundbreaking works by young and emerging artists working today.

For assistance with bidding and registration, please contact: +1 212 606 7000 
 
 <a class="Link" href="mailto:enquiries@sothebys.com" target="_blank">ENQUIRIES@SOTHEBYS.COM</a>

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The product of a lifetime devoted to beauty in all its forms, A Legacy of Beauty: The Collection of Sydell Miller Evening Auction brings together some of the finest examples of artistic innovation in the twentieth century. From the monumental and forward-looking Nymphéas by Claude Monet, to the stately Neo-Classical depiction of a female artist by Pablo Picasso, and a pivotal, pre-Bauhaus exploration of color and rhythm by Wassily Kandinsky, this collection embodies Miller’s unerring eye and keen aestheticism. Joined by a stunning example of Yves Klein’s sponge reliefs, a monumental reclining figure by Henry Moore and a gilded elephant table by François-Xavier Lalanne, among other masterpieces of painting, sculpture and design, A Legacy of Beauty: The Sydell Miller Collection Evening Auction presents an ode to timeless beauty and creative feat.

A Legacy of Beauty: The Collection of Sydell Miller Evening Auction