NEW YORK—While Christie’s merged its 19th-century European art and Old Masters departments last June, Sotheby’s continues to hold two annual sales in the former category at its New York salesroom. Sotheby’s specialist Polly Sartori says the house is presenting a more tightly edited selection in its April 24 auction than in past seasons: about 80 lots valued at $30,000 and up. The crème de la crème are the paintings Washerwomen of the Breton Coast, 1870 (est. $400-500,000), by Jules Breton and the undated Woodcutter and his Wife (est. $300-400,000) by Jean-François Millet. Both artists provide glimpses of French peasant life, says Sartori: "Millet really showed it how it was, the hard, back-breaking work, and Breton used models that he posed, so it was a different point of view."

"Century 19" originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's April 2009 Table of Contents.