Where Love Wins — and Loses

Pablo Picasso Philips Wouwerman Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Edgar Degas Claude Monet Federico Barocci Marten Ryckaert George Stubbs

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The game has spectacularly changed for collectors since the dire days of last November. Suddenly, the depletion of the art market has been made apparent as seldom before. But the consequences vary greatly depending on the field.

In Impressionist and modern masters, the art drought is such that setting out to build up a significant collection, even with hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank, is no longer a realistic prospect. The truly great works of Impressionism are gone.

Paintings that sound great when described in catalogue entries, which note the many exhibitions in which they were featured, look less so when seen in the flesh.

Of the two Monets from the vintage years of early Impressionism that came up this year, neither was entirely satisfactory. Dans la prairie, dated 1876, which was offered at Christie’s London in February, would have been beautiful with its free rendition of tall grass swaying in the springtime breeze, were it not for the stubborn, reddish face of a woman emerging in the middle.

The large price, £11.2 million ($16.2 million), paid for it says more about the desperation of buyers in search of pictures by the most famous of all Impressionists than about the greatness of the work. It came with a warning — think twice before paying a maximum for pictures that are only partly satisfactory. When seen in London on June 28, 1988, the picture had realized a huge £14.3 million ($24.3 million). On its next auction appearance, at Sotheby’s New York on November 11, 1999, the Monet cost only $15.4 million entailing a substantial loss. The $16.2 million it made this year, less in buying power than the 1999 price, amounted to another loss. Two owners in succession thus lost money on the picture, illustrating this other market rule. As quantities dwindle, second-division works first go up, artificially promoted by marketing teams. Then, as quantities dwindle further, most buyers lose interest, and at that point the second-raters go down while unforgettable masterpieces, if any, soar sky-high, courtesy of museums and a handful of international buyers.

Also, beware of works declared authentic on purely legal grounds. The posthumous Degas casts graced with the artist’s signature and sold as the real thing are among the most blatant cases of legally sanctified artistic misrepresentation. Because his heirs held the copyright to the master’s signature, they had the right to have bronze casts made of the wax figures found in the artist’s studio at his death. From an aesthetic standpoint, these bronzes are no more authentic than a good copy of Degas paintings might be. Worse, the copy could closely resemble the original, but the bronzes never will. As has been mentioned in this column, the trimming and patination are essential operations in giving a bronze cast its final appearance. If carried out without the artist taking any part in them, the bronze is not even a copy of the original. It is an interpretation.

That did not stop a cast of the famous teenage ballet dancer, dubbed Petite danseuse de quatorze ans, from climbing to £13.2 million ($18.8 million) at Sotheby’s London on February 3 this year. For the moment, other casts likewise executed after the artist’s death between the two world wars are on view in the grandest institutions, from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris to the Metropolitan Museum in New York. No one can say how long it may take before realism prevails and posthumous works are more modestly labeled "Bronze, after a Degas original."

The dearth should not entirely deter those who love the avant-garde movements that succeeded each other from 1870 until World War I. If a collection can’t be formed, at least individual gems can be found.

On May 6 in New York, a marvelous landscape painted by Monet in 1872, Voilier sur le petit bras de la Seine, Argenteuil, went for $3.5 million. Almost double the high estimate, this was still not excessive for an admirably composed river landscape. Not yet truly Impressionist because it lacks the rendition of volume through brushstrokes in different grades of the same color, the river view is one of those masterpieces that transcend school characterization.