Francis Bacon, Self-Portrait (1972)
Modern & Contemporary Evening Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 4 March
Estimate: £8m to £12m
Following the sudden death of his longtime partner and muse George Dyer in 1971, Francis Bacon painted his own image over and over, introspective in his grief. This particular self-portrait was given by Bacon in a brown paper bag to his doctor Paul Brass as a gift to thank him. In early 1972 Brass made a house call to Bacon’s studio in order to stitch up a facial injury sustained during a fight with a lover. Brass later recalled: “I said, ‘You’re going to have to see a plastic surgeon.’ He said, ‘Absolutely not—you can stitch me up now.’ So we lay him on the table in his studio. I offered him a local anaesthetic but he refused. He was so drunk I don’t think he felt anything.” Self-Portrait comes to auction from the collection of the billionaire Joe Lewis, whose family trust is the majority owner of Tottenham Hotspur.
René Magritte, Les grâces naturelles (around 1961) Courtesy of Christie’s
René Magritte, Les grâces naturelles (around 1961)
The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale, Christie’s, London, 5 March
Estimate: £6.5m to £9.5m
This famed painting of one of René Magritte’s “leaf-birds” will make its debut at auction after remaining in the same private collection for 25 years. Magritte first explored the motif in the early 1940s, when experts believe he may have been inspired by an aviary that could be seen from the window of his home in Brussels. A work based on an earlier version of the leaf-bird seen in Les grâces naturelles set an auction record for a sculpture by the artist in 2024 at Christie’s.
Osman Hamdi Bey, Cami Kapisinda (At the Mosque Door) (1891) Courtesy of Bonhams
Osman Hamdi Bey, Cami Kapisinda (At the Mosque Door) (1891)
19th-Century and British Impressionist Art, Bonhams, London, 25 March
Estimate: £2m to £3m
Painted in 1891, At the Mosque Door is a major work by the Turkish-born painter and influential cultural reformer Osman Hamdi Bey. Born into an elite family and educated in Paris, Osman Hamdi developed an academic style that he applied to subjects drawn from Ottoman life, offering a distinct perspective from the Western Orientalists. At the Mosque Door was conceived for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and later acquired in 1895 by the University of Pennsylvania for 6,000 francs. The painting comes to auction from the collection of the Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania.
Vilhelm Hammershøi, Interior of Woman Placing Branches in Vase on Table (1900) Courtesy of Phillips
Vilhelm Hammershøi, Interior of Woman Placing Branches in Vase on Table (1900)
Evening Sale of Modern & Contemporary Art, Phillips, London, 5 March
Estimate: £1.5m to £2m
Interior of Woman Placing Branches in Vase on Table (1900) is a key example from the Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi’s celebrated Strandgade interiors, executed at the turn of the century in Copenhagen. Widely regarded as the core of Hammershøi’s practice, the series explores domestic space in which light, architecture and atmosphere take precedence. The painting is from the collection of John L. Loeb Jr., the US ambassador to Denmark from 1981 to 1983. During his tenure, Loeb began forming what became the largest private collection of Danish art outside Denmark, comprising more than 140 works.
