Claude Monet’s Bord des falaises à Pourville (ca. 1882) is coming to the auction block at Christie’s Paris this October with an estimate of €11 million–€15 million ($12.5 million–$17.1 million). The brightly hued landscape is leading a sale of works from the family collection of Paul Durand-Ruel, the dealer considered most responsible helped establish Impressionism as a commercial and critical success.
The October 22 sale, titled “Durand-Ruel, Generations of Vision,” will feature 62 works that have remained in the family’s possession for generations, including paintings by Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Gustave Loiseau, Henry Moret, and Pablo Picasso. The sale will take place during Art Basel Paris week as institutions around the world continue marking the centenary of Monet’s death.
Painted around 1882 during Monet’s stay in the Normandy seaside village of Pourville, Bord des falaises à Pourville ranks among the artist’s best-known depictions of the region’s coastline. Comparable examples from the same series are now held by the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum Barberini in Germany, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The painting first belonged to collector Léon Clapusson before entering Durand-Ruel’s personal collection, where it remained in the family’s hands.
Durand-Ruel’s influence on on the art market of the late 19th century and early 20th century is hard to overstate. He championed Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, and other artists during the heyday of Impressionism and in the years afterward, at a time when their work found little support from critics or collectors. In doing so, he helped build the market for Impressionism. As Christie’s notes in the sale catalog, the family continued that commitment across five generations, assembling a collection that reflects both their eye for art and their role in shaping its history.
The collection will be exhibited at Christie’s Paris from October 16–21 before the October 22 live auction.
The Durand-Ruel name seems to be having a moment. As Christie’s prepares to auction works from the family’s historic collection in Paris, Paul Durand-Ruel’s great-great-granddaughter, Victoria Mouraux Durand-Ruel, is preparing to open Mouraux Durand-Ruel Gallery on West 25th Street in New York this September. The first show will be an exhibtion of photographs by French photographer Lucien Clergue.
