One of the most important private collections of prints and works on paper assembled in the 20th century comes to Christie’s London saleroom next month.
Spellbound – The Hegewisch Collection, is an opportunity to acquire rare and important prints and works on paper by some of the greatest artists of their time including Dürer, Rembrandt, Goya, Munch, Dix, Picasso and more.
From its beginnings, the Hegewisch Collection was guided by dedication, intellect, and an unwavering eye for the unusual and outstanding. Klaus Hegewisch, a Hamburg merchant and passionate sailor turned connoisseur after World War II, built a collection defined by artistic excellence, psychological depth and personal resonance.
As well as living with their collection, the Hegewisch family strongly believed it should be shared and, frrom early on, works were lent generously to exhibitions across Europe, the USA, Japan and Australia. In 1997, a dedicated space – the Hegewisch-Kabinett – was established at the Hamburger Kunsthalle to house rotating exhibitions dedicated to individual artists and a variety of subjects, running for two decades and earning critical acclaim.
Spellbound – The Hegewisch Collection will be offered through a series of sales, with the first auction taking place on 16 October during the 20/21 Marquee Week coinciding with the Frieze Art Fairs in London.
Highlights include:
- Pivotal works by Pablo Picasso such as Le repas frugal (1904; estimate: £1,500,000-2,500,000), his first great print and a key work between the Rose and the Blue Periods.
- A selection of Edvard Munch’s most famous and emotionally charged prints including Madonna (Woman making love) from 1895 (estimate: £70,000-100,000) a lithograph fusing beauty, eroticism, and mortality.
- Los Caprichos by Francisco de Goya (estimate: £120,000-180,000), first published in 1799 and at the time the largest series of prints ever conceived by a single artist.
- Albrecht Dürer’s engravings Adam and Eve (1504; estimate: £120,000-180,000) and Melencolia I (1514; estimate: £100,000-150,000), two of the most famous prints of the Renaissance.
- The Three Trees (1643) by Rembrandt (estimate: £200,000-300,000), admired for its highly atmospheric depiction of a storm about to break.
Tim Schmelcher, International Specialist, Christie’s London, said: “Christie’s is honoured to present this remarkable collection, which reflects a life-long dialogue with art on paper. More than a survey of masterpieces, it represents a deeply personal journey through five centuries of European art and imagination, shaped by the collector’s own passions and demons. From Dürer and Goya to Picasso, Munch and Dix, the Hegewisch Collection encompasses not only the highest achievements of drawing and printmaking, but reveals unforeseen correspondences between different mediums, artists and periods, and opens sometimes enchanting, sometimes unsettling views into the depths of the human soul.”
For further information: christies.com
Image: Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait, 1895, estimate £40,000-60,000, image © Christie’s
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