Impressionist and Modern top lots going on the block

Posted: 19 June 2012 by Sarah Greenberg, RA Magazine Editor

If you're in the Bond St area today by lunch time, run - don't walk - to Sotheby's for a last chance to see the public view, where you can glimpse some fabulous works from their Impressionist Modern sales that may soon vanish into private collections. My favourites among the works on view all share an intimate scale and personal, exploratory nature that added to my insight about the artists' work.

RA Magazine Editor's Picks:

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Miro
The cover lot of the catalogue - a stunning sky blue canvas graced with a simple, strong, poetic line that looks like the flight of a bird. A classic work by the artist.

Bonnard nude
An intimate, luminous glimpse of his wife Marthe washing herself. It may not be one of the great paintings of her in the bath, as seen recently in the show of the Stein collection, but it's not far off.

Signac
Pure pleasure to look at - a view of Paris in its pixellated Pointillist glory, awash with the colours of spring.

Kandinsky Watercolours
A gorgeous and illuminating set of eight watercolours in which we can see Kandinsky working out his theories of abstraction. Choosing just one of them would be unfair - so we're illustrating them all here - if I got my wish, an enlightened philanthropist would buy the set and then loan them to a museum.

Schiele drawing
A Schiele erotic drawing that packs a punch, in which every sinuous line counts.

Chagall Wedding painting
Chagall without the schmaltz - a classic, heartfelt and somewhat melancholy dream of love and marriage.

Henry Moore Mother and Child
This domestically scaled work proves that bigger is not always better when it comes to Henry Moore. This loving look at a mother and child playing with an apple shows a tender side of the artist.

Bacon
A penetrating study for a self-portrait - where veils of paint seem to imply that the older Bacon is reflecting back on his younger self. This small, meditative painting somehow brings us face to face with the artist.