21/11/2001

On the 19th of November, Sotheby’s held their 19th Century European Paintings sale in London. The auction was divided in two sessions and totalled $ 7,364,899 (€ 8,357,634), selling 51.5% by lot. The first section was dedicated to Spanish paintings from 1850 to 1930 and offered several top quality works that fetched $ 5,659,052 (€ 6,422,078) of the final figure. The Andalusian born artist Joaquin Sorolla was the author of three of the ten highest prices of the sale. His Clotilde y Elena en las Rocas, a luminous oil on canvas dated 1905 was the top lot hammered at $ 2,503,550 (€ 2,837,813), selling to a private buyer against a pre-sale estimate of $ 1,416,336-2,124,644 (€ 1,605,483-2,408,484). Northern artists were also successful, particularly the Russian Alexis Harlamoff who provided two of the top ten lots, both selling for twice the low-end estimates. (Luisa Vassallo)