Kees
Van Dongen

La Quiétude (1918) achieved Van Dongen's current auction record when it sold at Christie's London in October 2023, significantly exceeding its high estimate of £5 million. This dreamlike composition represents the culmination of influences from the artist's 1913 Egyptian journey, where he sailed down the Nile with antiquarian Joseph Altounian. During this trip, he was particularly struck by the two-dimensional silhouettes of Egyptian statuary at sites like the tombs of Beni Hasan, which profoundly impacted his approach to form. The painting features two intertwined figures - one midnight blue, one siren red - alongside birds, a dog, and a monkey against a grey background. Its composition evokes a harem scene with a "sleepy Scheherazade made modern by her heeled boots," connecting it to Van Dongen's illustrations for One Thousand and One Nights created that same year. The work's exceptional provenance adds another layer of interest - it was originally owned by Paul Poiret, the revolutionary fashion designer who was both a friend and patron of Van Dongen.

Jeune Arabe (1910) sold at Sotheby's New York in November 2009. This significant work emerged following a career-changing contract with the prestigious Bernheim-Jeune gallery in 1909, which provided Van Dongen with financial stability and enabled his travels to Spain and North Africa in 1910. The work's exhibition history reveals its importance to the artist's legacy, appearing in major retrospectives across Europe, including at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1990 and the 2008-09 international exhibition spanning Monaco, Montreal, and Barcelona. The vibrant red figure against a simple white background demonstrates Van Dongen's maturing style during what art historians consider the peak of his career. His newfound prosperity following the Bernheim-Jeune contract represented a significant shift for the artist who had previously struggled financially after his arrival in Paris. Jeune Arabe (1910) was important enough to grace the cover of Beaux-Arts magazine in 1985, solidifying its status as an iconic representation of the artist's work.

La Gitane (c.1910-11) achieved this impressive result at Christie's London in February 2010. Created immediately following Van Dongen's Mediterranean journey, this portrait demonstrates how direct exposure to the authentic subjects, colours, and light of Spain revitalised his approach to painting. The work marks a critical transition where Van Dongen found a way to merge the passion of Fauvism with more controlled representation. The woman depicted exhibits the self-assured posture characteristic of Van Dongen's female subjects, wearing countless signifiers of her nationality and cultural origins - something that was only possible due to Van Dongen’s firsthand experience in Spain. In Paris, he had primarily worked with imagined ‘exotic’ settings. Art critics have described this period in Van Dongen's development as something of an epiphany, when his direct experience with Mediterranean light and culture transformed his palette.