20th Century Art 
1 October 2020
20th Century Art 
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Paul Signac 1863–1935

Untitled (Le Pont Neuf, Paris)

c. 1925
graphite, watercolor and gouache on laid Van Gelder Zonen paper 10¼ h × 16¼ w in (26 × 41 cm)
estimate: $20,000–30,000
result: $17,500
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Signed to lower right 'P. Signac'. Sold with a digital copy of the invoice from Frost & Reed.
provenance: Peter Findlay Gallery, New York | Frost & Reed, London | Acquired from the previous in 1989, Collection of David and Vivian Campbell, Toronto | Thence by descent, Barry Campbell

print

In Paris it is the Seine that calls [Signac] and holds him, and he finds the most delicate shades on his palette to express the mobility of its wakes, the airiness of the bridges dissolved in the mist, the softness of the sky in which the towers and spires of the Cité rise.

Léon Deshairs, Les Aquarelles de Signac, 1921

David & Vivian Campbell

20th Century Collectors and Philanthropists

David and Vivian Campbell were prominent philanthropists of the arts in Canada and collectors of early modern masters. Over the course of half a century, David and Vivian built a collection around intimate and dazzling works by giants of early 20th century art—Picasso, Matisse, Gris, Gauguin, Munch and Rodin among them—as well as later 20th century artists such as Will Barnet, Saul Steinberg and David Hockney, who grew out of the traditions of earlier masters, with a reverence for landscape and portraiture.

The scope of the century, along with the Campbells' distinct tastes within its vastness, are presented in the selection offered here; a landscape study of Le Pont Neuf by Paul Signac from 1895, the earliest work in the sale, shares the same musicality of color as Andy Warhol's screenprint of Beethoven from nearly one hundred years later. Portraits by Matisse and Hockney, done forty years apart, both present subjects that are quirky and grounded, executed with an economy and confidence of line. Irving Penn photographs Igor Stravinsky with the same adulatory nod seen in a portrait by André Kertész of his predecessor, Brassaï. An exuberant collage by Picasso celebrates the birth of his son, while Old Man's Afternoon by Will Barnet meditates on loss and aging. A thread evident throughout the selection is the ability for the art that we love to reflect the life that we live.

David and Vivian Campbell in their home in Toronto, 1997,
with Picasso's Jacqueline tricottant. Image: Jeff Goode.
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