Three paintings by John Singer Sargent—an American artist who spent most of his life in Europe—will be included in a lot of works up for sale at Christie’s this fall. The works, from the collection of Carol and Terry Wall, are expected to collectively fetch between $12 million-$17 million during the auction house’s 20th century evening sales in New York in November.
The trio of works all depict scenes in Italy, where Sargent was born to American expatriate parents: Capri (1878), with a $4-6 million estimate; Corner of the Church of San Stae, Venice (1913), $6-8 million; and Gondolier’s Siesta (1902-03), $2-3 million. “In Pursuit of Light: The Collection of Carol and Terry Wall” also includes paintings by Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, Frederick Frieseke, and William Merritt Chase.
All three paintings will be on view at Christie’s Paris (Sept. 23-3), London (Oct. 8-9), and Taipei (Oct. 18-19) this fall. The Wall collection auction follows the success of “Sargent and Paris,” a blockbuster exhibition that was on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York earlier this year; it opened, with the title “Sargent Dazzling Paris” at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris on Sept. 23.
Carol and Terry Wall began collecting art in the 1990s, focusing on American painting at the turn of the century.