The J. Paul Getty Museum paid more than $65 million for an Édouard Manet painting at auction Wednesday evening in New York, shattering the record price for the French artist’s work and acquiring what the museum said would be one of the top five paintings in its collection.
Though the Getty did not disclose how much it spent to acquire Manet’s 1881 “Spring (Le Printemps),” the auction house Christie’s confirmed that the winning bid, including buyer’s premium, was $65,125,000. The previous record for a Manet was $33.2 million, paid for “Self Portrait With a Palette” in London four years ago.
Manet intended “Spring” to be the first in a series of portraits expressing the four seasons through Parisian women, but the artist died in 1883 with only two completed: “Autumn” and “Spring.” The latter is an expression of the season through a portrait of Parisian actress Jeanne Demarsy, in floral print and gloves.
“Spring” was one of the “very small number of truly landmark masterpieces of the Impressionist period” that had remained in private hands, said Timothy Potts, director of the Getty Museum. He said the Manet would become an iconic part of the museum’s Impressionist/Post-Impressionist gallery. “No artist in late-19th-century France is more important, and this is one of his finest paintings. It’s as simple as that.”
Manet painted “Spring” for his final Salon, the Paris art exhibition, in 1882, when the artist was at the height of his powers, Potts said by phone Wednesday night, LA Times informs.
