139 ISRAELI & INTERNATIONAL FINE ART AUCTION 20 DEC 2015 7:30 PM ISRAELI & INTERNATIONAL FINE ART AUCTION TEL AVIV, DECEMBER 20, 2015, 7:30 PM SALE 139 PREVIEW IN TEL AVIV Thu 10 December 5 pm - 9 pm Fri 11 December 10 am - 2 pm Sun-Thu /13-17 December 10 am - 6 pm Fri 18 December 10 am - 2 pm Sat 19 December 8 pm - 11 pm Sun. 20 December 10 am - 8 pm PREVIEW IN NEW YORK BY APPOINTMENT PREVIEW & AUCTION MATSART GALLERY 15 Frishman St., Tel Aviv tel +972-3-6810001 www.matsart.net בס"ד MATSART AUCTIONEERS & APPRAISERS 21 King David St., Jerusalem 9410145 +972-2-6251049 15 Frishman St., Tel Aviv 6357815 +972-3-6810001 415 East 72 St., New York, NY 10021 +1-718-289-0889 Lucien Krief Owner, Director, Expert MODERN & [email protected] CONTEMPORARY ISRAELI FINE ART DEPARTMENT FINE ART DEPARTMENT Stella Costa Alice Martinov Levin Oren Migdal Senior Director Head of Department Head of Department [email protected] [email protected] Tel Aviv Branch Manager [email protected] Evgeny Kolosov Masha Zakharova Yehudit Ratzabi Assistant Director Auction Administrator Auction Administrator [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] CLIENT SERVICES Miriam Perkal Reizy Goodwin Yoel Noorani Client Accounts Logistics & Shipping Client Services [email protected] Manager Tel Aviv Branch [email protected] [email protected] All lots are sold “as is” and subject to a reserve. Please review the conditions as they appear in the rear of the catalogue or contact us with any questions you may have. Please note that some of the works are located abroad where additional import charges may apply. Please contact our staff prior to bidding to obtain information and confirm location. bid live worldwide: www.matsart.net © 2015 Matsart Auctioneers & Appraisers, All rights reserved. PART 1 - ISRAELI ART 1v LUDWIG BLUM 1891-1975 (Israeli) Misgav Ladakh - Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter, Jerusalem oil on canvas 76 x 61 cm (30 x 24 in.) signed in English lower left, signed in Hebrew and located 'Jerusalem' lower right Mira Chen, the artist's granddaughter, has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work. $ 15,000 - 20,000 2 LUDWIG BLUM 1891-1975 (Israeli) Dead Sea landscape with camels, 1941 oil on canvas 55 x 75 cm (21 x 29 in.) signed in English lower left, signed in Hebrew, dated and located 'Jerusalem' lower right Mira Chen, the artist's granddaughter, has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work. $ 22,000 - 25,000 3v LUDWIG BLUM 1891-1975 (Israeli) Marketplace in Jerusalem, 1958 oil on canvas 50 x 60 cm (20 x 23 in.) signed and dated lower left PROVENANCE: Sale: Gordon Gallery, January16, 2000, lot 48. Elbit Imaging Ltd. Collection. Mira Chen, the artist's granddaughter, has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work. $ 16,000 - 18,000 4v LUDWIG BLUM 1891-1975 (Israeli) Old Jerusalem market scene, 1953-55 oil on canvas 25 x 35 cm (10 x 14 in.) signed and dated lower left PROVENANCE: Private collection, Australia. Mira Chen, the artist's granddaughter, has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work. $ 8,000 - 9,000 5 LUDWIG BLUM 1891-1975 (Israeli) View of Jerusalem, 1951 oil on canvas 60 x 100 cm (23 x 39 in.) signed in English lower left, signed and dated in Hebrew lower right PROVENANCE: Sale: Matsart, June 30, 2010, lot 55. Mira Chen, the artist's granddaughter, has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work. $ 38,000 - 50,000 6 SHMUEL CHARUVI 1897-1965 (Israeli) Tiberias lake, 1948 watercolor on paper 16 x 21 cm (6 x 8 in.) signed and dated lower right $2,800-3,500 7 SHMUEL CHARUVI 1897-1965 (Israeli) Fruits watercolor on paper 12 x 17 cm (5 x 7 in.) $1,200 - 1,500 8 9 SHMUEL CHARUVI SHMUEL CHARUVI 1897-1965 (Israeli) 1897-1965 (Israeli) Landscape in Atlit the Judean Hills watercolor on paper watercolor on paper 9 x 16 cm (4 x 6 in.) 13 x 19 cm (5 x 7 in.) signed lower right signed lower right $1,200 - 1,500 $1,200 - 1,500 8 10 SHMUEL CHARUVI 1897-1965 (Israeli) Haifa, 1948-49 oil on canvas 34 x 51 cm (13 x 20 in.) signed and dated lower right $ 3,800 - 4,500 11 SHMUEL CHARUVI 1897-1965 (Israeli) Seascape watercolor on paper 11 x 15 cm (4 x 6 in.) signed in English lower left and in Hebrew lower right $ 1,200 - 1,500 12v ABEL PANN 1883-1963 (Latvian, Israeli) Rebeccah pastel on paper 42 x 47 cm (16 x 18 in.) signed and titled lower right, remnants of an earlier signature lower left PROVENANCE: (Probably) Mr. Grossman, Tel Aviv. Private collection, acquired from the above, c.1950. Thence by descent. Private collection. $ 14,000 - 18,000 13 JOSEPH KOSSONOGI 1908-1981 (Israeli) Horse and a couple, 1925 oil on canvas 23 x 30 cm (9 x 12 in.) signed and dated lower left PROVENANCE: Gaby and Ami Brown collection. Private European collection. $ 1,800 - 2,200 recto verso 14 ARIEH LUBIN 1897-1980 (Israeli) Workers, 1928 (recto), Abstract (verso) oil on masonite 38 x 45 cm (15 x 18 in.) signed and dated lower left PROVENANCE: Sale: Matsart, May 18, 2008, lot 419. Private collection, Tel Aviv. $ 9,000 - 12,000 15v NACHUM GUTMAN 1898-1980 (Israeli) Jaffa port, 1940's oil on cardboard 50 x 65 cm (20 x 25 in.) signed in English lower right and in Hebrew lower left PROVENANCE: Private collection, acquired directly from the artist in 1960's, Israel. Private collection, USA. $ 24,000 - 28,000 16v NACHUM GUTMAN 1898-1980 (Israeli) Haifa port watercolor and pencil on paper 50 x 64 cm (20 x 25 in.) signed in English and Hebrew lower right $ 8,500 - 9,500 17 NACHUM GUTMAN 1898-1980 (Israeli) Carriage in Tel Aviv oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm (15 x 18 in.) signed lower left PROVENANCE: Gallery Rosenfeld, Tel Aviv (label on the reverse). Private collection, Tel Aviv. $ 35,000 - 45,000 Moshe Castel was born in 1909 in Jerusalem to a Sephardic family originating in Castille. At the age of 13 he entered the Bezalel School of Art, and graduated at the age of 16 in 1925. Feeling he could accomplish more and following the outlook of Israeli artists at the time, he moved to Paris in 1927 where he studied in the Academie Julien and assiduously frequented the Louvre Museum, studying the technique of the Great Masters of the past- Titian, Delacroix and Courbet. Few works have remained from his first years in Paris. Most of them were lost when the artist’s pictures were taken from his atelier during his visit to Israel in 1933 with the first exhibition of Ecole de Paris paintings. The few that remained were sold at a small London exhibition financed by his brother Joseph in 1928. Others were sold sporadically to people whom he met in Paris or given as payment to his landlord. Before us is the rare occasion of seeing in auction a masterpiece from this early period recently unveiled in Southern France. After his successful exhibition in London in 1928, Castel embarked on several landscapes and genre paintings of Israel. The young artist, homesick, and short of money fell back on childhood memories of walks with his mother and sisters in the Judean Hills around Jerusalem. From these memories stem the well-known scenes of the ‘Dejeuner sur l’herbe’ (Matsart sales 128 lot 22) as well as genre scenes of Sheep-herders or Women at the well. The richly detailed genre scene on auction, presents two shepherds resting after a day’s work in the summer heat- one sitting on a small eastern rug playing the flute the other, seen from the back, standing cane stretched behind his shoulders. In the background is a sprawling landscape of the Judean Hills in which are seen several women carrying water-jugs up a meandering path to a village at the top of a hill. This is a typical Early-Israeli style painting, showing the artists interest in depicting a primordial experience that reveals the fascination of the new comers with the newly met views and experiences of the land of Israel. Only that Moshe Castel was not new to the land, he was born and bred here. The village portrayed is the village of Ein Karem at the outskirts of Jerusalem which Castel knew from his walks with his mother and the details of the Church bell-tower and the olive trees are realistic details from the entrance of the village. The idyllic scene depicted according to the set stylistic rules of the Eretz Israel school- the strong Israeli light, bright colors, well defined figures and blurred background- is tempered by new French influences. This can be discerned in a new brown and light blue palette adopted by the artist, which adds a lighter touch to the Oriental looking scene, and in the well thought out composition. A tree placed in the front focuses the viewer’s attention on the shepherds in the front, but also cuts the landscape into two sides thus calling the viewer to follow the water carrier on the left slowly up the meandering path. Castel completes the composition with the shepherd to the right who according to a classical dictum is set, in contrast to the shepherd to the left, with his back facing us looking towards the horizon as an explorer examining the scene. Here we see Castel’s practice of his studies from the classical masters in the Louvre.