When we think of pre-modern painters, the names that come to mind are all male — the Old Masters indeed. But there were women painting too, at that time, and this 1788 portrait by Elisabeth-Louise Vigee Le Brun of Muhammad Dervish Khan, Full-Length, Holding His Sword in a Landscape sold this week at Sotheby’s for $7.18 million. This is a record for a work by any female artist from the pre-modern period.
Sotheby’s New York also sold “Nude Study” by Sir Peter Paul Rubens:
The drawing sold for $8,202,000 — a record for a drawing by the artist.
Finally, and with a serious local connection, this from Hyperallergic:
“The only complete archive of Supreme skate decks in private hands sold for $800,000 in an online sale at Sotheby’s last week. The deck was purchased by Vancouver collector Carson Guo, who plans to display the archive in his creative shop, opening in Vancouver in 2020. Assembled by collector Ryan Fuller, the archive includes all 248 decks produced by Supreme over 20 years, from 1998–2018. The archive features collaborations with a number of artists, including Damien Hist, Rammellzee, George Condo, and more.”