Rare Monet painting to be sold for building renovation

CHICAGO

Christie’s has been consigned to sell Claude Monet‘s “Pommiers en fleurs” (1872) by the Union League Club of Chicago to help fund a $10 million renovation of its building.

The auction house will feature the painting of a French lane with blooming white flowers and bushes at its 20th Century Evening Sale on Nov. 19. The estimate is $7 million to $10 million.

“It is a true honor to represent Pommiers en fleurs, an icon of early Impressionist painting from 1872, on behalf of the Union League Club of Chicago who has cherished it for over 120 years since its acquisition in 1895,” Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale co-head Imogen Kerr told ARTnews in a statement.

“As Monet’s first recorded depiction of the blossoming apple tree, this rare and scintillating scene employs fresh and verdant color with a youthful energy and excitement that remains palpable in its gestural execution, capturing the spirit of the critical breakthroughs Monet would find in Argenteuil, a place and time synonymous with the burgeoning Impressionist movement which would go on to change the face of art for the 20th Century.”

Club member Judge John Barton Payne purchased the painting in 1895 and sold it to the club for $500. By the late 1950s, the value of the painting rose to $20,000, and then its estimated worth skyrocketed to $900,000 in 1985. Aside from an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020, the spring scene has been on display on the second floor of the club since its purchase.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic severely hurt the historic social club. After cutting approximately 75 percent of its full-time staff, salary cuts to its management and raising $520,000 in member donations, the Union League Club approved the sale of the Monet painting in December 2020.

While the club is now in a much better financial position, it announced in March that the sale of “Pommiers en fleurs” and Walter Ufer’s “Land of Mañana” (1917) were due to a “significant mortgage” and capital for the renovation of its nearly 100-year-old building.

“We believe that now’s the time to raise capital,” board vice president Frank DeVincentis told the Chicago Tribune. “Rather than impose on our existing members with a one-time assessment, we believe that raising the funds through the sale of some art is most appropriate.”