"PEACOCK" Franz Bergmann Austrian Cold-Painted Cast Bronze

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY "Robert Bielat was an artist’s artist, a sobriquet applied to those whose work is brilliant but idiosyncratic, deeply compelling in a way that is obvious to those who can see it, but not necessarily so to the market or to the arbiters...

"Voyeur" is a sculpture that sets out to provide one of the links in the love symbolism of the ‘key-lock’ sequence – the artifact of visualizing a love affair. There are famous images by Degas of women taking a bath and drying themselves afterward and here is how he (Degas) explained the secret of such compositions: “Naked figures are usually depicted posing for the viewer. I, however, paint the ordinary modest women, who are busy taking the usual care of their bodies… It is like watching them through a key-hole.” In this sculpture the watcher, having previously been in the dark, turns into a certain link in the love chain and becomes an artifact. In the present triad of key, lock and keyhole, every symbol acquires its own meaning in time and shape. - per Vladimir Kush "Vladimir Kush was born in Russia, in a one-story wooden house near the Moscow forest-park Sokolniki. At the age of seven, Vladimir began to attend art school until late evening where he became acquainted with the works of great artists of the Renaissance, famous Impressionists, and Modern Artists. He entered the Moscow Higher Art and Craft School at age 17, but a year later he was conscripted. After six months of military training...

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY “Leda and the Swan” is by Reuben Nakian (1897 - 1986). He was an American sculptor and teacher of Armenian extraction. His works’ recurring themes are from Greek and Roman mythology. Nakian’s small bronzes achieve majesty and power which are not dependent on size and amplitude. With characteristic freshness, he has reinterpreted the classical subject of Leda and the Swan refining it in the Classical-Renaissance-Baroque tradition in a contemporary way. Dr. Robert P. Metzger gives us his aesthetic interpretation of this work which retells the myth in classical hedonism and freedom of expression showing Leda and the Swann prior to her being ravaged and during their first meeting. “The young virgin is fascinated with her new found friend and accepts him in a spirit of playfulness, contentment and wonder. She is dreamily available and shyly seductive as the deceptively tame swan snuggles up to her with its phallic-like neck.” Leda appears composed, placid yet open and available as compared to her more intense and passionate states in other of Nakian’s depictions on the same theme. This was cast at the "Renaissance Art Foundry" in 1978 and is so marked on the base being #5 of 7. It is believed that “no other sculptor of the twentieth century matched Rueben’s heroic renditions with the grand themes of Western Art. His erotic mythological figures exude a joyous energy of gesture and movement which place them among seminal sculptural achievements of the past one hundred years.” Nakian studied at the Independent School of Art in New York City previously known as the Robert Henri School … with Homer Boss...

SALE ONE WEEK ONLY Edgardo Simone (Italian/American, 1890-1948) The Kiss patinated plaster casting sculpture for kissing nudes fountain sculpture signed to top of base. Classically trained in Italy at the Beaux Arts Academy in Rome from 1906 to 1913, Edgardo Simone became a famous sculptor in Italy and the United States using mediums of terracotta, ceramic, bronze, and plaster. He earned a Doctorate of Design and Sculpture at the Academy and then emigrated to the United States where he worked in New York, Chicago and southern California. His style was influenced by Art Nouveau, Art Deco and other modernist influences. In Italy he had received three times the Croix de Guerre and was decorated by King Victor Emmanuel II and Queen Margherita. Before moving to America, he had much recognition in Italy. He had created war, funeral and city monuments in twenty-six Italian cities. When he arrived in New York City, one of the newspapers carried a headline: "Italy's greatest Sculptor Arrives in New York." In New York, Simone became prominent in society and did many portrait busts including of Thomas Edison, John J. Pershing, Henry Ford and Louis Brandeis...

An extremely rare Harry Bertoia sterling silver brooch "Ginko Leaves." The brooch has been added to the Harry Bertoia Catalogue Raisonné and assigned the following catalogue raisonné number: D.JE.77. This piece comes from a private collection. Provenance will accompany the piece. The Brooch measures: 2.94 " long x 1.5 " wide x .30 " deep. Although associated with Mid-Century Modern furniture, Harry Bertoia was originally a jewelry designer who used both sterling silver, precious stones and gem stones. The brooch and closure are all handcrafted and the clasp is his unique design. The following is from Beverly H. Twitchell, PhD, author of Bertoia: The Metalworker, London: Phaidon, 2019. She provides a very informative critique of Bertoia and his jewelry. Wearable Art an Important Design for a Necklace “Before Harry Bertoia enrolled at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1937 he had already mastered traditional jewelers’ techniques, but his engagement with Modernism led him to invent and use more direct methods. Instead of precious metals and gems, Bertoia made jewelry that appealed through its design, craftsmanship and the nature of its materials. That approach would make Bertoia a direct predecessor of the American Studio Crafts movement. So complex and cumulative are human perception and memory that we often do not know from where our own ideas come and without firm evidence, it is impossible to think we can establish the origins of an artist’s ideas. While his jewelry is entirely modern, chokers with multiple small pendants had come from ancient Mediterranean cultures: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Italy, even from Europe and America at the turn of the last century. Did Bertoia see works in books, journals or at the Detroit Institute of Arts that resonated with him or did he invent this on his own, as he would so many other forms? Bertoia found inspiration in nature from an early age on a small farm in Italy and later in Cranbrook’s woods, on the beaches of southern California and in the fields near his home in eastern Pennsylvania where he lived after 1950. The fluidity and motion of the his jewelry characterize much of his art. In that spirit, too, he made jewelry that suited human anatomy and was animated by its wearer’s movement. Bertoia had the instincts of an engineer, as the intricacy of the present lot’s clasp and overall construction of the jewelry demonstrates. Large jewelry by Bertoia is very rare. A delight to the eye, and like all of Bertoia’s work it is timeless.” Harry Bertoia (1915 – 1978) was an Italian-born American artist, jewelry creator and modern furniture designer. He was born in San Lorenzo d-Arzene, Pordenone, Italy. At age 15 he moved to Detroit, Michigan to live with his older brother, Oreste. He quickly learned English and the bus schedule and enrolled in Cass Tech High School in Detroit (1930-1936) where he studied art and design and learned the skill of handmade jewelry making. At that time, there were three jewelry and metals teachers Louise...

Over 500 years ago Chinese potters first experimented with copper oxide glazes to create a fiery red finish that became known as Flambe. When these Sung Dynasty (AD 960 to1279) porce...

Cold-painted bronze mouse sculpture attributed to Franz Bergmann. Austria, early 20th century.

Cold-painted bronze cats sculpture attributed to Franz Bergmann. Austria, early 20th century.

Cold-painted bronze cats sculpture attributed to Franz Bergmann. Austria, early 20th century.

Cold-painted bronze cats sculpture attributed to Franz Bergmann. Austria, early 20th century.

Cold-painted bronze pheasant sculpture attributed to Franz Bergmann. Austria, early 20th century.

Cold-painted bronze cats sculpture attributed to Franz Bergmann. Austria, early 20th century.