Tsarouchis triumphs - at Bonhams Greek Sale in Paris

2024-11-21

New world record for a Yannis Tsarouchis work

Paris – Jeune homme posant comme Eros avec une chaise anglaise (Youth posing as Eros next to an English chair) by one of the leading painters of the '30s Generation, Yannis Tsarouchis (1919-1989), set a new world record for a work by the artist at auction at Bonhams Greek Sale in Paris on 20 November 2024. It sold for €571,900 having been estimated at €400,000 to 600,000. Painted in the early to mid-1960s, Tsarouchis' signature male subject was a bold artistic statement offering fresh insights into issues of cultural and sexual identity. Sculpturesque and monumental, this young, posing Greek figure can be considered as a modern Kouros.

The Greek Sale is a collaborative sale put together by Bonhams in London and Paris and its associates in Athens, Art Expertise. It realised €2,956,720 with 69% sold by lot and close to 100% sold by value.

Director of Art Expertise in Athens, Terpsichore Angelopoulou, commented: “This was a high-quality sale with paintings from all the major eras of Greek art attracting keen interest. Many works met or exceeded their upper estimates, and it was encouraging to see a wide range of bidders not only from the Greek speaking world but from other countries too. We expect this trend to continue in 2025."

Other highlights of the sale included:

Eroticon, 1997 by Yiannis Moralis (1916-2009). Highlighted by the poetry and eroticism of the curved line, Eroticon recapitulates the artist's long preoccupation not only with the suggestively rendered human form, but also with the musical resonance generated by the combination of shapes and colours. Estimated €300,000 to 500,000, it sold for €483,000.

Hydra - Landscape II by Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika (1906-1994) is a 1946 oil on canvas formerly in the collection of Professor George Michailides in Athens sold for €171,850 more than three times its estimate. This blissful seaward view with the red-roof houses, sloping terrain, jagged stone walls, and derelict windmill surrounded by flora is painted from the artist's home studio, the Ghika family's imposing mansion perched above the quaint old harbour of Kamini.

Harbour scene by Constantinos Volanakis (1837-1907), virtuoso work from the master seascape painter, sold for €76,600. Executed with great spontaneity, the painting demonstrates the artist’s sense of space, remarkable precision of detail, harmony of proportion and unity of effect which come together to create a composition of austere beauty.

Vincenzo Cornaro and Georgios Chortatzis by Nikos Engonopoulos (1907-1985) sold for €76,600.