Lucian Freud portrait of Camilla's ex-husband sells for nearly $35m | Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud This article is more than 8 years oldLucian Freud portrait of Camilla's ex-husband sells for nearly $35m
This article is more than 8 years oldPainting of Andrew Parker Bowles – formerly married to the Duchess of Cornwall – beats pre-sale estimate at Christies auction in New York
A Lucian Freud portrait of the ex-husband of Britain’s Duchess of Cornwall, Andrew Parker Bowles, sold for $34.89m in New York on Tuesday, Christie’s said.
The giant oil painting called “The Brigadier” smashed its pre-sale estimate of $30m. The British artist created it between 2003-04, shortly before Camilla married the Prince of Wales.
The painting was described by a Guardian critic as “a most insolent, scathing, and melancholy study of the self”.
“Sprawled in uniform, Parker Bowles evokes, with his red striped trousers, glamorous 19th century images of officers and imperial heroes. But he looks exhausted, saddened, wiped out.”
The Christie’s evening sale of postwar and contemporary art also broke world auction records for Italian 20th century artist Lucio Fontana, French-American artist Louise Bourgeois and American Richard Pousette-Dart.
Fontana’s “Concetto Spaziale, la Fine di Dio” – a yellow egg slashed in the canvas – sold for $29.17m, Bourgeois’ “Spider” sculpture for $28.17m and Pousette-Dart’s “Blood Wedding” for $2.63m, the auction house said.
Tuesday’s sale came the day after Christie’s sold a sensuous nude by the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani for $170.4m, making it the second most expensive work of art ever sold at auction.
It was purchased by taxi driver-turned-billionaire Liu Yiqian, one of China’s biggest art collectors, who founded two museums in Shanghai.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
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