|  | 4 OCT 2025 |
|
| This week’s stories Three paintings by Lucian Freud — each reflecting a key moment in his artistic evolution |
 | | | Self-portrait Fragment, Woman with a Tulip and Sleeping Head offer fascinating insights into the career arc of one of Britain’s greatest painters — and the private life that inspired it | | |
 | | | How pointillist pioneer Paul Signac made ‘lavish harmonies’ using touches of pure colour | |
 | | | Gerhard Richter’s Tulips (1995) — an expression of the artist’s ‘yearning for an ideal image’ | |
|
| |
 | | | ‘Possibly the best collection of first editions by Jane Austen that we’ve seen come to auction’ | |
 | | | Nigerian Modernism at the Tate in London — the art that helped shape a country’s idea of itself | |
|
| |
 | | | Historic monument meets romantic retreat: this 17th-century chateau — now with a pool and tennis courts, and only an hour from Paris — is offered through Christie’s International Real Estate | | |
This portrait of Isabella of Portugal is a copy of one made by Titian. The Venetian master, having been commissioned by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, to paint a likeness of his late wife, produced three works in response. One of these, completed in the 1540s, was the now lost original of this picture, depicting Isabella in a black gown with the imperial crown by her side Estimate: $10,000-15,000 until 17 October, Online | |
|
| |
How to Paint, a 1975 work by Anselm Kiefer, subverts the notion that art is something that can, in any straightforward way, be taught. A winter landscape at sunset, with rose and gold mountains above a riverside village, is overwritten with a flurry of black arrows directed at various elements of the work, each of which, one imagines, would have a helpful note attached Estimate: £80,000-120,000 16 October, London | |
|
| |
Louise Bourgeois’s bronze Avenza Revisited, conceived in 1968-69 and cast in 2008, takes its title from a town near the Carrara marble quarry in Italy. Evoking a strange landscape where rock meets flesh, the work calls to mind the artist’s words: ‘Our own body could be considered, from a topographical point of view, a land with mounds and valleys and caves and holes’ Price on request Private Sales | |
|
| |
With their scrolled armrests, barley-twist legs and acanthus-carved detailing, these two late Regency armchairs in Scottish oak make an imposing pair. But perhaps their most impressive feature is the wool and silk needlework upholstery in blue and red. The fabric dates from around 1720, a century earlier than the chairs, making it a remarkable survival of a prized Georgian craft Estimate: $5,000-8,000 until 8 October, Online | |
|
| | | BROWSE ALL | |
|
| |  | | • | | Natasha Wightman: how the artist was inspired to use sub-fossilised oak for her new series of works, Lost Forests, on view in London |
| |
|
| |
|  | | | |
Anytime, Anywhere | Why wait? | DISCOVER PRIVATE SALES ON YOUR SCHEDULE | | Buy Now |
 | | | |
Christie’s Education Three-day Course | Contemporary African Art | 15-17 October, Somerset House, London | | Register now |
|
| |
|