Piguet Auction House to offer Works by Albert Anker and Ferdinand Hodler Directly from the Families of the Artists

Piguet Auction House will be presenting exclusively the unpublished works of two masters of Swiss art: Albert Anker and Ferdinand Hodler. Around 120 sketches, watercolours and oil paintings directly from Albert Anker’s family will appear on the market for the first time at the sale on Wednesday 20th June with a global estimate of CHF 320,000-480,000. The Hodler collection includes around 15 drawings and objects that have remained in the family until the present day. Among these are the studies for greatest masterpieces of the artist.

During the viewing from 15th-17th June, visitors can also see a variety of superb publications with high quality covers and bindings as well as rare books on travel from the 16th to 20th centuries from the Louis Rey collection. Professor of Sciences, Rey went beyond his role of scientist to become an inventor and explorer with research expeditions in the Far North, leading him to make major technological and ecological advances.

This June 2018 auction will also include Olympic medals from the most celebrated Swiss athlete ever, Asian art, Silverware, Fine Jewellery and Watches, bringing the global estimate to CHF 3-4 million.

This June, Piguet Auction House will reveal an important ensemble of around 120 works directly from the estate of Albert Anker. None of the works has ever appeared on the market and the vast majority have never been on public view; such is the exclusive nature of their presentation.

This exceptional collection will attract followers of the artist without a doubt. Emblematic works of the artist such as the portrait of “Marie Anker writing” in which his dexterity in portraying the innocence of his sitters in a calm and harmonious atmosphere can be appreciated clearly by the onlooker (lot 1128 estimated at CHF 200,000-300,000).

Running simultaneously to the exhibition organised by Geneva’s Art and History Museum and the Kunstmuseum in Bern to mark 100 years since the death of Ferdinand Hodler, Piguet Auction House will sell a selection of drawings and objects from the estate of the artist that have been sheltered away to this day.

Many of the studies to be put up for auction were the grounds for the creation and realisation of some of Hodler’s masterpieces. Preparatory works for “Daytime” (Le jour) and “Endless gaze” (Regard vers l’infini) – housed at the Kunstmuseum in Bern and Kunstmuseum in Winterthur – will be presented for sale (lots 1092 and 1080, estimated at CHF 1,500-2,500 and CHF 1,000-1,500).