Le Givre a Giverny, a majestic snow scene by Claude Monet (1840-1926), is to auction from the collection of George, ninth Earl of Jersey (1910-1998), at Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art Evening sale on February 5.
Le Givre a Giverny has been given a £4m-6m ($6.4m-9.6m) estimate ahead of the highly anticipated art sale.
 The Earl of Jersey originally bought the painting in cash, with the help of dealer Dudley Tooth |
Alongside the evocative snow scene, Monet's £18m ($28.7m) high estimated Nympheas Avec Reflets De Hautes Herbes, a painting finished between 1914 and 1917 and featuring the tranquil surface of a lily pond, is also to star. The thematically and stylistically significant canvas carries a £12m-18m ($19.1m-28.7m) presale estimate.
Another single oil on canvas from Monet's famous Water Lilies series sold for $43.8m at Christie's November last year, suggesting both works are set to be hotly contested.
 Will Nympheas Avec Reflets De Hautes Herbes top $28.7m? |
Sotheby's senior director Philip Hook commented that the collection "was assembled with both discrimination and love", adding: "It is particularly rare for an English aristocratic collection to contain French impressionist and modern art and even more so to contain paintings of this calibre - which makes the works now coming to market for the first time in 70 years all the more desirable."
It is thought that the Earl of Jersey was spurred on to collect the invaluable French impressionist paintings by his second wife, the glamorous American actress Virginia Cherrill. Close friends with serious art collector Edward G Robinson, Cherrill is believed to have been heavily influenced by Robinson's propitious proclivities, suggesting her affluent husband follow suit.
Here at Paul Fraser Collectibles we also have a number of superb art and photography collectibles currently in stock, including fascinating items relating to the careers of Pierre-August Renoir and Pablo Picasso, whose 1932 "golden muse" work will lead Sotheby's sale, with a £35m ($56.2m) estimate.
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