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Want to know why large-format wines can offer so much more? I’ll explain it to you with these featured lots from our French wine auction on June 14th.

Nothing bears more faith in the generosity of a host, both financially and spiritually, than a large bottle on the table. There is something deeply civilized and carefree great about serving wine in a large format. It speaks of knowledge and kindness, of laughter, debate and joy.

Even the names of these large-format bottles are poignant: jeroboam, methuselah, salmanazar, nebuchadnezzar … A “Mathusalem de Margaux” sounds more romantic than “bottle”, right? ( lot 35260135 )

Apart from current considerations, issues related to bullfighting have been projected in the plastic arts over several centuries, evidencing the deep roots that bullfighting poetry has exercised in the imaginary of countless renowned artists who did not hesitate to immortalize through his brushes, his particular conception of the bullfighting world. In this sense, Goya’s drawings and engravings mark a turning point in this type of representation dominated until then, due to its playful and friendly character. Later, the impressionist painters found in the bullfighting universe the perfect setting in which to transform color into light and crowds into spots and brushstrokes, where the square became a metaphor for the battle between life and death that it faces. the animal. Within the avant-garde period, we cannot fail to mention Pablo Picasso who, of all the bullfighting painters, was probably the most emblematic. Among the multiple themes that the artist explored throughout his life, his passion for bullfighting acquires a special significance that he reflected through multiple artistic practices.

The fascination that bullfighting aroused on a visual and aesthetic level has been synonymous with success within the international art market , where painters such as Sorolla, Zuloaga, Regoyos, Dalí or Botero have conquered the world of collecting. Without going any further, contemporary artists such as Miquel Barceló have reached their record price with works such as “Multero”, whose auction rose to 3 and a half million dollars. Other An outstanding case is undoubtedly that of Juan Barjola, who after achieving his best results thanks to unmistakable bullfighting such as those that we will tender in Setdart soon, has managed to stabilize and consolidate its value.

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, during the fleeting period of peace and economic boom called the belle epoque, a current of artistic renewal developed in practically the entire Western world: modernism . As its name says, it is a style that seeks to create a new, young and modern art, in contrast to the dominant currents of the time, such as academicism and historicism. Modernism spreads rapidly through Europe and America through art magazines and the ease of dispersion of graphic art. Likewise, universal exhibitions such as the one in Barcelona or Paris, present both the general public and artists and patrons the opportunity to exchange ideas, access a global market and immerse themselves in an aesthetic that includes architecture and painting and that vindicates the equality of the decorative arts.

Why is provenance so important?

The provenance of a wine (its origin, life cycle and storage) is of utmost importance when buying and selling at auction.

What is the first thing you look for in a bottle of wine? The region? The producer? The vintage? When it comes to buying at auction, there is an element of the identity of a wine that is more important than all these criteria put together, because if the provenance of a wine – its origin, life cycle and storage – is not immaculate, nor even the best harvest of the greatest grand crus can be saved. For serious wine collectors, provenance is paramount.

Oriental art has always held a great fascination for western man. to the. From the first commercial contacts along the Silk Road, Europeans have been fascinated by the strange translucent material that the Chinese were able to fashion so masterfully: porcelain.

For a few decades now, Chinese contemporary Chinese art began a period of expansion and internationalization that is reflected in the growing interest it aroused in the Western art scene. . In a relatively short period of time, contemporary Chinese art went from being practically invisible and unknown to the general public to being present, starting in the 90s, in a large number of artistic scenarios worldwide. Its definitive explosion took place during the first decade of the 21st century, at which time it emerged from its rather underground consideration to position itself in a privileged place within the competitive Western art market where its value will be increasingly greater.

The success that you will experience ever since, translates into a feverish race to commercialize the most representative works of this art which, reaching its highest levels in recent years, has managed to become a regular protagonist of the most prestigious international auctions. Without going any further os, Christie’s and Sotheby’s went from sporadically bidding some of these pieces to holding periodic auctions devoted entirely to contemporary Chinese art . This phenomenon. It is not surprising if we take into account some of the results obtained in these first years of the new millennium, when the price of artists like Zeng Fanzhi soared to $ 9,703,490 at Christie’s in the year 2008.

“This is the man”. These were the words spoken by Pilate when he presented Jesus Christ, suffering and mocked, to the crowd before his crucifixion. Their intention was to mock him, mocking along with the soldiers

The most emblematic toy-making houses that were developed in interwar Europe are represented in the collection that Setdart is putting out to tender these days in its online gallery: a miniature world made up of elegant limousines, Citroën convertibles, trolleybuses, motorcycles with sidecars , Rico cars from the twenties and thirties, circus figures and all kinds of characters from the German house Günthermann …

Demétre Chiparus (1886-1947) is one of the greatest exponents of Art Deco sculpture. Born in Romania, he studied first in Italy with the sculptor Raffaello Romanelli and in 1912 he moved to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts under the direction of Jean Boucher and Antonin Mercie.

The Art Deco style is associated with both luxury and modernity, combining expensive materials, exquisite craftsmanship and modern forms. Chiparus perfects the chrysolelephantine technique, combining materials such as ivory and bronze on elegant onyx or marble bases. The demand for decorative objects for residences, new hotels and large ocean liners push the market and ensure the success of sculptors and decorators.

The Basque painter Ignacio Zuloaga (1870-1945) He arrived in the French capital in 1889 and, as a good end-of-the-century bohemian, first settled in Montmartre , where he meets Basque and Catalan country artists. On your recommendation He enrolls in one of the free academies run by the eclectic painter Henri Gervex, who welcomes avant-garde artists in his studio and where he meets Utrillo, Casas and Rusiñol, all members of the Barcelona group “Els 4 Gats”.

A veduta is a detailed representation of urban views, typical of 18th century Italian painting . They were especially popular with aristocratic Grand Tour travelers, who acquired views of the places visited on the continent, such as the Roman Forums or the Grand Canal. Towards the middle of the 18th century, Venice became the undisputed center of the vedutisti, led by members of prominent families of painters such as the Canal and the Guardi.

Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto (1697 – 1768) enjoys such popularity among English Grand Tour tourists that he decides to embark between 1746 and 1756 to England to expand his market. His work is admired by the English gentry and aristocracy, becoming a commercial success and a source of inspiration for local artists such as William Marlow, Samuel Scott and William James.

From his early youth, Joaquim Mir was part of the most anti-academic artistic circles. At the age of twenty, in his native Barcelona, with his friends Isidre Nonell and Ramon Pichot, among others, they formed the Colla del Safrà, a heterodox group with no other dogma than creative freedom.

Each one of them reinvented outdoor painting in their own way, and different corners of Barcelona and its surrounding towns (from Montjuic to Sant Martí de Provençals) were stained a saffron color. The predominance of the reddish tone of saffron in his paintings would give the group its name (“safrà”). Perhaps because they lived in a city beset by bombs, the glass through which to look at the streets was saffron. Whirlwinds of violence stirred Barcelona at the end of the century, shaken by anarchist attacks, which were punished with drastic repressions. Accelerated industrialization had plagued broad social strata.

José María Sert (Barcelona, 1874 – 1945) was the most eminent decorator painter of his time, and his style was characterized by great imagination at the service of a rhetorical language influenced by Goya’s orientalism and expressionism.

His unique and unmistakable character found great acceptance among the well-to-do classes around the world, who hired him to carry out numerous decorative projects.More than seven thousand square meters of palaces, large halls and international private residences saw his walls decorated with the solemnity of Sert’s paintings, at a time when wall painting was beginning to look obsolete and demodé.

Once again, Setdart brings together in its collection of wines an exquisite selection, giving prominence on this occasion to the autochthonous varieties, from the most reputed sagas of the Spanish territory: with denomination of origin from Rioja, Ribera de Duero and Priorat, among others. . All of them meet the highest quality requirements, care of the barrels and winemaking wisdom.

Every wine lover has an unmissable appointment on May 12 in the online gallery of Setdart Auctions , where the wide range of red wines will satisfy a wide range of tastes, with their intensities, aromas and textures.

As an example, within the Priorat wines, we can cite those from Clos Martinet from 1997 ( 35227147 ) and Clos de l’Obac bottles from the same vintage ( 35260039) . Clos de l’Obac (Costers del Siurana) was founded in 1987 in a land of complicated orography, with a project focused on rescuing the spirit of the old Carthusian wines through replanting and recovering the lands that made up the old lands. that surround the Carthusian monastery of Scala Dei, from the 12th century.

The dizzying transformation of the French capital during the last third of the 19th century, the result of the urban renovation promoted by Haussmann, with its avenues and boulevards where the burgeoning bourgeoisie would wear their finery, made all of Europe fix its eyes on Paris. .

And of course, the role of artists in the Paris of the Belle Èpoque was decisive in realizing that emblematic image in which reality and myth intertwine.

Traveling to Paris and exhibiting in its elegant galleries was the dream of any art student. The Catalan painter Román Ribera settled in the city after studying in Rome, and soon his remarkable technical virtuosity caught the attention of dealers and collectors.

Vivien Leigh was one of the most iconic and admired actresses of the 20th century, acclaimed for her exceptional talent and her captivating beauty. From a young age she was interested in acting and played countless roles on the West End stages before being catapulted to international fame for her triumphant role as Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone with the Wind” (1939), a of the highest grossing films in film history

The arrival of abstract art in Spain in the 1950s meant not only the adoption of a specific aesthetic, but also a critical stance against the autarky regime installed since the Franco dictatorship. The isolation to which the country was subjected was an almost insurmountable wall in the introduction of artistic practices that, since the emergence of the historical avant-gardes, completely dominated the artistic panorama outside our borders. Taking into account the subversive and often cryptic character of these new artistic expressions, it is not surprising that the Franco regime saw in them a threat to the traditional values in which, through academic and conservative art, they built the identity of the country. . Therefore, the triumph of abstraction in Spain, goes far beyond the purely plastic and aesthetic, symbolizing in it, the genesis of an illusion that defined a whole generation of artists who dreamed and fought to conquer freedom through the one that was his only and best weapon: art.

The saga of porcelain produced in the French city of Limoges begins in 1768, when a woman in the town of St. Yrieixin finds a soft white substance on the ground. Little did he imagine that it was kaolin – “white gold” – characterized by its rarity and elemental ingredient in porcelain production.

Luis Feito was living in Paris when he made “485 bas” (1965). It was a time when his work began to attract the attention of the most prestigious galleries in the French capital. In Madrid environments he was already part of the most advanced avant-garde, as co-founder of the El Paso group.

It was a common device in his abstract paintings of the mid-1960s to substitute numbers for titles, deliberately suggesting an idea of serialization, of investigative continuity from work to work. Certainly, the production of these years manifests a daring technical, compositional and formal investigation. In “485 bas”, the canvas is an arduous battlefield where unsolvable tensions unfold between order and chaos, through the horizontal bipartition in the golden sky and the volcanic earth, open in turn with a red wound that gurgles pasture and color.

At the end of the 19th century, the landscape genre in Catalonia experienced a time of splendor that opened the way for a whole generation of artists who, like Dionís Baixeras, took Catalan landscaping to one of its most fruitful periods. Considered one of the most outstanding landscape painters of the turn of the century, his work is inescapable in the evolution of a genre that, started under the influence of romanticism, led to a language based on the realistic trend developed in France by the Barbizon School. Works as represents a magnificent testimony of the style that made Baixeras a true narrator of the Catalan landscape.

Rías of the 19th century, the landscape genre lived in Catalonia during a period of splendor that opened the way for a whole generation of artists who, like Dionís Baixeras, took Catalan landscaping to one of its most fruitful periods. Considered one of the most outstanding landscape painters of the turn of the century, his work is inescapable in the evolution of a genre that, started under the influence of romanticism, led to a language based on the realistic trend developed in France by the Barbizon School. Works as represents a magnificent testimony of the style that made Baixeras a true narrator of the Catalan landscape.

Valencian art experienced a golden age from the second half of the 19th century in which Joaquín Sorolla and his contemporaries began the well-known Valencian luminism. To this prolific current, a whole generation of artists is attached who, as inheritors of the traits and values of this style, sought in the typical settings of Levantine manners the kinder reality of life. The so-called “New golden century of Valencian painting” finds in our auction on April 15 a magnificent representation that, from the hand of his great figures, comes to show us the indelible mark they left behind in Spanish art.

Among the best finisecular landscape painters of the 19th century, Martín Rico stands out , who, as a pioneer in the introduction of the realistic landscape in Spain, gave rise to the modernity of the genre in our country. During his more than 40 years of experience, he captured the beauty of all the places he traveled, being especially fascinated by the magic of Venice. In his brushes, innumerable views of the city were reflected, among which is the delicious oil painting that we will tender in Setdart next April 15. The discovery of the city of the canals meant the full consolidation of the style of Martín Rico, which, as exemplified in this work, is born from the perfect balance between the smoothness of execution, the fineness of the capture of light and the chromatic qualities

Juan Muñoz is undoubtedly one of the leaders in the renewal of contemporary sculpture . His short but brilliant career has left us one of the most disturbing, radical and lucid artistic testimonies of the existential crisis of modern man. Halfway between sculpture and installation , the Madrid artist directly challenges the viewer by creating an image that encourages us, and even forces us to get involved in the work. An example of this is the enigmatic and monumental creation that we will put out to tender on the 15th in an auction where, above all, the wealth of artistic expressions that it gathers stands out.

Since his first solo exhibition in 1984, Muñoz became a member of the first generation of artists to reintroduce figuration to the art scene. However, his aesthetic conception will soon make him stand out thanks to his extraordinary ability to build atmospheres and spaces charged with a mysterious drama, against which indifference is not possible.

José Guerrero arrived in the United States in 1949 of November, to begin the stage that would forever transform the future of his career. With a background marked by the work of the great masters of the European avant-garde, Guerrero settled in the capital of modern art. In a New York city that was dominated by the heyday of Abstract Expressionism, the Granada-born painter was able to come into direct contact with action painting trends. The shock that Pollock’s works caused him awoke in him a voracious hunger for modernity and freedom, which led him, years later, to become one of the members, along with great names in the movement such as Rothko, Klein or Motherwell, of the so-called New York School. The oil-black-yellow from the iconic Betty Parsons gallery belongs to this very decisive stage in the shaping of his plastic language. In the artist’s own words, the sensation of freedom combined with another of grandeur that American expressionism produced in him made him understand that “there was an art with a scale different from that of Europe, with a spontaneity and verve that did not need to resort to the past.

Elegance and avant-garde (Elegance and Edge) was the ema that Christopher Guy championed Throughout his brilliant career, two attributes that would be materialized in a prodigious way in his luxury furniture scattered around the most glamorous salons in the wide world, from Beverly Hills to Macau.

His cosmopolitan spirit and artistic sensibility would make him an indefatigable traveler, especially his long stays on the French Riviera that would leave an indelible mark on his hedonistic concept of art and life.

His palatial appearance is obvious ; Five meter ceilings, room after room and each with its use, gardens, gazebos, stained glass windows, a modest Parisian opulence in the heart of Barcelona. That appearance hides something more important, a home. This is how we must consider it, as the home of the same family for more than a hundred years. Generation after generation all its inhabitants have maintained, lived and preserved what was their legacy, a historic building and the collection that it housed.