Auction on
15 December 2020 - 14:00 (CET) -
Salle 5 - Hôtel Drouot - 75009
The Stéphane Petit estate sale boasts precious Surrealist works passed down from his father, providing an opportunity to pay tribute to a discrete dealer who had an amazing career and started upholding the movement in the 1950s.
Leonora Carrington (1917-2011), The Meal of Lord Candlestick, 1938, oil on canvas, 46 x 61 cm (18.12 x 24.02 in.) Estimate: €300,000/400,000
Leonora Carrington (1917-2011), The Meal of Lord Candlestick, 1938, oil on canvas, 46 x 61 cm (18.12 x 24.02 in.) Estimate: €300,000/400,000
The apple does not fall far from the tree. Gallerist André-François Petit’s son was a collector. Stéphane Petit lived surrounded, if not invaded, by sculptures, works on paper and paintings hanging up to the ceiling in his modernist apartment in Neuilly. The inventory after his untimely death revealed many treasures, from two masterful paintings by Leonora Carrington to drawings by Bellmer, Brauner, Dalí and Tanguy that he inherited from his father, André-François Petit, one of the foremost Surrealist art dealers. What foresight!
An Itinerary The son of Auvergnat bougnats —coal merchants who also ran a small cafe—André-François Petit was born 1924 at Felletin in the Creuse. He studied law to please his father. “As soon as I graduate,” he told himself, “I’ll live my life!” He kept his word. In the 1950s he started the Carpentier-Petit Gallery at 122 boulevard Haussmann in Paris. “Never have a partner,” he advised his daughter Bénédicte. “There’s always one who works and the other who sleeps.” He and Carpentier parted ways. Abstract art was all the rage at the time. Petit represented Lagrange and Lapicque, but abstraction bored him. His passion…
We use cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience, perform site traffic analysis, and deliver content and advertisements most relevant to your interests.
Cookie management:
By allowing these cookies, you agree to the deposit, reading and use of tracking technologies necessary for their proper functioning. Read more about our privacy policy.