From Marquet to Buffet: A Collection Full of Provencal Sunshine

The sale of an estate always provides an opportunity to enter a private home and discover a taste that reflects a particular moment in history. Here, though the collector of this major auction of 80 paintings remains anonymous, we know various details. We know that Mr. C. came from a family that owned a grand cru vineyard in the Médoc (Saint-Estephe) and that he left his land in Gironde in the mid-2000s to start a new chapter in his life in Provence, not far from Saint-Rémy, when he bought another wine estate. There in a breathtaking setting at the foot of the Alpilles mountains, far from teeming city life, amongst vineyards and olive groves, Mr. and Mrs. C. started a new collection focusing on this much-loved region. For expert Michel Maket, the adventure was most certainly a husband-and-wife affair. "They bought pieces when they fell in love with them; their idea was to live with the paintings," he says. And indeed, they hung in every room of the house, even in most unobtrusive places. "They knew what they were buying, and developed their taste with the help of a library full of books on the artists they loved. They were highly organized, and kept all the certificates…