Radical Matisse Painting Doubles Estimate After 10-Minute Bidding Battle

Simply too seated. Four bidders fought over this Matisse still life tonight at Sothebys NewYork, where it landed $48.4 million, almost double its high estimate. Watch as Helena Newman brings the hammer down after ten minutes of bidding in The Modern Evening Auction, presented in partnership with CELINE.

Matisse once said that he didn’t paint the object in a still life, but “the emotion it produces upon me.” This is true for the subject of his 1919 painting, ‘La Chaise lorraine’: an everyday wooden chair. In Matisse’s hands, the wooden chair transforms into an emotional study of color and form.