Two Monets Unveiled for the First Time Head to Auction in Paris

PARIS, Sept. 17 /ATA-AFP/ — Two paintings by the renowned French painter Claude Monet, never publicly exhibited before, were presented for the first time and will go under the hammer in Paris on Oct. 22, auction house Sotheby’s announced today.

The works, “Iris” and “Saule pleureur” (“Weeping Willow”), are part of the collection of the French Schlumberger family, which includes a total of 28 works by renowned artists.

The collection is expected to sell for more than 40 million euros.

The centerpiece is “Iris”, a monumental painting Monet made in 1924–1925, during the last years of his life in Giverny, in northern France.

The work measures 160 by 180 centimeters and has been valued by Sotheby’s at between 22 and 30 million euros.

According to the auction house, this is the highest estimate ever placed on a painting offered at auction in France.

“Iris” hung for decades in the Schlumberger family’s Paris apartment and was never exhibited to the public before.

Until now, the work was known mainly through a black-and-white photograph.

The second painting, “Saule pleureur”, depicting a willow in Monet’s garden in Giverny, is estimated at between 9 and 12 million euros.

This work, too, was never publicly shown before.

The Oct. 22 auction will offer a total of four Monet paintings, alongside works by other major artists, including Paul Cézanne, Gustave Moreau, Gustave Courbet and Camille Claudel.

The sale takes place in a special year for French art, as 2026 marks 100 years since the death of Claude Monet, who died on Dec. 5, 1926.

Before the auction, the collection will also be presented in Hong Kong and New York, before returning to Paris.

Who was Claude Monet?

Claude Monet (1840–1926) was one of the most important French painters and a central figure of Impressionism, the artistic movement that changed the way of painting in Europe at the end of the 19th century.

He is known primarily for his paintings of landscapes, gardens, water and changes of light.

He often painted the same subject at different moments, to capture changes of light, color and atmosphere.

Among his best-known works are the “Water Lilies” (Nymphéas) series, “Rouen Cathedral” and “Impression, Sunrise” (Impression, soleil levant), the work linked to the origin of the name Impressionism.

For many years he lived and worked in Giverny, where he created the garden that became one of the main sources of inspiration for his later works.

Monet is considered one of the artists who most influenced the development of modern painting, particularly for the way he treated light and color.

Source: ATSH-AFP