Sydell Miller Collection to Star at Sotheby’s New York November Sales

Sydell Miller’s extraordinary collection, known for reflecting her philosophy of life, will be the main attraction at Sotheby’s New York sale in November. Known for her visionary sense in the beauty industry, Miller’s passion for art and design brought this extraordinary collection to auction. The entire collection, which includes modern and contemporary masterpieces, sculptures and design icons, is estimated to be worth around $200 million.

Co-founder of Matrix Essentials, Miller became an icon in the beauty world long before she was considered a serious collector. The Sotheby’s sale will include works by Monet, Picasso and Kandinsky, as well as other leading figures in art history. Sotheby’s plans to present about 90 works this fall in its evening and daytime auctions, with additional online auctions.

For Miller, art has been a personal journey. “I collect pieces that I love,” she said, reflecting on her eclectic collection that spans eras and styles. She’s never been about trends, but about surrounding herself with beauty that speaks to her. Her collection speaks to that philosophy, from Claude Monet’s famous Nymphéas to Pablo Picasso’s La Statuaire to Yves Klein’s Relief Éponge.

The sale of Miller’s collection also speaks volumes about her love of design. In addition to fine art, she loved iconic 18th-century French furniture and the modern designs of François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne, with excellent results. The combination of fine art and decorative objects on full display in her West Palm Beach home set her collection apart.

Sharon Kim, vice president of Sotheby’s, praised the fusion of art and design in the Miller collection, saying, “Like Sydell, the artists in this collection pushed boundaries, pursuing beauty and transformation.”

This fall, as Sydell Miller’s collection takes center stage at Sotheby’s, her legacy as a businesswoman, philanthropist and collector will continue to inspire. Exhibitions in London, Paris and Hong Kong will precede the sale in New York.

Miller died in February at the age of 86.

Overview of the most important events

MONEY

Claude Monet, Nymphéas oil on canvas, ca. 1914–17 Price on request

Few subjects in the history of modern art are as celebrated as Claude Monet’s Nymphéas, and this exceptional example makes its auction debut. The painting marks a radical shift in Monet’s approach to the subject that became his magnum opus and prefigures the monumental canvases housed in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris.

Using a kaleidoscopic palette of jewel-toned purples and rich blues, along with accents of white, pink, and yellow to represent the flowers, Monet deliberately blurs the line between reality and reflection in a tightly cropped compositional format that marks an early, radical foray into abstraction—anticipating the beginnings of the large-scale gestural canvases of the Abstract Expressionists in New York thirty years later. Painted toward the end of his life, Nymphéas can be understood as the cumulative effect of observations—not only during the session in which Monet painted it, but over decades spent spellbound by the beauty and artistic possibilities of his garden.

“Sydell Miller was a passionate collector with a keen eye for uniqueness and beauty in all areas. She had an innate love of art, and the idea of buying art as an investment or speculation seemed like a curse. It was a natural extension of the aesthetic that permeated every activity and pursuit she pursued. While she welcomed feedback and recommendations, her choices were entirely her own. Meeting her almost 30 years ago, sharing our love of art, and being on the other end of the phone with her at an auction was one of the thrills of my early career. Learning from her the fundamentals of success in business and life: acting thoughtfully, ethically, and with integrity was a lesson I have treasured ever more.” – DAVID NORMAN, ADVISOR

Pablo Picasso, La Statuaire oil on canvas, 1925 Price on request

La Statuaire depicts a seated female figure facing a portrait bust placed on a pedestal, the couple positioned before French doors opening onto a balcony. As in all of Picasso’s great works, nothing is as simple as it might seem at first glance. In one canvas, the artist combines his wild explorations of Surrealist styles, monumental Neoclassical paintings, and masterful Cubist elements.

In the archives of the Galerie Paul Rosenberg, which first exhibited the work in 1926, a year after it was created, its title is recorded as La Femme sculpteur – referring to the work’s theme of a sculptor working on her object or examining classical sculpture for inspiration. This canvas is the first painting to depict a female artist in Picasso’s oeuvre.

Since its creation, La Statuaire has not only been included in major exhibitions of Picasso paintings, but has also been held by some of the most distinguished collectors of modern art, including its original owner, Stephen Clark, one of the greatest American collectors of the early 20th century and a founding trustee of the Museum of Modern Art. In 1999, it became part of the Sydell Miller Collection, where it remains today.

Fittingly, also offered at the auction is Picasso’s 1951 bronze sculpture Tête de femme, only the second cast of the subject to come to auction in more than 40 years (est. $7 million–$10 million). The sculpture reveals the commanding presence of the young Françoise Gilot, a glimpse into the enthusiasm and self-confidence that so immediately captivated Picasso.

Wassily Kandinsky, Weisses Oval (white oval)

oil on canvas, 1921 Estimated price: $15–20 million

Last seen at auction more than fifty years ago, Weisses Oval commemorates Kandinsky’s fascination with the relationship between color and form. One of the last three paintings he created while living in Russia, it marks a significant moment in the evolution of the artist’s unique style.

Since its execution in 1921, Weisses Oval has been considered one of the formative examples of a pivotal period in Kandinsky’s career, when he was on the verge of taking up a teaching position at the Bauhaus in Berlin. The painting was a statement of his transformative artistic vision and belief in the inherent psychological effects of color when articulated in specific shapes. Exhibited in important early exhibitions of Kandinsky’s work, it was also included in his groundbreaking retrospectives, including a 1952 exhibition held in Boston, San Francisco, and Cleveland, among other leading American institutions. The work was acquired by New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1945, one of the most prestigious lines of provenance that a Kandinsky work can have. That same year, it was exhibited in their memorial exhibition organized after the artist’s death in 1944.

MOORE

Henry Moore’s sculpture, “Mother and Child Reclining,” was made in bronze in 1975–76. Its estimated cost is $8–12 million.

This rare example of a reclining mother and child represents the pinnacle of Henry Moore’s engagement with two of his most iconic subjects—the mother and child and the reclining figure. His lifelong exploration of universal themes was rooted in his childhood experiences and precedents in art history, from Renaissance iconography to pre-Columbian sculpture.

This monumental yet seductively tender example suggests a profound first encounter between mother and child, as the female figure gazes in awe at the tiny infant. By reducing the pair to their most elemental forms, Moore emphasizes the fundamental humanity conveyed in this symbol of hope and the enduring human bonds of support and compassion.

The piece was originally located next to her Palm Beach home, La Rêverie, but was later moved to her apartment at The Bristol, where Miller enjoyed living with the monumental sculpture and admiring it up close.

KLEIN

Yves Klein, Relief Éponge bleu sans titre, (RE 28)

dry pigment and synthetic resin, natural sponges and pebbles on panel, 1961

Estimated price: $8-12 million

This extraordinary work, from the peak of Yves Klein’s career, captures the philosophies and spirituality that were at the heart of his practice. An icon of Klein’s defiance of the existing boundaries of abstraction and his desire to recreate the unique beauty of the natural world, the artist combines velvety pigment and organic matter to create a composition reminiscent of the surface of the moon or the deep ocean floor, juxtaposing emptiness with concrete, materiality with immateriality. As captured in a series of iconic photographs, Klein used the coast as a studio to create this work – taken on the sunny beaches of Malibu – where he worked in close proximity to the natural environment that inspired him.

MATISSE

Henri Matisse, Jeune fille en robe rose

oil on canvas, October 1942. Estimated price: $3–5 million

In 1942, World War II found Matisse confined to the sanctuary of his home and studio in Nice. There, he remained steadfastly devoted to his art in order to ward off the sense of hopelessness surrounding the city’s occupation. Eschewing any reference to the outside world, intimate still lifes and portraits of women—such as this one—offered a balm of beauty and hope amid the turmoil.

At the same time, the artist miraculously recovered from a serious operation he had undergone the previous year, transforming this optimism into hundreds of drawings full of spontaneity and lyrical purity of line. He decided to manifest the liberation achieved in drawings in paintings. Jeune fille en robe rose fully develops this gestural freedom with a joyful play of pigment, decisive contours and the confident gaze of a radiant model. The work was never put up for auction, it was acquired by Miller in 1998.

LALANA

François-Xavier Lalanne, “Troupeau d’Eléphants dans les Arbres” table, gilded bronze and glass, 2001

Estimated price: $4-6 million

A pioneer of surrealism and design, François-Xavier Lalanne found endless inspiration in the animal world. This fascination with flora and fauna transformed into sculptural forms that transformed the familiar and functional into fantastic and timeless works of art.

This characteristically whimsical octagonal table, accompanied by seven gilded elephants marching like a herd under the acacia trees of the African savannah, was commissioned by Miller directly from the artist through renowned architect Peter Marino. Each of the freestanding elephants can be arranged in any configuration, resulting in a sculpture that can best be brought to life only by the active involvement of the steward of the work.

Sydell Miller Collection Tops Sotheby’s New York November Sales

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