Twelve rarely seen masterpieces glowing with life and beauty will go on sale at Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday.
The collection, which resembles a miniature Courtauld gallery, includes Van Gogh’s towering chestnut tree, Monet’s shimmering vista of the Tuileries and Paul Cézanne’s Arlequin, a portrait of his son in a red and black diamond-patterned costume whose angularity pushes into abstraction and must have inspired Picasso’s Harlequins.
