THE STOCLET COLLECTION

LOTS 1-10

Adolphe Stoclet (1871-1949) was a successful Belgian engineer and financier. His wife Suzanne Stevens (1874-1960) was the daughter of art critic and collector Arthur Stevens (1825-1909), and the niece of painter Alfred Stevens (1823-1906). Through these connections to the art world, the Stoclets were introduced to the avant-garde art circles of Paris and Vienna.

When living in Austria, they met architect and designer Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956) whom they commissioned to build the Palais Stoclet in Brussels in 1905. A great monument to the Secessionist style, the Palais would house their extensive art collection which included a variety of pieces from Egyptian and Chinese sculpture to medieval Italian painting, Byzantine jewellery, Pre-Columbian and African art. Gustav Klimt painted the mural in the dining room, and the Palais was used to entertain the King of Sweden as well as historians, archaeologists, writers, and musicians.

Early on in his collecting life, Adolphe became interested in Japanese ukiyo-e prints, embracing the wave of Japonisme taking the West by storm. He showed a true scholarly interest for the pictures in his collection, keeping a record of where the prints were purchased and identifying the themes depicted. His notes were written down on the frames and mounts of many of the prints in this sale and have been added to the catalogue descriptions. The Stoclet Collection included close to three thousand prints, variously bought at auction and from famous art dealers of the early 20th century. Tadamasa Hayashi (Paris) and Takejirō Murakami (Brussels) are sometimes mentioned. Other Japanese ukiyo-e pictures from the Stoclet Collection were auctioned at Sotheby’s London on 8th June 2004, and many of the prints on offer here echo those ones in terms of artists and subject matters depicted.

Hayashi Tadamasa’s collector seal