Call the pretty horses

You can’t keep a good impressionist down. Earlier this month in London, in their glamorous evening sales, Christie’s knocked down impressionist and modern art for £105m. The next night Sotheby’s trumped its great rival by bringing in £116.7m, the most it has ever made at an auction in Europe.

It was a great relief for the salerooms’ specialists, who had experienced an unsettling 2007. After dominating the art market for 50 years, impressionist experts at Christie’s watched in amazement as their upstart contemporary department notched up sales of £774m, as against their £700m. It was the same at Sotheby’s.

Many newly rich do choose strident modern art over gentle late-19th-century escapism. And if you get in early with an up-and-coming artist, it can prove a good investment: a seminal Damien Hirst “spot painting” will have appreciated tenfold in 10 years.

But it is market forces that are behind these changing fortunes. Few great impressionist paintings now appear on the market while the supply of contemporary art is unlimited. When a great impressionist does appear, though, keen collectors will stretch their budgets to the limit.

Last June in London, for example, Sotheby’s sold one of Monet’s celebrated water lilies for £18.5m, way above forecast, while Christie’s brought in £17.9m for a view of Waterloo Bridge. In New York, in November, Christie’s set a record for post-impressionist Matisse, with $33.6m paid for a portrait, while a Gauguin went for $29m at Sotheby’s.

There were no such masterpieces in London this month but, at Sotheby’s, a smaller version of Renoir’s popular “La Loge” doubled its estimate to go for £7.4m. Elsewhere at Sotheby’s, an early Monet snow­scape made £4.3m and a Cézanne still life £2.14m, while at Christie’s a Degas ballet scene sold for £2.25m, a Monet river scene for £1.47m and a Parisian view by Pissarro for £1.6m. These prices suggest that a great impressionist work will still be fought over.

The market has, though, moved on to the early 20th century – to strident German art; to the more quirky French artists; to the surrealists; and to Picasso. This was the message of the February sales: the “modern” tail was wagging the “impressionist” dog. The highest price was a record £12.34m paid at Sotheby’s for an iconic painting of red horses by the German expressionist Franz Marc, while Kees van Dongen, a Dutch-born, Paris-based artist only recently achieving full recognition, caused most waves at Christie’s when his portrait of an exotic dancer made £5.6m.

Picasso remains unchallenged as the most desirable wall covering. Portraits of his mistresses are particularly popular, especially those of Dora Maar. Sotheby’s sold one from the Berggruen collection for £7.4m and Christie’s another for £5.7m.

Impressionism may have lost its dominance but is not ready quite yet to join Old Masters as a haven for specialist collectors. It remains the most popular form of painting, with the widest collecting base. This is reflected in the auctions of second-division impressionist artists that follow the glamorous evening events devoted to the big names. Here dealers are happy to acquire a drawing or a minor work by Renoir or Monet, or an oil by a less exalted artist.

This is the world of the French Henris – Henri Lebasque, Henri Martin, Henri Cross and Henri Le Sidaner; of Maximilien Luce and Louis Valtat; of Marcel Dyf and Pierre-Eugène Montezin, followers of the impressionist pioneers who kept their tradition alive well into the 20th century. Their paintings can be acquired for between £30,000 and £300,000.

By insisting on quality, freshness and reasonable reserves, the auction houses have ensured that the impressionist market has weathered the storms in the global economy. History suggests that prices will eventually fall, but when that happens a good impressionist painting should retain its appeal better than a 21st-century shocker.

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Upcoming sales

Impressionist and modern art, Christie’s South Kensington, April 1.; www.christies.com
Impressionist and modern art, Christie’s New York, May 6-7; www.christies.com
Impressionist and modern art, Sotheby’s New York, May 7-8; www.sothebys.com
Impressionist and modern art, Bonhams London, June 18; www.bonhams.com