Auctions
A $10 Million Monet, the Jewel of a Storied Chicago Collection for 130 Years, Heads to Auction
The Impressionist masterpiece has been hanging in the Union League Club since 1895.
by
Jo Lawson-Tancred
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Plenty of Monet but not enough money? The Union League Club of Chicago found itself in this predicament after discovering that a much-needed renovation of its 1920s Beaux-Arts building would cost $10 million. It is now selling two of its most expensive works to help fund the project.
Among these is Monet’s Apple Trees in Blossom (1872), which has hung on the members-only club’s walls since 1895. The prized Impressionist landscape will highlight Christie’s 20th-century evening sale in New York on November 19, where it is expected to fetch $7 million to $10 million.
The rustic spring scene by Monet had delighted generations of visitors to the Union League from its position tucked away on the second floor. Originally sold to the club for just $500 by a member, Judge John Barton Payne, the organization approved the sale of the canvas in 2020 as it faced lockdown-related losses totaling roughly $400,000 a month and hundreds of members.
Yet in 2021, the club backed out of a plan to sell the painting for $7.2 million to an Australian art dealer, who then sued the club; a judge ruled that the Union League was not bound to the terms of the agreement.
“We believe that now’s the time to raise capital,” Frank Devincentis, vice president of the club’s board vice president, told the Chicago Tribune. “Rather than impose on our existing members with a one-time assessment, we believe that raising the funds through the sale of some art is most appropriate.”
Completed in 1872, Apple Trees in Blossom captures a bucolic French lane in springtime meandering through blooming white foliage. The 23-by-29-inch painting was loaned to the Art Institute for a 2020 Monet exhibition, but for much of its history has been quietly tucked away in a second floor cove at the Union League Club.
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A landscape painting by the German-born, Kentucky-based artist Walter Ufer, Land of Manana (1917), was also selected from the collection for sale back in March. These deaccessions will fund “Project Burnham,” a plan to renovate the historic club, which has been a Chicago institution since 1879. Its sprawling complex has 180 rooms as well as space for private events, restaurants, and sports facilities. The money will also go toward paying off some of the club’s debts.
Though the Union League’s Monet is expected to turn heads in the sale room next month the top lot is expected to be Ed Ruscha’s Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half (1964), which is being sold by Texas billionaire investor Sid Bass for an estimated $50 million. Other highlights include paintings by Willem de Kooning, Rene Magritte, Georgia O’Keeffe and Frank Stella, and sculptures by Giacometti and Duchamp.
