Following an exceptional auction of Old Masters and antiques in April, Vienna’s Dorotheum turns its attention this month to Modern and Contemporary art, jewellery and watches during its Contemporary Week.
The week opens on 19 May at 6 p.m. with the 'Modern' sale, featuring more than 130 works by artists including Gustav Klimt, Gino Severini, Pablo Picasso and Giorgio de Chirico.
Leading the sale with the highest estimate is a striking watercolour by Claude Monet, depicting — or rather evoking — the fog-veiled Waterloo Bridge in London. The city had fascinated Monet since his first stay there in 1870–71. Following in the footsteps of J. M. W. Turner, he became captivated by the fleeting effects of light shaped by water, mist and industrial smoke — an approach already visible in his 1872 masterpiece Impression, Sunrise, which would later lend its name to Impressionism itself. Waterloo Bridge, Fog was painted in 1901 during Monet’s final stay on the Thames.
Another major highlight of the 'Modern' sale is Egon Schiele’s Sitzendes Mädchen mit rotem Hut (Seated Girl with Red Hat) from 1910, a pivotal year in the artist’s development. It was then that Schiele arrived at his unmistakably independent drawing style: figures isolated against empty backgrounds, sharply defined contours, and a cool, almost weightless use of colour. In this elegant watercolour, the sitter is placed frontally and vertically at the centre of the sheet, her wide-brimmed red hat and dress providing vivid accents. The delicate modelling of the face contrasts with the raw, angular treatment of the hands — a tension between grace and unease that lies at the heart of Schiele’s early Expressionism.
The auction week continues the following evening at 6 p.m. with 'Contemporary Art I', featuring works by Chris Ofili, Thomas Schütte and Emilio Vedova.
One of the leading lots is Günther Förg’s Untitled from 1996, a powerful example of the German artist’s celebrated grid paintings. Created in the same year Förg received the Wolfgang Hahn Prize from the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the work reflects his distinctive approach to structure, colour and surface. Moving fluidly between painting, sculpture and photography throughout his career, Förg developed a visual language influenced by the clarity of modernist architecture, combining geometric order with expressive, intuitive brushwork.
Julian Schnabel’s 2022 work Untitled, from his Victory Paintings series, will also be offered. Begun in the autumn of 2020 in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s presidential defeat, the series expands upon Schnabel’s earlier rose paintings, inspired by the flowers left at Vincent van Gogh’s grave. The luminous blue background recalls van Gogh’s Flowering Almond Branches, with both artists employing blossoms as symbols of renewal and hope. By incorporating fragments of shattered plates and glass into his canvases, Schnabel created works that exist between painting and sculpture, transforming the painted surface into something physically charged and materially expressive.
The sales continue on 21 May at 5 p.m. with 'Contemporary Art II'.
Collectors of exceptional jewellery should also not miss the 'Important and Noble Jewels' auction, taking place on 21 May at 2 p.m.
Alongside historic treasures and creations by celebrated maisons including Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Bulgari and Boucheron, one of the standout lots is an extraordinary diamond brooch by Rozet & Fischmeister centred on an untreated Kashmir sapphire weighing 18.695 carats.
Created circa 1880, the jewel is set with an oval cabochon Kashmir sapphire of richly saturated blue, accompanied by old-cut diamonds totalling approximately 15.5 carats. The detachable central element reflects the refined versatility characteristic of late nineteenth-century haute joaillerie, while the rarity of an untreated Kashmir sapphire of this calibre places the piece among the most remarkable jewels in the sale. The brooch is accompanied by a 2026 SSEF report confirming the stone shows no indications of heat treatment.
Finally, on 22 May at 1 p.m., approximately 170 lots will be offered in the 'Wrist and Pocket Watches' auction. The sale ranges from contemporary masterpieces by brands such as Patek Philippe, Rolex and Jaeger-LeCoultre to a museum-quality rock crystal neck watch dating from around 1640. Leading the auction is a yellow-gold perpetual calendar by A. Lange & Söhne.
The A. Lange & Söhne Langematik Perpetual offered here was produced around 2006. Introduced five years earlier, the model was the first mechanical watch to combine a perpetual calendar with Lange’s celebrated oversized date display. The technically sophisticated mechanism — featuring separate date discs, moon phase, day indication and small seconds — is powered by the automatic Sax-O-Mat movement with its patented zero-reset mechanism.
Contemporary Week concludes on 10 June at 4 p.m. with the online auction 'Editions', featuring works by artists including Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Joan Miró.
The live auctions of Contemporary Week will take place from 19–22 May at Palais Dorotheum. All lots will be on public view there from 8 May, while the 'Editions' sale exhibition opens on 29 May.
