Modern Pictures from the Paul Rosenberg Family Collection, 3rd July 1979

Artists: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Marie Laurencin, Fernand Leger, Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
Author: Various 
Publisher: Sotheby's 
Date: 3rd July 1979 
Condition: Very good, hardback paper covers with gilded embossing and colour wraparound dust cover, also with loose estimate/bidding slip. Internally very tidy and unmarked. Some very minor handling and shelf marks to dust jacket but otherwise an extremely clean copy

By the late 1970s, some of the catalogues for big auctions were beginning to look a little like those we have become used to in modern times, but this one, with a embossed and gilded hardback cover, colour throughout and a colour dust jacket impresses before you look inside. And what things there are to see inside!

Thirty-three works by Picasso and fourteen by Braque form the main course, but the quality of the paintings, drawings and works on paper in this auction were superb. However, given the provenance, one would be surprised if it were otherwise. 

Paul Rosenberg was a legendary dealer in the first half of the twentieth century, first in Paris until 1940 and then in New York. He had several major artists under exclusive contracts, with Picasso perhaps the most significant with their relationship lasting from 1918-1940.