Auction introduction: Christie’s is honoured to present a selection of works from one of the most famous French collections of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries – Chefs-d’oeuvre de la collection Veil-Picard. A man of consummate taste, Arthur Georges Veil-Picard was described as Paris’s ultimate collector. Entirely lead by his own instincts, he amassed a mythic collection of paintings and drawings reflecting his love of French eighteenth-century art. A testament to their quality, many of these works now grace the walls of the world’s most famous museums, the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum to name but two. Not seen in public for over eighty years, the works in the sale include drawings such as the theatrical Homme debout tenant une guitare by Antoine Watteau, and an extremely rare depiction of a female life-model, L’académie particulière, by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin. The paintings are led by L'Heureuse Famille, an impressive canvas by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, one of the favoured artists of Veil-Picard, and Hubert Robert’s pair of paintings depicting the one of the leading female figures of the Enlightenment, Le Déjeuner de Madame Geoffrin and Un Artiste présente un portrait à Madame Geoffrin. We warmly invite you to contact us if you are interested in viewing these works prior to the opening of our exhibition in March.