Les Fleurs

Flowers from the man who made sculpture move

Les Fleurs is a color lithograph Alexander Calder made in 1975, a year before his death. It measures 22 7/8 by 30 1/2 inches, a horizontal sheet, and was issued in an edition of 90 impressions, each signed 'Calder' and numbered in pencil at the lower edge.

Calder's prints grew out of his gouaches, the quick, brightly colored paintings on paper he made throughout his career. Both share the same swirling abstract forms found in his mobiles: flat discs, spirals, stars and petals in black, white and primary colors. Calder said simply, 'I paint with shapes,' and also admitted, 'I love red so much that I almost want to paint everything red.'

Little has been published about this specific print. Collectors should note that 1975 also produced Les Fleurs II, a separate lithograph in a larger edition of 125 on a vertical sheet of about 25 by 20 inches. The two are different works and should not be priced against each other.

Alexander Calder

Calder was born on July 22, 1898, in the Lawnton section of Philadelphia, to the sculptor Alexander Stirling Calder and the painter Nanette Lederer Calder. His parents worried about him struggling as an artist, so he studied mechanical engineering at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, graduating in 1919, and worked a string of jobs, from draftsman to timekeeper at a logging camp.

He took night classes in drawing in 1922, moved to Paris in July 1926, and fell in with Joan Miró, Fernand Léger and Marcel Duchamp. A 1930 visit to Piet Mondrian's studio turned him toward abstraction. In 1931 Duchamp named Calder's moving sculptures 'mobiles', a French pun meaning both motion and motive.

From 1963 Calder kept a workshop in Saché, France, and spent much of his late life there. The French honored him in turn: in 1974 he accepted the rank of Commandeur of the Légion d'honneur and was named an honorary citizen of Saché.

Calder in 1975

The year Les Fleurs was printed was one of the busiest of Calder's career. In January and February his 'Crags and Critters' show ran at a Paris gallery. In April he visited Israel for a planned stabile in Jerusalem, and from May to July the Haus der Kunst in Munich mounted a retrospective.

That spring he hand-painted engine cowlings at the Paris Air Show for Flying Colors, one of the jets he decorated for an American airline, and in June he went to the Le Mans 24-hour race, where a BMW he had painted took part. On August 22 he threw a large birthday party at his house in Saché and gave every guest a small gouache. In October and November a New York gallery showed his recent mobiles and circus gouaches, and on November 17 his jet Flying Colors of the United States was dedicated at Dulles Airport.

Outside the studio, 1975 saw the fall of Saigon on April 30, the docking of American and Soviet spacecraft in orbit in July, the release of Jaws in June and the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live in October.

On the market

Calder's color lithographs trade regularly at print sales, and Les Fleurs is one of them. On February 14, 2024, impression number 81 of 90 sold at a U.S. prints and multiples auction for $7,560 with fees, against an estimate of $3,000 to $5,000.

When buying, check the numbering against an edition of 90 and the dimensions against 58 by 77 centimeters. A number out of 125, or a vertical sheet, points to Les Fleurs II instead.

The numbers

Medium

Lithograph in colors

Dimensions

22 7/8 x 30 1/2 in (58 x 77 cm)

Edition size

90

Signature

Signed and numbered in pencil, lower edge

Timeline

1. Jul 22, 1898

   Alexander Calder is born in Philadelphia.

2. 1919

   Calder graduates in mechanical engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology.

3. Jul 1926

   Calder moves to Paris.

4. 1931

   Marcel Duchamp names Calder's kinetic sculptures 'mobiles'.

5. 1963

   Calder sets up a workshop in Saché, France.

6. Jun 24, 1974

   Calder is named an honorary citizen of Saché.

7. 1975

   Calder makes the lithograph Les Fleurs in an edition of 90, and Les Fleurs II in an edition of 125.

8. Aug 22, 1975

   Calder hosts a birthday party at Saché and gives each guest a small gouache.

9. Oct 14, 1976

   The Whitney Museum opens the retrospective Calder's Universe.

10. Nov 11, 1976

    Calder dies in New York City.

11. 1977

    Calder is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.

12. 1987

    The Calder Foundation is established.

13. Feb 14, 2024

    Les Fleurs no. 81/90 sells at auction for $7,560 with fees.

The world in 1975

• Apr 4, 1975

  Bill Gates founds Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

• Apr 30, 1975

  Saigon falls, ending the Vietnam War.

• Jun 20, 1975

  Jaws opens in 409 U.S. theaters, often called the first modern blockbuster.

• Jul 17, 1975

  Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft dock in orbit.

• Oct 1, 1975

  Muhammad Ali beats Joe Frazier in the Thrilla in Manila.

• Oct 11, 1975

  Saturday Night Live premieres on NBC.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Les Fleurs is number 80 of 100 in the art entries of the FLOAT 100. 88 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (75 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Calder trained as a mechanical engineer before becoming an artist.
• The word 'mobile' was Marcel Duchamp's idea, a pun on motion and motive.
• In 1975 Calder hand-painted the engine cowlings of a jet airliner at the Paris Air Show.
• At his 1975 birthday party in France, every guest went home with a small Calder gouache.
• Calder died on November 11, 1976, less than a month after the Whitney opened his retrospective Calder's Universe.