Sotheby's will present Property from the Goldwyn Collection across a series of auctions in 2015. While the Goldwyn family is legendary within the film industry, many will discover in these sales that their creative vision also extended to collecting fine art.

Samuel Goldwyn Sr. assembled a core group of works from the late-1940s through the 1960s during Hollywood’s Golden Age, from which standout pieces by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse will emerge. Samuel Goldwyn Jr. in turn judiciously added to the collection, bringing in important works by David Hockney, Milton Avery, Diego Rivera and more.

Sotheby’s sales featuring Property from the Goldwyn Collection will begin in New York on 5 May, when the Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art offers Picasso’s Femme au chignon dans un fauteuil – a portrait of the artist’s lover Françoise Gilot that is estimated to achieve $12–18 million. In total, Sotheby’s will offer more than 25 works from the collection, together estimated in excess of $25 million.

Sotheby’s will debut works from the collection in our Los Angeles galleries on 25 & 26 March, alongside important family objects such as Samuel Goldwyn Sr.’s Oscar for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).

The Goldwyn family commented: "Our father and grandfather's collection was a living and constantly-evolving entity, and we were privileged to have the opportunity to watch it develop over decades. It was a deeply personal pursuit for both of them, and many of the pieces speak to their lives and passions – from the Polish shawl worn by Françoise Gilot in Picasso's portrait, which our Polish-American grandfather acquired in the 1950s, to the quintessential Los Angeles narratives of David Hockney that spoke to our father."

Simon Shaw, Co-Head of Sotheby’s Worldwide Impressionist & Modern Art Department, said: “Ambition, perfectionism, energy, reinvention: all words that apply equally to the Goldwyn family and to the artists like Picasso and Matisse that they collected.”

One highlight is Anémones et grenades by Henri Matisse was the first picture that Samuel Goldwyn Sr. purchased for his collection, in March 1948 – just two years after the artist painted it (estimate $5/7 million). Goldwyn purchased it for $13,500 from Alfred Moritz Frankfurter, who was a New York-based art historian, critic and editor of Art News. As one of his final works on canvas, Anémones et grenades demonstrates Matisse’s painterly technique at 4 its full maturity. The vibrancy of these late canvases provided inspiration for Picasso, who frequently visited Matisse’s studio during this period.

Sotheby’s May auctions of Contemporary Art will feature two works by David Hockney, both collected by Samuel Goldwyn Jr. In Fruit in a Chinese Bowl (estimate $800,000/1.2 million), the still life – one of the most traditional genres of painting – becomes the arena for Hockney to reinterpret the lessons of Art History, from Pointillism to Cubism, within his own instantly-recognizable stylistic vernacular. The landscape Malibu House (estimate $600/800,000) embodies the playfulness and charm that distinguishes Hockney’s work, while also demonstrating his engagement with art history and the impact of Los Angeles on his development. This picture dates to 1988: the year of his triumphant return to painting and his retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Painted in 1946, Mexican Washerwoman (estimate $400/600,000) exemplifies Milton Avery’s mature style, defined by the unique treatment of flattened color and pared down forms that emerged in the artist’s work soon after he joined Paul Rosenberg at his illustrious New York gallery. Avery completed this painting shortly after he and his family returned from a three month stay in Mexico, and its bright hues reflect his desire to capture the mood of the distinctive landscape and vibrant culture he found there. In Reclining Female (below, estimate $600/800,000), Avery reinvents the traditional motif of the female figure in repose with his distinctive, thoroughly modern vision, reducing the central elements of the scene to only their essential forms.

Once in the collection of Nelson A. Rockefeller, and acquired by the Goldwyn family in 1980, El balcón marks the emergence of a seminal and transitional period in the artistic development of Diego Rivera (estimate $300/400,000). He painted the present work in Mexico City in 1921, shortly after returning from a long sojourn in Europe – around this time, Rivera’s painting evolved towards a decidedly narrative linear style. He would continue to expand upon this pictorial commitment as the founder of Mexican Muralism.