A four-minute bidding war erupted at Christie’s 20th-century evening sale in New York on November 17 over John Singer Sargent’s watercolor *Gondolier’s Siesta* (1902–03). The work sold for $7.4 million with fees, more than double its $3 million high estimate, setting a new auction record for a work on paper by the artist. Another Sargent painting, *Capri* (1878), also performed strongly in the same sale, fetching $11.5 million with fees.
This surge in Sargent’s market follows major international retrospectives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Musée d’Orsay marking the centenary of his death, as well as a cameo on the TV series *The Gilded Age*. According to the Artnet Price Database, Sargent’s auction sales have exceeded $28 million so far this year—the highest in two decades—with average lot prices soaring 1,800 percent from 2024. The results underscore a powerful revival of interest in the artist’s work, particularly his watercolors, which were long overshadowed by his society portraits.