A painting by Swiss-French artist Félix Vallotton, *Femme couchée dormant (Le Sommeil)* (1899), sold for $2.8 million at Sotheby’s New York on Thursday night, exceeding its high estimate of $2.5 million. The work was part of the Pritzker Collection sale, which also featured masterpieces by Van Gogh, Matisse, and Gauguin. Vallotton’s auction record remains at nearly $4.5 million, set by *Cinq heures* (1898) at Christie’s London in late 2023.
The sale underscores Vallotton’s rising prominence from a cult figure to an institutional favorite, coinciding with the centenary of his death in 1925 and a series of exhibitions across Switzerland. The painting, likely a portrait of his wife Gabrielle Rodrigues-Henriques, marks a shift in his style toward bourgeois domesticity. This event highlights growing collector interest in Vallotton’s work, which blends flat color, satire, and intimate scenes of Belle Époque Parisian life.