Work by Roy Lichtenstein unseen on the market for 20 years

Christie’s is honored to announce the sale of an extraordinary, seminal, museum-quality work by Roy Lichtenstein unseen on the market for 20 years. 

Nurse will be included in the 20th century curated sale, The Artist’s Muse, which presents a constellation of works and subjects that have inspired artists in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. This spectacular work is the most iconic of Lichtenstein’s series of his legendary Pop portraits of women appropriated from romance comic books of the early 1960s and has been included in Lichtenstein's first retrospective exhibitions at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 1968 and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1969 which brought him international acclaim and established Lichtenstein as one of the most important figures of the Pop Art. Nurse comes with distinguished provenances, from the most historic and significant collections of Pop Art: Leon Kraushar, New York, then to the comprehensive and influential collection of Karl Stroher, Germany and finally the collection of Peter Brant, before being acquired in 1995 by the present owner. This painting is widely regarded not only as an icon of the artist’s career, but also of Pop Art. Estimated in the region of $80 million, this masterpiece is poised to break the world auction record for the artist of $56 million, achieved at Christie’s New York in May 2013 for Woman with Flowered Hat, 1963.

Image above: ROY LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997), NURSE. Courtesy Christie's. Signed and dated ‘rf Lichtenstein '64’ (on the reverse), oil and Magna on canvas. 48 x 48 in. (121.9 x 121.9 cm.). Painted in 1964. Estimate Upon Request to Christie's.