Beschreibung:

Château Mouton-Rothschild 1945
2 bottles per lot
MOUTON-ROTHSCHILD FOR THE LOVE OF ART: ILLUSTRATING THE LABEL Fine wine connoisseurs around the globe respect Château Mouton-Rothschild as much for its adherence to tradition as its pursuit of everlasting style. The wine itself is legendary starting with harvests following WWI and achieving near perfection in the modern era with its brilliant 1982. Unique to Mouton however are its artist labels. These are as sought after as the wine itself, the very fact that Christie’s has sold multiple verticals of both bottle and magnum formats every few years is a testament to the enduring sensuality that both wine and art share. Heretofore the tradition of artistic renditions for a commercial label was unheard of by the great French Châteaux. Baron Philiipe, ever the shrewd marketer, recognized an opportunity to distinguish his wine as Estate Bottled – a pioneering practice in 1924 and so heralded this moment with a “one-off” label. The 1924 Jean Carlu label’s style is expressed in the major artistic movement of its day, Cubism. Both elements classic to Mouton-Rothschild are represented, the ram and the five arrows representing the branches of the Rothschild clan. The design was shocking and revolutionary at that time. Fundamentals of the Cubist style would echo itself in the design of the 1925-26 labels. History has a habit of getting in the way of great plans and so it was that a reappearance of the artist label would not ensue until the monumental 1945 harvest was safely in barrel. The celebratory nature of this commissioned work commemorates the Allied victory in Europe. From a young unknown artist at the time, Philippe Jullian chose to depict the code sign of the French Resistance, V for Victory. The label today is among the most iconic for Mouton which had succeeded in crafting a masterful and legendary wine in 1945. So with this tradition renewed from 1946 onward an important contemporary artist would be commissioned to illustrate the label with an original work. Baron Philippe had settled upon Mouton-Rothschild’s definitive elements: The Ram emblem, a declaration of the production numbers, and importantly the proprietor’s signature. Only in historical moments important to Mouton did a commissioned label not occur, in 1953 the centenary of the purchase of Mouton, in 1977 the official visitation at Mouton of Queen Elizabeth, in 2000 the bottle itself was deemed collectable with the etched gold enamel relief of the Augsburg Ram on to heavy glass, and once more in 2003 marking the 150th Anniversary of Mouton’s stewardship under the Rothschild family. In contrast to these artist vacancies vintages such as 1978 when Canadian painter Jean-Paul-Riopelle submitted two label arrangements, one each for half the vintage and again in 1993, however this time by force and only for the US market, as the government regulatory agency responsible for label approval deemed the drawn depiction of a young female nude to be pornographic for the domestic market. For the commissioning of each label a contract is drawn up that gives both Château and artist broad latitude for design. The artist is free to express themselves as would be natural to assume. Baron Philippe retained the ability to reject any design, no matter how famous an artist might be, if it did not suit the Mouton style. Payment was unconventional, no currency to be exchanged, an artist would receive a case of Mouton of the year that he/she illustrated and additional cases from subsequent years. Popular Artists who have illustrated Mouton-Rothschild labels: Jean Hugo (1946), Jean Cocteau (1947), Georges Braque (1955), Salvador Dali (1958), Matta (1962), Joan Miró (1969), Marc Chagall (1970), Wassily Kandinsky (1971), Pablo Picasso (1973), Robert Motherwell (1974), Andy Warhol 1975), John Huston (1982), Keith Haring (1988), Francis Bacon (1990), Balthus (1993), Gu Gan (1996), Rufino Tamayo (1998), HRH Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (2004), Lucian Freud (2006), Xu Lei (2008), Jeff K