In a series of auctions this year and next (commencing May 3 in New York through January 2012), Sotheby’s will offer property from the Collection of Dodie Rosekrans.

Mrs Rosekrans was an influential figure in San Francisco, Paris and Venice, where she lived with her husband John Rosekrans. She was known for her considerable charitable work, trendsetting style and patronage of both the fine and decorative arts. She was an international society hostess – a doyenne of fashion, culture and art – whose patronage spanned the globe. She was known internationally for her sense of adventure and unfailingly generous spirit. Her death, in November last year at the age of 91, was lamented by fashion and fine arts luminaries across the world.

Mrs Rosekrans was born in San Francisco to Michael Naify, founder of the movie chain that became United Artists Communications.

The Rosekrans’ made well-known efforts to support the museums of San Francisco and Paris, the latter which earned Mrs Rosekrans France’s Légion d’Honneur. “Dodie was simply blessed with a great eye,” commented Charles Moffett, Sotheby’s Vice Chairman. “Her eclectic tastes and interests were not bounded by strictures, regulations, or other people’s values. She could always discern what was special, lively, and lovely, often in the most idiosyncratic ways. Whether collecting couture, Old Master, Modern or Contemporary paintings, decorative arts, or jewellery, the common threads were freshness, character and above all, quality.”

The Rosekrans collection is highlighted by a group of works from Pablo Picasso’s most prolific periods – led by Couple à la guitare from 1970 (est. $10/15 million) a monumental and poignant depiction of lovers, a dominant subject during the artist’s final years. Painted when Picasso was 88, the male figure serenades his lover as his limbs intertwine with hers, underscoring the physical melding of the two bodies into one unified form. As is often the case in Picasso’s late work, the female figure is a reference to his wife Jacqueline, and the male figure to the artist himself.

Fillette aux nattes et au chapeau vert from 1956 is an intimate and tender portrait of Picasso’s daughter, Paloma, executed when she was seven years old and the artist was 74. Unlike his depictions of his son Paolo from his 1920s or daughter Maya from the 1930s, Picasso’s many paintings and drawings of Paloma and her older brother, Claude, from the 1950s reveal the easy familiarity he shared with his two youngest children.

The Contemporary Art Evening Collection on 10 May is highlighted by two Round Jackie paintings by Andy Warhol; tour de force renditions of one of the artist’s most poignant meditations on public and private persons (Est. $3/4 million each). Along with Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, Jacqueline Kennedy was one of Warhol’s most important muses, whose glamorous images and tragic lives perfectly suited two of his most enduring themes: the vagaries of celebrity and the inevitability of death and disaster. The present two works are among the finest screens from a series of eight tondo portraits of Mrs Kennedy, which are considered to be the artist’s first paintings of the First Lady on the day of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. The Rosekrans Collection offers both variations from this series: Jackie’s cheerful face as she and JFK arrive at Love Field airport, and a smiling Jackie in the motorcade just prior to the tragic shots.

In addition to the Round Jackie paintings, the contemporary art in the Collection is highlighted by a significant group of works by Jean Dubuffet created from 1945-54, a critical period in the artist’s oeuvre.

Fine and decorative arts from the Collection will be sold in a single-owner lifestyle sale in December 2011. The furniture and decorations to be offered come from Mrs Rosekrans’s San Francisco town house – designed by Michael Taylor – as well as her ‘Indian Jewel Box’ apartment in Paris and palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice – both designed by Tony Duquette.  Additional works from the Collection will be offered in a number of auctions at Sotheby’s New York in 2011 and 2012, including Antiques (December), Magnificent Jewels (December) and Old Master Paintings and Drawings (January 2012). 

Dodie Rosecrans’ exceptional taste can be glimpsed in the interior shot of her home, shown here, which shows her paintings and decorative arts in their original setting.