Paul Gauguin, 
French 1848-1903, 
Auti Te Pape (Women at the River), 1894; 
monochrome woodcut on japan...

Paul Gauguin, 
French 1848-1903, 

Auti Te Pape (Women at the River), 1894; 

monochrome woodcut on japan paper, 
titled in the plate, 
sheet, 26.2 x 40.2 cm, 
(unframed) 

A Visionary’s Archive: The Agathe Sorel and Gabor Sitkey Print Collection

Rosebery's is proud to present a remarkable selection of prints from the private collection of pioneering avant-garde artist Agathe Sorel and her husband, Gabor Sitkey. The curation of this extraordinary archive began not with vast wealth, but with profound artistic connections. As young, aspiring artists, Agathe Sorel and her artist husband acquired their earliest pieces directly from their peers through exchanges, or by receiving signed proofs in return for assisting established masters in pulling their editions. This included rare proofs acquired during Sorel’s formative years working alongside giants of the 20th-century avant-garde at S.W. Hayter’s legendary Atelier 17 in Paris.

As their careers blossomed, the couple’s curatorial ambitions expanded. After being introduced to the London auction scene, Sorel and Sitkey made extreme personal and financial sacrifices to meticulously acquire prints, livres d'artiste, and photographs that resonated with their own creative trajectories. Guided by their sharp, discerning eyes and occasionally advised by leading museum experts, their holdings eventually grew into a masterful collection of 460 items of national significance. It stands today as a physical testament to the 20th-century printmaking renaissance, capturing the vibrant cross-pollination of ideas between the Paris surrealists and the 1960s London Print Revolution.

Crucially, for Sorel and Sitkey, this was never a static investment portfolio; it was a living, breathing library of inspiration that actively surrounded them in their London studios. The collection was used as a daily resource for studying technique, historical precedent, and the representation of perspective—elements that directly fueled Sorel’s own groundbreaking, three-dimensional "Space Engravings" and rule-breaking artist's books. For today's print buyers, this auction represents a rare opportunity to acquire masterworks that were not only cherished, but actively studied and utilized by one of the most relentlessly innovative modern printmakers.

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Born in Budapest in 1935, Agathe Sorel escaped the Holocaust and the 1956 Hungarian Uprising to become a pioneering avant-garde artist based in London. After studying at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts alongside mentors like Michael Rothenstein, she won a prestigious Gulbenkian Scholarship in 1958 to work at S.W. Hayter's legendary Atelier 17 in Paris. There, she immersed herself in a circle of 20th-century luminaries, working alongside regular visitors such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and Salvador Dalí. Sorel later travelled extensively across the United States on a Churchill Fellowship, engaging with leading figures in American printmaking including Mauricio Lasansky, Leonard Baskin, and Gabor Peterdi. She was also a founding member of the Printmakers Council in the UK and formed enduring creative partnerships with prominent Surrealists, including the English poet David Gascoyne and the painter Leonora Carrington.

Sorel's innovative works, spanning rule-breaking livres d'artiste and three-dimensional "Space Engravings," have been widely exhibited and collected internationally. She held numerous major solo exhibitions at venues including the Curwen Gallery, the Camden Art Centre, the Paul Kövesdy Gallery in New York, the Galerie La Hune in Paris, and the Musée de Dessin et de l'Éstampe Originale in Gravelines. Her life's work was also celebrated with a major retrospective at the Bradford Museum’s Cartwright Hall in 2004. Today, Sorel’s pieces are held in some of the most prestigious public collections in the United Kingdom, including the Tate, the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the British Library. In the United States, her art is featured in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Library of Congress, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.