Fahrelnissa Zeid (1901–1991) was a pioneering artist within Turkish modernism, known for a unique style where Islamic and Byzantine pictorial traditions meet Western modernism. Her works reflect not only the energy and richness of her artistic journey but also the dramatic narrative of her cosmopolitan life.

Fahrelnissa was born in Istanbul in 1901 into an intellectual and diplomatic family and was one of the first women to study at the city's art academy. Her father, Shakir Pasha, brother of the grand vizier Cevat Pasha, was a historian, teacher, and diplomat. In 1928, she moved to Paris for further studies at the Académie Ranson.

After her first marriage, she married Prince Zeid and lived an international life marked by diplomatic missions. The couple resided in Ankara, Berlin (1934–1938), Budapest (1939–1940), and Istanbul, where she decided in 1941 to fully dedicate herself to her artistic career. When Prince Zeid was appointed ambassador in London in 1946, her studio there became an important meeting place. Fahrelnissa hosted salons that attracted artists and intellectuals such as Henry Moore, Marc Chagall, Lee Miller, and Roland Penrose. She also established a studio in Paris and immersed herself in the French art scene, where she became friends with Gertrude Stein, Serge Poliakoff, and Sonia Delaunay.

The coup in Iraq in 1958 marked an abrupt end to Prince Zeid's ambassadorship. Eventually, the couple moved to Paris, where Prince Zeid passed away in 1970. Thereafter, Fahrelnissa resumed her artistic practice and found solace in large-scale portraits of friends and family.

Mario Carreño is widely recognized as a key figure in modern Cuban art. Throughout his career, he produced a substantial and stylistically diverse body of work, ranging from Neo-Classical figuration to abstraction. Carreño spent his formative years abroad, visiting Mexico in 1935 and later traveling extensively in Europe during the 1940s. There, he drew inspiration from contemporary avant-garde movements such as Expressionism, Cubism, and abstraction. Like many of his peers, his transatlantic experiences brought him into direct contact with the dominant artistic currents of his time.

In 1957, at the encouragement of his lifelong friend, the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, Carreño moved to Chile. He was offered a two-year contract to teach contemporary art at the University of Chile and was later invited to join the founding faculty of the art department at the Catholic University, where he remained for the next two decades. Although he returned to Europe in the 1960s, he never again visited Cuba. For Carreño, Chile became a quieter counterpart to the fast-paced life of New York, and he became a Chilean citizen in 1969.

The two works by Mario Carreño presented in this auction (lot xx and xx) date from the artist’s geometric period (1952–1962) and have a particularly compelling provenance. They come from the estate of Ambassador Harald Edelstam (1913–1989), who served as Sweden’s ambassador to Chile from 1972 to 1973. Edelstam was engaged in fostering cultural exchange between Sweden and Chile. At the initiative of President Salvador Allende, Edelstam—together with Nemesio Antúnez, then director of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago—was planning to bring in an exhibition of Swedish art to Chile.

In connection with this project, Antúnez presented Edelstam with a gift on behalf of President Allende. Unbeknownst to him, the gift contained a hidden surprise that would not be discovered until several years later. In September 1973, Allende’s government was overthrown in a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet, bringing an abrupt end to civilian rule. President Allende died in the presidential palace. Ambassador Edelstam was subsequently declared persona non grata by the new regime due to his efforts to protect the Cuban embassy in Santiago under Swedish authority and to organize asylum for thousands fleeing persecution.

Carreño, as a Cuban-born artist, also came under suspicion and was accused of harboring arms in his home, leading to his temporary exile. Through the intervention of lawyers, colleagues, and friends, this decision was later overturned, and he remained in Chile. In 1982, he was awarded the prestigious Premio Nacional de Arte by the Chilean government.

Ambassador Edelstam later recounted these events in a statement dated September 1986 (a copy accompanies this lot). Upon returning to Stockholm, the true nature of the gift was finally revealed: it contained not one, but two paintings (lot 932 and 933) by Mario Carreño, fitted into the same frame.

In 2026, Bonhams New York celebrated Mario Carreño alongside the 16 Cuban artists who exhibited at MoMA in 1944. The exhibition at the newly reopened Steinway House in New York was a retrospective and a tribute to the legendary exhibition "Modern Cuban Painters" from 1944.

He participated in important exhibitions of that time, among them the landmark “Modern Cuban Painters“ at MoMA New York in 1944, in which his painting Guajiro con gallo was shown. Like Carreño and many other Cuban artists, Mariano traveled frequently between Havana and New York during the 1940s, and he held solo exhibitions at the Feigl Gallery, on Madison Avenue, in 1945, 1946, and 1951.

At the heart of his iconography is the rooster—one of his most enduring symbols. Bold and animated, it embodies vitality, pride, and masculine authority, strutting across the canvas with commanding presence.

Alongside this, Rodríguez developed the motif of the female figure, often associated with fertility and the natural world. His women are sensuous yet introspective, less objects than emotional anchors within the composition. Frequently placed in quiet dialogue with their surroundings, they appear grounded, almost inseparable from the earth itself.

By the 1970s, Rodríguez’s work evolved into more layered interior scenes in which fruit and plants gained prominence. In the 1972 work presented here, fruit suggests abundance and sensuality, while green foliage introduces a rhythmic, organic structure. These elements coexist with a passive female presence—depicted as an image within the image—while the rooster dominates the foreground. The result is a richly orchestrated composition that blurs the line between still life and narrative, fusing symbolism with everyday experience.

The painting offered in this auction comes from the estate of Ambassador Harald Edelstam (1913–1989), who served as Sweden’s ambassador to Chile from 1972 to 1973. It was presented to him in person in 1974 by Fidel Castro, the prime minister of Cuba, as a sign of gratitude for Edelstam’s active part in protecting the Cuban embassy in Santiago during the military coup in 1973. Ambassador Edelstam later recounted these events in a statement (a copy accompanies this lot).

In 2026, Bonhams New York highlighted the work of Marino Rodriguez along with the 16 Cuban artists who exhibited at MoMA in 1944. The exhibition at the newly opened Steinway House in New York served as both a retrospective and a tribute to the legendary 1944 exhibition “Modern Cuban Painters.”