Sotheby's Paris will offer a monumental portrait by Bernard Boutet de Monvel on 5 November 2026, with an estimate of €400,000 to €600,000. The painting, a 1910 Portrait of Count Edgard de Barral, is the standout lot of the third part of L'écrin Art Déco, a sale drawn from the residence of Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani.

The canvas comes with a provenance that can be traced directly to its commission, a rarity for a work of this scale from the artist's transitional period, when fashionable portraiture was becoming a vehicle for formal experiment. Boutet de Monvel, who lived from 1881 to 1949, painted the count in a poised, pared-back style that has become closely associated with his reputation as a portraitist of the Parisian elite.

The estimate reflects the artist's standing at auction rather than speculation. In April 2016, Sotheby's Paris set the record for Boutet de Monvel when a portrait of the Maharajah of Indore sold for €2,499,000 including fees, five times its pre-sale estimate. That result still anchors the market for his best work.

The portrait is offered as lot 300 in the sale, and the result on Thursday will test whether collectors remain willing to pay strongly for documented, large-scale portraits with a clear line back to the sitter. It is one of the most closely watched single lots of Sotheby's Paris autumn season, and a strong result would underline how much weight the market still places on unbroken provenance and museum-quality condition in a year when buyers have grown more selective about secondary names.