Three Van Gogh works totaled $154m at New York auction
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Three Van Gogh works totaled $154m at New York auction
Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers et cyprès (Wooden huts among olive trees and cypresses), by Vincent van Gogh. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Owning a Vincent van Gogh piece of art is irresistible for many collectors, especially when it comes from a reputable gallery.
A trio of works, evidence to Van Gogh's exploding creativity especially in the last stage of his life, sold for a total of $154 million at Christie's in New York on Nov 11. They were all from the collection of Edwin Lochridge Cox, the US businessman, art collector and philanthropist who died a year ago.
Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers et cyprès (Wooden huts among olive trees and cypresses), which Van Gogh painted in 1889, fetched $71.35 million. The oil painting brings to life the landscape of southern France as Van Gogh combined two of his favorite motifs -- olive tree and cypress, other than the sunflower -- to symbolize vigor and power.
Jeune homme au bleuet (Young man with blueberries), created two months before Van Gogh's death, reflects his passion about producing portraits in a highly expressive manner. The oil painting sold for $46.73 million.
Meules de blé (Wheat wheels), a gouache and watercolor on paper, depicts a rural scene of harvest seasons that Van Gogh captured with exhilaration. It was hammered at the price of $35.86 million.
Jeune homme au bleuet (Young man with blueberries), by Vincent van Gogh. [Photo provided to China Daily]
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Meules de blé (Wheat wheels), by Vincent van Gogh. [Photo provided to China Daily]
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When I turned 13 years old, by Uncle Johnny (my mother's brother) gave me a large sized book about Van Gogh and it had copies of many of his works of art in it. I treasured it for many years, but when I was leaving for China my son wanted it, and I gave it to him.
That is a lot of money.
A lot of people have so much money it's coming out of their ears these days, and paying astronomical sums for the most ridiculous things. However, I can understand that there is a reason to purchase something like a Van Gogh painting. It will never lose its value and will continue to increase instead. It's a pretty good investment, and one you can hang on your wall and admire, and make your friends jealous with .
Van Gogh is my favorite painter by far and I would love to have a painting by him (or even a copy) but not one of these three. His best work is in museums and will probably never be available for purchase (not that I could afford them anyway) and even if they were the value of just one of his best would exceed the price of all three of these paintings. Hey every painting can't be a masterpiece no matter who the artist is and no doubt the reason these were available for sale is they are lesser works, you can still tell instantly who painted them but they just don't speak to me the way his better work does.
This is a more refined version of the Wheat Wheels painting, it's called Haystacks in Provence, 1888.
Evening Buzz...sorry would rather have a photo of my cat on the wall than those...
I would have a photo of the cat on the wall also, and the van gogh in the bank vault...
Evening nowhere...Mmm gold would suit me better than paintings..
Very wise.
IMO a Van Gogh painting would soar in value, gold not as much. There's always more gold, but not very many more Van Goghs, if any.
LOL.
Off topic...but..
Just watching a train journey around Quebec and Canada absolutely spectacular..on the train they served up Emu pate... they are eating half of our Coat of Arms ..
Not heard of Emu pate before...must be a French thing.
I once ate Ostrich steak here. Should I bury my head in the ground for doing so?
When it comes to famous paintings that you WOULD put on your wall, my favourite painting of all time was also chosen in a poll in Great Britain to be the favourite painting of the British people. When I was in London, I went to the Tate and National galleries to drool over the paintings of my favourite artist, J.M.W.Turner. The painting is The Fighting Temeraire.
It's more than a painting. It tells a story. The sailing ship was a heroic vessel that fought successfully in battles, but as you can see ships were now using steam engines, so it is being towed into dock, its last voyage. The glorious sunset, the end of the day, reflects and illustrates the final moments.
{chuckle} I would put that one in a vault as well buzz...
That is a beautiful painting.
Since we're talking about "favorite painters," I'll add mine.
William Sidney Mount
Frederick Edwin Church
Church is one of my favorite painters, too. If anyone gets to the Hudson River Valley, I strongly recommend visiting his house, Olana. It is on a rise overlooking the Hudson River and it is really interesting.
This is a link to the Olana website for those who might be interested:
Lots of detail in the first painting and the colors are very vibrant. I can see why you like this artist
I very much admire Church's paintings as well, however, when it comes to Mount, it makes me think of the rivalry between Turner and Constable. If I wanted something photographic I would prefer a photograph. I prefer when an artist puts emotion into a painting, impressionism, expressionism, whatever. However, when an artist inserts his/her sense of humour, it can be fun. An example of that is Dog Poker, one of the paintings featured in the movie The Accountant.
Mount was a genre painter who painted scenes of everyday life on Long Island; his paintings are anything but “photographic “ but must be seen in person to appreciating his nuanced brushwork.
It isn't easy to make out nuanced brushwork unless one is looking at an original painting. Sometimes a copy will show it, but not always.
Great to see articles for the Group other than just Three Day Weekend!
Favorite painters and favorite paintings are great topics. Although my list is lengthy, I have never had a more astounding museum experience than visiting the Mauritshuis in the Hague in the Netherlands and standing in front of Vermeer's "View of Delft". I thought it was the most beautiful painting I have ever seen. I must have spent close to 30 minutes viewing it.
I would like to see more Vermeer paintings. I think a trip to Amsterdam is in the future
As far as I know, there are only 35 authenticated Vermeer paintings, with a few others that are of questionable origin.
There are 3 in the Mauritshuis in the Hague, and 4 in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The Mauritshuis contains the Dutch Royal collection, which was gifted by the royal family to the people of the Netherlands.
Closer to home, the Frick Museum, which is a really wonderful small museum in Manhattan, has 3 and the Met in New York has 5. The National Gallery in Washington D.C. has 4. There are a few in the Louvre, and some in London, also. There are also a few in other museums in Europe and in Tokyo.
I had a nice surprise when we visited the National Gallery of Art in Dublin, Ireland. I was looking at a pair of Rembrandt's when, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a Vermeer that I did not know was in that museum. That was very cool.
This link details all of the known Vermeer paintings and their locations:
The big tragedy is the Vermeer that was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990. It was never recovered. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is well-worth visiting if you are in Boston.
Thanks for the info!
My pleasure.
In the past, before you were active on NT, we did have favourite painting/painter articles.
Sounds great.
As everyone knows I'm into movies, and there are many movies wherein famous painters and/or paintings play a significant part, for example Lust for Life was about Van Gogh, you will get your Vermeer with Colin Firth playing Vermeer and Scarlett Johanssen The Girl With the Pearl Earring. I mentioned The Accountant which had Dog Poker, a Renoir and a Jackson Pollock, There is a biographical movie of Jackson Pollock's life, and in a comment below I mentioned Gambit, with a Renoir MacGuffin. I'm sure there are many more.
Frederic Remington , The Grass Fire 1908
I like that - another painting that tells a story.
I'm also particularly fond of this one.... Another Remington....
The Fall of the Cowboy- 1895
A sad somber image....
I tend to gravitate to paintings done of Native Americans, and skip the Remingtons et al and concentrate on a more modern era of painters such as Charles Banks Wilson and James Bama. What I love about Bama is that he uses modern NA's and Western Cowboys in their world. One of my favorites is:
Young Plains Warrior
This was painted in 1980 from a moment in the Crow Fair in Montana when the parade stopped for a minute and Bama was able to get this photo from which the painting was done. His painting is not staged, most are captured at the moment with his camera from which his painting is done.
Charles Banks Wilson painting of '' Plains Madona''
Charles Banks Wilson painting of Will Rogers. There are few painting of Rogers in real life. This one was done by Wilson when he was 15 years old backstage at one of Will Rogers's performances. It is in the Smithsonian.
Both of those are great painters Kav...
I prefer Frederic's later "Impressionist" paintings rather than his earlier detail print series... He painted those for himself... I feel they more accurately represent the truth rather than the paid ideals of others... His night painting series are well thought of as well... His western historic series are beautiful paintings as well, but they show a glorified ideal of what happened and are therefore not as true, although masterpieces of execution.....
Wow! He is a great artist!
I don't know anything about art but I do know I like detail and paintings that look almost life like. He brings his subjects to life
My mother used to paint portraits in oil paints using photos as a guide as Bama had done.
On just now thinking about Van Gogh's painting of haystacks, it reminded me of the Monet painting of Haystacks that was the MacGuffin in the movie Gambit, which starred Colin Firth (shown here), Alan Rickman, Cameron Diaz, Stanley Tucci and Tom Courtney, (a very enjoyable little flick).
Then I took note of how many famous painters painted haystacks and discovered that Renoir, Pissaro, Gauguin and others did as well.