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The World's Most Expensive Paintings
(Part 1) |
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World's Most Valuable Art |
Top 10 Sales Records See below for a list of the highest priced paintings sold at auction or privately, by some of the world's greatest visual artists, plus details of their record-breaking compositions. Note also that the value of paintings can fall as well as rise. Renoir's Bal au moulin de la Galette (bought for $78 million) was reputedly resold for $50 million; Cezanne's Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier (bought for $60.5 million) later resold for a lower figure, as did Van Gogh's Irises (bought for $53.9 million) and Monet's famous Water Lilies. The art market tends not to publicize these failures! |
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WORLD'S BEST PAINTING |
1. No 5
(1948) If unconfirmed reports are correct, Mexican financier David Martinez paid $140 million for this signature work by Jackson Pollock, making it the world's most expensive painting ever. Art critics say this demonstrates the increasing appetite for abstract art, and the eclipse of Impressionism as the most valuable arts movement, but other factors may be involved: notably the relative rarity of Pollock's works, his unique drip/ splash style of 'action painting', and his American nationality. Even so, paying $140 million for a contemporary work of art is a massive vote of confidence in modernism. The 4' x 8' composition, comprising oil, enamel and aluminum paint on fiberboard, is a nest-like tangle of browns, yellows and greys. It exemplifies Pollock's all-over approach to fine art painting, which treats all areas of the canvas equally, rejecting all conventional points of reference or focus. Indeed, Pollock often cropped his finished work to optimize its appearance. |
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2. Woman III
(1953) One of the most consistent and longest-lived exponents of the American Abstract Expressionism style, Rotterdam-born Willem de Kooning was noted for his biomorphic synthesis of figurative and abstract styles, often using the female form. In fact Woman III is one of a series of six numbered 'Woman' paintings and the only one still in a private collection. The work's exploration of Freudian themes is visible in its staring eyes, huge breasts and distorted torso, as well as its aggressive brushwork and absence of 'human' colour. Loaded with personal narrative, this work (along with the Jackson Pollock work, above) is 30 percent more expensive than the highest-priced Picasso and almost twice as much as the most valuable Monet. Hmm. |
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WORLD'S BEST SCULPTURE |
3. Portrait of Adele
Bloch-Bauer I (1907) Arguably yet another example of overpriced art, this iconic image changed hands after a court order by the Austrian government returned it to the Artist's rightful heir after its confiscation by the Nazis during the war. Despite its inflated price-tag however, it remains one of the artist's great masterpieces and exemplifies his fascination with the flat decorative features of Egyptian art, the gold and mosaic elements of Byzantine works, Freudian and other symbolism. Reputedly an oversexed workaholic, Klimt's contribution to the Viennese Jugendstil art movement included numerous portraits of Viennas leading ladies, of which this portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer - the wife of Jewish entrepreneur Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer - is considered a leading example. Klimt completed a second portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer in 1912, which ranks Number 6 in the list of all-time most expensive paintings. |
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4. Garçon à
la Pipe (1905) The most expensive example of representational art, this Picasso masterpiece holds the record for the highest price ever achieved by a work of modern art at auction. It took a mere 7 minutes of bidding to reach the hammered price, which far exceeded the previous record of $82.5 million set by Van Gogh's Portrait of Dr Gachet in 1990, breaking the $100 million barrier in the process. Painted by the 24-year old Pablo Picasso during his more cheerful Rose Period, (following his mournful Blue Period), it is one of the most iconic works of the era and the finest still in private hands. |
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4a. Eight Elvises
(1963) December 1st, 2009 - According to a report in the London Economist, the unique screenprint Eight Elvises by Andy Warhol has been sold by private treaty to an anonymous buyer for $100 million. The 12-ft high picture has not been seen in public since it was shown in Los Angeles in 1963. We await confirmation. |
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GREATEST ARTISTS |
5. Dora Maar au Chat
(1941) Dora Maar with Cat is a large, luminous, Cubist-style portrait of Picasso's mistress, seated on a chair with a small cat perched on her shoulders. Its sale in 2006 far exceeded its $50 million estimate, and made it the second most expensive painting sold by an auctioneer in the history of art. An inspiration as well as a mistress, Dora Maar (1907-1997) was one of Picasso's favourite models and the subject of countless interpretations (eg. Weeping Woman) during the course of their dynamic relationship which endured for 11 years from 1935 to 1946. In this portrait of Maar, Picasso has added numerous deliberate narrative or symbolic elements, including: a hat, symbolizing a crown; a cat, alluding to feminine guile and sensual activity; long sharp fingernails (not visible in the picture) to reinforce the idea of feline aggression; a vibrant colour scheme picking out various details of Maar's dress (not visible). Whether these elements were intended to compliment or demonize Maar remains unclear. |
![]() 6. Adele Bloch-bauer II (1912) By Gustav Klimt. $87.9 million (Christie's New York, November 2006) |
6. Portrait
of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (1912) In this second portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, which was painted five years after his first version, the earlier gold backdrop has been replaced by a quieter, more detached background. Even so, the halo-like hat and the focus on Adele's face points to his continuing regard for her. The painting also demonstrates Kilimt's new attitude to colour (shorn of its use of gold), as well as his technique of combining elements of reality and unreality. Art critics typically swoon over this latter attribute. One has stated that in this composition: Klimt "demonstrated the liberation of visualization by effortlessly assimilating a whole series of influences and reworking them into a peculiarly inspired personal vision." Quite so. Personally, I think Klimt does beautifully decorative work, with a few echoes of German Expressionist groups like Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brucke, without ever revealing the artistic genius suggested by the world record auction price of this canvas. |
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See also: Irish Art Market |
7. Triptych
(1976) A masterpiece of post-war contemporary art by one of the most famous artists of the modern era, Francis Bacons Triptych, is regarded as the most important painting by the artist in private hands. It was the focal work of the artists most important show of new work of the 1970s - one of the most sustained and productive periods in his career - which was staged at the Galerie Claude Bernard in Paris in 1977. In this work, Bacon utilizes Greek Mythology to depict his personal fate, disclosing in a single work his full range of imagery and iconography. It is one of his most complex and imaginative works and bristles with classical narrative, much too complex to explain in a couple of sentences. Not surprisingly, given the quality of the work and the fact that Sotheby's had previously achieved five world record prices for works by Francis Bacon, Triptych smashed its pre-sale estimate of $70 million. See also, the list of Top-20 Contemporary Artists. |
![]() 8. Portrait of Dr. Gachet (1890) By Vincent Van Gogh. $82.5 million (1990) Christie's, New York |
8. Portrait of Dr
Gachet (1890) The Dutch Post-Impressionist Van Gogh painted two portraits of Dr Gachet - the last-ditch psychiatrist with whom he stayed immediately prior to his suicide - each with a differing colour scheme. The other portrait hangs in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Sold in 1990 at Christie's for a world record price to the Japanese industrialist Ryoei Saito, it was reportedly resold to a European buyer in 1997 or 1998 for $70-$90 million. Interestingly, Van Gogh felt a strong sense of empathy with the 62-year old widower Gachet, due to the latter's eccentricities and melancholic unease, and his attempt to seek solace in hard work. The painting deliberately conveys the doctor's "heartbroken expression", reinforced by the addition of a glass with sprigs of foxglove - a homeopathic plant used to treat depression, as well as two French novels about the mental stresses of Parisian life. |
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9. False Start
(1959) A founding father of Pop-Art, Johns is noted for his innovative use of mixed-media such as oils, waxed-based paint, plaster and collage (including flags, maps, stenciled words, numbers, newspapers and other 'found materials' or objets trouvés). In this work, the most expensive painting by a living artist, Johns uses stenciled words on a brightly colored background which provide a literal allusion to the title False Start. This is because the words - which express colours, red, white and so on - are painted in (and are positioned on) contradictory colours to those described. The use of words exemplifies Johns' utilization of everyday images to stimulate the spectator. |
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WORLDS TOP ARTISTS |
10. Bal au Moulin
de la Galette (1876) This Renoir masterpiece, the most expensive example of Impressionism ever sold, portrays a Sunday afternoon dance in a Monmartre dance garden. It is one of the most famous works of French Impressionism, and highlights the artist's unique skill in reproducing dappled light, which infuses the whole work with a soft-focus quality. Also visible in this plein-air painting are several of Renoir's artist friends. Curiously, the painting has two things in common with Van Gogh's Portrait of Dr Gachet. First, it too was purchased by Ryoei Saito and subsequently resold at a loss to a European art collector. Second, it too has a 'sister' version. In this case, a larger canvas which (again like the other Gachet) hangs in the Musée dOrsay. For Part 2, see: Top 20 Most Expensive Paintings. |
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