20 Most Expensive Paintings Sold at
Auction
Record Auction Prices For Works of Art.
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20 Most Expensive Paintings Sold at
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WORLD'S BEST PAINTING ANALYZE PAINTINGS |
The World's Most Expensive Paintings (11-20) Contents • Introduction For Paintings
numbered 1-10: Whether or not a painter or sculptor achieves fame, depends entirely upon issues of fashion and taste. Mathias Grunewald (1475-1528) was forgotten for 400 years until 20th century expressionists bestowed iconic status on his intense compositions. Jan Vermeer (1632-75), now regarded as the finest Dutch genre-painter of all time, fell into obscurity for 200 years until the art critic Thore Burger published an essay in 1866 describing him as one of the greatest Old Masters of the Dutch Golden Age. Rembrandt (1606-1669) fell out of fashion in the 1640s, died in poverty, and only recovered his reputation during the highpoint of 19th century Romanticism. The fact is, paintings represent values - aesthetic, optical, moral and social - all which can change rapidly, with a huge effect on the financial value of the work and the popularity of its creator. Interestingly, there is not a single example of Christian art in the following list of high-priced paintings. |
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11.
White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) (1950) The most expensive piece of American art sold at auction, this signature work by one of the great expressionist painters of the mid-20th century, and a pioneer of Colour Field Painting, is the second most expensive post-war painting sold at auction, after Francis Bacon's Triptych. Art critics consider it to be the first major example of Rothko's famous 'multiform' style. It was in the winter of 1948-9 that Rothko stumbled across his multiform concept, in which blocks of contrasting but complementary colour pigments are arranged vertically on huge canvases, in order to overwhelm or envelop the spectator. After applying a thin mixture of binder and pigment onto an untreated canvas, he would add layer after layer of thinned oils to produce a dense bed of overlapping colour and shape. Although he began with rich vibrant colour schemes, he later turned to more muted colours - a sign, according to some, of his growing depression. A heavy drinker, smoker and bad-eater, Rothko committed suicide at the age of 66 by taking an overdose of anti-depressants and slashing his wrists with a razor. |
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12. Le Bassin aux
Nympheas (1919) One of the great Impressionist landscape paintings by one of the world's best landscape artists, this work is an outstanding large-scale example of Claude Monet's Waterlilies series. Influenced by Japonism, it features the famous Japanese bridge in Monet's water garden at Giverny, demonstrating his fascination with plein-air painting and his pursuit of pure Impressionism. Le Bassin aux Nympheas is the most expensive painting by Monet and the second most expensive work of Impressionism after Bal au Moulin de la Galette by Renoir. It exemplifies the artist's lifelong attempt to master the replication of light: a task he continued to pursue until the very end. |
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FACT ABOUT THE ART
MARKET |
13. Green Car Crash
(Green Burning Car I) (1963) Arguably the first example of postmodernist art, and the second most expensive piece of contemporary art (after Bacon's Triptych), this composition (employing synthetic polymer, silkscreen ink and acrylic on linen) was hammered down two days after Rothko's White Centre work, during Christie's 2007 record-breaking sale of contemporary art. The high price-tag was due in part to a heated bidding war between two buyers. It is the most expensive work by Andy Warhol, the leader of the Pop-Art movement. It belongs to the artist's famous 'Death and Disaster' series of works (1962-4), based on gruesome tabloid images of fatal accidents, suicides, and race riots, as well as such morbid iconography as electric chairs and atomic explosions. One sub-set of the series features car crashes, of which this work is a prize exhibit. It was based on an image, published in Newsweek magazine, which captured the aftermath of a fatal crash during which the driver was hurled from the vehicle and impaled on a spike. |
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14. Portrait de l'artiste
sans barbe (1889) This work by the short-lived Dutch pioneer of Expressionism became the third most expensive painting ever sold at auction, when it was bought by an anonymous buyer in 1998, effectively reigniting the art market after the doldrums of the mid-1990s. Although not considered a masterpiece of Van Gogh's oeuvre, it is a unique self-portrait - since in all other self-portraits he is bearded - which gives us an unusually frank glimpse of the artist. Painted in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, in Autumn 1889, Portrait of the Artist Without a Beard is one of three works by Van Gogh which appear in the World's Top 20 Most Expensive Paintings. Not bad for an artist who sold almost nothing during his lifetime. |
 15. Nude Sitting on a Divan ("La Belle Romaine") (1917) By Amedeo Modigliani. $68.9 million (2010) Sotheby's, New York |
15. Nude Sitting on
a Divan (1917) Modigliani's Nu Assis sur un Divan (La Belle Romaine), portraying a partially draped woman sitting with crossed legs against a warm red background, was painted as part of a series of female nudes - the highpoint of the artist's career as one of Paris's greatest expressionist painters. During its sale, five telephone buyers competed to produce a record price, which was four times higher than when it was previously auctioned at Sotheby's in 1999. Later, Modigliani's Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne with a Hat sold for $19.1 million, confirming his reputation as one of the best portrait artists in the history of modern art. Less than three years after finishing this painting, Modigliani died from tuberculosis. On the following day, his heavily pregnant girlfriend Jeanne Hebuterne threw herself out of a 5th-floor window. |
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16. Men in Her Life
(1962) Hammered down at Phillips de Pury & Company's 2010 Carte Blanche auction in Manhattan, New York, this work - a blotchy 7-feet tall 1962 monochrome painting based on a photo from Life magazine, showing a demure Taylor with third husband Mike Todd and future husband Eddie Fisher - is the second most expensive Warhol picture to be sold at auction (see above, No 12). Two telephone bidders pushed the price for the Pop art image way beyond its pre-sale estimate of $40 million. |
 17. 1949-A-No.1 (1949) By Clyfford Still. $61.7 million (2011) Sotheby's, New York |
17. 1949-A-No.1
(1949) Collectors were out in force to buy a rare oil painting by Clyfford Still - one of the most innovative of mid-century abstract painters - as only 11 canvases by the artist have appeared at auction over the past decade, which makes his art far rarer than, that of Mark Rothko, whose abstract paintings have come up for sale more than 100 times over the same period. Four bidders chased the artist's rust, black and butter-colored abstract "1949-A-No. 1" smashing its $35 million pre-sale estimate in the process, before a telephone bidder eventually secured it for $61.6 million. The final price for this masterpiece of abstract expressionism nearly tripled the artist's previous auction record of $21.2 million. |
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IRISH ART |
18. Rideau, Cruchon
et Compotier (1894) Considered by critics to be one of the greatest examples of still life painting by one of the best still life painters since the 18th century, this work by the French Post-Impressionist Paul Cezanne is the most expensive still life in the history of art. One of more than 200 such works completed by the artist, Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier is an early example of his structured block-like style, which anticipated the Cubism of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. As in most of Cezanne's still lifes, the composition makes no attempt to capture the naturalistic reality of the fruit. There is no sensation of smell, taste or 'fruitiness'. Ironically, Cezanne usually worked at such a snail's pace that most of the fruit in his composition went rotten long before it was finished! What Makes a Great Painting? |
 19. Suprematist Composition (1916) By Kasimir Malevich. $60.0 million (2008) Sotheby's, New York. |
19. Suprematist Composition
(1916) This 1916 exemplar of Suprematism smashed the artist's prior auction record of $17 million, set in 2000, and makes Malevich the most valuable of all Russian artists. A masterpiece of Muscovite avant-garde art from the war years, it comprises a cool arrangement of geometry and colour in space with exceptional austerity. After being exhibited by Malevich in the Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung in Berlin, it was bought by German architect Hugo Hering, who then sold it to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Following a complex and long-running legal battle over the painting's ownership, lasting for more than 17 years, this treasure of Russian art was returned to heirs of the artist, who sanctioned its auction at Sotheby's. |
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GREATEST ARTISTS |
20. Femme aux Bras
Croisés (1902) Not an iconic masterpiece of his Blue Period to compare with La Vie (1903), The Old Guitarist (1903), La Celestina (1904), or Blue Nude (1904), even so, this work is one of Picasso's most haunting expressionist paintings from his early life in Paris. The exact identity of the subject is unknown, but is reputed to be an inmate of the Parisian asylum at Saint-Lazare, who had tried to commit suicide and now sits listlessly with no interest in her life or surroundings. Originally purchased from the artist by the American expatriate and novelist Gertrude Stein, this Picasso Portrait became one of the world's most expensive works of art when auctioned in 2000. As late as 2004, it was one of five Picassos in the Top 10 most highly priced paintings sold at auction: the list included, Garcon a la Pipe ($104.2 million), Femme aux bras croises ($55 million), Femme assise dans un jardin ($49.6 million), Les noces de Pierrette ($49.3 million), and Le Reve ($48.4 million). |
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PAINTING ANALYSIS |
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GREATEST GALLERIES US MUSEUMS EUROPEAN GALLERIES |
(1) The Scream (1895) Munch ($119.9
million) (2012) |
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• For more about top-priced pictures, see: Art Encyclopedia.
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