Little Seen Van Gogh Painting Fetches 16.9 Million Pounds at Auction

A Sotheby's auction in early February reached a record amount in part due to a Van Gogh painting which fetched 16.9 million pounds, reports Bloomberg.  The Van Gogh was the second most expensive painting of the London auction, which raked in a grand total of 169.5 million pounds (US $266.8 million.)

The first most expensive painting of the evening was "Boulevard Montmartre" by Camille Pissarro.  It was estimated to go at 10 million pounds but when the hammer fell the price was 19 million pounds.  About 60% of the auction pieces went for prices higher than Sotheby's estimate, which indicates that the world art market is coming back strong.

Van Gogh's "The Man Is At Sea (L’Homme Est en Mer)" was estimated to bring in a mere 8 million pounds.  This is the canvas' second time at Sotheby's.  In 1989, it was sold in the New York branch of Sotheby's for a piddling $7.15 million. Things get a little muddied as to the painting's history after 1989. According to Sotheby's, it was bought by an anonymous art consigner in 1993 and sold to Holocaust survivor and art dealer Jan Krugier.  Krugier died in 2008 but his extensive art collection did not go on sale until this year.

Van Gogh painted the woman and baby at home waiting for Daddy in front of the hearth while he was an inmate at the asylum in Saint-Remy, France in 1889, about a year before the artist's death.  Van Gogh's paintings were considered worthless in his lifetime.  The first owner of the painting was Dr. Paul Gachet, Vincent's final therapist and one of his models.  It has had several wealthy owners after the good doctor's family sold the painting in the early 1900s.  It was last exhibited publicly in Paris in 1905.

Painting Focus: "Pieta (After Delacroix)"; By Van Gogh, 1889

What is a Pieta? It's an artistic scene depicting the Virgin Mary sorrowfully receiving the body of her son, the crucified Jesus. It's a subject popular in Western civilization in the last two thousand years, even after the Catholic Church stopped bankrolling many major artists. One of the most famous Pietas in modern history is done by the enigmatic Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890).

Van Gogh could rarely afford models, so he often copied existing artwork in order to paint. His Pieta is a copy of a lithograph he had done by Nanteuil. This lithograph was a copy of a Pieta done by acclaimed French Romantic artist Eugene Delacroix (1798 - 1863.) This is not a faithful copy but Delacroix's painting done in Van Gogh's vibrant, Impressionist style.

Differences

Although there are similarities in figure shapes, positioning and theme, there are many differences between the original Delacroix and Van Gogh's version. Delacroix renders a typical religious painting, where the central characters are unmistakably more than human. Jesus seems to hold himself up despite being dead while Mary's blue dress and red cloak flow dramatically. The way Mary's clothes flow suggests that a strong wind is blowing, but nothing else in the painting, such as Jesus' hair, moves.
Van Gogh's figures are much more human. Both Mary and Jesus have the same skin coloration. Van Gogh put his paint on the canvas in very heavy layers. Coupled with brighter colors and a lack of red, the figures seem slightly squiggly. This slightly distorted image may have been inspired by visual disturbances Van Gogh is thought to have experienced. Whether that cause was a seizure disorder or migraine aura is unknown.

Accidental Art

Van Gogh decided to try his hand at Delacroix's Pieta after his lithograph became damaged. It fell into a patch of bright oil paint that Van Gogh could not remove. This caused a huge bright round patch near Mary's head. This damaged copy was kept by the Van Gogh family and still exists.

This was painted in 1889, when the artist had less than one year to live. This year was also his most productive and included some of his most beloved works. After years of struggling to achieve his own painting style which was considered ugly at the time, Van Gogh had finally mastered it.

Additional Resources

Van Gogh. Rene Huyghe. Crown Publishers; 1967.

Dear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh. Irving Stone & Jean Stone, editors. Plume; 1995.

Painting Focus: Vase with Gladioli and China Asters, 1886

Today, a painting by Vincent Van Gogh is worth millions of dollars. But when Van Gogh lived, he could barely afford to eat and rarely could afford to hire models. Although he wrote often to his brother Theo about his wish to paint people, he rarely was able to. So Van Gogh was forced to improvise by painting whatever objects were available, including a simple vase filled with gladioli flowers.

Van Gogh painted many varieties of flowers. His best known flower works are his bright series of sunflower paintings. Van Gogh's "Vase with Gladiloi" (1886) is an often overlooked masterpiece in interpreting still life to canvas. Van Gogh did several pieces including gladioli flowers in the summer of 1886, but this is arguably the best in the series. It now hangs in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The painting is also called "Vase with Gladioli and Chinese Asters", F248a and several others that I'm sure I forgot to mention here.

Van Gogh's Style

Van Gogh is an artist that's either loved or hated. Van Gogh did receive some art instruction, but mostly was a self-taught artist. Critics point out his blocky, borderline cartoonish figures, including those of flowers. Van Gogh used a swirling quality with his colors, laying them sometimes directly next to each other instead of blending them in. "Vase with Gladioli" shows how thickly he laid the expensive oil paints onto his canvass.
Because Van Gogh used paint in such thick layers, we are able to see how long his brushstrokes were and sometimes the actual tiny lines of the brush itself. This is especially noticeable in the vase itself and sprig of gladioli laying nest to the vase. When viewed at a slight distance of a few feet, the colors and brushstrokes do blend to make a solid picture. But seeing the actual brushstrokes gives a personal touch, as if Van Gogh is not afraid for us to see how he works. This makes his work approachable because of this human touch.

Van Gogh's Palette

Most of Van Gogh's flower paintings are done with one predominating color or colors that closely resemble each other. His sunflower series are in mostly bright earth tones, for example. "Vase with Gladioli" is different in that there are a variety of colors used. The background and most of the vase is dark, while the flowers themselves are bright green, yellow, red and white. The red is quite dark, which helps to balance the dark and light colors.

The vase itself is quite interesting, although it is dominated by the gladioli. It may have been an old tin can that perhaps at one time held Van Gogh's brushes. It is smeared with odd splotches of colors, suggesting that Van Gogh may have used it as a substitute palette at one point.

A Pair of Van Gogh's Sunfllowers Shown Together in London

Going to be in London?  You lucky dogs.  You'll get an opportunity to see a sight which was last viewed 65 years ago -- when two versions of Vincent Van Gogh's infamous sunflower paintings were hung side by side.  The display will last for three months only until April.  Remember -- admission to The National Gallery is free.  Compare that to the cost of seeing a Van Gogh in an American museum, where charges rom $25 to $35 per person are not uncommon.

One version is owned by the National Gallery in London.  It was bought in 1924 from the Van Gogh family for a whopping 24 million pounds sterling.  The other is owed by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.  They are now displayed in Room 46 of the National Gallery.

There are several versions of Van Gogh's sunflower paintings.  My personal favorite is the one I have actually travelled to see at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Sadly, one version was destroyed during World War II, although photos of it apparently still exist.  Because of their value, the chances of all existing versions being brought together in one museum are next to impossible.  The sunflowers in Philly, for example, is one of the cash cows for that museum and so it could never part with it.

Vincent once wrote that his sunflowers were really self-portraits.  Perhaps he was in a more positive frame of mind when he wrote that.  In his career, Vincent painted sunflowers in all their stages from seeds to dried dead flowers.  When Paul Gauguin painted his portrait of Vincent, he chose one of Vincent painting sunflowers.  Vincent reportedly said of it, "It is a portrait of me, but a portrait of me gone mad."

Painting Focus: Siesta or Noon: Rest from Work (1890)

Although best known for his feverishly colored landscapes, Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890) preferred to paint people. Paying for models was a challenge to the impoverished painter, as he would constantly complain in letters to his only lifelong friend, his brother Theo. One painting featuring not just one but two people is “The Siesta”, a large oil painting based on Jean-Francois Millet’s “La Sieste.”

Van Gogh did not formally name the painting, so it is listed in art books and art websites under different names such as “Noon: Rest From Work” and “Noon Rest.” The painting now resides at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. Considered worthless when it was first painted, it is now priceless.

Painting Particulars
In the painting, two peasants nap against a haystack during the hottest part of the day. The woman is lying on her side, her head curved down so her features are completely hidden. The man is lying on his back, his hands behind his head. His hat covers his face. The worker's shoes are off, resting next to a pair of sickles. Because the faces are hidden, the peasants could represent anyone.
"The Siesta" was completed in January 1890, about 11 months before the painter's tragic death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Van Gogh copied the Millet painting because of his lack of money for models while he was a patient at the St. Remy de Provence asylum in France. Van Gogh would produce 142 paintings in this time as he mastered his unique and distinctive style.

Not Exactly a Copy

Van Gogh would copy several of Millet's works while staying at St. Remy. Millet was one of Van Gogh's favorite artists. But instead of slavishly copying Millet stroke for stroke or even color for color, Van Gogh created fresh new works of art.

Millet's original is darker than Van Gogh's. Colors smoothly blend into each other. The brightest spots are within a shaft of light shining down on the napping pair of peasants napping against a hay pile. The livestock grazing in the background are difficult to see. In Van Gogh's work, the entire painting is bathed in the light peculiar to Southern France. The draught animal in the back is bright pinto in color. The sky, the wheat pile, the animal and the peasants are all filled with swirls of color, making them appear made of the same stuff.

Looking at the Desk of Van Gogh's Great-Great Grandnephew

Imagine being named after one of the most famous artists in the  world.  No, really -- imagine it.  You are saddled with a name that you can never live up to in no way, shape or form.

Frightening, isn't it?

This is the everyday dilemma for Vincent Willem Van  Gogh, the great-great grandnephew of the artist (and subject of this blog) Vincent Willem Van Gogh (1853 - 1890).  It was also the dilemma of Great-Great Granduncle Vincent, who was named for his stillborn older brother (who also happened to be born on the same day Vincent was.) 

The current Vincent Willem Van Gogh (pictured above with two other Van Goghs) works on the board for the Van Gogh Museum  in  Amsterdam, founded by the current Vincent's grandfather named (you guessed it) Vincent Willem Van Gogh.  In an interview in July of 2013 when he visited Japan for an art opening featuring 3D works of Van Gogh masterpieces, he said:

“It never fails to touch me when I see how much the work and life of Vincent van Gogh mean to people all over the world."

He also has quite a desk.  He gave a semi-detailed interview to Haute Living.com about the items you can find on them. Take a look at it and the honkin' big Van Gogh art book.  The desk itself (perhaps also named Vincent Willem Van Gogh -- hey, I've seen crazier things in my life) looks like it came from Ikea.

Rarely Seen Van Gogh Painting on Display in Washington

Can you get to Washington, D.C.?  If you can, give yourself a big treat and check out the National Gallery.  In particular, you want to look for a painting that hasn't been seen in public since 1966 -- Vincent Van Gogh's “Green Wheat Fields, Auvers,” (1890.)  The Gallery also has eight other Van Goghs and lots of other visual goodies as well.

Although a calmer, less "busy" work than Van Gogh's best known paintings, this is still a subtly complex and pleasingly bright work.  Although some critics say that it reflected Van Gogh's more calmer state of mind, I have to disagree.  Although the fields of young wheat are happy and lively, the clouds above are not.  They are in the same swirling, turbulent patterns as seen in works like "The Starry Night."

So, where was this painting from 1966? In the home of superrich snob Paul Mellon.  Mellon died in 1980 and his wife in 1999, but his family clung onto the painting since then.  Hung over the fireplace.  The Mellons owned it since 1955 and loaned it to a museum once in 1966.  Before that, it was last shown in 1912 in Cologne, Germany.  The painting will now have a permanent new home where it belongs -- for the public to appreciate.  The chances of the painting being loaned to other museums around the world is possible, but no plans have been announced.