1886
masterpiece
1886 Un Dimanche après-midi à l'île de la Grande Jatte by Seurat
Art Institute of Chicago
After Une Baignade à Asnières, Seurat immediately begins another project, on the same social theme of the aberrant life of the bourgeois. He chooses a green corner by the Seine in the leisure park on the island of La Grande Jatte, on the border between Neuilly and Levallois.
Three oil sketches on canvas are started in parallel in May 1884. One of them is a Paysage empty of any character, 65 x 79 cm, on which he sets up the theoretical elements of its composition. The second is a full version 70 x 104 cm, scaled as one third of the size of the final work. The other sketch is a study for the couple in the foreground.
Unlike the Bathing in Asnières, the colors are dull, with too much space provided to the shadows in the foreground. Signac will succeed in convincing Seurat that the brightest lights bring a much better effect to the divisionist technique, but for Un dimanche après-midi à l'île de la Grande Jatte, which will be finished in 1886, it is already too late. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Three oil sketches on canvas are started in parallel in May 1884. One of them is a Paysage empty of any character, 65 x 79 cm, on which he sets up the theoretical elements of its composition. The second is a full version 70 x 104 cm, scaled as one third of the size of the final work. The other sketch is a study for the couple in the foreground.
Unlike the Bathing in Asnières, the colors are dull, with too much space provided to the shadows in the foreground. Signac will succeed in convincing Seurat that the brightest lights bring a much better effect to the divisionist technique, but for Un dimanche après-midi à l'île de la Grande Jatte, which will be finished in 1886, it is already too late. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
masterpiece
1886 Die Toteninsel, fifth version, by Böcklin
Leipzig museum
The fifth version had been commissioned in 1886 by the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig where it still hangs. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
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1886 Pêches et Poires by Cézanne
2019 SOLD for £ 21M by Christie's
Paul Cézanne returns in 1878 to settle in Aix-en-Provence. He is alone to face the torment of his creativity and no longer exhibits in public. He seeks a universal art, abolishing the differences between the most disparate themes : portraits, landscapes, still lifes. Each work is reworked relentlessly up to the multi-sensory perfection desired by the artist.
Painting is the only possible medium for his interpretation of life, because it allows color harmonies. The laws of the perspective itself are not untouchable. Impressionism does not go far enough.
Emile Zola has certainly appreciated the depth of Cézanne's theories and his difficulties in sharing them. In his novel L'Oeuvre published in 1886, he stages a misunderstood painter whose idealistic passion leads to failure. A later letter from Cézanne to Zola, recently found, contradicts the legend of their breakup. Cézanne was obviously too soaked in his research to be indignant at the concern of his college friend.
Cézanne's still life is a continuous quest for perfection. In the Impressionniste phase, that theme enables him to be compared with old masters like Chardin. Also the temperamental artist finds some quietness in arranging real fruit for painstakingly realizing a painting. It is not by chance that his preferred fruit in art, the apple, remains steady for a very long time before going rotten.
There is no still life by Cézanne for a few years from 1880. He restarts the theme around 1886, when he starts in Gardanne a new life that excites his creativity. This is the trompe-l'oeil phase, with a quest for the unbalance that manages to simulate a motion.
On February 27, 2019, Christie's sold for £ 21M as lot 6 a still life of fruit, oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm painted in the mid 1880s. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The theme is modest and the composition is minimalist. On a rustic table without any ornament in a slightly plunging perspective, a plate contains five peaches and a pear. Another pear is placed to the right of the plate. The subtle variety of fruit color is not however the main subject of this experiment.
If the plate is placed flat on the table, its perfect circle is impossible. It is therefore inclined, at the limit of the imbalance of the fruit pyramid. Cézanne knew that realism does not exist in painting : nature is too complex to be imitated and the surface of the canvas does not allow an illusion of real space.
A probably later work gives the key to the enigma : now viewed in profile, the plate is actually tilted. This 28 x 40 cm oil on canvas was sold for $ 8.1M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2017.
Many years later, Matisse tries an axiom according to which Cézanne was too perfectionist to make a mistake. He thus discovers the de-construction of perspective in the most seemingly simplistic still lifes by Cézanne, an artist too far ahead of his own time.
Painting is the only possible medium for his interpretation of life, because it allows color harmonies. The laws of the perspective itself are not untouchable. Impressionism does not go far enough.
Emile Zola has certainly appreciated the depth of Cézanne's theories and his difficulties in sharing them. In his novel L'Oeuvre published in 1886, he stages a misunderstood painter whose idealistic passion leads to failure. A later letter from Cézanne to Zola, recently found, contradicts the legend of their breakup. Cézanne was obviously too soaked in his research to be indignant at the concern of his college friend.
Cézanne's still life is a continuous quest for perfection. In the Impressionniste phase, that theme enables him to be compared with old masters like Chardin. Also the temperamental artist finds some quietness in arranging real fruit for painstakingly realizing a painting. It is not by chance that his preferred fruit in art, the apple, remains steady for a very long time before going rotten.
There is no still life by Cézanne for a few years from 1880. He restarts the theme around 1886, when he starts in Gardanne a new life that excites his creativity. This is the trompe-l'oeil phase, with a quest for the unbalance that manages to simulate a motion.
On February 27, 2019, Christie's sold for £ 21M as lot 6 a still life of fruit, oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm painted in the mid 1880s. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The theme is modest and the composition is minimalist. On a rustic table without any ornament in a slightly plunging perspective, a plate contains five peaches and a pear. Another pear is placed to the right of the plate. The subtle variety of fruit color is not however the main subject of this experiment.
If the plate is placed flat on the table, its perfect circle is impossible. It is therefore inclined, at the limit of the imbalance of the fruit pyramid. Cézanne knew that realism does not exist in painting : nature is too complex to be imitated and the surface of the canvas does not allow an illusion of real space.
A probably later work gives the key to the enigma : now viewed in profile, the plate is actually tilted. This 28 x 40 cm oil on canvas was sold for $ 8.1M by Sotheby's on November 14, 2017.
Many years later, Matisse tries an axiom according to which Cézanne was too perfectionist to make a mistake. He thus discovers the de-construction of perspective in the most seemingly simplistic still lifes by Cézanne, an artist too far ahead of his own time.
Highlights from the most important single owner collection of Impressionist and Modern art offered for sale in London for a decade, featuring works by #Monet, #Renoir, #Cézanne, #VanGogh, #Bonnard, #Matisse and more... https://t.co/PZ3OpFMU7M pic.twitter.com/dhAJXW9NF5
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) November 27, 2018
1886-1887 La Blanchisseuse by Lautrec
2005 SOLD for $ 22.4M by Christie's
Henri, the only surviving son of the comte de Toulouse-Lautrec, had lived his childhood in the castles of his family. He wanted to be an artist and arrives in Paris in 1882. He enters the studio of Fernand Cormon, a very influential painter and teacher who brought a psychological dimension to prehistoric scenes inspired from La Légende des Siècles by Victor Hugo.
Toulouse-Lautrec follows his master when he sets up his workshop near Montmartre. The young provincial was overwhelmed by the social difference between his family and the humble and hard-working life of the popular classes. Cormon teaches him to look at people with sensitivity.
Lautrec soon went to the cabarets of Montmartre. The fashion is for the chansons réalistes in which innocent girls in later teen age are watched over by pimps to the delight of the bourgeois who come to debase themselves in this world of bad life, among thieves and rapins.
In the fashion for girls is the dyed red hair, with abundant buns. The best known example will be the prostitute Casque d'Or, a few years later. In 1885 Lautrec wrote to his mother that he painted the portrait of a woman whose hair was an absolute gold.
He makes several sketches of his new model. Although very young, she had previously posed for Alfred Stevens. Her name is Carmen. Her face is very recognizable with her upturned nose, square jawline, and the locks falling in front of her eyes.
Lautrec reuses these portraits to feature "la Rousse" in scenes typical of the Parisian lower life. La Blanchisseuse, oil on canvas 96 x 75 cm painted in 1886 or 1887, was sold for $ 22.4M by Christie's on November 1, 2005, lot 17. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The theme is not innocent. Working in the heat, the young women are dressed in light blouses that they know how to take off to earn a little money. They have a reputation as prostitutes. Under the Second Empire, they were the main models of the erotic photographs banned by the morality police.
Toulouse-Lautrec follows his master when he sets up his workshop near Montmartre. The young provincial was overwhelmed by the social difference between his family and the humble and hard-working life of the popular classes. Cormon teaches him to look at people with sensitivity.
Lautrec soon went to the cabarets of Montmartre. The fashion is for the chansons réalistes in which innocent girls in later teen age are watched over by pimps to the delight of the bourgeois who come to debase themselves in this world of bad life, among thieves and rapins.
In the fashion for girls is the dyed red hair, with abundant buns. The best known example will be the prostitute Casque d'Or, a few years later. In 1885 Lautrec wrote to his mother that he painted the portrait of a woman whose hair was an absolute gold.
He makes several sketches of his new model. Although very young, she had previously posed for Alfred Stevens. Her name is Carmen. Her face is very recognizable with her upturned nose, square jawline, and the locks falling in front of her eyes.
Lautrec reuses these portraits to feature "la Rousse" in scenes typical of the Parisian lower life. La Blanchisseuse, oil on canvas 96 x 75 cm painted in 1886 or 1887, was sold for $ 22.4M by Christie's on November 1, 2005, lot 17. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The theme is not innocent. Working in the heat, the young women are dressed in light blouses that they know how to take off to earn a little money. They have a reputation as prostitutes. Under the Second Empire, they were the main models of the erotic photographs banned by the morality police.
van GOGH
1
1886 Vase aux Glaïeuls
2021 SOLD for HK$ 71M by Sotheby's
Vincent van Gogh moves in 1886 to Paris where his brother Theo can introduce him to many other artists. He admits that until then he had no knowledge of current art. He had admired Millet, Daubigny and Mesdag.
He integrates his discovery of the Impressionnistes with happiness but he shall not imitate them. He finds a solution in his quest for an original style by being inspired by the Japanese woodblock prints.
The bouquet is a very suitable theme for this mingling of West and East. The poverty stricken artist cannot pay a live model. The flowers are colored beauties in which the Japanese enjoy a quiet symbol of the transience of life.
Vase aux glaïeuls, oil on canvas 51 x 39 cm painted in the summer of 1886, displays a bouquet of gladioli in a burst of intense red, orange and yellow which reveals his new exuberance. It is signed Vincent, possibly before presenting it to a friend. Its first known owner was the art critic Théodore Duret.
This painting was sold by Sotheby's for $ 5.9M on November 14, 2016, lot 8 and for HK $ 71M on October 9, 2021, lot 1020. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
He integrates his discovery of the Impressionnistes with happiness but he shall not imitate them. He finds a solution in his quest for an original style by being inspired by the Japanese woodblock prints.
The bouquet is a very suitable theme for this mingling of West and East. The poverty stricken artist cannot pay a live model. The flowers are colored beauties in which the Japanese enjoy a quiet symbol of the transience of life.
Vase aux glaïeuls, oil on canvas 51 x 39 cm painted in the summer of 1886, displays a bouquet of gladioli in a burst of intense red, orange and yellow which reveals his new exuberance. It is signed Vincent, possibly before presenting it to a friend. Its first known owner was the art critic Théodore Duret.
This painting was sold by Sotheby's for $ 5.9M on November 14, 2016, lot 8 and for HK $ 71M on October 9, 2021, lot 1020. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
2
fall 1886 Bois de Boulogne
2019 SOLD for $ 9.7M by Sotheby's
In 1886 van Gogh painted three views of the Bois de Boulogne with people walking in the park.
An oil on canvas 46.5 x 38 cm executed in the hues of autumn was sold for $ 9.7M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Sotheby's on November 12, 2019, lot 22. The image is shared by Wikimedia. A recent assumption relocates this scenery in parc Monceau, an English styled garden near from where Vincent lived with Theo.
An oil on canvas 46.5 x 38 cm executed in the hues of autumn was sold for $ 9.7M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Sotheby's on November 12, 2019, lot 22. The image is shared by Wikimedia. A recent assumption relocates this scenery in parc Monceau, an English styled garden near from where Vincent lived with Theo.
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3
winter 1886-1887 A Pair of Shoes
2006 SOLD for $ 9M by Sotheby's
Vincent van Gogh arrives in Paris in the spring of 1886. Summer was a time for flowers. Other themes were needed for winter. Vincent looks at weathered workmen's shoes, probably in a remembrance of the sabots (clogs) worn by Millet's peasants. His realistic style is not influenced from the Parisian artistic circles where his brother Theo wanted him to enter.
That series painted in the winter 1886-1887 is made of five paintings, one of them aligning three pairs. An oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm displaying a single pair with one shoe turned down was sold for $ 9M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2006, lot 24. It had been painted over a still life of flowers. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Vincent's shoes were once considered as a symbol of his lifelong quest for his own fate. Heidegger found an existentialist significance in that pictorial theme of the empty shoes set alone on an undefined floor in worn condition without any information about their user.
That series painted in the winter 1886-1887 is made of five paintings, one of them aligning three pairs. An oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm displaying a single pair with one shoe turned down was sold for $ 9M by Sotheby's on November 7, 2006, lot 24. It had been painted over a still life of flowers. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Vincent's shoes were once considered as a symbol of his lifelong quest for his own fate. Heidegger found an existentialist significance in that pictorial theme of the empty shoes set alone on an undefined floor in worn condition without any information about their user.
1886 DEGAS
1
Trois Danseuses en Rose
2008 SOLD for $ 8.4M by Sotheby's
In the mid 1880s Edgar Degas changed his practice. While still regularly visiting the Opéra de Paris during performances and in backstage, he now preferred working in his studio, inviting the models and using a paraphernalia of props. After an individual sketch in charcoal on tracing paper, he built the group on the final sheet or canvas.
Trois danseuses en rose, painted ca 1886, is a typical example with an asymmetric composition in an unidentifiable setting. The three standing ballerinas are ready to start the performance. The central character is sharply defined, with an elegant gesture of extending her tutu. The other two, less finished, are left in the shadow.
This oil on canvas 98 x 53 cm was sold for $ 8.4M from a lower estimate of $ 7M by Sotheby's on May 7, 2008, lot 31.
Trois danseuses en rose, painted ca 1886, is a typical example with an asymmetric composition in an unidentifiable setting. The three standing ballerinas are ready to start the performance. The central character is sharply defined, with an elegant gesture of extending her tutu. The other two, less finished, are left in the shadow.
This oil on canvas 98 x 53 cm was sold for $ 8.4M from a lower estimate of $ 7M by Sotheby's on May 7, 2008, lot 31.
2
Nude
2017 SOLD for £ 5.5M by Sotheby's
Despite their opposition to the bourgeois taste for classical art, the Impressionist painters had indeed to seek resources for living. The solution is found by a dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, who organizes their first New York exhibition in the very year of the eighth and final exhibition of the Parisian group in 1886.
The Impressionists had cultivated their new methods of painting but they were not theorists. Their time as a group had gone. Manet was dead. Monet had fled the city. Newcomers relied upon the consequences of their innovations to go further in expression and color : Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, Seurat.
Keen on the idea of free art, Degas accompanied from end to end the Impressionist movement which he once wanted to name Les Intransigeants (hardliners). His own technique is however different. He is the master of pastel in bright colors that do not cancel the drawing.
In that crisis of the end of Impressionism, Renoir and Degas go back to the influence from Ingres. Their humble women are busy in quiet occupations where full nudity does not shock : bathing, washing herself, combing her hair. In the hues of realistic colors, outdoor nudes by Renoir are ideal characters while indoor nudes by Degas are detailed in an excess that will be criticized as misogyny.
Around 1886 pastels by Degas display a high sensitivity in the colors of the nude dominated by flesh and by red hair. The blurred background helps to reach a sweet harmony. Later his colors will become bolder and less appealing.
A beautiful pastel stages a woman seen from the back, combing her mane-like hair. This pastel on paper laid down on board 71 x 59 cm is not dated but displays the style and features of that period.
It went unsold at Sotheby's on November 4, 2015 despite being a highlight from the A. Alfred Taubman collection. It was sold for £ 5.5M by the same auction house on March 1, 2017, lot 24.
The Impressionists had cultivated their new methods of painting but they were not theorists. Their time as a group had gone. Manet was dead. Monet had fled the city. Newcomers relied upon the consequences of their innovations to go further in expression and color : Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, Seurat.
Keen on the idea of free art, Degas accompanied from end to end the Impressionist movement which he once wanted to name Les Intransigeants (hardliners). His own technique is however different. He is the master of pastel in bright colors that do not cancel the drawing.
In that crisis of the end of Impressionism, Renoir and Degas go back to the influence from Ingres. Their humble women are busy in quiet occupations where full nudity does not shock : bathing, washing herself, combing her hair. In the hues of realistic colors, outdoor nudes by Renoir are ideal characters while indoor nudes by Degas are detailed in an excess that will be criticized as misogyny.
Around 1886 pastels by Degas display a high sensitivity in the colors of the nude dominated by flesh and by red hair. The blurred background helps to reach a sweet harmony. Later his colors will become bolder and less appealing.
A beautiful pastel stages a woman seen from the back, combing her mane-like hair. This pastel on paper laid down on board 71 x 59 cm is not dated but displays the style and features of that period.
It went unsold at Sotheby's on November 4, 2015 despite being a highlight from the A. Alfred Taubman collection. It was sold for £ 5.5M by the same auction house on March 1, 2017, lot 24.
Discover the trove of masterpieces from the collection of A. Alfred Taubman http://t.co/FkcbZ64lil #TaubmanatSothebys pic.twitter.com/TQWM3D618b
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) September 30, 20151886 Poppies by Sargent
2016 SOLD for $ 6.9M by Sotheby's
Disgusted by the scandal of the Portrait de Madame X which he considered as his best painting, Sargent traveled to England in August 1885. Shortly after his arrival, he was injured in the head while swimming in the Thames, sufficiently seriously for a friend to require him to have some convalescence in the English countryside. The accident triggered a reorientation of his art.
John had visited Giverny just before and he was encouraged by Monet to paint outdoors. He conceived an ambitious composition showing two small girls in a garden in a contrasting light of late afternoon. This painting will be completed in the following year and titled Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose by reference to a nursery rhyme. It is a masterpiece of the artist and a turning point in his career.
Poppies, oil on canvas 62 x 91 cm, was painted in 1886 in England during the preparation of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. It was sold for $ 6.9M from a lower estimate of $ 4M by Sotheby's on May 18, 2016, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The colors are vibrant but the modernism lies in the theme and composition of this humble piece of grass slope, anticipating by four years the interest of Van Gogh in Auvers for wild flowers. Red poppies and other flowers are the only subject of this magnificent painting without further forefront and whose background is completely darkened in the excuse of the nightfall.
John had visited Giverny just before and he was encouraged by Monet to paint outdoors. He conceived an ambitious composition showing two small girls in a garden in a contrasting light of late afternoon. This painting will be completed in the following year and titled Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose by reference to a nursery rhyme. It is a masterpiece of the artist and a turning point in his career.
Poppies, oil on canvas 62 x 91 cm, was painted in 1886 in England during the preparation of Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose. It was sold for $ 6.9M from a lower estimate of $ 4M by Sotheby's on May 18, 2016, lot 8. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The colors are vibrant but the modernism lies in the theme and composition of this humble piece of grass slope, anticipating by four years the interest of Van Gogh in Auvers for wild flowers. Red poppies and other flowers are the only subject of this magnificent painting without further forefront and whose background is completely darkened in the excuse of the nightfall.
#AuctionUpdate John Singer Sargent's gorgeous 'Poppies' from 1886 sells above estimate for $6.9m pic.twitter.com/MQJjeDBKCJ
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) May 18, 2016
1886 Le Rocher du Lion by Monet
2025 SOLD for $ 6.5M by Sotheby's
In 1886 Monet desired to visit the art critic Octave Mirbeau in his temporary residence at Noirmoutier. Mirbeau suggested that he makes a detour to Belle-Ile island. So Monet, familiar with Normandie and Côte d'Azur, discovered the wild coast of Brittany. He extended his stay in Belle-Ile from a scheduled fortnight to three months.
The most rugged coast is Les Aiguilles de Port-Coton, also known as Les Pyramides, directly facing the full violence of the Atlantic Ocean, where he painted six canvases.
In its immediate vicinity, Monet painted from a single point three views of le Rocher du Lion. The varying tide is or not revealing tiny rocks in the sea, close to the more towering lion rock. The wave crash somehow reminds his early masterpiece Jetée du Havre, painted in 1868, sold for $ 9.7M by Christie's on May 12, 1993, lot 15.
The view at high tide features a very rough sea. This oil on canvas 61 x 74 cm was sold for $ 4M by Christie's on November 5, 2014, lot 15 and for $ 6.5M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2025, lot 12. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The most rugged coast is Les Aiguilles de Port-Coton, also known as Les Pyramides, directly facing the full violence of the Atlantic Ocean, where he painted six canvases.
In its immediate vicinity, Monet painted from a single point three views of le Rocher du Lion. The varying tide is or not revealing tiny rocks in the sea, close to the more towering lion rock. The wave crash somehow reminds his early masterpiece Jetée du Havre, painted in 1868, sold for $ 9.7M by Christie's on May 12, 1993, lot 15.
The view at high tide features a very rough sea. This oil on canvas 61 x 74 cm was sold for $ 4M by Christie's on November 5, 2014, lot 15 and for $ 6.5M by Sotheby's on May 14, 2025, lot 12. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1886 Prairie à Eragny by Pissarro
2013 SOLD for $ 4.25M by Sotheby's
Seurat exhibited his Grande Jatte masterpiece in 1886. During the passionate debates that followed, Pissarro tried his hand to the increase of resplendence made possible by the color dots of the divisionist technique.
A view of a meadow near his new home at Eragny-sur-Epte was so successful that a visitor felt offended by its luminosity while it was exhibited in 1887 at the galerie Georges Petit.
This oil on canvas 60 x 73 cm painted in 1886 was sold for $ 4.25M from a lower estimate of $ 2.5M by Sotheby's on November 6, 2013, lot 35.
Pissarro was the only original Impressionniste master to follow Seurat and Signac, leading to the termination of the group after their 1886 exhibition.
The pointillism was indeed a painstaking process. A view in the yard of a briqueterie at Eragny, begun by Pissarro in 1886, was only improved to full divisionist effect in 1888. This oil on canvas 58 x 72 cm dated 1888 by the artist was sold for $ 2.84M by Christie's on May 9, 2007, lot 39.
A view of a meadow near his new home at Eragny-sur-Epte was so successful that a visitor felt offended by its luminosity while it was exhibited in 1887 at the galerie Georges Petit.
This oil on canvas 60 x 73 cm painted in 1886 was sold for $ 4.25M from a lower estimate of $ 2.5M by Sotheby's on November 6, 2013, lot 35.
Pissarro was the only original Impressionniste master to follow Seurat and Signac, leading to the termination of the group after their 1886 exhibition.
The pointillism was indeed a painstaking process. A view in the yard of a briqueterie at Eragny, begun by Pissarro in 1886, was only improved to full divisionist effect in 1888. This oil on canvas 58 x 72 cm dated 1888 by the artist was sold for $ 2.84M by Christie's on May 9, 2007, lot 39.
