1905
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See also : Art on paper Children Nude Flowers Music and dance Self portrait Self portrait II Picasso Picasso < 1907 Paris Bassin aux nymphéas Alps US painting < 1940 Sargent
See also : Art on paper Children Nude Flowers Music and dance Self portrait Self portrait II Picasso Picasso < 1907 Paris Bassin aux nymphéas Alps US painting < 1940 Sargent
natural wonder
1905 the Cullinan
British Royal collection
The Cullinan mine was discovered in 1902. In 1905 a miner unearthed a type IIa historic gem weighing 3,106 carats that remains unique by its weight and quality.
Two famous white diamonds belonging to the British Royal Collection were extracted from the "Cullinan": the Great Star of Africa mounted on the scepter and the Second Star of Africa mounted on the crown. The 530-carat Great Star of Africa is the largest faceted colorless diamond in the world.
Quote
Steve Keating @LeadToday Oct 26, 2019
Discovery (1905)
The transfer is often described in official British and royal sources as a voluntary gift symbolizing post-war reconciliation. However, critics view it as exploitative under colonial rule:
Two famous white diamonds belonging to the British Royal Collection were extracted from the "Cullinan": the Great Star of Africa mounted on the scepter and the Second Star of Africa mounted on the crown. The 530-carat Great Star of Africa is the largest faceted colorless diamond in the world.
Quote
Steve Keating @LeadToday Oct 26, 2019
- The post accurately describes the Cullinan Diamond's discovery in 1905 South Africa as the largest gem-quality rough at 3,106 carats, later cut into nine major stones for British Crown Jewels, as confirmed by historical records from the Transvaal Colony government.
- Accompanying image depicts the uncut rough diamond alongside its famous faceted pieces, including the pear-shaped Great Star of Africa (530 carats) and cushion-cut Lesser Star of Africa (317 carats), illustrating the precision cutting by Joseph Asscher & Co. in Amsterdam.
Discovery (1905)
- On January 26, 1905, Frederick Wells, the surface manager at the Premier Mine (near present-day Cullinan, Gauteng, South Africa), spotted a massive crystal about 18 feet (5.5 meters) below the surface.
- The rough stone weighed 3,106.75 carats (approximately 621 grams or 1.37 pounds) and measured roughly 10.1 × 6.35 × 5.9 cm.
- It was named after Sir Thomas Cullinan, the mine's owner and a British-born South African prospector who had founded the Premier Mine in 1902.
- At the time, the area was part of the Transvaal Colony, under British control following the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902), during which the British Empire defeated the Boer republics.
- The diamond was owned by the Premier Diamond Mining Company.
- It attracted global attention but remained unsold for over two years despite being displayed publicly.
- In 1907, the Transvaal Colony government (a self-governing British colony led by Prime Minister Louis Botha, a former Boer general) purchased it from the mining company for £150,000 (equivalent to roughly £19–20 million in today's terms, adjusted for inflation).
- Some accounts note that mining taxes partially offset the cost to the government.
- The Transvaal government presented the diamond to King Edward VII on his 66th birthday (November 9, 1907) as a symbolic "gift" representing loyalty and goodwill from the people of the Transvaal after the Anglo-Boer War.
- The presentation was framed as a gesture of reconciliation and attachment to the British Crown, helping pave the way for the Union of South Africa in 1910.
- King Edward VII reportedly accepted it reluctantly at first but did so on advice (including from figures like Winston Churchill, then Colonial Under-Secretary).
- The stone was shipped to London (famously smuggled in a plain box for security) and entrusted to the Royal Asscher Diamond Company in Amsterdam for cutting.
- Joseph Asscher famously cleaved the stone in two in February 1908, then cut and polished it into nine major diamonds (Cullinan I through IX) and numerous smaller fragments.
- The largest pieces:
- Cullinan I ("Great Star of Africa"): 530.4 carats, pear-shaped, the largest clear cut diamond in the world.
- Cullinan II ("Second Star of Africa"): 317.4 carats, cushion-shaped.
- Other major stones (III–IX) range from 94.4 to 4.39 carats.
- Cullinan I was mounted in the Sovereign's Sceptre with Cross.
- Cullinan II was set in the Imperial State Crown.
- Smaller stones were incorporated into brooches, rings, and other items; some were gifted privately (e.g., Cullinan VI and VIII to Queen Alexandra).
- In 1910, the South African government acquired several remaining Cullinan diamonds and presented them to Queen Mary (wife of George V) to mark the Union of South Africa's formation.
- These passed down through the royal family.
- In 1953, Queen Mary bequeathed her Cullinan pieces to her granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
- Today, the major stones (Cullinan I and II) remain in the British Crown Jewels, displayed at the Tower of London and used in coronations (e.g., Charles III in 2023).
- The collection is held by the monarch "in right of the Crown" (currently King Charles III).
The transfer is often described in official British and royal sources as a voluntary gift symbolizing post-war reconciliation. However, critics view it as exploitative under colonial rule:
- South Africa was not fully independent in 1907; the Transvaal was a British colony.
- The "gift" occurred amid ongoing colonial resource extraction from Africa.
- Activists and some South African politicians argue it represents stolen heritage, akin to other colonial-era artifacts.
- Calls for return intensified around Queen Elizabeth II's death (2022) and King Charles III's coronation (2023), with petitions (e.g., one gathering ~8,000 signatures in 2023) demanding repatriation as a symbol of pride and decolonization.
- Political parties like the EFF and figures like activist Mothusi Kamanga have pushed the issue, framing it within broader global restitution debates.
- No formal South African government demand has been made, and experts note practical barriers (legal ownership, precedent, and lack of official claims) make return unlikely without high-level diplomatic action.
Cullinan Diamond cutting process
The cutting process of the Cullinan Diamond (the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, at 3,106.75 carats) was a meticulous, high-stakes operation carried out in 1908 by Joseph Asscher of the Joseph Asscher & Co. (now Royal Asscher Diamond Company) in Amsterdam. Due to the stone's enormous size, internal flaws (inclusions), and the need to maximize value and brilliance while removing imperfections, it was decided to divide it rather than polish it as a single massive gem.
Preparation Phase (Late 1907 – Early 1908)
The cutting process of the Cullinan Diamond (the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, at 3,106.75 carats) was a meticulous, high-stakes operation carried out in 1908 by Joseph Asscher of the Joseph Asscher & Co. (now Royal Asscher Diamond Company) in Amsterdam. Due to the stone's enormous size, internal flaws (inclusions), and the need to maximize value and brilliance while removing imperfections, it was decided to divide it rather than polish it as a single massive gem.
Preparation Phase (Late 1907 – Early 1908)
- The rough diamond arrived in Amsterdam in January 1908 after being collected from London.
- Joseph Asscher and his team spent weeks to months (accounts vary from several weeks to about six months) carefully studying the stone.
- They examined it from every angle, took photographs in multiple orientations, made casts (in clay and glass) for experimental testing, and identified two significant internal flaws.
- The goal was to cleave along natural cleavage planes (diamond's octahedral planes where it can split cleanly) to eliminate flaws and yield the largest possible flawless pieces.
- Special tools were prepared or modified, including stronger steel knives and secure equipment, because nothing of this scale had been handled before.
- February 10, 1908: The first cleaving attempt occurred in front of press and spectators at the Asscher factory.
- A narrow groove (incision/slit) about 0.5 inches (13 mm) deep was sawn into the stone over four days using a sawing machine.
- Joseph Asscher inserted a special steel cleavage knife into the groove and struck it with a heavy steel rod/hammer.
- On the first strike, the knife broke, but the diamond remained intact (a famous dramatic moment often recounted).
- A second, stronger knife was fitted into the same groove.
- On the successful strike (some sources say shortly after or on a follow-up attempt days later), the diamond split cleanly along one of its natural cleavage planes into two large pieces:
- One weighing approximately 1,977–2,029 carats.
- The other around 1,068–1,069 carats.
- (Note: Some early plans considered cleaving into three pieces to better isolate flaws, but it was ultimately done in two major splits first, with further divisions later.)
- After the initial split, the pieces were re-examined.
- Additional cleaving occurred to remove remaining flaws and optimize yield, ultimately producing nine major stones (Cullinan I through IX) and about 96 smaller fragments.
- The process involved careful planning to align facets with the crystal structure.
- Polishing began shortly after cleaving (around March 2, 1908).
- A secure "strong room" was set up in the factory basement for the work, with constant supervision.
- Master polisher Henry Koe (one of Asscher's most experienced workers) personally oversaw much of it, reportedly living on-site for months.
- Three people worked 14 hours per day for about eight months total (from February to roughly November 1908).
- Each facet was meticulously ground and polished using diamond grit abrasives on specialized scaifes (spinning wheels).
- Special large-scale tools were needed due to the stones' size.
- The final major stones included:
- Cullinan I (Great Star of Africa): 530.4 carats, pear-shaped, 74 facets.
- Cullinan II (Second Star of Africa): 317.4 carats, cushion-shaped.
- Smaller ones (III–IX) ranging down to about 4 carats, in various cuts (brilliant, pendeloque, etc.).
- The yield was exceptionally high-quality Type IIa colorless diamonds, with minimal weight loss relative to the risks involved.
Cullinan Diamond cutting process
The cutting process of the Cullinan Diamond (the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, at 3,106.75 carats) was a meticulous, high-stakes operation carried out in 1908 by Joseph Asscher of the Joseph Asscher & Co. (now Royal Asscher Diamond Company) in Amsterdam. Due to the stone's enormous size, internal flaws (inclusions), and the need to maximize value and brilliance while removing imperfections, it was decided to divide it rather than polish it as a single massive gem.
Preparation Phase (Late 1907 – Early 1908)
The cutting process of the Cullinan Diamond (the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, at 3,106.75 carats) was a meticulous, high-stakes operation carried out in 1908 by Joseph Asscher of the Joseph Asscher & Co. (now Royal Asscher Diamond Company) in Amsterdam. Due to the stone's enormous size, internal flaws (inclusions), and the need to maximize value and brilliance while removing imperfections, it was decided to divide it rather than polish it as a single massive gem.
Preparation Phase (Late 1907 – Early 1908)
- The rough diamond arrived in Amsterdam in January 1908 after being collected from London.
- Joseph Asscher and his team spent weeks to months (accounts vary from several weeks to about six months) carefully studying the stone.
- They examined it from every angle, took photographs in multiple orientations, made casts (in clay and glass) for experimental testing, and identified two significant internal flaws.
- The goal was to cleave along natural cleavage planes (diamond's octahedral planes where it can split cleanly) to eliminate flaws and yield the largest possible flawless pieces.
- Special tools were prepared or modified, including stronger steel knives and secure equipment, because nothing of this scale had been handled before.
- February 10, 1908: The first cleaving attempt occurred in front of press and spectators at the Asscher factory.
- A narrow groove (incision/slit) about 0.5 inches (13 mm) deep was sawn into the stone over four days using a sawing machine.
- Joseph Asscher inserted a special steel cleavage knife into the groove and struck it with a heavy steel rod/hammer.
- On the first strike, the knife broke, but the diamond remained intact (a famous dramatic moment often recounted).
- A second, stronger knife was fitted into the same groove.
- On the successful strike (some sources say shortly after or on a follow-up attempt days later), the diamond split cleanly along one of its natural cleavage planes into two large pieces:
- One weighing approximately 1,977–2,029 carats.
- The other around 1,068–1,069 carats.
- (Note: Some early plans considered cleaving into three pieces to better isolate flaws, but it was ultimately done in two major splits first, with further divisions later.)
- After the initial split, the pieces were re-examined.
- Additional cleaving occurred to remove remaining flaws and optimize yield, ultimately producing nine major stones (Cullinan I through IX) and about 96 smaller fragments.
- The process involved careful planning to align facets with the crystal structure.
- Polishing began shortly after cleaving (around March 2, 1908).
- A secure "strong room" was set up in the factory basement for the work, with constant supervision.
- Master polisher Henry Koe (one of Asscher's most experienced workers) personally oversaw much of it, reportedly living on-site for months.
- Three people worked 14 hours per day for about eight months total (from February to roughly November 1908).
- Each facet was meticulously ground and polished using diamond grit abrasives on specialized scaifes (spinning wheels).
- Special large-scale tools were needed due to the stones' size.
- The final major stones included:
- Cullinan I (Great Star of Africa): 530.4 carats, pear-shaped, 74 facets.
- Cullinan II (Second Star of Africa): 317.4 carats, cushion-shaped.
- Smaller ones (III–IX) ranging down to about 4 carats, in various cuts (brilliant, pendeloque, etc.).
- The yield was exceptionally high-quality Type IIa colorless diamonds, with minimal weight loss relative to the risks involved.
The Cullinan Diamond is the largest gem-quality diamond ever discovered. Found in 1905, the original 3,100 carats were cut to make jewels for the British Crown Jewels and the British Royal family’s collection. pic.twitter.com/d52CwB8J5i
— Steve Keating (@LeadToday) October 26, 2019
masterpiece
1905 Femme au Chapeau by Matisse
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Matisse's Femme au chapeau of 1905, a portrait of his wife Amélie, had been an excuse for an explosion of colors, a breakthrough in modern art that led to the pejorative qualification of Fauvisme to the new trend.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Henri Matisse's Femme au Chapeau (Woman with a Hat, 1905), a portrait of his wife Amélie now housed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, marks a revolutionary breakthrough in the expressive use of color, heralding the birth of Fauvism.
Matisse liberated color from its traditional role of describing reality or imitating nature. Instead, he employed pure, intense, non-naturalistic colors applied in bold, loose, and energetic brushstrokes to evoke emotion, vitality, and structural dynamism. In the painting, vivid patches of green streak across the face (including a prominent green line on the nose and forehead), fiery reds and oranges dominate the hat and dress, blues and purples clash in the background, and arbitrary hues define forms—despite Amélie reportedly wearing a black dress in reality.
This approach shocked viewers at the 1905 Salon d'Automne, where critic Louis Vauxcelles famously dubbed the artists "fauves" (wild beasts) for their "orgy of pure colors." Matisse shifted from his earlier Divisionist techniques to flat areas of color that prioritize expressive power over realistic representation, treating color as an autonomous element capable of conveying psychological intensity and harmony.
This breakthrough established color as the primary vehicle for artistic expression in modern painting, influencing subsequent movements and cementing Fauvism as a pivotal moment in 20th-century art.
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) is widely regarded as the leader and most influential figure of Fauvism, the short-lived but explosive early 20th-century movement (roughly 1904–1908) that prioritized bold, non-naturalistic color, expressive brushwork, and emotional intensity over realistic depiction. The term "Fauves" ("wild beasts") originated from critic Louis Vauxcelles' reaction to the vivid works shown at the 1905 Salon d'Automne, where Matisse's paintings played a central role.
Matisse's Fauve period, peaking in 1905–1906, featured intense, arbitrary colors applied in broad, energetic strokes, often inspired by Post-Impressionists like Van Gogh and Gauguin, as well as his time in Collioure with André Derain in summer 1905. These works liberated color to express sensation and joy rather than mimic nature.
Here are some of the key Fauve paintings by Matisse, widely recognized as masterpieces of the movement:
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Henri Matisse's Femme au Chapeau (Woman with a Hat, 1905), a portrait of his wife Amélie now housed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, marks a revolutionary breakthrough in the expressive use of color, heralding the birth of Fauvism.
Matisse liberated color from its traditional role of describing reality or imitating nature. Instead, he employed pure, intense, non-naturalistic colors applied in bold, loose, and energetic brushstrokes to evoke emotion, vitality, and structural dynamism. In the painting, vivid patches of green streak across the face (including a prominent green line on the nose and forehead), fiery reds and oranges dominate the hat and dress, blues and purples clash in the background, and arbitrary hues define forms—despite Amélie reportedly wearing a black dress in reality.
This approach shocked viewers at the 1905 Salon d'Automne, where critic Louis Vauxcelles famously dubbed the artists "fauves" (wild beasts) for their "orgy of pure colors." Matisse shifted from his earlier Divisionist techniques to flat areas of color that prioritize expressive power over realistic representation, treating color as an autonomous element capable of conveying psychological intensity and harmony.
This breakthrough established color as the primary vehicle for artistic expression in modern painting, influencing subsequent movements and cementing Fauvism as a pivotal moment in 20th-century art.
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) is widely regarded as the leader and most influential figure of Fauvism, the short-lived but explosive early 20th-century movement (roughly 1904–1908) that prioritized bold, non-naturalistic color, expressive brushwork, and emotional intensity over realistic depiction. The term "Fauves" ("wild beasts") originated from critic Louis Vauxcelles' reaction to the vivid works shown at the 1905 Salon d'Automne, where Matisse's paintings played a central role.
Matisse's Fauve period, peaking in 1905–1906, featured intense, arbitrary colors applied in broad, energetic strokes, often inspired by Post-Impressionists like Van Gogh and Gauguin, as well as his time in Collioure with André Derain in summer 1905. These works liberated color to express sensation and joy rather than mimic nature.
Here are some of the key Fauve paintings by Matisse, widely recognized as masterpieces of the movement:
- Luxe, Calme et Volupté (Luxury, Calm, and Pleasure), 1904
Often seen as a proto-Fauve work and one of the earliest manifestations of the style. It depicts a beach scene with bathers in a mosaic-like pattern of divided color strokes, influenced by Neo-Impressionism (Signac and Seurat). The vibrant, dotted hues create a sense of harmonious bliss.
Location: Musée d'Orsay, Paris. - Woman with a Hat (Femme au Chapeau), 1905
A portrait of Matisse's wife, Amélie, exhibited at the 1905 Salon d'Automne where it helped spark the "Fauves" label. The face features shocking non-naturalistic colors (green stripe, orange, purple) applied in loose, visible brushstrokes, scandalizing viewers but embodying Fauvism's raw expressiveness.
Location: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). - The Green Stripe (La Raie Verte), 1905
Another iconic portrait of Madame Matisse, with a bold green vertical stripe down the center of her face dividing complementary colors. This daring use of arbitrary color to structure form is quintessential Fauve.
Location: Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen. - Open Window, Collioure, 1905
Painted during the pivotal summer in Collioure, this interior view looks out to boats and the Mediterranean in radiant, clashing hues (pinks, blues, greens). The window frame acts as a compositional device, with color patches evoking light and atmosphere rather than detail. A prime example of Fauvism's liberation of color.
Location: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. - Le Bonheur de Vivre (The Joy of Life), 1905–1906
Matisse's most ambitious Fauve masterpiece: a large pastoral scene of nude figures dancing, playing music, and relaxing in an idyllic landscape of swirling lines and flat, intense colors (oranges, pinks, blues). It synthesizes Fauve principles into a harmonious, joyful vision and influenced later modernists.
Location: Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.
masterpiece
1905 Le Lion ayant Faim by Rousseau
Fondation Beyeler
Henri "le Douanier" Rousseau was enlarging with a pantograph his selected illustrations from post cards, botanical treatises and dime store novels. His lush exotic forest is totally dreamlike.
Exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in 1905 beside avant-garde paintings by Matisse and Derain. Commented as follows by Rousseau for the exhibition :
"Le lion, ayant faim, se jette sur l'antilope, la dévore. La panthère attend avec anxiété le moment où, elle aussi, pourra en avoir sa part. Des oiseaux carnivores ont déchiqueté chacun un morceau de chair de dessus le pauvre animal versant un pleur! Soleil couchant."
A Renaissance style sculpture was also exhibited in the same room. Vauxcelles commented : "Donatello chez les Fauves". So was coined the term Fauvisme for the new style of Matisse and Derain.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in 1905 beside avant-garde paintings by Matisse and Derain. Commented as follows by Rousseau for the exhibition :
"Le lion, ayant faim, se jette sur l'antilope, la dévore. La panthère attend avec anxiété le moment où, elle aussi, pourra en avoir sa part. Des oiseaux carnivores ont déchiqueté chacun un morceau de chair de dessus le pauvre animal versant un pleur! Soleil couchant."
A Renaissance style sculpture was also exhibited in the same room. Vauxcelles commented : "Donatello chez les Fauves". So was coined the term Fauvisme for the new style of Matisse and Derain.
The image is shared by Wikimedia.
1905 PICASSO
1
Fillette à la Corbeille Fleurie
2018 SOLD for $ 115M by Christie's
Pablo Picasso is back in Paris in April 1904. Barcelona had not dissipated his morbid obsessions and he needs a restart. He installs his workshop at the Bateau-Lavoir and finally manages to create a couple, with Fernande.
The miserability of his Période Bleue, based on the difficult life of circus acrobats, was socially a dead end. In 1905 he reacts with new themes where the characters imagine their future without losing a stuck or surly attitude. His painting loses its blue predominant to include warm colors like pink or orange. It is his Période Rose. These works include the Femme à l'éventail and two children, the Fillette à la corbeille de fleurs and the Garçon à la pipe.
The theme of poverty is now superseded by the optimistic and promising theme of children ready to enter adulthood. Pablo mixes the innocence of the nude with the acquisition of a first job. Although the formats are very different, the Fillette à la corbeille fleurie, 155 x 66 cm painted in 1905, and the Garçon menant un cheval, 220 x 131 cm finished in 1906, appear as pendants.
The girl is standing in profile. The body is healthy, straight. The expression is rebellious without any excuse for immodesty, in a striking psychological effect : this young person has obviously been disturbed in her occupation.
During the very short Période Rose the line is delimited and effective. The figurative realism of this Fillette makes forget that nudity may not have been necessary. This artwork successively delighted Gertrude Stein and David Rockefeller. It was sold for $ 115M by Christie's on May 8, 2018, lot 15.
Grok response :
Quote
Sol G. Moreno @solgmoreno May 10, 2018
SUBASTA HISTÓRICA #Picasso, amo y señor de la jornada del pasado martes en @ChristiesInc #NewYork con esta "Filllette à la corbeille fleurie" [102 millones dólares]. #WorldAuctionRecord
The miserability of his Période Bleue, based on the difficult life of circus acrobats, was socially a dead end. In 1905 he reacts with new themes where the characters imagine their future without losing a stuck or surly attitude. His painting loses its blue predominant to include warm colors like pink or orange. It is his Période Rose. These works include the Femme à l'éventail and two children, the Fillette à la corbeille de fleurs and the Garçon à la pipe.
The theme of poverty is now superseded by the optimistic and promising theme of children ready to enter adulthood. Pablo mixes the innocence of the nude with the acquisition of a first job. Although the formats are very different, the Fillette à la corbeille fleurie, 155 x 66 cm painted in 1905, and the Garçon menant un cheval, 220 x 131 cm finished in 1906, appear as pendants.
The girl is standing in profile. The body is healthy, straight. The expression is rebellious without any excuse for immodesty, in a striking psychological effect : this young person has obviously been disturbed in her occupation.
During the very short Période Rose the line is delimited and effective. The figurative realism of this Fillette makes forget that nudity may not have been necessary. This artwork successively delighted Gertrude Stein and David Rockefeller. It was sold for $ 115M by Christie's on May 8, 2018, lot 15.
Grok response :
Quote
Sol G. Moreno @solgmoreno May 10, 2018
SUBASTA HISTÓRICA #Picasso, amo y señor de la jornada del pasado martes en @ChristiesInc #NewYork con esta "Filllette à la corbeille fleurie" [102 millones dólares]. #WorldAuctionRecord
- The painting "Fillette à la corbeille fleurie" by Pablo Picasso, sold for $102 million at Christie’s in 2018, was created in 1905 during his Rose Period, marking a shift from his earlier Blue Period and reflecting a more optimistic tone influenced by his relationship with Fernande Olivier, as noted in J. Richardson’s 1991 biography.
- This auction set a world record for Picasso at the time, part of the Rockefeller Collection sale, which also included Monet’s "Nymphéas en fleur" for $75 million, highlighting a surprising surge in value for early 20th-century art amid a 2018 global art market boom, with Christie’s reporting $5 billion in sales that year.
- Art historians debate the painting’s subject, possibly a young model named "Linda," with studies like those in the 1971 National Gallery of Canada exhibition suggesting it critiques societal innocence, challenging the mainstream view of it as merely decorative.
2
Le Garçon à la Pipe
2004 SOLD for $ 104M by Sotheby's
Le Garçon à la Pipe is a subtle blend of realism and dreamlike and, as such, will remain the archetype of the Période Rose. Dressed in blue overalls, the gloomy teenager is drawn in a fine line. The pipe marks his expectation of maturity. Picasso did not reveal his identity, because it is an allegory. He is however P'tit Louis, a boy from Montmartre who spent long hours watching the artists working at the Bateau-Lavoir.
The inspiration suddenly came to Picasso after a month of interruption of the work. In the blur of a dream, the character is positioned in front of a wallpaper with patterns of roses and wears a garland of flowers in his hair. A simultaneous use of a sharp image in a floral blur had also been attempted by Odilon Redon.
The little worker thus becomes a supernatural being. A relevant comparison was made with Verlaine's poem titled Crimen Amoris. In the dream of a delicious Orient where the seven sins supersede the five senses amidst the roses, the most handsome of the evil angels, indifferent to temptations and caresses, is a boy of sixteen who wears a crown of flowers. His ambition, annihilated at the end of the poem, was to be "the one who will create God".
Le Garçon, oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm, was sold for $ 104M by Sotheby's on May 5, 2004, lot 7.
Asked to Grok 4 : define its position in Picasso's career.
Grok thought :
"Le Garçon à la Pipe" (Boy with a Pipe), painted by Pablo Picasso in 1905, holds a significant position in his early career as a hallmark of his Rose Period. This period, spanning from 1904 to 1906, followed his melancholic Blue Period (1901-1904) and marked a shift toward warmer colors, such as pinks and oranges, and more optimistic themes influenced by his relationship with Fernande Olivier and his fascination with circus performers and harlequins.At the age of 24, Picasso created this oil on canvas portrait in his Montmartre studio, depicting a young Parisian boy known as "P'tit Louis," who frequented the area. The painting features the boy seated, holding a pipe, and adorned with a wreath of roses, set against a floral background. It exemplifies the transitional nature of Picasso's work at this time, blending realistic portraiture with symbolic elements and a dreamlike quality.
This piece not only represents Picasso's evolving style but also his growing establishment in the Parisian art scene. Following the Rose Period, Picasso would move into his African-influenced period and eventually co-found Cubism, revolutionizing modern art. "Le Garçon à la Pipe" thus stands as a pivotal work in his pre-Cubist phase, showcasing his mastery of color and form before his more radical innovations.
The painting gained further notoriety when it was sold at Sotheby's in 2004 for $104.2 million, setting a record at the time for the most expensive painting ever auctioned.
The inspiration suddenly came to Picasso after a month of interruption of the work. In the blur of a dream, the character is positioned in front of a wallpaper with patterns of roses and wears a garland of flowers in his hair. A simultaneous use of a sharp image in a floral blur had also been attempted by Odilon Redon.
The little worker thus becomes a supernatural being. A relevant comparison was made with Verlaine's poem titled Crimen Amoris. In the dream of a delicious Orient where the seven sins supersede the five senses amidst the roses, the most handsome of the evil angels, indifferent to temptations and caresses, is a boy of sixteen who wears a crown of flowers. His ambition, annihilated at the end of the poem, was to be "the one who will create God".
Le Garçon, oil on canvas 100 x 81 cm, was sold for $ 104M by Sotheby's on May 5, 2004, lot 7.
Asked to Grok 4 : define its position in Picasso's career.
Grok thought :
"Le Garçon à la Pipe" (Boy with a Pipe), painted by Pablo Picasso in 1905, holds a significant position in his early career as a hallmark of his Rose Period. This period, spanning from 1904 to 1906, followed his melancholic Blue Period (1901-1904) and marked a shift toward warmer colors, such as pinks and oranges, and more optimistic themes influenced by his relationship with Fernande Olivier and his fascination with circus performers and harlequins.At the age of 24, Picasso created this oil on canvas portrait in his Montmartre studio, depicting a young Parisian boy known as "P'tit Louis," who frequented the area. The painting features the boy seated, holding a pipe, and adorned with a wreath of roses, set against a floral background. It exemplifies the transitional nature of Picasso's work at this time, blending realistic portraiture with symbolic elements and a dreamlike quality.
This piece not only represents Picasso's evolving style but also his growing establishment in the Parisian art scene. Following the Rose Period, Picasso would move into his African-influenced period and eventually co-found Cubism, revolutionizing modern art. "Le Garçon à la Pipe" thus stands as a pivotal work in his pre-Cubist phase, showcasing his mastery of color and form before his more radical innovations.
The painting gained further notoriety when it was sold at Sotheby's in 2004 for $104.2 million, setting a record at the time for the most expensive painting ever auctioned.
3
Les Noces de Pierrette
1989 SOLD for FF 315M by Binoche et Godeau
The Période Bleue begins in 1901 with the suicide of Casagemas. Picasso remains melancholic. His main theme is poverty, painted with cool colors. The associated theme is the contradictory life of circus acrobats, who must amuse the public while their real life is miserable.
Les Noces de Pierrette, oil on canvas 115 x 195 cm, appears at first glance as a work of the blue period. It was however painted in 1905, a year rather characterized by the entry of the artist into his pink period with the return of a positive meaning of life. In this transitional artwork, Picasso criticizes the power of money.
This group depicts six circus characters, three men and three women. During the blue period, the compositions rarely exceeded the couple, sometimes with a child or a partner.
The tension is brought by the whiteness of the faces, the sad expressions, the dark colors of the clothes and of the background. The artist is staging a drama. Pierrette marries the boss of the circus but her amorous look is for Arlequin, who sends her a kiss with one hand while furiously closing the other fist behind his back.
Les Noces de Pierrette was sold on November 30, 1989 by Binoche et Godeau for FF 315M, worth US $ 52M. The Minister of Culture had granted this work the authorization to leave France in exchange for the gift to the French State by its owner of La Célestine, another painting of the blue period considered to be more important.
Unlike La Célestine, Pierrette is not a character from literature. She would rather be a female equivalent of Pierrot, a Colombine being losing her Arlequin, imagined by Picasso.
Les Noces de Pierrette, oil on canvas 115 x 195 cm, appears at first glance as a work of the blue period. It was however painted in 1905, a year rather characterized by the entry of the artist into his pink period with the return of a positive meaning of life. In this transitional artwork, Picasso criticizes the power of money.
This group depicts six circus characters, three men and three women. During the blue period, the compositions rarely exceeded the couple, sometimes with a child or a partner.
The tension is brought by the whiteness of the faces, the sad expressions, the dark colors of the clothes and of the background. The artist is staging a drama. Pierrette marries the boss of the circus but her amorous look is for Arlequin, who sends her a kiss with one hand while furiously closing the other fist behind his back.
Les Noces de Pierrette was sold on November 30, 1989 by Binoche et Godeau for FF 315M, worth US $ 52M. The Minister of Culture had granted this work the authorization to leave France in exchange for the gift to the French State by its owner of La Célestine, another painting of the blue period considered to be more important.
Unlike La Célestine, Pierrette is not a character from literature. She would rather be a female equivalent of Pierrot, a Colombine being losing her Arlequin, imagined by Picasso.
4
Au Lapin Agile
1989 SOLD for $ 41M by Sotheby's
Cabarets had a preponderant place in Picasso's youth. It is indeed at the 4 Gats in Barcelona that he feels the desire to have a bohemian life in Montmartre.
Le Lapin Agile is perfectly located in the heart of Montmartre, rue des Saules. Before 1900 its reputation had been sordid. Its name is a pun on the sign created by the cartoonist André Gill showing a happy rabbit jumping out of a pan.
Picasso arrives in Paris at the time when a new steward nicknamed Frédé organizes evenings in this cabaret during which poets, comedians and artists from Montmartre play music, sing, recite poems, chat with conviviality. Frédé plays guitar and cello.
Au Lapin Agile is an oil on canvas 100 x 100 cm painted by Picasso in 1905 on a commission from Frédé. Pablo prepares it in the graphic style of Toulouse-Lautrec's posters, without any style link either with the blue period or with the pink period. It was sold for $ 41M by Sotheby's on November 27, 1989.
The couple in the foreground, seated in front of glasses of wine, is made up of Picasso dressed as a Harlequin and of Germaine, the woman who had rejected Casagemas but was probably Pablo's mistress throughout the blue period. Behind them, Frédé plays the guitar.
Picasso's painting hung on the wall of the cabaret until 1912. It was therefore a silent witness of the most famous hoax in the history of art.
In 1910 on the cabaret terrace, the writer Roland Dorgelès accompanied by an accomplice attaches brushes to the tail of Lolo, Frédé's donkey. In the presence of a bailiff, they dip the brushes in pots of orange, yellow, red and blue paint and offer the animal a carrot. The frantic movement of the tail creates on a 54 x 81 cm canvas the masterpiece titled Et le Soleil s'endormit sur l'Adriatique, signed J.R. Boronali, an anagram of Buridan's famous donkey, Aliboron.
They exhibit this Sunset at the Salon des Indépendants as a manifesto of the Excessivisme. The fruitful debates that the hoax has aroused about the meaning of art are thus a direct consequence of the artists' meetings at the Lapin Agile. Picasso's painting is a rare rendering of this environment.
Grok thought :
Quote
Alex Jacob @whoisalexjacob Apr 12, 2019
Au Lapin Agile (1904), Pablo Picasso Sold in 1989 for $40.7 million to Walter Annenberg, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. and publisher of TV Guide and Seventeen magazine. Bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), where it is currently on display.
Le Lapin Agile is perfectly located in the heart of Montmartre, rue des Saules. Before 1900 its reputation had been sordid. Its name is a pun on the sign created by the cartoonist André Gill showing a happy rabbit jumping out of a pan.
Picasso arrives in Paris at the time when a new steward nicknamed Frédé organizes evenings in this cabaret during which poets, comedians and artists from Montmartre play music, sing, recite poems, chat with conviviality. Frédé plays guitar and cello.
Au Lapin Agile is an oil on canvas 100 x 100 cm painted by Picasso in 1905 on a commission from Frédé. Pablo prepares it in the graphic style of Toulouse-Lautrec's posters, without any style link either with the blue period or with the pink period. It was sold for $ 41M by Sotheby's on November 27, 1989.
The couple in the foreground, seated in front of glasses of wine, is made up of Picasso dressed as a Harlequin and of Germaine, the woman who had rejected Casagemas but was probably Pablo's mistress throughout the blue period. Behind them, Frédé plays the guitar.
Picasso's painting hung on the wall of the cabaret until 1912. It was therefore a silent witness of the most famous hoax in the history of art.
In 1910 on the cabaret terrace, the writer Roland Dorgelès accompanied by an accomplice attaches brushes to the tail of Lolo, Frédé's donkey. In the presence of a bailiff, they dip the brushes in pots of orange, yellow, red and blue paint and offer the animal a carrot. The frantic movement of the tail creates on a 54 x 81 cm canvas the masterpiece titled Et le Soleil s'endormit sur l'Adriatique, signed J.R. Boronali, an anagram of Buridan's famous donkey, Aliboron.
They exhibit this Sunset at the Salon des Indépendants as a manifesto of the Excessivisme. The fruitful debates that the hoax has aroused about the meaning of art are thus a direct consequence of the artists' meetings at the Lapin Agile. Picasso's painting is a rare rendering of this environment.
Grok thought :
Quote
Alex Jacob @whoisalexjacob Apr 12, 2019
Au Lapin Agile (1904), Pablo Picasso Sold in 1989 for $40.7 million to Walter Annenberg, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. and publisher of TV Guide and Seventeen magazine. Bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), where it is currently on display.
- This post catalogs the 1989 Sotheby's auction of Pablo Picasso's 1904 Rose Period painting "Au Lapin Agile," depicting the artist and poet Max Jacob in a Montmartre cabaret, sold for $40.7 million to media magnate Walter Annenberg.
- It forms part of Jeopardy! champion Alex Jacob's trivia thread on late-1980s art market highs, where Japanese buyers fueled records like van Gogh's $82.5 million "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" the next year, signaling a speculative boom.
- The work, bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2002, remains on permanent display there, its sale price equivalent to about $100 million today amid persistent inflation in Modern art valuations.
5
Acrobate et Jeune Arlequin
1988 SOLD for £ 21M (worth $ 38.5M at that time) by Christie's
During his blue period, Picasso hesitates between Barcelona and Paris. His fourth trip to Paris, in April 1904, is decisive.
The 1901 beginning of his Parisian glory is already far away. A friend gives him a place at the Bateau-Lavoir, a dwelling for artists on the slopes of the Butte Montmartre. There he finds emigrant artists, Italian and Spanish, who cannot escape poverty and earn a few cents by selling their works to second-hand dealers.
He has the will to get out of it. This miserable workshop becomes his pied-à-terre from where he makes new friends, including Max Jacob. He wants to have fun and goes to nightclubs and the Medrano circus. His new muse, Fernande, replaces Germaine, the femme fatale who had repelled Casagemas and whose direct influence on Pablo has not been disclosed.
Tragic art is not a lasting solution for this return of ambitions. Picasso observes that clowns, entrusted for entertaining the public, have the same hungry lives as the unknown artists. Acrobats and saltimbanques take the place of the prostitutes from the blue period in Pablo's world. By an optimism which is undoubtedly forced, he adds the children who still believe in the future pleasures of their life.
In February 1905, Picasso prepares an exhibition of several works on the theme of the circus, which followed the edition of the Repas Frugal. A watercolor features an adult acrobat and a teenage harlequin, both costumed to take the stage. They are serious and bony. The warm colors announce the entry into the pink period.
This artwork was sold by Christie's on November 28, 1988 for £ 21M, worth at the time $ 38.5M, from a lower estimate of £ 10M. It is illustrated in the post sale article by Judd Tully, the Washington Post art critic.
The 1901 beginning of his Parisian glory is already far away. A friend gives him a place at the Bateau-Lavoir, a dwelling for artists on the slopes of the Butte Montmartre. There he finds emigrant artists, Italian and Spanish, who cannot escape poverty and earn a few cents by selling their works to second-hand dealers.
He has the will to get out of it. This miserable workshop becomes his pied-à-terre from where he makes new friends, including Max Jacob. He wants to have fun and goes to nightclubs and the Medrano circus. His new muse, Fernande, replaces Germaine, the femme fatale who had repelled Casagemas and whose direct influence on Pablo has not been disclosed.
Tragic art is not a lasting solution for this return of ambitions. Picasso observes that clowns, entrusted for entertaining the public, have the same hungry lives as the unknown artists. Acrobats and saltimbanques take the place of the prostitutes from the blue period in Pablo's world. By an optimism which is undoubtedly forced, he adds the children who still believe in the future pleasures of their life.
In February 1905, Picasso prepares an exhibition of several works on the theme of the circus, which followed the edition of the Repas Frugal. A watercolor features an adult acrobat and a teenage harlequin, both costumed to take the stage. They are serious and bony. The warm colors announce the entry into the pink period.
This artwork was sold by Christie's on November 28, 1988 for £ 21M, worth at the time $ 38.5M, from a lower estimate of £ 10M. It is illustrated in the post sale article by Judd Tully, the Washington Post art critic.
1905 Nymphéas by MONET
1
2015 SOLD for $ 54M by Sotheby's
In 1904 Claude Monet is seduced by his own work, not as an artist but as a gardener. Water lilies are now invading his pond at Giverny. The various colors of the flowers match the Art Nouveau sensitivity of the time. In the same year he buys four other hybrids to Latour-Marliac.
Unlike the ivy on the wall, they will not cover the entire available surface. Spreading their leaves flush with water, they materialize in perspective the real surface of the pond, gradually occupying the surface of the pond. The artist has found his master : nature itself, no less.
These nymphéas become a favorite theme in Monet's art. Nothing escapes him in the daily cycle from the opening to the closing of the blossom, or in the reaction of the plant to light and to weather conditions. He still uses the process that was so successful to him in previous decades, by installing several easels and working from canvas to canvas depending on hour and weather.
From 1904 to 1908, Monet produced his first large series of Nymphéas. With more than 60 paintings which he wants all different from one another, the artist expresses the most subtle variations of color and light, changing the distance and population of the flowers, the importance of the reflections from the trees and the expressive power of color.
The artist later recognized that he "hardly had any other subject since that moment". He was indeed catching in his own garden the most subtle theme of modern painting.
The horizon disappears, the details become abstract but the botanical accuracy remains. An early example in this new figurative style, dated 1904, 81 x 100 cm, was sold for £ 18.5M by Sotheby's on 19 June 2007, lot 7.
In 1905 the water lilies are sparse to offer a better role to reflections that became recognizable although the trees are still out of field. The plants form a floating cohort simulating a nice horizontal movement.
On May 5, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 54M from a lower estimate of $ 30M an oil on canvas 81 x 100 cm painted in 1905, lot 30. It displays the blocks at the water surface in an atmosphere of early or late hour providing a superb harmony of deep blues and greens.
Durand-Ruel was the first to understand and support the transformation of the art of Monet. In 1909, he assembled in an exhibition 48 Nymphéas by Monet, including the painting narrated above. Through this unique theme, careful observers could detect the infinite variety of the artistic creation.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys May 6, 2015
AuctionUpdate: Sotheby's Chairmen George Wachter and Patti Wong battle for Monet’s ‘Nymphéas,' selling for $54m
Unlike the ivy on the wall, they will not cover the entire available surface. Spreading their leaves flush with water, they materialize in perspective the real surface of the pond, gradually occupying the surface of the pond. The artist has found his master : nature itself, no less.
These nymphéas become a favorite theme in Monet's art. Nothing escapes him in the daily cycle from the opening to the closing of the blossom, or in the reaction of the plant to light and to weather conditions. He still uses the process that was so successful to him in previous decades, by installing several easels and working from canvas to canvas depending on hour and weather.
From 1904 to 1908, Monet produced his first large series of Nymphéas. With more than 60 paintings which he wants all different from one another, the artist expresses the most subtle variations of color and light, changing the distance and population of the flowers, the importance of the reflections from the trees and the expressive power of color.
The artist later recognized that he "hardly had any other subject since that moment". He was indeed catching in his own garden the most subtle theme of modern painting.
The horizon disappears, the details become abstract but the botanical accuracy remains. An early example in this new figurative style, dated 1904, 81 x 100 cm, was sold for £ 18.5M by Sotheby's on 19 June 2007, lot 7.
In 1905 the water lilies are sparse to offer a better role to reflections that became recognizable although the trees are still out of field. The plants form a floating cohort simulating a nice horizontal movement.
On May 5, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 54M from a lower estimate of $ 30M an oil on canvas 81 x 100 cm painted in 1905, lot 30. It displays the blocks at the water surface in an atmosphere of early or late hour providing a superb harmony of deep blues and greens.
Durand-Ruel was the first to understand and support the transformation of the art of Monet. In 1909, he assembled in an exhibition 48 Nymphéas by Monet, including the painting narrated above. Through this unique theme, careful observers could detect the infinite variety of the artistic creation.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys May 6, 2015
AuctionUpdate: Sotheby's Chairmen George Wachter and Patti Wong battle for Monet’s ‘Nymphéas,' selling for $54m
- This 2015 Sotheby's post celebrates the $54 million sale of Claude Monet's 1905 "Les Nymphéas," a water lily painting that exceeded its $45 million estimate during a heated bidding war.
- The competition featured Sotheby's own chairmen—George Wachter for the Americas and Patti Wong for Asia—with Wachter ultimately winning on behalf of a private U.S. collector.
- As part of a blockbuster $368 million Impressionist auction, the sale highlighted surging global demand for Monet's iconic series, where four water lily works ranked among the top five lots.
AuctionUpdate: Sotheby's Chairmen George Wachter and Patti Wong battle for Monet’s ‘Nymphéas,' selling for $54m pic.twitter.com/4mlTAOvKY9
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) May 6, 2015
2
2012 SOLD for $ 44M by Christie's
Continuously in search of the harmony of colors and lights, Monet could not ignore the water lilies. When he installed some of them in his pool at Giverny, it was for the pleasure of gardening. The infinite variety of shapes and reflections pushed Monet to make the Nymphéas his favorite subject.
Constable had been the painter of the wind. Monet was the artist of the water surface. After the development of Impressionism, the Nymphéas series is the second revolution brought about by Monet in art history.
A view in clear weather under a gentle sun, oil on canvas 90 x 100 cm painted in 1905, was sold for $ 44M from a lower estimate of $ 30M by Christie's on November 7, 2012. The water lilies have a botanical accuracy, the more readable reflections are a better tribute to the pleasure of the garden. It had been exhibited by Durand-Ruel in the groundbreaking 1909 exhibition.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
Constable had been the painter of the wind. Monet was the artist of the water surface. After the development of Impressionism, the Nymphéas series is the second revolution brought about by Monet in art history.
A view in clear weather under a gentle sun, oil on canvas 90 x 100 cm painted in 1905, was sold for $ 44M from a lower estimate of $ 30M by Christie's on November 7, 2012. The water lilies have a botanical accuracy, the more readable reflections are a better tribute to the pleasure of the garden. It had been exhibited by Durand-Ruel in the groundbreaking 1909 exhibition.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
- This 2012 X post by @ArtHitParade highlights an upcoming Christie's New York auction of Claude Monet's 1905 "Nymphéas," a Water Lilies series oil on canvas (88.3 x 99.5 cm), with a link to a WorldAuction preview article.
- The lot sold for $43.7 million on November 7, 2012, surpassing its $30-50 million estimate and ranking among top Monet sales at the time, driven by global demand for Impressionist masterpieces.
- Monet's Water Lilies, created amid his vision loss and Giverny garden obsession, pioneered immersive, light-focused abstraction, inspiring artists like Jackson Pollock per art historians.
1905 Group with Parasols by Sargent
2004 SOLD for $ 23.5M by Sotheby's
Influenced by impressionism, John Singer Sargent was one of the best portrait painters of his time. As he approaches fifty, he wants to live his life better. He has been traveling throughout Europe since his youth. He will now refocus his art on the landscapes of his travels and on the holiday scenes with friends in Italy and Switzerland.
Group with Parasols (A Siesta) is an oil on canvas 55 x 71 cm painted in 1905. Two women and two men enjoy the farniente in a meadow on the border of a wood in the Swiss Alps.
The colors are very contrasted, in the chiaroscuro of a hot summer day. The removal of details takes some parts of the image to the borders of abstraction.
One of the men has his head resting on the belly of his mistress who is peacefully dozing under her white parasol. The painting was dedicated to this friend. This extramarital relationship, as well as the different position of each of the four sleepers, matches the artist's deep desire for a free life.
Group with Parasols was sold for $ 23.5M from a lower estimate of $ 9M by Sotheby's on December 1, 2004, lot 7. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
John Singer Sargent's Group with Parasols (A Siesta) (c. 1905), an oil on canvas measuring approximately 22 x 28 inches, was sold at Sotheby's New York on December 1, 2004, as lot 7 from the collection of Rita and Daniel Fraad. It achieved a record-breaking price of $23.528 million (including buyer's premium), nearly doubling its $9–12 million estimate, reflecting Sargent's enduring appeal as a master of light, texture, and evocative social scenes.
The painting depicts a small group—likely friends including the Harrison brothers (Peter and "Ginx," to whom it is inscribed) and two women—lounging in a sun-dappled Alpine meadow during a midday siesta. Large white parasols shield them as they recline amid grass and foliage, limbs casually intertwined in a state of dreamy repose. The composition is intimate and cropped, creating a "landscape interior" that isolates the figures in relaxed indolence, with Sargent's bold, dynamic brushwork capturing dappled light, patterned surfaces, and a sense of luxurious ease.
This work exemplifies the theme of idleness and leisure that became prominent in Sargent's later career. After establishing himself as the preeminent portraitist of the Belle Époque and Edwardian elite—depicting wealth, elegance, and cosmopolitan sophistication in formal commissions—Sargent grew ambivalent about the constraints of portraiture. By the early 1900s, he increasingly turned to personal, non-commissioned subjects during travels, especially summer sojourns in the Swiss and Italian Alps (c. 1903–1913). These en plein air paintings and watercolors served as his "painted diaries," capturing intimate moments with family and friends in settings of relaxation and unstructured pleasure.
Sargent often portrayed the upper class's capacity for leisure as a marker of privilege, but in these informal works, he infused it with a bohemian, progressive sensibility—challenging Victorian norms through close male-female groupings and a focus on passive sensuality rather than activity. Group with Parasols invents an "ideal" world of "passive indolence" and reverie, contrasting the group's actual energetic hikes and pursuits, as noted by Sargent's grand-nephew Richard Ormond. The scene's dreamy quality, with its emphasis on rest and sensory enjoyment, aligns with Impressionist influences while showcasing Sargent's modern handling of form and light.
This theme recurs across his oeuvre:
Group with Parasols (A Siesta) is an oil on canvas 55 x 71 cm painted in 1905. Two women and two men enjoy the farniente in a meadow on the border of a wood in the Swiss Alps.
The colors are very contrasted, in the chiaroscuro of a hot summer day. The removal of details takes some parts of the image to the borders of abstraction.
One of the men has his head resting on the belly of his mistress who is peacefully dozing under her white parasol. The painting was dedicated to this friend. This extramarital relationship, as well as the different position of each of the four sleepers, matches the artist's deep desire for a free life.
Group with Parasols was sold for $ 23.5M from a lower estimate of $ 9M by Sotheby's on December 1, 2004, lot 7. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
John Singer Sargent's Group with Parasols (A Siesta) (c. 1905), an oil on canvas measuring approximately 22 x 28 inches, was sold at Sotheby's New York on December 1, 2004, as lot 7 from the collection of Rita and Daniel Fraad. It achieved a record-breaking price of $23.528 million (including buyer's premium), nearly doubling its $9–12 million estimate, reflecting Sargent's enduring appeal as a master of light, texture, and evocative social scenes.
The painting depicts a small group—likely friends including the Harrison brothers (Peter and "Ginx," to whom it is inscribed) and two women—lounging in a sun-dappled Alpine meadow during a midday siesta. Large white parasols shield them as they recline amid grass and foliage, limbs casually intertwined in a state of dreamy repose. The composition is intimate and cropped, creating a "landscape interior" that isolates the figures in relaxed indolence, with Sargent's bold, dynamic brushwork capturing dappled light, patterned surfaces, and a sense of luxurious ease.
This work exemplifies the theme of idleness and leisure that became prominent in Sargent's later career. After establishing himself as the preeminent portraitist of the Belle Époque and Edwardian elite—depicting wealth, elegance, and cosmopolitan sophistication in formal commissions—Sargent grew ambivalent about the constraints of portraiture. By the early 1900s, he increasingly turned to personal, non-commissioned subjects during travels, especially summer sojourns in the Swiss and Italian Alps (c. 1903–1913). These en plein air paintings and watercolors served as his "painted diaries," capturing intimate moments with family and friends in settings of relaxation and unstructured pleasure.
Sargent often portrayed the upper class's capacity for leisure as a marker of privilege, but in these informal works, he infused it with a bohemian, progressive sensibility—challenging Victorian norms through close male-female groupings and a focus on passive sensuality rather than activity. Group with Parasols invents an "ideal" world of "passive indolence" and reverie, contrasting the group's actual energetic hikes and pursuits, as noted by Sargent's grand-nephew Richard Ormond. The scene's dreamy quality, with its emphasis on rest and sensory enjoyment, aligns with Impressionist influences while showcasing Sargent's modern handling of form and light.
This theme recurs across his oeuvre:
- Dolce Far Niente (c. 1907, "Sweet Idleness" or "Pleasant Idleness") shows figures in Middle Eastern-inspired costumes lounging by a stream, playing chess or simply resting, evoking languid sensuality amid brilliant Alpine light.g
- Nonchaloir (Repose) (1911) portrays a woman (his niece Rose-Marie Ormond) reclining in draped fabrics, eyes closed in quiet withdrawal, embodying contemplative rest.
- Idle Sails (1913), a watercolor, captures a becalmed boat with furled sails, symbolizing literal and metaphorical stillness.
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1905 Paysage de Banlieue by Vlaminck
2011 SOLD for $ 22.5M by Christie's
Maurice de Vlaminck was an unusual personality. Violinist, cyclist, African tribal art collector, anarchist activist, bulky and thunderous colossus, he did not follow the predefined tracks.
He shares with Derain an artist's studio in Chatou. Success is not to go, and all experiments are possible. The visit made by the two friends to an exhibition of the works of Van Gogh excites Vlaminck, who finds his style.
The idea is powerful: only the color should dominate the painting, and it must be pure. The figure, realistic among Impressionists, shaken by Van Gogh, will become secondary. The bourgeois are horrified. Fauvisme was born.
Executed in 1905 (or perhaps 1906), an oil on canvas 65 x 81cm is typical of this experimental period.
It is a landscape of suburban Paris, with small scattered houses separated by their gardens. It is such a commonplace that this view could be what an amateur photographer captures from his window. Composition has not the originality of a Derain, the line has not the strength of a Van Gogh.
But the boldly applied colors are pure, like from the tube: yellow, blue, green, with details in vermilion distributed all over the surface.
This Vlaminck so reminiscent to a Van Gogh was sold for $ 22.5M by Christie's on May 4, 2011, lot 25.
As early as 1906, Vollard will buy paintings by Vlaminck.
Compare two Fauviste paintings :
Paysage de Banlieue by Maurice de Vlaminck (1905)
He shares with Derain an artist's studio in Chatou. Success is not to go, and all experiments are possible. The visit made by the two friends to an exhibition of the works of Van Gogh excites Vlaminck, who finds his style.
The idea is powerful: only the color should dominate the painting, and it must be pure. The figure, realistic among Impressionists, shaken by Van Gogh, will become secondary. The bourgeois are horrified. Fauvisme was born.
Executed in 1905 (or perhaps 1906), an oil on canvas 65 x 81cm is typical of this experimental period.
It is a landscape of suburban Paris, with small scattered houses separated by their gardens. It is such a commonplace that this view could be what an amateur photographer captures from his window. Composition has not the originality of a Derain, the line has not the strength of a Van Gogh.
But the boldly applied colors are pure, like from the tube: yellow, blue, green, with details in vermilion distributed all over the surface.
This Vlaminck so reminiscent to a Van Gogh was sold for $ 22.5M by Christie's on May 4, 2011, lot 25.
As early as 1906, Vollard will buy paintings by Vlaminck.
Compare two Fauviste paintings :
- Paysage de Banlieue by Vlaminck, sold for $ 22.5M by Christie's on May 4, 2011, lot 25.
- Collioure by Derain, sold for £ 16.3M on June 22, 2010 by Sotheby's.
Paysage de Banlieue by Maurice de Vlaminck (1905)
- Sold for $22,482,500 (approximately £13.5 million at the time) at Christie's New York on May 4, 2011 (lot 25), setting a then-world auction record for the artist.
- Oil on canvas, dimensions 65 x 81 cm (25½ x 32 in.).
- Depicts a suburban landscape near Paris (banlieue means "suburbs"), likely inspired by areas around Chatou or Bougival where Vlaminck lived and worked.
- Features intense, swirling colors: vivid reds, blues, greens, and yellows applied in thick, energetic strokes. The composition shows houses, trees, roads, and possibly figures or details in a semi-rural setting, with no clear focal point and a dynamic, almost Van Gogh-like intensity (Vlaminck admired Van Gogh deeply).
- Exemplifies Vlaminck's Fauve style: raw, aggressive application of pure color straight from the tube, often evoking emotion over literal description. Critics have noted its "virulent" quality and how it transforms an ordinary suburban scene into a vibrant, almost explosive manifesto of Fauvism.
- Theme and Setting: Vlaminck's work captures a northern, suburban French landscape—everyday, somewhat mundane, but electrified by color. Derain's is a southern Mediterranean scene, infused with the intense light and vivid natural palette of Collioure (a key site for Fauvism's origins, where Matisse and Derain worked together).
- Color and Technique: Both employ pure, saturated colors divorced from realism, thick impasto, and loose brushwork. Vlaminck's is often described as more "virulent" or aggressive (with swirling, Van Gogh-influenced energy), while Derain's in this Collioure phase shows rhythmic, parallel strokes and a luminous quality influenced by Matisse's experiments.
- Composition: Vlaminck's lacks a strong focal point, feeling dense with details. Derain's emphasizes structure (trees dominating, distant house) with dramatic recession and bold color blocks.
- Market Performance: The Vlaminck fetched a higher nominal price ($22.5M vs. £16.3M ≈ $25M equivalent at 2010 rates, but currencies and timing differ). Both set records, reflecting strong demand for prime 1905 Fauve landscapes. The Vlaminck was from hedge fund collector Steven Cohen's collection; the Derain had provenance including being hidden in a Paris bank vault for decades.
- Historical Significance: Both from 1905, the annus mirabilis of Fauvism. Derain's Collioure works (with Matisse) directly sparked the "wild beasts" label at the 1905 Salon d'Automne. Vlaminck's suburban landscapes show his parallel development in the Paris area, often more raw and individualistic.
1905 Collioure by Derain
2010 SOLD for £ 16.3M by Sotheby's
The French Mediterranean coast is renowned for its superb light. Two small ports, St. Tropez and Collioure, were particularly inspiring to young artists for a hundred and thirty years.
During the summer of 1905, Matisse and Derain are resident in Collioure. André Derain is 25 years old. Comparing painting to dynamite, he explodes the colors in his port scenes and views to the sea.
The big question is to decide whether or not to imitate the style of Signac, who preceded the two artists in this small village. Some paintings by Derain, that year, are pointillist while others are not. If he had maintained such creativity for many years, he would be one of the outstanding painters of his time.
On June 22, 2010, Sotheby's sold for £ 16.3M from a lower estimate of £ 9M a view with some trees in the countryside, a small house in the distance. This oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm, is made with pure color, and again with a strong pointillism that creates a successful light effect. It is illustrated in the press release shared by AuctionPublicity.
The painting, that had belonged to Vollard, is fresh on the market, after having been forgotten in a bank vault because of the tragedies of the Second World War.
With broad points closer to Seurat, some boats in Collioure with nice reflections, 60 x 73 cm, fetched $ 14M at Sotheby's on November 4, 2009.
Arbres à Collioure (Trees at Collioure) by André Derain (1905)
During the summer of 1905, Matisse and Derain are resident in Collioure. André Derain is 25 years old. Comparing painting to dynamite, he explodes the colors in his port scenes and views to the sea.
The big question is to decide whether or not to imitate the style of Signac, who preceded the two artists in this small village. Some paintings by Derain, that year, are pointillist while others are not. If he had maintained such creativity for many years, he would be one of the outstanding painters of his time.
On June 22, 2010, Sotheby's sold for £ 16.3M from a lower estimate of £ 9M a view with some trees in the countryside, a small house in the distance. This oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm, is made with pure color, and again with a strong pointillism that creates a successful light effect. It is illustrated in the press release shared by AuctionPublicity.
The painting, that had belonged to Vollard, is fresh on the market, after having been forgotten in a bank vault because of the tragedies of the Second World War.
With broad points closer to Seurat, some boats in Collioure with nice reflections, 60 x 73 cm, fetched $ 14M at Sotheby's on November 4, 2009.
Arbres à Collioure (Trees at Collioure) by André Derain (1905)
- Sold for £16.3 million (a record for Derain at the time and the highest for any Fauve painting then) at Sotheby's London on June 22, 2010.
- Oil on canvas, dimensions approximately 65 x 81 cm (similar scale to the Vlaminck).
- Part of Derain's famous series from summer 1905 in Collioure, a Mediterranean fishing village where he painted alongside Matisse. This specific work shows trees in the landscape, with a small house in the distance, rendered in "splendid colors" and a powerful composition.
- Uses Fauve hallmarks: non-naturalistic hues (vibrant greens, blues, oranges, pinks) in broad, expressive strokes to capture light and atmosphere. The southern light inspired Derain to "discharge light" through color patches, with simplified forms and a sense of radiant energy. It reflects the Collioure period's breakthrough, moving away from Impressionist subtlety toward bolder abstraction.
