ArtHitParade
ArtHitParade on X
  • Home
    • Contact
  • Calendar
  • Top 10
    • Origin
    • From 600 BCE to CE
    • Years 1 to 1000
    • Years 1000 to 1400
    • 15th Century >
      • Years 1400-1429
      • Years 1430-1459
      • Years 1460-1479
      • Years 1480-1499
    • 16th Century >
      • Years 1500-1519
      • Decade 1520-1529
      • Decade 1530-1539
      • Years 1540-1569
      • Years 1570-1599
    • 17th Century >
      • Decade 1600-1609
      • Decade 1610-1619
      • Decade 1620-1629
      • Decade 1630-1639
      • Decade 1640-1649
      • Decade 1650-1659
      • Years 1660-1679
      • Years 1680-1699
    • 18th Century >
      • Decade 1700-1709
      • Decade 1710-1719
      • Decade 1720-1729
      • Decade 1730-1739
      • Decade 1740-1749
      • Decade 1750-1759
      • Decade 1760-1769
      • Decade 1770-1779 >
        • 1776
      • Decade 1780-1789 >
        • 1787
      • Decade 1790-1799 >
        • 1792
    • 19th Century >
      • Decade 1800-1809
      • Decade 1810-1819
      • Decade 1820-1829
      • Decade 1830-1839
      • Decade 1840-1849
      • Decade 1850-1859
      • Decade 1860-1869
      • Decade 1870-1879 >
        • 1877
        • 1878
        • 1879
      • Decade 1880-1889 >
        • 1880
        • 1881
        • 1882
        • 1883
        • 1884
        • 1885
        • 1886
        • 1887
        • 1888
        • 1889
      • Decade 1890-1899 >
        • 1890
        • 1891
        • 1892
        • 1893
        • 1894
        • 1895
        • 1896
        • 1897
    • 20th Century >
      • Decade 1900-1909 >
        • 1901
        • 1902
        • 1903
        • 1904
        • 1905
        • 1906
        • 1907
        • 1908
        • 1909
      • Decade 1910-1919 >
        • 1910
        • 1911
        • 1912
        • 1913
        • 1914
        • 1915
        • 1916
        • 1917
        • 1918
        • 1919
      • Decade 1920-1929 >
        • 1920
        • 1921
        • 1922
        • 1923
        • 1924
        • 1925
        • 1926
        • 1927
        • 1928
        • 1929
      • Decade 1930-1939 >
        • 1930
        • 1931
        • 1932
        • 1933
        • 1934
        • 1935
        • 1936
        • 1937
        • 1938
        • 1939
      • Decade 1940-1949 >
        • 1941
        • 1942
        • 1943
        • 1945
        • 1946
        • 1947
        • 1948
        • 1949
      • Decade 1950-1959 >
        • 1950
        • 1951
        • 1952
        • 1953
        • 1954
        • 1955
        • 1956
        • 1957
        • 1958
        • 1959
      • Decade 1960-1969 >
        • 1960
        • 1961
        • 1962
        • 1963
        • 1964
        • 1965
        • 1966
        • 1967
        • 1968
        • 1969
      • Decade 1970-1979 >
        • 1970
        • 1971
        • 1972
        • 1973
        • 1974
        • 1975
        • 1976
        • 1977
        • 1978
        • 1979
      • Decade 1980-1989 >
        • 1980
        • 1981
        • 1982
        • 1983
        • 1984
        • 1985
        • 1986
        • 1987
        • 1988
        • 1989
      • Decade 1990-1999 >
        • 1990
        • 1991
        • 1992
        • 1993
        • 1994
        • 1995
        • 1996
        • 1997
        • 1998
        • 1999
    • 21st Century >
      • Decade 2000-2009 >
        • 2000
        • 2001
        • 2002
        • 2003
        • 2004
        • 2005
        • 2006
        • 2007
        • 2008
        • 2009
      • Decade 2010-2019 >
        • 2010
        • 2011
        • 2012
        • 2013
        • 2014
        • 2015
        • 2017
        • 2018
      • 2020 to now >
        • 2021
        • 2022
  • Ancient Painting
    • Flemish Art >
      • Pieter II Brueghel
      • Jan Brueghel
    • Rubens
    • Rembrandt
    • Early Still Life
    • Oil on Copper
  • 18th Century Painting
  • Ancient Drawing
  • Art on Paper
  • Sculpture
    • Bust
    • Ancient Sculpture >
      • Roman Sculpture
    • Italian Sculpture
    • French Sculpture >
      • Rodin
    • Sculpture by Painters
  • Women Artists
    • Ancient Art by Women
    • O'Keeffe
    • Lempicka
    • Martin
    • Mitchell
    • Yayoi Kusama
    • Brown
  • Furniture
    • Chairs and Seats
    • Colonial Furniture
    • Ancient French Furniture
    • Modern Furniture >
      • Art Deco
      • Modern Tables
  • Prints
    • Ancient Prints
    • Modern Prints
  • Photo
    • Old Photos >
      • Travel Photos
      • Early French Photo
    • Photos 1900s 1910s
    • Photos 1920s 1930s
    • Photos 1970s 1980s
    • Sherman
    • Gursky
  • The Man
  • The Woman
  • Children
  • Man and Woman
  • Groups
  • Self Portrait
    • Self Portrait 2nd page
  • Nude
  • Abstract Art - 2nd page
  • Landscape
    • Alps
  • Cities
    • Venice
    • Paris
  • Flowers
    • Bouquet
  • Animals
    • Bird
    • Cats and Lions
    • Horse
  • Tabletop
  • Music and Dance in Art
    • Music in Old Painting
  • Sport in Art
  • Orientalism
    • Orientalism 1830-1900
  • France
    • French Painting before 1860
    • Pissarro
    • Manet
    • Degas
    • Cézanne
    • Monet >
      • Monet before 1879
      • Monet 1879-1887
      • Series by Monet
      • London and Venice
      • Bassin aux Nymphéas
    • Renoir
    • Caillebotte
    • Gauguin
    • Seurat
    • Signac
    • Lautrec
    • Matisse
    • Léger
    • Klein
    • Lalanne
    • Post War French Art
  • Italy
    • Canaletto
    • Modigliani
    • Fontana
    • Mappa by Boetti
  • Swiss Painting
  • Giacometti
    • Giacometti 1947-53
    • Femme Debout
  • Bacon
    • Bacon before 1963
    • Bacon 1963-70
    • Later Bacons
    • Head Triptych
  • UK - 2nd page
    • Ancient England
    • George III
    • British Royals
    • Turner >
      • Watercolor by Turner
    • Freud >
      • Early Freud
    • Hockney
    • Doig
    • Hirst
    • Banksy
  • Richter
    • Richter before 1983
  • Germany - 2nd page
    • Ancient Germany >
      • Cranach
    • Marc
    • Kirchner
  • Van Gogh
  • Mondrian
  • De Kooning
  • Magritte
    • Early Magritte
  • Belgium 2nd page
  • Ancient Spain
  • Picasso
    • Picasso before 1907
    • Picasso 1907-1931
    • Marie-Thérèse
    • Picasso later 1930s
    • Picasso 1940-1960
    • Picasso in Mougins
    • Prints by Picasso
  • Gris
  • Miro
  • Klimt
  • Schiele
  • USA
    • US Independence
    • Development of USA
    • President Lincoln
    • US Painting before 1940 >
      • Sargent
    • Hopper
    • Rockwell
    • Calder
    • Rothko >
      • Early Rothko
      • Rothko 1957-70
    • Still
    • Newman
    • Guston
    • Pollock
    • Diebenkorn
    • Lichtenstein >
      • Lichtenstein after 1965
    • Warhol >
      • USA by Warhol
      • Celebrities by Warhol >
        • Elvis and Liz
      • Later Warhols
      • Prints by Warhol >
        • Warhol Prints 2nd page
    • Twombly
    • Johns
    • Ruscha
    • Koons
    • Marshall
    • Wool
    • Basquiat
    • Bradford
  • Wild West
  • Central and South Americas
    • Mexico
  • China
    • Ritual Bronzes
    • Song
    • Yuan
    • Ming
    • Early Qing
    • Qianlong
    • Modern China >
      • Qi Baishi
      • Zhang Daqian >
        • Zhang Daqian before 1965
      • Fu Baoshi
      • Sanyu >
        • Sanyu before 1950
      • Li Keran
      • Wu Guanzhong
      • Zao Wou-Ki
      • Cui Ruzhuo
    • Chinese Porcelain >
      • Song to Yuan Porcelain
      • Ming Porcelain
      • Qing Porcelain
    • Chinese Art
    • Mountains in China
    • Chinese Calligraphy
    • Chinese Furniture
    • Imperial Seal
    • Chinese Dragon
    • Jadeite
  • India
    • Gaitonde
    • Modern India
  • Persia
    • Safavid Carpets
  • Yoshitomo Nara
  • Russia and Eastern Europe
    • Russia 1700-1900
    • Kandinsky
    • Brancusi
    • Chagall
    • Soutine
    • Ghenie
  • Munch
    • Prints by Munch
  • Egypt
  • Tropical Africa
    • Congo
    • Gabon
    • Mask
  • Tribal Oceania
    • Easter Island
  • Australia
    • Colonial Australia
  • Islam
  • Buddhism
    • Early Buddhist Sculpture
    • Tibet and Nepal
  • Judaica
  • Christianity
    • Madonna and Child
  • Cars
    • Birth of Automobile
    • Cars of the 1910s
    • Cars of the 1920s
    • Cars of the 1930s >
      • Cars 1930-33
      • Cars 1934-35
      • Cars 1936-37
      • Cars 1938-39
    • Post War Cars
    • Cars of the 1950s >
      • Cars 1953-54
      • Cars 1955
      • Cars 1956-57
      • Cars 1958-59
    • Cars of the 1960s >
      • Cars 1960-61
      • Cars 1962-63
      • Cars 1964-65
      • Cars 1966-67
    • Cars 1970s 1980s
    • Supercars
    • Hypercars
    • Ferrari >
      • California Spider
      • Big Five
    • Alfa Romeo
    • Mercedes-Benz
    • Porsche
    • Aston Martin
    • Jaguar
    • McLaren
    • Bugatti
    • French Cars
    • Duesenberg
    • Ford and Shelby
    • Cars in Movies
  • Motorcycles
  • Jewels
    • White Diamond
    • Pink Diamond
    • Blue Diamond
    • Jewels - 2nd page
    • Cartier
  • Silverware
    • Old Silverware
  • Coin
    • Antique Coins >
      • Roman Coins
    • Coins 1000-1775
    • Coins 1776-92
    • Coins 1793-1819
    • Coins 1820-49
    • Coins 1850-69
    • Coins 1870-99
    • 20th century Coins
    • US Gold Coins
    • Silver Dollar
    • Cent and Dime
    • British Coins
    • Japanese Coins
    • Chinese Coins
  • Paper Currency
  • Medal and Decoration
  • Time Pieces
    • Clocks >
      • Old Clocks
    • Mechanical Craft ca 1800
    • Jaquet-Droz and Followers
    • Modern Watches
    • New Watches >
      • OnlyWatch
    • Patek Philippe >
      • Patek Philippe before 1950
      • World Time
      • Perpetual Calendar
    • Rolex
    • French Time Pieces
    • Daniels
  • Glass and Crystal
    • Glass before 1900
    • Tiffany Studios
  • Terracotta and Porcelain
    • Meissen
  • Textiles
  • Books
    • Incunabula
    • 16th Century Books
    • 17th Century Books
    • Fine Books 1700-1850
    • The Birds of America
  • Literature
    • Literature in French
  • Poems and Lyrics
  • Autograph
  • Manuscript
    • Paleography
    • Illuminated Christian Manuscript
  • Political Writing
  • Comic Books
  • Illustration Art
    • Tintin
  • Travel
  • Ancient Maps
  • Space
  • Movies
  • Screen Worn
  • Music
  • Musical Instrument
    • Stradivarius
    • Violin 2nd page
    • Guitar
    • Chinese Instrument
  • The Beatles
  • Poster
  • Sport
    • Sport Equipment
    • Sport Document
    • Sport Rewards
    • Sport Cards >
      • Sport Images before 1942
      • T206 Wagner
      • Babe Ruth Cards
      • Sport Cards 1942-92
      • Topps Mantle
      • Modern Sport Cards
    • Baseball >
      • Baseball Bat
      • Baseball Jersey
      • Babe Ruth
      • Lou Gehrig
    • Basketball >
      • Michael Jordan
      • Kobe Bryant
    • Ice Hockey
    • Sport 2nd page
  • Olympic Games
  • Origins of Sports
  • Historical Arms
    • Blade and Armour
    • Colt in Lifetime
    • Later Colts
    • Winchester
    • Firearms
  • Toys
  • Doll
  • Games
  • Stamps
    • US Stamps
    • Inverted Jenny
  • Inventions
  • Leica
  • Sciences
    • Ancient Science
    • Sciences 1600-1800
    • Astronomy
    • Physics
    • Medicine
  • Dinosaur
  • Computing
  • Nobel Medals
    • Nobel in Medicine
  • Whisky
    • Whisky 2nd page
  • Wine
  • Plus
    • Plus 17C Art
    • Plus 18C Art
    • Plus 1910s
    • Plus 1982 Basquiat
    • Plus Ferrari
    • Plus US Cars
    • Plus Qing Porcelain
    • Plus Tribal
  • Work in Progress

Bouquet of Flowers

Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
​See also : Flowers  Tabletop  Van Gogh  Gauguin  Matisse  Marie-Thérèse  Sanyu  Sanyu < 1950   Koons  Orientalism
​Chronology : 1889  1890-1899  1890  1895  1907  1911  1919  1931  1937  2000-2009  2004

Van GOGH

1
1889 Les Tournesols
1987 SOLD for £ 24.7M by Christie's​

In 1888 in Arles, Vincent furnishes the Maison Jaune to welcome Gauguin. The decoration of the guest bedroom will consist of four oils on canvas showing sunflowers throughout their life cycle from bud to wilt, in a wide variety of bright yellows. A few months earlier, Gauguin had appreciated an exchange by which Vincent had provided him with two paintings on a similar theme.

Made in August, the four paintings are different one another by the number and arrangement of the flowers in the vase and by the color of the background. Gauguin begins his stay in October. He is dazzled : for him, the sunflower is in a way the signature of van Gogh's know-how.

The altercation followed by the mutilation of the ear takes place in December. The two artists will not see each other again, especially in prudence regarding Vincent's mental health.

In January 1889, when he is back in the Maison Jaune, Vincent works again on his sunflowers. He paints three replicas, copying with new colors the drawings of two paintings from August 1888. He also conceives a decorative triptych in which the wings are the same original paintings from August 1888 and the center La Berceuse, a portrait of Madame Roulin pulling the strings of a cradle.

Such fierceness on this theme is certainly obsessive. Vincent regretted Gauguin's departure and wanted to regain his admiration. No intervention by Gauguin in the design and execution of this series has been demonstrated.

Listed in the estate of van Gogh, one of the three replicas is bought by Schuffenecker in 1894. Its format is enlarged to 100 x 76 cm at an undetermined date by adding stripes of canvas, possibly to match the dimensions of a frame but more probably to obtain a less tight composition. The assumption that this painting is a copy made by Schuffenecker is unlikely.


This replica was listed by Christie's in their sale in London on March 30, 1987, with a pre-sale estimate in excess of US $ 16M which was enough to exceed by 50% the highest price recorded for any work of art at auction. The Sunflowers were sold to a Japanese bidder for £ 24.7M worth US $ 40M at that time. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Van Gogh Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers
1889

2
​​1890 Wild Flowers for Dr Gachet
2014 SOLD for $ 62M by Sotheby's

After he entered the asylum at Saint-Rémy de Provence in May 1889, the health of Vincent van Gogh did not improve. But they had to look for a solution. Auvers-sur-Oise is a pretty village frequented by artists. His visit is prepared by his brother Theo in consultation with Dr. Gachet. 

In May 1890 Vincent moved into a room at the local inn in Auvers. He did not have a studio and regularly attended the home of Gachet, a friend of the Impressionists and Cézanne. 

Since he is sick, Vincent is terrorized by the idea of failure and by the risk of a new crisis of dementia. With the energy of despair, he gives a new impetus to his old ambition to become the best painter of all time, the only one capable of a synthesis of all genres. Gachet has a painting by Cézanne showing a bouquet of flowers. Vincent wants to do better. 

Spring brings forth the flowers into the fields. On November 4, 2014, Sotheby's sold for $ 62M from a lower estimate of $ 30M an oil on canvas 66 x 50 cm painted by Vincent on 16 and 17 June 1890, lot 17. Executed in the clear intention to thank Gachet for his help, this artwork shows a vase filled with daisies and poppies. 

The composition is powerful and the colors are gorgeous, dominated in the center by the fiery red poppies. The groups of flowers shine like some characters within the ultimate tragedy of Vincent.

Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Flowers
Tabletop
Van Gogh
Decade 1890-1899
1890

(1886) 1893-1895 Vase of Flowers by Gauguin
2018 SOLD for $ 19.4M by Christie's

A Vase of Flowers by Gauguin, dated '86, was sold by Christie's on May 2, 2006 for $ 4.5M including premium despite a lower estimate of $ 7M. This oil on canvas 61 x 74 cm has however some interesting features for understanding Gauguin's creativity : the inverted perspective directly inspired by Cézanne's still lifes, the insertion of an image within the image without a consistency of scale, the juxtaposition of elements from several cultures.

The 2006 catalog clearly explained that this work could not have been painted before Gauguin's first departure for Tahiti, in 1891 : the bright red flowers looking like poinsettias which dominate this bouquet are Polynesian.

An inconsistency is a handicap for a work on the art market. This still life returned to the same auction room on May 8, 2018 in the dispersion of the Peggy and David Rockefeller collection. The catalog included a complex but coherent scenario. It was sold for $ 19.4M from a lower estimate of $ 5M, 
lot 14. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
​
Here is a probable sequence of the transformations of this artwork :

Gauguin started this painting in 1886. He sought to exploit the best in the avant-garde pictorial techniques and wanted to imitate the Still Life with the Fruit Dish by Cézanne, which he owned. In the following year, on his return from Martinique, he added a very small figure of a West Indian woman standing on a column along the right edge of the image.

In 1893 the return from Polynesia goes very badly. Gauguin is forgotten except by a few friends, and the state of his finances is catastrophic. At one point during this tragic stay in France, which lasted until 1895, he wanted to bring together on a painting his most recent conceptions of still life. Times are hard. Rather than using a new canvas, he paints over his original work.

Gauguin was a fervent admirer of Van Gogh's sunflowers. At Arles in 1888. he had painted a portrait of Van Gogh in front of his easel, busy painting these specific flowers.

The inclusion of the poinsettias is perhaps inspired by the very bright colors of Van Gogh's sunflowers. Originally the back wall was dark : traces of blue pigment have been found under the yellow layer. Several shades of yellow had been used by Van Gogh for the background of his Arles sunflowers. The tablecloth also was too dull for his new Polynesian sensibility : he redid it in orange and pink. The incongruous Martinican figure and the obsolete date remained intact.
Paul Gauguin Fleurs dans un vase
Gauguin

MATISSE

1
​​​1907 Peonies in Collioure
2012 SOLD for $ 19M by Christie's

In 1905, two young painters dazzled by the light of Collioure open a new path in art. They are named Henri Matisse and André Derain. Since then, color supersedes drawing as the dominant element in the composition of a painting.

These new colorists immediately seek to vary the subjects, and flowers are ideal for their research. The vases, tablecloths and wallpapers complement unprecedented color balances.

An oil on canvas 65 x 55 cm painted by Matisse in Collioure in 1907 was sold for $ 19M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Christie's on May 1, 2012. This work showing a vase with peonies was admired by Félix Fénéon who was the effective promoter of Fauvism.
1907

2
1911 Les Coucous, tapis bleu et rose
2009 SOLD for € 36M by Christie's

Born in northern France, Henri Matisse very early visited the local weaving workshops. Throughout his life, he will be a creator of forms on the most varied supports, overlapping figuration and abstraction.

Fauvism is a short but decisive phase during which he experiences the power of pure colors. Seeking exotic solutions, he travels to Algeria in 1906 and spends two months in Spain in 1910 studying Moorish art. At that time, collectors ahead of their time like Shchukin no longer support the traditional separation between art and decoration.

In 1910 in Madrid, Matisse bought in an antique shop a two-tone rug in fairly poor condition, whose arabesques were naturalistic without being identifiable. He was seduced by the expressive force of this anonymous textile, close by chance to the new style that he had developed for La Danse in 1909.

By varying the colors, he uses his rug as a decorative element in several paintings. In L'Atelier rose, oil on canvas 180 x 221 cm painted for Shchukin in 1911, it is spread over the large screen.

Les coucous - tapis bleu et rose, oil on canvas 81 x 66 cm painted in spring 1911, appears as a preparatory work for L'Atelier rose. On the table, the vase of primroses (coucous) is the pretext for this image, but the rug used as a tablecloth is indeed the main theme by its invitation to abstraction. The turquoise wall at the back is enhanced with pink reflections.


Yves Saint-Laurent saw in the image of this fabric a precursor to his own work. This painting which offers a link between two great designers went to be the most expensive lot of the sale of his collection by Christie's on February 23, 2009 : it was sold for € 36M over a lower estimate of € 12M, lot 55. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose Matisse 1911
Matisse
1911

3
​1919 Bastille Day
2010 SOLD for $ 28.6M by Sotheby's

In 1919, Europe is just emerging from war. It is a difficult time for Matisse, his private life and his art. Before 1914, he had entered a new path, emphasizing the harmony of colors that will be the passion of his artist's life. He feels however marginalized by his rejection of abstraction and cubism.

On July 14, French national (Bastille) day, he unleashes his hopes on a canvas 116 x 89 cm. A bouquet springs from a vase in an explosion of colors that immediately calls to fireworks and mingles with the more neutral wallpaper background. The image of this painting is shared by BBC News.

The subject and composition are typical of the still lifes of the master. The patriotic inspiration and the joy of colors make it an exceptional painting, was sold for $ 28.6M from a lower estimate of $ 18M by Sotheby's on May 5, 2010.
1919

4
​1937 Odalisque Harmonie Bleue
2007 SOLD for $ 33.6M by Christie's

Completed in 1932 for Barnes, la Danse is a key step in the career of Matisse who appreciates that the simplicity of the drawing brings power and emotion to the artwork.

Coming back to a Fauviste expression, he then seeks to associate the rarest and most spectacular colors which he uses to display the clothes of his sitters and the wallpapers. The effect is more important than the image, and the composition has the audacity of a Degas.

This trend results in 1937 in a restart of the Odalisques as a series of five paintings.

​L'Odalisque, Harmonie bleue, oil on canvas 60 x 50 cm, was sold for $ 33.6M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Christie's on November 6, 2007, 
lot 24. The title of the artwork had been defined by the artist.

The young woman is surrounded with decorative elements, without the titillation generally associated with the odalisques.. She looks with a close attention at a big bouquet of anemones which may be the major theme of the composition. Its vase is posed beside two oranges and one lemon on the top of a low octagonal column.
Orientalism
1937

1931 Chrysanthèmes Roses by Sanyu
2020 SOLD for HK$ 138M by Christie's

Born in a family of wealthy silk industrialists, Sanyu (Chang Yu) had early skills for black ink and calligraphy. From 1923 he lives mainly in Montmartre and Montparnasse. Passionate about the Parisian life and its cabarets, he discovers with delight at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière that young women exhibit their nudity for artists and students. 

​He realizes countless drawings combining the effectiveness of the line of traditional Chinese style with this sensual theme taboo at that time in his country. Possibly influenced by Modigliani's nudes, Sanyu fully materializes the idea of ​​the dominance of a sharp minimalist undulating line which accentuates the erotic invitation.


Beyond his very good understanding of both Asian and Western arts, his approach is highly original : the emotion can come from the balance between the surfaces delimited by the lines. Figurative details, proportions and perspectives are subsidiary. Cézanne was right : art cannot copy nature.

The meeting with the flamboyant collector Henri-Pierre Roché in 1929 is decisive for Sanyu. A friend of Leo and Gertrude Stein, Roché plays a role of discoverer of talents in the avant-garde communities of Montparnasse. He promises Sanyu to buy all his future works. Sanyu experienced also the drypoint engraving under Roché's influence.

Liberated from material constraints, the young Chinese gives free impulse to his creativity. He adds colors according to Roché's recommendation to practice the oil painting. With this technique then new for him, Sanyu explores other artistic possibilities in a three centuries old theme : the bouquet of flowers in a vase.​

Oil painting was indeed the best suited technique for his creativity. He will paint directly on the canvas without a sketch, like Chinese calligraphers are doing on paper.

The precision of the line offsets the succinctness. The colors are limited to the extreme. Influenced by the Chinese principle of five inks, he also manages to reduce the contrasts : with a single pigment, the variation in colors is obtained by differences in thickness.

At first the pink color provides the best demonstration of these new theories. It is common to the most beautiful flowers and to the skin of women and its low contrast over the white can achieve great subtlety.

On December 2, 2020, Christie's sold for HK $ 23M
 Chrysanthèmes blanches, oil on canvas 46 x 27 cm painted in 1929, lot 122. The large flowers and their pot are painted in pure white on a pale pink background. The geometries are simple.

Also painted in 1929, a study of roses in a white pitcher on a white background, oil on canvas 73 x 50 cm, was sold for HK $ 59M by Poly on October 5, 2015.

Here are four examples from 1931 : 
Deux gros hortensias roses dans un vase blanc, 73 x 50 cm, was sold for € 4.1M by Aguttes on June 1, 2015. Chrysanthèmes roses dans un vase blanc, 100 x 70 cm, was sold for HK $ 55M by Poly on April 3, 2017 and Bouquet de roses dans un vase blanc, 81 x 50 cm, for HK $ 47M by Christie's on November 22, 2014. Bouquet de marguerites, 81 x 45 cm painted in January 1931, was sold for HK $ 51M by Christie's on November 25, 2017.

Chrysanthèmes roses dans une corbeille, an oil on canvas 92 x 60 cm painted in 1931 which had not been owned by Roché, was sold for HK $ 138M from a lower estimate of HK $ 68M by Christie's on December 2, 2020, lot 123.​ The tight bouquet in a basket is framed in the tall handle and displayed over a black background.

The studies in pink and white are encouraging. Sanyu is then introducing new colors in his pictures of flowers, but always in limited numbers. Non-essential parts of the image are drawn in simplified broad lines. A dark navy blue or a black brings a three-dimensionality.


Sanyu had a temperamental personality. He was jealous of his art which he believed deserved to be better paid. After a phase of high creativity, he had to face great difficulties after the death of his brother in 1931 and soon broke up with Roché.

​His vision of women's bodies changes radically around that time, from sensuality to mystical idealization. These women remain models as at the time of the Grande Chaumière. They have no psychological dimension, and are most often lying on the back or reclining. They offer the beauty of their bare skin while sleeping, like Marie-Thérèse for Picasso. Realism of proportions no longer matters. He lengthens torso and legs, and deliberately shrinks the head which is not interesting him.


These nudes are white and then pink. They are placed on a carpet like starfish on the beach. The rugs are often decorated with small Chinese-style drawings, probably to reveal the origin of the artist. The contours of the body become thinner and the contrasts of colors take on pastel shades.

A reclining nude 81 x 130 cm painted in 1931 is perhaps one of the earliest in its style if we consider the garish color of the carpet. It was sold for HK $ 16.3M by Sotheby's on October 3, 2011.

After the termination of his co-operation with Roché in 1931, Sanyu stops dating his artworks, perhaps because he shall give more attention to his creativity than to trade. The chronology of his art is uneasy to analyze.


Largely from Roché, Sanyu had understood the expressive qualities of oil painting. A pink nude painted by Sanyu in the 1930s, oil on board 47 x 82 cm, was sold for HK $ 14M by Sotheby's on October 4, 2010, lot 277, and for HK $ 59M by Poly on October 3, 2016, lot 133. The woman is lying on her back on a white blanket with floral pattern. She is quietly sleeping with arms around her head and with tight legs. This nearly monochromatic composition is overwhelmed by the vivid pink flesh of this Parisian woman with a blonde hair.

In a very similar style, an oil on canvas 45 x 81 cm titled Nu Rose sur Tissus Chinois was sold for HK $ 50M by 
Sotheby's in Hong Kong on October 5, 2019, lot 1030. It had belonged to Roché, which does not allow to identify if it was acquired before or after their quarrel.

On 
December 18, 2017, Aguttes sold for € 8.8M a still life showing a peony plant in a flower pot, oil on canvas 92 x 64 cm visible in a photo made in 1933 or 1934, lot 12. 

​This painting is made in minimalist colors consistent with the Roché period : the black and grays of the calligraphic line and the pink of the nudes. The staging of this plant with sharp lines is both effective and strange, like a colored negative succeeding his previous positive compositions on a light background. Leaves lined and ribbed with white are transparent in front of the black background like the skeletal leaves of a memento mori.

After the war Sanyu will prefer to work on masonite panels.​
Sanyu
Sanyu before 1950
1931

​1932 Nature Morte aux Tulipes by Picasso
2012 SOLD for $ 41.5M by Sotheby's

On March 2, Pablo paints an oil on canvas, 130 x 97 cm, entitled Nature morte aux tulipes (Still life with tulips). He remembers that he is a sculptor. The figure of this painting is an indistinguishable mixture of flesh and statue telling us that Picasso is a great Surrealist.

The expressively distorted face retains the features of the blonde and pops up from the head on a pedestal. The woman wears on her lap a vase of flowers along with three fruits that may be her breasts and buttocks. The contrast of light is one of the brightest in the art of Picasso.

Nature morte aux tulipes was sold for $ 28.6M by Christie's on May 9, 2000 and for $ 41.5M by Sotheby's on November 5, 2012.

Here is now what followed, further demonstrating the importance of this lot. Less than one week later, on March 8, Picasso undresses the woman and separates her from the statue. This "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust" is one of the masterpieces by Picasso.
Marie-Thérèse

2004 Tulips by Koons
2012 SOLD for $ 33.7M by Christie's

After exploiting the stupidity of the contemporary symbols conveyed by the popular imaging, Jeff Koons conceives in 1994 his great series of Celebrations.

Inspired by the preparation of a calendar, Jeff Koons designs in 1994 and 1995 monumental sculptures to be edited in five units of different colors, each version thus becoming unique. The sizes are monumental. The about 26 themes are simple and symbolic enough to be understood anywhere in the world regardless of the culture of the visitor.

Celebrations are made in chromium plated stainless steel covered with a transparent colored coating, a process specially developed to offer an intense reflectivity in a perfect smoothness of all the curves. This finish of pure color interacts with the exhibition environment through an intense mirror effect for which the artist seeks perfection.

The project requires technological developments and the delays accumulate, leading the workshop to the brink of bankruptcy. 

The monochrome subjects, arguably less difficult to realize, were the first to be completed, in 1999 and 2000. They are the diamond, hanging heart, balloon flower and balloon dog.

The other themes planned by Koons present additional difficulties that are gradually overcome. In 2004 Tulips is the first multi-color assembly, also in five different color versions. 

On November 14, 2012, Christie's sold at lot 38 for $ 33.7M an example of Tulips, which is an even more complex step in the development of the art of Koons. Please watch the video featured by Christie's, in which the artist himself introduces this artwork.

The subject, a bouquet of seven flowers placed on a surface, is simple and universally recognizable, like all other themes in the Celebrations. The artwork, completed in 2004, can not go unnoticed: 203 x 457 x 520 cm. It weighs 3 tons.

The tulips within the bouquet are of different colors, so that the interaction of their reflections covers the entire spectrum of light. The work was carried out in five units with different arrangements of colors, extrapolating the logics of the previous Celebrations, and the reflection of the surroundings and of the public remains an essential element of the exhibition of the artwork.
Koons
Decade 2000-2009
2004
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.