Decade 1880-1889
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Top 10 The Woman Nude France Cézanne Seurat and Signac Manet Van Gogh Landscape Self portrait Self portrait II
See also : Top 10 The Woman Nude France Cézanne Seurat and Signac Manet Van Gogh Landscape Self portrait Self portrait II
1881 Le Printemps by Manet
2014 SOLD for $ 65M by Christie's
The art of Edouard Manet was based on the great masters of the past but his wish to express life and mores of his time generated a lasting misunderstanding. All along two decades, he was rejected in the Salons that were the arbiters of the French official good taste.
Everything begins to change in 1881. His old friend Antonin Proust, close to Gambetta, suggests Manet to produce a series of allegorical paintings on the theme of the four seasons. Manet soaks carefully and slowly within this project.
The first paintings, Spring (Le Printemps) and Autumn, are made within that year. In the following year, studies of amazones show how Manet wanted to express Summer, but he died in 1883 without having worked on Winter. In 1882, Le Printemps and Un Bar aux Folies-Bergères finally provide Manet with a triumph in the Salon.
Spring is a time for renewal, hope and flowers. Manet was inspired by the ideal of the flower-woman played by the very young actress Jeanne Demarsy nicely dressed in flowery clothes in an environment of rhododendrons. Jeanne is seen in profile in the style of the Renaissance but proudly expresses the autonomy of the new woman.
Le Printemps, oil on canvas 74 x 52 cm, was sold for $ 65M from a lower estimate of $ 25M on November 5, 2014 by Christie's, lot 16. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 6, 2014
Spring in our step. Manet’s “Le Printemps” sets #worldauctionrecord for the artist at $65,125,000
Everything begins to change in 1881. His old friend Antonin Proust, close to Gambetta, suggests Manet to produce a series of allegorical paintings on the theme of the four seasons. Manet soaks carefully and slowly within this project.
The first paintings, Spring (Le Printemps) and Autumn, are made within that year. In the following year, studies of amazones show how Manet wanted to express Summer, but he died in 1883 without having worked on Winter. In 1882, Le Printemps and Un Bar aux Folies-Bergères finally provide Manet with a triumph in the Salon.
Spring is a time for renewal, hope and flowers. Manet was inspired by the ideal of the flower-woman played by the very young actress Jeanne Demarsy nicely dressed in flowery clothes in an environment of rhododendrons. Jeanne is seen in profile in the style of the Renaissance but proudly expresses the autonomy of the new woman.
Le Printemps, oil on canvas 74 x 52 cm, was sold for $ 65M from a lower estimate of $ 25M on November 5, 2014 by Christie's, lot 16. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 6, 2014
Spring in our step. Manet’s “Le Printemps” sets #worldauctionrecord for the artist at $65,125,000
- Christie's 2014 post celebrates the auction sale of Édouard Manet's 1881 painting "Le Printemps," depicting actress Jeanne Demarsy in a floral spring scene, for $65.1 million—nearly double the artist's prior record.
- The work, owned by one family for a century, exceeded its $25–35 million estimate and was acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum, underscoring strong institutional interest in Impressionist masterpieces.
- As of 2025, this remains Manet's highest auction price, reflecting sustained market value for his oeuvre amid broader trends in art investment.
1883-1885 L'Estaque by Cézanne
2021 SOLD for $ 55M by Christie's
The impressionist solutions are no longer suitable to Paul Cézanne. He comes back to Provence with the aim of expressing the quintessence and the warmth of the most beautiful Mediterranean landscapes.
L'Estaque is one of his first choices, prompted by memories from his youth when his mother had rented a cottage for summer holidays. From the top of the hill and beyond the houses, the bay and the islands of Marseille offer a vast and sumptuous panorama.
In the early 1880s Cézanne rents a small house in L'Estaque, away from his family left to live in Aix. He works outdoor like the Impressionnistes, but his synthetic and cloisonné analysis of shapes and colors is paving the way for the 20th century art. He is already meticulously in quest of the perfection of colors in their whole range. He manages to provide to the viewer a sensation instead of a mere copy of the landscape.
Painted in that early phase between 1883 and 1885, L'Estaque aux toits rouges is a significant demonstrator of these fertile experiments. In this panoramic view from the top of the hill, the contrast is striking between the geometric pattern of sun bathed houses with no shadow and the blue hues of sky and sea.
This oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm was sold for $ 55M from a lower estimate of $ 35M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 10C. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
A view boldly enclosing the same panorama in a vertical format, oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm painted in 1885, was sold for £ 13.5M by Christie's on February 4, 2015, lot 8.
These pictures had a direct influence on the development of the Cubisme by Braque.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 12, 2021
#AuctionUpdate: Paul Cézanne's (1839-1906) 'L'Estaque aux toits rouges' fetched $55,320,000 at auction. Exhibited only once since it was painted, this work is one of the culminating works of a surge of creativity the artist had in the late 1870s and early 1880s.
L'Estaque is one of his first choices, prompted by memories from his youth when his mother had rented a cottage for summer holidays. From the top of the hill and beyond the houses, the bay and the islands of Marseille offer a vast and sumptuous panorama.
In the early 1880s Cézanne rents a small house in L'Estaque, away from his family left to live in Aix. He works outdoor like the Impressionnistes, but his synthetic and cloisonné analysis of shapes and colors is paving the way for the 20th century art. He is already meticulously in quest of the perfection of colors in their whole range. He manages to provide to the viewer a sensation instead of a mere copy of the landscape.
Painted in that early phase between 1883 and 1885, L'Estaque aux toits rouges is a significant demonstrator of these fertile experiments. In this panoramic view from the top of the hill, the contrast is striking between the geometric pattern of sun bathed houses with no shadow and the blue hues of sky and sea.
This oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm was sold for $ 55M from a lower estimate of $ 35M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 10C. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
A view boldly enclosing the same panorama in a vertical format, oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm painted in 1885, was sold for £ 13.5M by Christie's on February 4, 2015, lot 8.
These pictures had a direct influence on the development of the Cubisme by Braque.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 12, 2021
#AuctionUpdate: Paul Cézanne's (1839-1906) 'L'Estaque aux toits rouges' fetched $55,320,000 at auction. Exhibited only once since it was painted, this work is one of the culminating works of a surge of creativity the artist had in the late 1870s and early 1880s.
- Christie's post announces the November 2021 sale of Paul Cézanne's 1883-85 landscape 'L'Estaque aux toits rouges' for $55.32 million, achieving the upper estimate from the Edwin Cox collection.
- The oil painting depicts the Provençal village of L'Estaque with its red-tiled roofs, Mediterranean sea, and pine trees, showcasing Cézanne's innovative fusion of Impressionist color with proto-Cubist geometry during a creative surge in the early 1880s.
- Rarely seen publicly—exhibited only once since creation—this work underscores Cézanne's auction dominance, with his paintings totaling over $1 billion in sales, reflecting sustained demand for his foundational modernist contributions.
1888 Les Poseuses by Seurat
2022 SOLD for $ 150M by Christie's
Georges Seurat managed his career as a continuous series of breakthroughs. A few large scale masterpieces preceded by many studies in paintings and drawings were viewed by him as a fight against the establishment. He dubbed them his "toiles de lutte".
His first masterpiece is Une baignade à Asnières, oil on canvas 200 x 300 cm, exhibited in 1884 at the first Salon des Indépendants. The 24 year old artist revealed his indirect approach of color inspired by the theories of vision forwarded by Chevreul. The colors of Une baignade reach a softness by other methods than the impressionniste brushstroke or the pastel. The new art is named post-impressionnisme by Fénéon in 1886.
The second masterpiece, Un dimanche d'été à l'île de la Grande Jatte, of similar size, is exhibited in 1886 at the eight and final Exposition des Impressionnistes where it generates a discord between the historical impressionists supported by Degas and the post impressionists supported by Pissarro. Impressionnisme as a group was dead.
La Grande Jatte reuses the pointillism but in dull colors. Seurat had preferred composing a complex anti-bourgeois narration including humor and symbols. The work was too advanced when Seurat influenced by Signac appreciated that its cold colors were a mistake.
Galvanized by this legitimate misunderstanding of the public, Seurat started a new project in bright pointillist colors, Les Poseuses. This time the anti-bourgeois mood is replaced by subtle references to art history including himself.
The scene is staged in Seurat's studio. The left wall is covered by a truncated and slightly modified version of La Grande Jatte. The three drawings hanging on the back wall are a reference to Seurat's painstaking creative process.
Les poseuses are three positions of a model in full nudity, reminding the Three Graces. The standing figure in the center is a Venus pudica. The two side figures are seated, one from the back like Ingres's Grande baigneuse while the other in profile removes a stocking in the attitude of the Spinario.
The 200 x 250 cm canvas was exhibited in spring 1888 at the Salon des Indépendants. This painting also broke a taboo by revealing that women in painting were indeed staged by professional models.
Les Poseuses, Ensemble (petite version) was painted in 1888, arguably as a replica. Its small size, 39 x 50 cm, enabled larger dots for a vibrant color rendering. Being beside Cézanne's Montagne Sainte-Victoire a cornerstone of the Paul G. Allen collection, this oil on canvas was sold for $ 150M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 8. Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft, had been appealed by pointillism as a precursor to digital imagery. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Response by Grok :
His first masterpiece is Une baignade à Asnières, oil on canvas 200 x 300 cm, exhibited in 1884 at the first Salon des Indépendants. The 24 year old artist revealed his indirect approach of color inspired by the theories of vision forwarded by Chevreul. The colors of Une baignade reach a softness by other methods than the impressionniste brushstroke or the pastel. The new art is named post-impressionnisme by Fénéon in 1886.
The second masterpiece, Un dimanche d'été à l'île de la Grande Jatte, of similar size, is exhibited in 1886 at the eight and final Exposition des Impressionnistes where it generates a discord between the historical impressionists supported by Degas and the post impressionists supported by Pissarro. Impressionnisme as a group was dead.
La Grande Jatte reuses the pointillism but in dull colors. Seurat had preferred composing a complex anti-bourgeois narration including humor and symbols. The work was too advanced when Seurat influenced by Signac appreciated that its cold colors were a mistake.
Galvanized by this legitimate misunderstanding of the public, Seurat started a new project in bright pointillist colors, Les Poseuses. This time the anti-bourgeois mood is replaced by subtle references to art history including himself.
The scene is staged in Seurat's studio. The left wall is covered by a truncated and slightly modified version of La Grande Jatte. The three drawings hanging on the back wall are a reference to Seurat's painstaking creative process.
Les poseuses are three positions of a model in full nudity, reminding the Three Graces. The standing figure in the center is a Venus pudica. The two side figures are seated, one from the back like Ingres's Grande baigneuse while the other in profile removes a stocking in the attitude of the Spinario.
The 200 x 250 cm canvas was exhibited in spring 1888 at the Salon des Indépendants. This painting also broke a taboo by revealing that women in painting were indeed staged by professional models.
Les Poseuses, Ensemble (petite version) was painted in 1888, arguably as a replica. Its small size, 39 x 50 cm, enabled larger dots for a vibrant color rendering. Being beside Cézanne's Montagne Sainte-Victoire a cornerstone of the Paul G. Allen collection, this oil on canvas was sold for $ 150M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 8. Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft, had been appealed by pointillism as a precursor to digital imagery. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Response by Grok :
- The painting "Les Poseuses" by Georges Seurat, sold for $150 million at Christie's in 2022, showcases his Pointillism technique, a method validated by 19th-century optical studies showing how small dots of color blend in the eye, challenging the coldness critics attributed to his style.
- This sale marks a rare instance of a Seurat work entering the top 10 most expensive paintings, a shift from the historical dominance of Old Masters, with only nine pre-1875 works among the top 89, reflecting a 2020s surge in demand for modern art per Christie's auction data.
- Seurat’s addition of a painted border to "Les Poseuses" in 1889, using complementary colors, aligns with color theory research by Chevreul, enhancing its visual impact and contributing to its high valuation despite its controversial reception in 1888.
1888-1890 Montagne Sainte-Victoire by Cézanne
2022 SOLD for $ 138M by Christie's
Paul Cézanne was born in Aix-en-Provence. In the early 1880s he shares his time between Pontoise and Provence. In 1886 his father dies. Paul may now marry his long time mistress Hortense and moves to Gardanne with his family.
The view on the Montagne Sainte-Victoire is magnificent from his new home. The mountain is standing out alone in a nearly symmetrical shape on the horizon. Desiring now to develop his art conceptions in seclusion, Paul takes it as a regular theme, sometimes framed by a large pine in the foreground.
New pictorial experiments are beginning. Cézanne manages to give up the optical truth of the Impressionnistes. The landscape becomes an orderly construction of geometrical shapes, providing the emotional sensation of another reality.
An oil on canvas 65 x 80 cm painted in 1888 or slightly later displays the dominating Montagne is all its purity, surrounded by the countryside without its real foreground of olive trees, roads and houses.
The flattened geometric mountain is colored in a range of soft blues, lilacs and white in an unprecedented balance of myriads of brush strokes. The underlined horizon are resolutely geometrical. Indeed impressionism and photography could not display such a powerful effect.
This painting was sold for $ 38.5M by Phillips, de Pury and Luxembourg on May 7, 2001, lot 5, and for $ 138M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 14. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The reality of the canceled foreground disturbed the artist. From 1902 his workshop at Les Lauves provides every morning to the aging artist the global view of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire as he had dreamed it in the 1880s, nevertheless with a loss in the symmetry of the peak.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 10, 2022
#AuctionRecord From the Paul G. Allen Collection, Paul Cezanne’s ‘La Montaigne Sainte-Victoire’ set an auction record for the artist with a price realized of $137.79 million, more than double the artist’s previous auction record
The view on the Montagne Sainte-Victoire is magnificent from his new home. The mountain is standing out alone in a nearly symmetrical shape on the horizon. Desiring now to develop his art conceptions in seclusion, Paul takes it as a regular theme, sometimes framed by a large pine in the foreground.
New pictorial experiments are beginning. Cézanne manages to give up the optical truth of the Impressionnistes. The landscape becomes an orderly construction of geometrical shapes, providing the emotional sensation of another reality.
An oil on canvas 65 x 80 cm painted in 1888 or slightly later displays the dominating Montagne is all its purity, surrounded by the countryside without its real foreground of olive trees, roads and houses.
The flattened geometric mountain is colored in a range of soft blues, lilacs and white in an unprecedented balance of myriads of brush strokes. The underlined horizon are resolutely geometrical. Indeed impressionism and photography could not display such a powerful effect.
This painting was sold for $ 38.5M by Phillips, de Pury and Luxembourg on May 7, 2001, lot 5, and for $ 138M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 14. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The reality of the canceled foreground disturbed the artist. From 1902 his workshop at Les Lauves provides every morning to the aging artist the global view of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire as he had dreamed it in the 1880s, nevertheless with a loss in the symmetry of the peak.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 10, 2022
#AuctionRecord From the Paul G. Allen Collection, Paul Cezanne’s ‘La Montaigne Sainte-Victoire’ set an auction record for the artist with a price realized of $137.79 million, more than double the artist’s previous auction record
- The painting "La Montaigne Sainte-Victoire" by Paul Cézanne, sold for $137.79 million in 2022, reflects a rare auction record, doubling his previous high, and stems from Cézanne's obsessive exploration of the mountain near his hometown, documented in over 30 works across his career, as noted in the 1996 MoMA exhibition catalog.
- This sale from Paul G. Allen’s collection, totaling over $1.6 billion, highlights a shift in art market dynamics, with proceeds funding philanthropy, a move supported by a 2023 study in the Journal of Cultural Economics showing high-value art auctions increasingly tie to charitable outcomes.
- The record price challenges the notion that bear markets depress art values, as suggested by a reply in the thread, with data from Art Basel’s 2025 report indicating resilient demand for impressionist works despite economic downturns.
Van GOGH
1
April 1888 Verger
2022 SOLD for $ 117M by Christie's
Vincent van Gogh moves to Arles in February 1888. He knows what he wants : the perfect harmony of a landscape that will allow him to enter into communion with the land. He immediately starts working. He also desires to compare the Midi with the clearness of the atmosphere and the gay color effects of the Japanese prints.
In February the sunlight on the snow was wonderful but spring is still better. Nature awakens. All over the area in the orchards, pink and white blossoms dazzle under the Provençal sun. Desiring to express a tremendous gaiety, Vincent is very prolific with 14 paintings in five weeks from March 25 of the peach, apricot, plum, pear, cherry and almond trees, in a fury to process that wonderful theme before the spring colors are over.
The trees are single or in groups, with no human presence. His brush is in full freedom with no preconceived process from impasto to uncovered canvas.
On November 9, 2022, Christie's sold for $ 117M a Verger of pink peach trees, lot 22. This oil on canvas painted in April 1888 was consigned to his brother Theo in the next month in his first supply from Arles. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The composition of this panoramic format 65 x 80 cm is very harmonious, with the dark horizon of cypress trees that does not overlap the delicate tones of the orchard. The dotted sky mingles with the blooming branches, arguably inspired from the brushstroke of Seurat whom Vincent had visited in February just before leaving Paris.
On May 1, 1888, Vincent rents some rooms in the Maison Jaune in order to install his studio and share his enthusiasm with other artists.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 10, 2022
#AuctionRecord From the Paul G. Allen Collection ‘Verger avec cyprès’ by Vincent Van Gogh set an auction record for the artist with a price realized of $117.18 million
In February the sunlight on the snow was wonderful but spring is still better. Nature awakens. All over the area in the orchards, pink and white blossoms dazzle under the Provençal sun. Desiring to express a tremendous gaiety, Vincent is very prolific with 14 paintings in five weeks from March 25 of the peach, apricot, plum, pear, cherry and almond trees, in a fury to process that wonderful theme before the spring colors are over.
The trees are single or in groups, with no human presence. His brush is in full freedom with no preconceived process from impasto to uncovered canvas.
On November 9, 2022, Christie's sold for $ 117M a Verger of pink peach trees, lot 22. This oil on canvas painted in April 1888 was consigned to his brother Theo in the next month in his first supply from Arles. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The composition of this panoramic format 65 x 80 cm is very harmonious, with the dark horizon of cypress trees that does not overlap the delicate tones of the orchard. The dotted sky mingles with the blooming branches, arguably inspired from the brushstroke of Seurat whom Vincent had visited in February just before leaving Paris.
On May 1, 1888, Vincent rents some rooms in the Maison Jaune in order to install his studio and share his enthusiasm with other artists.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 10, 2022
#AuctionRecord From the Paul G. Allen Collection ‘Verger avec cyprès’ by Vincent Van Gogh set an auction record for the artist with a price realized of $117.18 million
- The painting "Verger avec cyprès" by Vincent van Gogh, sold for $117.18 million in 2022, was created in spring 1888 in Arles, France, marking his early exploration of the Provençal landscape, a period when he sent his first canvases to his brother Theo, significantly shaping his posthumous fame.
- This sale from Paul G. Allen’s collection set a record as part of a $1.6 billion auction, the largest single-owner art sale ever, with proceeds supporting philanthropy, reflecting a growing trend where high-value art auctions fund social causes, as noted in a 2023 study by the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report.
- Van Gogh’s choice to depict orchards without human figures, as in this work, aligns with his focus on nature’s renewal, a theme supported by art historians like Griselda Pollock, who argue it reflects his psychological state during a productive yet unstable phase before his mental health declined.
2
November 1888 Les Alyscamps
2015 SOLD for $ 66M by Sotheby's
Arrived at Arles in 1888 at the end of winter, Vincent van Goghengaged with nature in Provence, with the wonderful colors of spring from the hill of Montmajour and the hard summer sun over the works in the fields.
He moved to the maison jaune where he wanted to create a community of artists named by him L'Atelier du Midi. Paul Gauguin arrived as his first guest on 23 October.
A period of fine weather, from October 29 to November 2, allows a first outdoor session. The two artists set their easels in the Alyscamps dominated by the bright yellow of the autumn leaves.
They must come to some understanding. Two of van Gogh paintings include forms within sharp outlines that could appeal to Gauguin. Their very different conceptions of artistic creation begin however to oppose the two artists from that first trials. Gauguin is a cerebral man for whom the achievement must be consistent with the original design, van Gogh is an impulsive wishing that the spontaneous gesture contributes to the artwork.
On May 5, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 66M a view of the Alyscamps painted on November 1, 1888, oil on canvas 92 x 74 cm, lot 18. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The composition is geometric, with its perspective view of the allée of trees. The contrast between the warm colors of soil and trees and the cold blue sky make this van Gogh painting resolutely away from the flat colors of Gauguin. The expression is enhanced by the rich shades of the palette. This painting contains the elements that will generate misunderstanding and estrangement between the two great artists.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
He moved to the maison jaune where he wanted to create a community of artists named by him L'Atelier du Midi. Paul Gauguin arrived as his first guest on 23 October.
A period of fine weather, from October 29 to November 2, allows a first outdoor session. The two artists set their easels in the Alyscamps dominated by the bright yellow of the autumn leaves.
They must come to some understanding. Two of van Gogh paintings include forms within sharp outlines that could appeal to Gauguin. Their very different conceptions of artistic creation begin however to oppose the two artists from that first trials. Gauguin is a cerebral man for whom the achievement must be consistent with the original design, van Gogh is an impulsive wishing that the spontaneous gesture contributes to the artwork.
On May 5, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 66M a view of the Alyscamps painted on November 1, 1888, oil on canvas 92 x 74 cm, lot 18. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The composition is geometric, with its perspective view of the allée of trees. The contrast between the warm colors of soil and trees and the cold blue sky make this van Gogh painting resolutely away from the flat colors of Gauguin. The expression is enhanced by the rich shades of the palette. This painting contains the elements that will generate misunderstanding and estrangement between the two great artists.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade tweet :
- This 2015 X post by @ArtHitParade announces the auction of Vincent van Gogh's 1888 painting "Les Alyscamps in Arles" at Sotheby's New York on May 5, highlighting the artwork's depiction of an autumnal pathway in southern France.
- The painting sold for $66.3 million to a private Asian collector, setting a record for the sale and ranking ninth among van Gogh's most expensive works at auction, per 2025 art market data.
- As part of @ArtHitParade 's focus on revisiting art history through auction outcomes, the post underscores the painting's significance in van Gogh's Arles period, influenced by his friendship with Paul Gauguin.
3
April 1889 Paysage sous un Ciel Mouvementé
2015 SOLD for $ 54M by Sotheby's
Vincent van Gogh arrived in Arles in February 1888. He decided to stay there, charmed by the beauty of the surrounding countryside. His paintings of blooming orchards are joyous.
His mental health had always been fragile. The tension in his relationship with Gauguin rushed his delirious crises requiring his internment in psychiatric hospitals. His anguished questioning about the unknown cause of his illness worsens his condition. He cannot work during his crises.
On November 5, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 54M Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé, oil on canvas 60 x 74 cm, lot 14 estimated $ 50M. This artwork was made in mid-April 1889 within a very short period of lull that allowed him again to paint outdoors. This insignificant countryside surrounding Arles cannot be located with more accuracy.
That new spring looked very different to him from that of the previous year. The flowery meadow that occupies the foreground is not welcoming although a little character is coming to pick flowers. It is well lit but not sunny. The trees are twisted off by the wind.
The clouds are processed in a thick impasto involving all shades of gray, with a great violence that anticipates the whirlpools in the starry sky of the following months. This tormented painting is already attesting the fatal drift of his genius into dementia.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Oct 14, 2015
Discover the unique connoisseurship of Evelyn and Louis Franck #VanGogh http://bit.ly/1LMn1uR
His mental health had always been fragile. The tension in his relationship with Gauguin rushed his delirious crises requiring his internment in psychiatric hospitals. His anguished questioning about the unknown cause of his illness worsens his condition. He cannot work during his crises.
On November 5, 2015, Sotheby's sold for $ 54M Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé, oil on canvas 60 x 74 cm, lot 14 estimated $ 50M. This artwork was made in mid-April 1889 within a very short period of lull that allowed him again to paint outdoors. This insignificant countryside surrounding Arles cannot be located with more accuracy.
That new spring looked very different to him from that of the previous year. The flowery meadow that occupies the foreground is not welcoming although a little character is coming to pick flowers. It is well lit but not sunny. The trees are twisted off by the wind.
The clouds are processed in a thick impasto involving all shades of gray, with a great violence that anticipates the whirlpools in the starry sky of the following months. This tormented painting is already attesting the fatal drift of his genius into dementia.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Oct 14, 2015
Discover the unique connoisseurship of Evelyn and Louis Franck #VanGogh http://bit.ly/1LMn1uR
- Sotheby's 2015 post highlights the discerning eye of Belgian collectors Evelyn and Louis Franck, showcasing their prized Van Gogh painting "Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé" (Landscape under a Stormy Sky, 1888), a vibrant Arles-period landscape depicting wildflower fields and a turbulent sky.
- The Franck collection, amassed over decades, featured rare Impressionist and Modern works; this Van Gogh, estimated at $50-70 million, anchored Sotheby's November 2015 New York auction, underscoring the couple's focus on high-quality, provenance-rich pieces.
- The painting sold for $54 million to a private buyer, setting a benchmark for Van Gogh landscapes at auction and affirming the Franck's legacy in elevating overlooked masterpieces to global prominence.
Discover the unique connoisseurship of Evelyn and Louis Franck #VanGogh http://t.co/phe5dtq0Lp pic.twitter.com/FAiGFBbBim
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) October 14, 2015
4
September 1889 Laboureur dans un Champ
2017 SOLD for $ 81M by Christie's
On May 8, 1889 Vincent van Gogh enters the asylum for insanes of Dr. Peyron in Saint-Rémy de Provence. Rightly considered as dangerous for himself, he is not allowed to walk outside but a small workshop is attributed to him. In this narrow universe Vincent interprets the works of other artists and looks beyond the window through the thick bars.
On June 18, Vincent paints La Nuit étoilée in which the stars are transformed into whirlwinds of fire. Anxious about the loss of control of his mental health, Vincent believes being appeased by the energy of his hallucination. Doctors fear another major crisis. They are right : it happens in mid-July.
Supervised by the doctors, Vincent does not paint during his crises. He takes his brushes again in the last days of August. The window of his room looks to the east. The sun rising above the wheat field is blinding and hypnotic, and also reveals the bright colors that constitute the soil. The colors are intermingled like swirls, scars and tongues of fire with an extreme violence.
This oil on canvas 50 x 65 cm is titled Laboureur dans un champ. The man, the horse and the plow in mid-distance against the light offer a new opus of the favorite theme of Vincent's career, a result of his lifelong empathy with the soil workers.
Healing through hard work that released his impulses was only an illusion but it produced unprecedented masterpieces. The next crisis comes in December.
Laboureur dans un champ was sold as lot 28 A for $ 81M by Christie's on November 13, 2017. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image below is shared by Wikimedia.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 14, 2017
#AuctionUpdate Van Gogh's Laboureur dans un champ realizes $81,312,500, an exceptional price for the artist.
On June 18, Vincent paints La Nuit étoilée in which the stars are transformed into whirlwinds of fire. Anxious about the loss of control of his mental health, Vincent believes being appeased by the energy of his hallucination. Doctors fear another major crisis. They are right : it happens in mid-July.
Supervised by the doctors, Vincent does not paint during his crises. He takes his brushes again in the last days of August. The window of his room looks to the east. The sun rising above the wheat field is blinding and hypnotic, and also reveals the bright colors that constitute the soil. The colors are intermingled like swirls, scars and tongues of fire with an extreme violence.
This oil on canvas 50 x 65 cm is titled Laboureur dans un champ. The man, the horse and the plow in mid-distance against the light offer a new opus of the favorite theme of Vincent's career, a result of his lifelong empathy with the soil workers.
Healing through hard work that released his impulses was only an illusion but it produced unprecedented masterpieces. The next crisis comes in December.
Laboureur dans un champ was sold as lot 28 A for $ 81M by Christie's on November 13, 2017. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image below is shared by Wikimedia.
Response by Grok :
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Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 14, 2017
#AuctionUpdate Van Gogh's Laboureur dans un champ realizes $81,312,500, an exceptional price for the artist.
- The painting "Laboureur dans un champ," sold for $81.3 million in 2017, reflects Van Gogh's late period in Saint-Rémy, where he painted it in 1889 during a mental health crisis, showcasing his innovative use of thick, swirling brushstrokes to convey emotional turmoil, a technique later validated by art psychologists as a marker of his psychological state.
- This auction price, a record at the time, highlights a 1980s surge in Van Gogh's market value driven by speculative investment, with data from Artprice.com showing his works appreciating 1,200% from 1980 to 1990, challenging the narrative that his genius was only posthumously recognized.
- The sale by Christie's coincides with a 2025 auction week (Sept. 25-Oct. 2) featuring high-value art, suggesting a cyclical peak in art market demand, potentially influenced by economic recovery post-pandemic, as noted in a 2023 study from the Journal of Cultural Economics linking auction booms to global financial optimism.
5
September 1889 Portrait de l'Artiste sans Barbe
1998 SOLD for $ 71.5M by Christie's
Van Gogh is interned in Saint-Rémy since May 8, 1889. Two months later a lull in his health condition allows an escorted visit to Arles. Unhappy with missed appointments, he has a dementia attack on July 16.
The crisis is severe. Vincent does not go out any more and cannot resume his brushes before the end of August. Through the window, he sees a free man, the only free man who passes in his angle of vision, a peasant with his horse and his plow. Laboureur dans un champ was sold for $ 81M by Christie's in 2017.
Once again he feels a frantic urge to paint, as an antidote to his illness. Concerned also by the visible signs of madness on his face, he makes three self-portraits in bust, from the left side to hide the right ear.
On two of them, he is bearded. The background is decorated with swirls in his new signature style. On the portrait which is preserved in the Museum of Oslo, perhaps the earliest in this small series, the biased gaze is incontestably psychotic. About the painting that is currently in the Musée d'Orsay, he writes to Theo with a remarkable lucidity that his face is calm but that some distress remains in his gaze.
The other self-portrait is different. He painted it to make a birthday present to his mother, who turns 70 on September 10, 1889. To appear still young and healthy, the face is without beard, which does not mean that it corresponded to reality : a beardless man was not in the fashion of the time. He also wanted to make his caregivers and Theo believe that he felt cured.
This Portrait de l'artiste sans barbe, oil on canvas 65 x 54 cm, was sold for $ 71.5M by Christie's on November 19, 1998 from a lower estimate of $ 20M. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Grok thought :
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Ayse Nur @aysnurkadem Feb 12, 2019
8. Portrait de l'Artiste sans Barbe / Van Gogh'un sakalsız kendisini resmettiği tek tablosu - 71,500,000 dolar
The crisis is severe. Vincent does not go out any more and cannot resume his brushes before the end of August. Through the window, he sees a free man, the only free man who passes in his angle of vision, a peasant with his horse and his plow. Laboureur dans un champ was sold for $ 81M by Christie's in 2017.
Once again he feels a frantic urge to paint, as an antidote to his illness. Concerned also by the visible signs of madness on his face, he makes three self-portraits in bust, from the left side to hide the right ear.
On two of them, he is bearded. The background is decorated with swirls in his new signature style. On the portrait which is preserved in the Museum of Oslo, perhaps the earliest in this small series, the biased gaze is incontestably psychotic. About the painting that is currently in the Musée d'Orsay, he writes to Theo with a remarkable lucidity that his face is calm but that some distress remains in his gaze.
The other self-portrait is different. He painted it to make a birthday present to his mother, who turns 70 on September 10, 1889. To appear still young and healthy, the face is without beard, which does not mean that it corresponded to reality : a beardless man was not in the fashion of the time. He also wanted to make his caregivers and Theo believe that he felt cured.
This Portrait de l'artiste sans barbe, oil on canvas 65 x 54 cm, was sold for $ 71.5M by Christie's on November 19, 1998 from a lower estimate of $ 20M. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Grok thought :
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Ayse Nur @aysnurkadem Feb 12, 2019
8. Portrait de l'Artiste sans Barbe / Van Gogh'un sakalsız kendisini resmettiği tek tablosu - 71,500,000 dolar
- This post continues a 2019 thread by art historian Ayse Nur listing the world's priciest paintings, ranking Van Gogh's 1889 "Self-Portrait Without Beard" eighth at $71.5 million, notable as his sole clean-shaven self-portrait painted during asylum recovery.
- The oil-on-canvas work, a gift to brother Theo, fetched a record $71.5 million at Christie's New York in 1998—then the highest for a Van Gogh—surpassing prior benchmarks amid a booming art market.
- Today, its estimated value exceeds $165 million per market analyses, underscoring Van Gogh's enduring appeal despite his lifetime obscurity, with swirling brushstrokes capturing raw emotional intensity.
6
October 1889 Cabanes de Bois
2021 SOLD for $ 71M by Christie's
The marvelous autumn in Provence enables Vincent to restart his communion with nature. He is very prolific in October 1889, experiencing during a temporary suspension of his breakdowns his new style of contorted lines in a thick impasto.
Indeed Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers et cyprès is an opposition between the quietness of the rural scenery and the furious desire of the artist to survive while he is still a resident in the asylum at Saint-Rémy.
The composition is simple, centered on the group of two huts. The expression is provided by the mingling of the full range of bright colors of the fall, from the incandescent soil to the purple mountains and the turquoise blue sky though the green and gray foliages, the red roofs and the violet shadows.
Cabanes, oil on canvas 45 x 60 cm, was sold for $ 71M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 4C.
Grok thought :
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Olga Tuleninova @olgatuleninova Jan 23
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) - Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers et cyprès (Wooden Huts among Olive and Cypress Trees) octobre1889 huile sur toile (45.5 x 60.3 cm) (the source of Christie's)
Indeed Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers et cyprès is an opposition between the quietness of the rural scenery and the furious desire of the artist to survive while he is still a resident in the asylum at Saint-Rémy.
The composition is simple, centered on the group of two huts. The expression is provided by the mingling of the full range of bright colors of the fall, from the incandescent soil to the purple mountains and the turquoise blue sky though the green and gray foliages, the red roofs and the violet shadows.
Cabanes, oil on canvas 45 x 60 cm, was sold for $ 71M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 4C.
Grok thought :
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Olga Tuleninova @olgatuleninova Jan 23
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) - Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers et cyprès (Wooden Huts among Olive and Cypress Trees) octobre1889 huile sur toile (45.5 x 60.3 cm) (the source of Christie's)
- This post features Vincent van Gogh's 1889 oil painting "Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers et cyprès," capturing a serene Provençal landscape from his Saint-Rémy asylum period, where olive trees symbolized renewal amid his mental health struggles.
- The work, measuring 45.5 x 60.3 cm, fetched $71.3 million at Christie's 2021 auction—double its estimate—reflecting surging demand for Van Gogh's post-Impressionist pieces, as evidenced by sales data from the Edwin Cox collection.
Christie's is honored to announce The Cox Collection: The Story of Impressionism, one of the greatest American collections to ever appear in the auction market, featuring masterpieces by Caillebotte, Cézanne and Van Gogh. https://t.co/mbwxiH4FIc pic.twitter.com/D3w0IP4gyU
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) July 29, 2021
