Peter DOIG (born in 1959)
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : UK II
Chronology : 1990-1999 1990 1991 1993 1994 1995 1996 2004
See also : UK II
Chronology : 1990-1999 1990 1991 1993 1994 1995 1996 2004
1990 Swamped
2021 SOLD for $ 40M by Christie's
Peter Doig applies a rich kaleidoscope of colors on large size canvases, assimilating the pictorial inputs of the top masters of his century including Klimt, Pollock and Richter, knowing to mingle figurative and abstract. Questioning and criticizing the role of humanity and its incongruous traces in nature, Doig states an admiration for Hopper.
He caught a prolific inspiration in a still from the 1980 film Friday the 13th, which turns out to have been a nightmare in the following of the story. The picture of the swamp in the moonlight just before or just after the crime already raises the question of humans physically lost within nature.
As for Monet's lily pond, the image includes both the shore and its reflection in water. The lone white empty canoe shifting on the tropical lagoon and its perfect reflection are too sparkling for their light to come only from the moon. This intense internal lighting is meaning that it is the last remaining element from some human civilization.
Swamped, oil on canvas 197 x 241 cm painted in 1990, was sold by Christie's for $ 26M on May 19, 2015, lot 5A, and for $ 40M on November 9, 2021, lot 9A.
On February 7, 2007, Sotheby's sold at lot 7 for £ 5.7M a painting of similar size dated 1990-1991 whose title White Canoe removes the hint to the movie inspiration of the series.
Relying in his own memory, Doig did not take references to other film images in his career. Having grown partly in Ontario, he was possibly also influenced in that canoe series by Tom Thomson's hallucinatory paintings in the Canadian wilderness and his mysterious death in 1917 by drowning in the so called Canoe Lake in that state.
He caught a prolific inspiration in a still from the 1980 film Friday the 13th, which turns out to have been a nightmare in the following of the story. The picture of the swamp in the moonlight just before or just after the crime already raises the question of humans physically lost within nature.
As for Monet's lily pond, the image includes both the shore and its reflection in water. The lone white empty canoe shifting on the tropical lagoon and its perfect reflection are too sparkling for their light to come only from the moon. This intense internal lighting is meaning that it is the last remaining element from some human civilization.
Swamped, oil on canvas 197 x 241 cm painted in 1990, was sold by Christie's for $ 26M on May 19, 2015, lot 5A, and for $ 40M on November 9, 2021, lot 9A.
On February 7, 2007, Sotheby's sold at lot 7 for £ 5.7M a painting of similar size dated 1990-1991 whose title White Canoe removes the hint to the movie inspiration of the series.
Relying in his own memory, Doig did not take references to other film images in his career. Having grown partly in Ontario, he was possibly also influenced in that canoe series by Tom Thomson's hallucinatory paintings in the Canadian wilderness and his mysterious death in 1917 by drowning in the so called Canoe Lake in that state.
1991 Rosedale
2017 SOLD for $ 29M by Phillips
Just after graduating as Master from the Chelsea School of Art, Peter Doig was awarded the Whitechapel Artist Prize with an invitation to prepare a solo exhibition to be held in August and September 1991 at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London.
The young artist develops an entirely new vision of the scenery, taking altogether into account the techniques of Action painting and the color balances of abstract expressionism.
His effect of presence supported by the large size of the canvases is not based on a perspective but on the masking of the remote scenery by a pattern from nature or on the difficult interpretation of a reflection in water. The horizon is not useful in such compositions and disappears as from Monet's pond.
In the previous year his Swamp series recreated an atmosphere inspired by the movies. In his preparation for the Whitechapel show, Doig reuses his own winter photos in the ravines of Rosedale, a suburb of Toronto populated by rich and sumptuous mansions.
The Architect's Home in the ravine reveals an opulent villa through the trunks and leafless branches of the forest, with a very meticulous work of lines and colors. This oil on canvas 200 x 250 cm was sold for £ 14.4M by Christie's on February 11, 2016, lot 12.
On May 18, 2017, Phillips sold for $ 29M at lot 9 an oil on canvas 200 x 240 cm simply titled Rosedale. Please watch watch the video shared by the auction house.
Even more than the Architect's Home, Rosedale opens the way to Doig's new style and technique. The classical logic would have required the building to be drawn before the elements that partially conceal it. Doig does the opposite. The image is also dotted in a white pointillism that expresses the cold of winter. The artist affirms his sensitivity to some winter scenes by Bruegel in which snow is everywhere without being preponderant.
The young artist develops an entirely new vision of the scenery, taking altogether into account the techniques of Action painting and the color balances of abstract expressionism.
His effect of presence supported by the large size of the canvases is not based on a perspective but on the masking of the remote scenery by a pattern from nature or on the difficult interpretation of a reflection in water. The horizon is not useful in such compositions and disappears as from Monet's pond.
In the previous year his Swamp series recreated an atmosphere inspired by the movies. In his preparation for the Whitechapel show, Doig reuses his own winter photos in the ravines of Rosedale, a suburb of Toronto populated by rich and sumptuous mansions.
The Architect's Home in the ravine reveals an opulent villa through the trunks and leafless branches of the forest, with a very meticulous work of lines and colors. This oil on canvas 200 x 250 cm was sold for £ 14.4M by Christie's on February 11, 2016, lot 12.
On May 18, 2017, Phillips sold for $ 29M at lot 9 an oil on canvas 200 x 240 cm simply titled Rosedale. Please watch watch the video shared by the auction house.
Even more than the Architect's Home, Rosedale opens the way to Doig's new style and technique. The classical logic would have required the building to be drawn before the elements that partially conceal it. Doig does the opposite. The image is also dotted in a white pointillism that expresses the cold of winter. The artist affirms his sensitivity to some winter scenes by Bruegel in which snow is everywhere without being preponderant.
1991 The Architect's Home
2018 SOLD for £ 14.4M by Sotheby's
Nature, even when it is wild, is influenced by humans, although such an interaction is sometimes difficult. Peter Doig creates some imaginary scenery from documents which may include photographs taken by himself.
Human figures are absent or discrete. The horizon is useless. The atmosphere is made of a subtle pattern of lines and colors by which the artist shows that he has assimilated various trends of modern art.
In 1991, aged 32, he is overwhelmed by the Cité Radieuse at Briey-en-Forêt near Metz, regarded 30 years earlier as a masterpiece by Le Corbusier. In the woods, this large dwelling unit had been difficult to maintain in its original purpose of social housing. It is threatened of destruction and rapidly loses its polychromy.
Through the tight branches, Doig may imagine everything : is the house still alive or already dead ? Is it even yet accessible ? Now mixing this new emotion with his childhood memory in Canada he transfers the question onto another modernist house built by Eberhard Zeidler in a ravine at Rosedale near Toronto.
The oil on canvas 200 x 250 cm painted in 1991 shows the imposing Rosedale house laid down in its small valley, offered or hidden through a dense network of winter twigs, similar as a figurative Pollock whose annihilation by the lines would not have been completed.
The Architect's Home in the Ravine was sold for $ 3.6M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007, for £ 7.7M by Christie's on February 13, 2013, for £ 11.3M by Christie's on February 11, 2016, lot 18, and for £ 14.4M by Sotheby's on March 7, 2018, lot 12. Please watch the video shared in 2013 by Christie's.
Human figures are absent or discrete. The horizon is useless. The atmosphere is made of a subtle pattern of lines and colors by which the artist shows that he has assimilated various trends of modern art.
In 1991, aged 32, he is overwhelmed by the Cité Radieuse at Briey-en-Forêt near Metz, regarded 30 years earlier as a masterpiece by Le Corbusier. In the woods, this large dwelling unit had been difficult to maintain in its original purpose of social housing. It is threatened of destruction and rapidly loses its polychromy.
Through the tight branches, Doig may imagine everything : is the house still alive or already dead ? Is it even yet accessible ? Now mixing this new emotion with his childhood memory in Canada he transfers the question onto another modernist house built by Eberhard Zeidler in a ravine at Rosedale near Toronto.
The oil on canvas 200 x 250 cm painted in 1991 shows the imposing Rosedale house laid down in its small valley, offered or hidden through a dense network of winter twigs, similar as a figurative Pollock whose annihilation by the lines would not have been completed.
The Architect's Home in the Ravine was sold for $ 3.6M by Sotheby's on May 15, 2007, for £ 7.7M by Christie's on February 13, 2013, for £ 11.3M by Christie's on February 11, 2016, lot 18, and for £ 14.4M by Sotheby's on March 7, 2018, lot 12. Please watch the video shared in 2013 by Christie's.
1991 Charley's Space
2018 SOLD for £ 11M by Christie's
In 1990 Peter Doig completes his studies at the Chelsea School of Art. He begins a painting on a daring theme that will bring together his two fascinations, for his own memory and for the strongest emotions of cinema. He associates the snowball and the Rosebud enigma of Citizen Kane to his childhood in Canada.
He constructs this work as a confrontation of worlds dominated by the central oval of a snowstorm that pushes back to the edges of his memory the cabin and the forest. The flakes are scattered on this veil altogether dark and slightly transparent. Blur enhances the dreamlike impression.
A school security agent named Charley watches and says "Huh, Space". He was seeing a starry sky and not a snowstorm. Far from discouraging the young artist, this erroneous but plausible interpretation excites his enthusiasm. The pictorial art does not reflect a reality but an emotion prepared by the artist and which can be perceived differently by the observer.
Completed in 1991 this 183 x 127 cm oil on canvas is titled Charley's Space. In 2003-2004 it will be used as the title of a solo exhibition in Maastricht : Peter Doig has not forgotten the involuntarily deep lesson received from his visitor.
Charley's Space was sold for £ 11M from a lower estimate of £ 6M by Christie's on March 6, 2018, lot 27. It is narrated with another snow scene in the video shared by Christie's.
Monet knew how to show the transparent surface of his pond. Doig becomes the virtuoso of the falling snow, more or less dense, within more or less fog, but from then in a more homogeneous universe. Painted also in 1991 and reusing the same cabin and forest, Pink Snow 244 x 198 cm is conserved at the MoMA.
Painted in 1994, a scene in Cobourg is a culmination of this effect of blizzard ambience. This 200 x 250 cm oil on canvas was sold for £ 12.7M by Christie's on March 7, 2017, lot 20.
He constructs this work as a confrontation of worlds dominated by the central oval of a snowstorm that pushes back to the edges of his memory the cabin and the forest. The flakes are scattered on this veil altogether dark and slightly transparent. Blur enhances the dreamlike impression.
A school security agent named Charley watches and says "Huh, Space". He was seeing a starry sky and not a snowstorm. Far from discouraging the young artist, this erroneous but plausible interpretation excites his enthusiasm. The pictorial art does not reflect a reality but an emotion prepared by the artist and which can be perceived differently by the observer.
Completed in 1991 this 183 x 127 cm oil on canvas is titled Charley's Space. In 2003-2004 it will be used as the title of a solo exhibition in Maastricht : Peter Doig has not forgotten the involuntarily deep lesson received from his visitor.
Charley's Space was sold for £ 11M from a lower estimate of £ 6M by Christie's on March 6, 2018, lot 27. It is narrated with another snow scene in the video shared by Christie's.
Monet knew how to show the transparent surface of his pond. Doig becomes the virtuoso of the falling snow, more or less dense, within more or less fog, but from then in a more homogeneous universe. Painted also in 1991 and reusing the same cabin and forest, Pink Snow 244 x 198 cm is conserved at the MoMA.
Painted in 1994, a scene in Cobourg is a culmination of this effect of blizzard ambience. This 200 x 250 cm oil on canvas was sold for £ 12.7M by Christie's on March 7, 2017, lot 20.
1993 Cabin Boiler House
2020 SOLD for £ 14M by Christie's
After the war, it was necessary to rebuild. Le Corbusier offers a new concept with a social vocation, the Unité d'Habitation, better known as Cité Radieuse. The first example, the Maison du Fada in Marseille, is immediately famous.
On the same principle of building bars housing more than 300 apartments, Le Corbusier constructs from 1959 in the middle of the forest the Unité d'Habitation of Briey, for enabling a housing solution to the influx of workers in Lorraine. The recession of the mining basin and various construction defects led to the final evacuation of the building in 1983.
Le Corbusier is the symbol of social modernism. His frontages with a too strict geometry evoke the compositions of Mondrian. In 1991, the Unité of Briey is left as nothing more than an abandoned work of art 110 meters long, 56 meters high and 19 meters wide. Peter Doig visits the site with a group solicited to propose a restoration and takes some photos through the trees.
For the young artist, the Unité of Briey is a memory which reconstructs a bygone past. The theme combines art, modernism, the reconquest of the site by nature. He begins his series of nine large-format paintings titled Concrete Cabins. Through the dark trees, the bar has no perspective, in a dynamic overview in the manner of Cézanne. The mingle of pictorial techniques is influenced by Richter.
One of the nine opus shows another view. 300 meters from the main structure, the boiler house had anticipated the disuse of the rest of the Unité. We no longer use coal heating. The two-level facade is decrepit and the windows are gaping. The chimneys look like two horns above this haggard dwelling even more sinister or pitiful in the bright daylight.
Cabin Boiler House, oil on canvas 200 x 275 cm painted in 1993, was sold for £ 14M by Christie's on October 22, 2020, lot 110.
The building bar and the boiler house have both been listed in the inventory of the French historical monuments with the label of Patrimoine du XXème siècle, respectively in 1993 and 2007
On the same principle of building bars housing more than 300 apartments, Le Corbusier constructs from 1959 in the middle of the forest the Unité d'Habitation of Briey, for enabling a housing solution to the influx of workers in Lorraine. The recession of the mining basin and various construction defects led to the final evacuation of the building in 1983.
Le Corbusier is the symbol of social modernism. His frontages with a too strict geometry evoke the compositions of Mondrian. In 1991, the Unité of Briey is left as nothing more than an abandoned work of art 110 meters long, 56 meters high and 19 meters wide. Peter Doig visits the site with a group solicited to propose a restoration and takes some photos through the trees.
For the young artist, the Unité of Briey is a memory which reconstructs a bygone past. The theme combines art, modernism, the reconquest of the site by nature. He begins his series of nine large-format paintings titled Concrete Cabins. Through the dark trees, the bar has no perspective, in a dynamic overview in the manner of Cézanne. The mingle of pictorial techniques is influenced by Richter.
One of the nine opus shows another view. 300 meters from the main structure, the boiler house had anticipated the disuse of the rest of the Unité. We no longer use coal heating. The two-level facade is decrepit and the windows are gaping. The chimneys look like two horns above this haggard dwelling even more sinister or pitiful in the bright daylight.
Cabin Boiler House, oil on canvas 200 x 275 cm painted in 1993, was sold for £ 14M by Christie's on October 22, 2020, lot 110.
The building bar and the boiler house have both been listed in the inventory of the French historical monuments with the label of Patrimoine du XXème siècle, respectively in 1993 and 2007
1994 Pine House
2014 SOLD for $ 18M by Christie's
Houses can decay, die or even be killed. Peter Doig is fascinated by dead houses in the woods.
He took photographs of a large rooming house for transient workers which had been doomed by a wild fire in the vicinity of Cobourg, the city in Ontario where he grew up.
Coming back a few years later, he found that the dead house has been replaced by a new set of condominiums. It now only remains like a mirage in his memory. Using his photos, he imagines the scenery if the vanished house had been left in place with its sunken roof. The foreground is invaded by a wild vegetation. The scenery is reflected in a frost covered track.
Pine House, subtitled Rooms for Rent, oil on canvas 180 x 230 cm painted in 1994, was sold for $ 18M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, lot 36.
He took photographs of a large rooming house for transient workers which had been doomed by a wild fire in the vicinity of Cobourg, the city in Ontario where he grew up.
Coming back a few years later, he found that the dead house has been replaced by a new set of condominiums. It now only remains like a mirage in his memory. Using his photos, he imagines the scenery if the vanished house had been left in place with its sunken roof. The foreground is invaded by a wild vegetation. The scenery is reflected in a frost covered track.
Pine House, subtitled Rooms for Rent, oil on canvas 180 x 230 cm painted in 1994, was sold for $ 18M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, lot 36.
1994 Coburg Three Plus One More
2017 SOLD for £ 12.7M by Christie's
Peter Doig closes his eyelids to explore the landscape of his subconscious. He knows that the realistic picture will never properly restore the atmosphere or the feeling. Having lived his youth in Scotland, Trinidad and Canada, he is also an observer of the topographical variety of the world.
He is a perfect connoisseur of the most subtle pictorial effects achieved by the great masters. Wishing to express his memory of a snowstorm in Cobourg, Ontario, he refers to Monet. The impressionistic treatment of snow and ice leaves a tiny place for colored spots that gradually take on a prominent role during a prolonged vision.
This oil on canvas 200 x 250 cm painted in London in 1994 is titled Coburg three plus one more. It was sold for £ 12.7M from a lower estimate of £ 8M for sale by Christie's on March 7, 2017, lot 20. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The snow falls in heavy flakes on the small lake of Cobourg. It veils a scenery divided into three horizontal blocks without perspective as an abstraction by Rothko. This screen which can not be perceived as static distorts the evaluation of the distances, and the four hardly sketched characters who walk through in that chilly day acquire a vibration that focuses all the attention.
On a flat canvas of large size, Doig offers by abolishing the perspective the effect of presence so much sought by Rothko in his abstract compositions. His pattern of snow flakes has the same role as the trees that hinder the vision of buildings in other compositions of the same period such as The Architect's home in the ravine or Cabin Essence.
He is a perfect connoisseur of the most subtle pictorial effects achieved by the great masters. Wishing to express his memory of a snowstorm in Cobourg, Ontario, he refers to Monet. The impressionistic treatment of snow and ice leaves a tiny place for colored spots that gradually take on a prominent role during a prolonged vision.
This oil on canvas 200 x 250 cm painted in London in 1994 is titled Coburg three plus one more. It was sold for £ 12.7M from a lower estimate of £ 8M for sale by Christie's on March 7, 2017, lot 20. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The snow falls in heavy flakes on the small lake of Cobourg. It veils a scenery divided into three horizontal blocks without perspective as an abstraction by Rothko. This screen which can not be perceived as static distorts the evaluation of the distances, and the four hardly sketched characters who walk through in that chilly day acquire a vibration that focuses all the attention.
On a flat canvas of large size, Doig offers by abolishing the perspective the effect of presence so much sought by Rothko in his abstract compositions. His pattern of snow flakes has the same role as the trees that hinder the vision of buildings in other compositions of the same period such as The Architect's home in the ravine or Cabin Essence.
1995-1996 Red House
2017 SOLD for $ 21M by Phillips
Inspired by his childhood in Canada, Peter Doig recreates within his head an ideal of life in the wilderness, sheltered in an anonymous cabin. His memory is emotional and not topographical. He searches endlessly in the old images the models of his desire.
At the same time he is a very good connoisseur of modern and ancient painting techniques, and a meticulous and talented artist who does not hesitate to use very large formats to share his fantasies.
On November 16, 2017, Phillips sold for $ 21M Red House, oil on canvas 200 x 250 cm dated 1995-1996, lot 12.
Red House feeds his favorite theme : it expresses the winter with the snow on ground and trees. The house, which may be a lumberjack camp, has a bright color under the twilight sun sifted through a heavy sky. The scattered flakes bring a rhythm to the whole composition. In the foreground, sectioning the image in the middle, the leafless trunk of a birch focuses the boundary between the artist and his own dream.
This little place of a chilled paradise is made to be inhabited, just like the winter villages by Brueghel. The men however must not disturb the balance of the dream. They are much more numerous than usually in Doig's scenes and divided into active groups, but they are reduced to their silhouettes according to the usual practice of the artist.
At the same time he is a very good connoisseur of modern and ancient painting techniques, and a meticulous and talented artist who does not hesitate to use very large formats to share his fantasies.
On November 16, 2017, Phillips sold for $ 21M Red House, oil on canvas 200 x 250 cm dated 1995-1996, lot 12.
Red House feeds his favorite theme : it expresses the winter with the snow on ground and trees. The house, which may be a lumberjack camp, has a bright color under the twilight sun sifted through a heavy sky. The scattered flakes bring a rhythm to the whole composition. In the foreground, sectioning the image in the middle, the leafless trunk of a birch focuses the boundary between the artist and his own dream.
This little place of a chilled paradise is made to be inhabited, just like the winter villages by Brueghel. The men however must not disturb the balance of the dream. They are much more numerous than usually in Doig's scenes and divided into active groups, but they are reduced to their silhouettes according to the usual practice of the artist.
1996 Camp Forestia
2017 SOLD for £ 15.4M by Christie's
The landscapes painted by Peter Doig are very accurate, benefiting from his mastery of detail, perspective, color, atmosphere and reinforcing the realism of the work by skillful variations in the thickness of the paint.
Yet his landscapes are not real. Doig transfers on the canvas the scenery of his imagination. He admits that he does not know to paint a landscape from outdoor. He eagerly searches for images that best match the visual memories of his childhood in Canada, far beyond the possibilities of a verbal expression.
In the 1990s some themes come regularly such as the reflection of the scene in the calm water of a pond in a dreamlike effect that is indeed duplicated. His parallel universe is not completely wild. There must be a dwelling even if it is close to ruin. A barely sketched human figure sometimes appears.
On October 6, 2017, Christie's sold for £ 15.4M an oil on canvas 170 x 170 cm painted in 1996 which offers all these characteristics, lot 19. It is titled Camp Forestia by reference to the clubhouse on a lakeshore in Seattle of which an old photograph had been accepted within his mental paradise. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Yet his landscapes are not real. Doig transfers on the canvas the scenery of his imagination. He admits that he does not know to paint a landscape from outdoor. He eagerly searches for images that best match the visual memories of his childhood in Canada, far beyond the possibilities of a verbal expression.
In the 1990s some themes come regularly such as the reflection of the scene in the calm water of a pond in a dreamlike effect that is indeed duplicated. His parallel universe is not completely wild. There must be a dwelling even if it is close to ruin. A barely sketched human figure sometimes appears.
On October 6, 2017, Christie's sold for £ 15.4M an oil on canvas 170 x 170 cm painted in 1996 which offers all these characteristics, lot 19. It is titled Camp Forestia by reference to the clubhouse on a lakeshore in Seattle of which an old photograph had been accepted within his mental paradise. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
2004 Gast Hof
2014 SOLD for £ 10M by Christie's
It is not the usual practice of Peter Doig to paint self portraits.
He had in mind a multicolored stone wall in full light in front of the blurred landscape of a dam lake in the night as an experience of contrasts in tonalities and sharpness, opposing realistic photography and dreamlike memory. The paint would appear opaque when lit from the front and transparent when backlit.
He wanted to add two sentinels, also in the blur. He made his hand on a photo of himself with a friend in out of fashion regalia in the backstage of the English National Opera where he had a part time job as a dresser.
Doig began the painting in 2002 in London just before he left for Trinidad where it was completed. This oil on canvas 275 x 200 cm is dated 2002-04 by the artist. It is titled Gast Guest House Haus Hof after an old German post card which contributed to the inspiration.
Gast Hof was sold for £ 10M from a lower estimate of £ 3M by Christie's on July 1, 2014, lot 14. The abundant moustaches of the two characters make it impossible to discriminate which one is the selfie.
He had in mind a multicolored stone wall in full light in front of the blurred landscape of a dam lake in the night as an experience of contrasts in tonalities and sharpness, opposing realistic photography and dreamlike memory. The paint would appear opaque when lit from the front and transparent when backlit.
He wanted to add two sentinels, also in the blur. He made his hand on a photo of himself with a friend in out of fashion regalia in the backstage of the English National Opera where he had a part time job as a dresser.
Doig began the painting in 2002 in London just before he left for Trinidad where it was completed. This oil on canvas 275 x 200 cm is dated 2002-04 by the artist. It is titled Gast Guest House Haus Hof after an old German post card which contributed to the inspiration.
Gast Hof was sold for £ 10M from a lower estimate of £ 3M by Christie's on July 1, 2014, lot 14. The abundant moustaches of the two characters make it impossible to discriminate which one is the selfie.
