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Vincent van GOGH (1853-1890)

See also : Holland  Painting  Landscape  Midi  Children  The Man  Flowers  Tabletop and still life  Autograph 
​Chronology : 19th century  1880-1889  1890-1899

1887 Vincent looking at the Seine River
2013 SOLD 6.7 MCHF including premium

PRE SALE DISCUSSION

The accession of Van Gogh to the artistic maturity begins with his assimilation of modern art. Paris is a great location for this project. He spent two years in that city, from February 1886.

He meets the Impressionists and appreciates the importance of color. He meets the pointillists and includes the possibility of new artistic languages. He has not forgotten the Japanese prints and their expressive treatment oflandscape.

Vincent used the flowers to vary and brighten the colors and then tried his hand to the landscape. On June 21 in Zurich, Koller sells an oil on canvas 55 x 46 cm executed ​​outdoor in 1887. This view of the pont de Clichy (Clichy bridge) is estimated CHF 5M.

The banality of this peaceful subject is superseded by the sweet harmony of colors inspired by summer light : lemon yellow, azure blue and emerald green. The perspective is minimal but the shades of the reflections in the Seine are subtle. It seems that Vincent saw this painting as one of the most successful of his Parisian landscapes.

POST SALE COMMENT

This interesting but unusual painting was certainly not easy to sell. The result, CHF 5.7 million before fees, is very good.

1888 The Studio of the South
2015 SOLD for $ 66M including premium

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 in New York, Sotheby's sells a view of the Alyscamps painted on November 1, 1888, oil on canvas 92 x 74 cm, lot 18. The press release of April 13 is expecting a price in excess of $ 40M.

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.

I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's. Its image is also shared by Wikimedia.
Van Gogh - Les Alyscamps, Allee in Arles1

1888 The Neighbors to the Maison Jaune
​2015 SOLD for $ 7.6M including premium

Vincent is happy when he arrives in Arles. On 1 May 1888, he rents some rooms in the Maison Jaune in order to install his studio. The themes are not lacking for this artist who aspires to become the best painter of all time.

He becomes friend with the facteur (postman) Roulin and makes portraits of all the members of the family. Vincent is happy to meet this group which he describes as very French, but not without a second thought.

He knows that he will soon need to sell paintings and the Roulin portraits can be used as demonstrators of his expertise. He can not envisage the future without the cooperation of Theo whom he floods of detailed letters in which he expresses his creative process.

On July 31, 1888, Madame Roulin gives birth to a daughter named Marcelle. Vincent welcomes this new model. On November 5 in New York, Sotheby's sells a portrait of the baby Roulin, oil on canvas 36 x 25 cm painted in December 1888, lot 17 estimated $ 3.5M.

Marcelle is healthy and not concerned by the artist, and her picture is a very interesting snapshot (probably from a preliminary drawing which is not documented). The infant is seated, dressed in white with a nice cap. The eyes are wide open but it is by touching that she begins to explore the world, playing with her fingers.

#AuctionUpdate: Bidders drive the price for Van Gogh's 'Bebe Marcelle Roulin' to $7.6m #SothebysImpMod pic.twitter.com/oup23apKKP

— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) November 6, 2015

1888 Letter with drawing by Vincent to Theo van Gogh
2013 SOLD for $ 5.5M including premium by Christie's

​Link to catalogue.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.

Autograph

​1888 Spring from Montmajour
2013 SOLD 400 K€ including premium
2014 UNSOLD

PRE 2014 SALE DISCUSSION

On November 29, 2013, Auctionata sold for € 400K including premium a drawing made by van Gogh when he impregnated himself with the harmony of Provence countryside, so opening one of the most prolific adventures in modern art. Auctionata had made a pre sale video including a demonstrative sequence at the very place where Vincent was.

This artwork is now estimated £ 400K for sale by Christie's in London on June 24, lot 19. Here is how I had announced it last year :

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. On that year, the sunlight on the snow is wonderful.

In spring, nature awakens and Vincent easily finds the perfect view to the countryside. He will do very frequent walks to Montmajour abbey. Same as an ancient traveler would have done, he draws a sketch on the spot by pencil on paper and afterward enhances the image in his studio.

The drawing for sale, 29 x 47 cm, was signed by Vincent in May 1888. It is showing the plain of La Crau towards the Alpilles. This work is part of the first series of drawings made by Vincent from Montmajour. He early sent them to Theo to share with him the scenery of his new paradise.

The underneath graphite sketch is the basis for the ink drawing that is not trying to be too close to the original line.Vincent has used black and purple inks, but unfortunately purple has now turned into sepia.

The black drawing is very beautiful and it is an important document to appreciate the come back of Vincent to the land, much more subtle than a simple ambition to match the Japanese landscape art. The fading of the purple probably explains why the estimate established by Auctionata is low : € 360K. 

Here is the video shared by Auctionata :

​1889 The Field beyond the Window
​2017 SOLD for $ 81M including premium

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 will be sold as lot 28 A by Christie's in New York on November 13. Please watch the video shared by the auction house. The image below is shared by Wikimedia.
Van Gogh - Acker mit pflügenden Bauern
Landscape
midi
Decade 1880-1889

​1889 Threats on Arles
​2015 SOLD for $ 54M including premium

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 in New York, Sotheby's sells 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.

Discover the unique connoisseurship of Evelyn and Louis Franck #VanGogh http://t.co/phe5dtq0Lp pic.twitter.com/FAiGFBbBim

— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) October 14, 2015

​1889 Vincent in the Fields
​2017 SOLD for £ 24M including premium

The frustrated altruistic vocation of Vincent van Gogh was to become a working class pastor. His deep interest in art has no professional purpose : very early the idea of trading art disgusts him. When the young bourgeois comes into contact with the peasant world he deeply admires the almost apostolic personality of Jean-François Millet.

Vincent's path to his artistic maturity is long and includes many copies from the masters. In 1889 his mental health becomes critical. For long periods in Arles or in the asylum at Saint-Rémy he can no longer go outdoors and has no more models. This interpreter of nature must now content himself with images. He undertakes a systematic copy of the two great series of wood engravings by Millet, the Quatre Heures du Jour and the ten Travaux des Champs.

The drawings made by Vincent are very similar to Millet's originals but the works are completely re-interpreted by the balance of the colors. The deep blue of the sky and the gold of the wheat fields are skilfully highlighted by the softer colors of the clothes.

The harvester by Millet was certainly one of Vincent's favorite themes. Seen from behind, this very tall peasant is bent to mow the corn. In the Christian tradition the scythe is the instrument of death, translated more positively by Vincent as a symbol of the position of the harvest in the inexorable cycle of life.

On June 27 in London, Christie's sells Le Moissonneur (d'après Millet), oil on canvas 43 x 24 cm painted by Vincent in September 1889, lot 6 estimated £ 12,5M. The image below is shared by Wikimedia.
Van Gogh - Der Schnitter (Nach Millet)

1889 Asylum and Sea
2014 SOLD 17 M£ including premium

Vincent Van Gogh is interned in the asylum at Saint-Rémy from May 1889. Between crises of madness, he maintains his ambition of being better than all the other painters.

He copies in his own style the pictures that Theo sends to him. His idea is pedagogic : assembling a wide variety of subjects in order to demonstrate the possibilities of figurative art.

In October, Vincent copies L'homme est en mer of Virginie Demont-Breton. His oil on canvas 66 x 51 cm is estimated £ 6M, lot 39 in the catalog of Sotheby's in London on February 5.

Daughter of the peasant painter Jules Breton, Virginie specialized in scenes of marine life. L'homme est en mer shows a languid young woman sitting by the fire with her baby, powerless against the dangers faced by her husband.

Vincent accurately reflects the composition but is not simply a follower of Demont-Breton. The colors are gorgeous, reinforced by the lines typical of his style through which his paintings go beyond the emotional load of impressionists and pointillists.

The outside world is prohibited to the enclosed artist. The parallel between his own distress and the anguish of the woman is probably a psychological reason that guided his choice. The reference to the sea symbolizes both freedom and danger, and the sleeping baby is leading to the future.

POST SALE COMMENT

This surprising painting by Van Gogh inspired by Demont-Breton was sold for £ 17M including premium.

The image is shared by Wikimedia :
Van Gogh - Der Mann ist auf See (nach Demont-Breton)
Children

​1889 Van Gogh excited by the Light of Provence
2012 SOLD 10.1 M£ including premium

Excited by artistic creation, Vincent wants to synthesize the best trends in art but something is still lacking for him to become the greatest artist of his time. In February 1888, he left Paris, attracted like a magnet by the light of the country of Cézanne, Provence.

He was right. The day of his arrival, he finds Arles in the snow, with an extraordinary light. The end of his short life will be an uninterrupted series of tragic events marked by a creative frenzy unparalleled in the history of art.

We could endlessly discuss whether art made him mad or madness made him great. Both statements are probably true. His long stay in the asylum at St-Rémy did not stop his work, it was quite the contrary indeed. Considered as a dangerous patient and thus limited in his moves, he paints what he sees.

A field, a tree, the sky become the major figures of his vision, with a role similar to that of Monet's nympheas a few years later. The light creates color harmonies, through which Vincent enters into communion with the Earth. The forms can be distorted because they are no longer outstanding. Like for Monet, the details become abstract.

Painted in the autumn of 1889, the oil on canvas, 45 x 60 cm, from Liz Taylor's collection is estimated £ 5M, for sale on February 7 by Christie's in London. Here is the link to the catalog.

This is an overview of the buildings of the asylum, in a gentle stylized realism. The swirling textures of the sky and trees show the way to the masterpieces of Auvers, and in the whole lower part of the image the tangle of colors of the hay is already foreshadowing the colorists of the following century.

POST SALE COMMENT

Elizabeth Taylor had in her collection an outstanding painting of the best period of Van Gogh. The result, £ 10.1 million including premium, is not simply due to the provenance.


The image is shared by Christie's on Pinterest :
Picture

1890 Portrait du Dr Gachet by Van Gogh
1990 SOLD 82.5 M$ before fees by Christie's

Shared by Wikimedia :
Portrait of Dr. Gachet
Painting
The Man
Holland
19th Century
Decade 1890-1899

​1890 Wild Flowers for Dr Gachet
2014 SOLD for $ 62M including premium

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 in New York, Sotheby's sells an oil on canvas 66 x 50 cm painted by Vincent on 16 and 17 June 1890, lot 17 estimated $ 30M. 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.

I invite you to play the video shared by Sotheby's :
flowers
Tabletop and Still Life
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