Friday, June 22, 2012

The Card Players - Paul Cézanne

Price in US $ - 250 million


The Card Players is a series of oil paintings by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Cézanne. Whereas previous paintings of the genre had illustrated heightened moments of drama, Cézanne's portraits have been noted for their lack of drama, narrative, and conventional characterization.One critic described the scenes as "human still life", while another speculated the men's intense focus on their game mirrors that of the painter's absorption in his art.

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Saturday, March 31, 2012

Woman with Folded Arms - Pablo Picasso

Price in US $ - 55 million






Woman with Folded Arms (Femme aux Bras Croisés ) was painted by Pablo Picasso in 1902 during his Blue Period.

The unknown model was an inmate of the Saint-Lazare hospital-prison in Paris - probably someone who had recently attempted suicide and now carried the blank but menacing stare of those unfortunates who found themselves at Saint-Lazare during the early 1900s.

While the identity of the woman in the painting is unknown, the inspiration for the Picasso Blue Period came from the tragic suicide of his friend and roommate Carlos Casagemas. Only 19 years old at the age of his death, the young Picasso then went through a 3 year period in which all of his paintings were awash with blue shades suggesting the misery and grief of his subjects.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

At the Lapin Agile - Pablo Picasso

Price in US $ - 40.7 million





















At the turn of the twentieth century the Lapin Agile, a Montmartre cabaret in France, was a favorite spot for struggling artists and writers, including Picasso, Modigliani, Apollinaire, and Utrillo.

Pablo Picasso's 1905 oil painting "At the Lapin Agile" helped to make this cabaret world famous.

Picasso's composition was of posterlike simplicity. He aligned glasses and figures—hatted and shown from full-face to profile view—along severe diagonals, ending with a seated guitarist, Frédé, the café's owner.

Steve Martin wrote a play 'Picasso at the Lapin Agile' based on this painting.



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Friday, December 9, 2011

The Gross Clinic - Thomas Eakins

Price in US $ - 68 million























The Gross Clinic
is an oil on canvas painting by American artist Thomas Eakins. Included among the group is a self-portrait of Eakins, who is seated to the right of the tunnel railing, sketching or writing.

The painting is shocking for both its bold presentation and the matter-of-fact goriness of the procedure. Adding to the drama is the lone woman in the painting seen in the middle ground, possibly the patient's mother, cringing in distress. Her dramatic figure functions as a strong contrast to the calm, professional demeanor of the men who surround the patient. This bloody and very blunt depiction of surgery was shocking at the time it was first exhibited.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Diana and Actaeon - Titian

Price in US $ - 70.6 million





















The story of how Actaeon was turned into a stag for glimpsing the naked goddess Diana has inspired artists through the centuries. Diana and Actaeon is considered to be one of the greatest works by the Italian Renaissance master Titian.

Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) - Mark Rothko

Price in US $ - 72.8 million



















White Center
is part of Rothko's signature multiform style: several blocks of layered, complementary colors on a large canvas

Mark Rothko is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label. One of the most crucial philosophical influence on Rothko was Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers - Vincent van Gogh

Price in US $ - 39.7 million






















Based on a still life theme, Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers was created by Van Gogh in August 1888.

It was created in a spectacular series by the Dutch artist. This oil painting series includes similar paintings of fifteen sunflowers in a vase, depicting the illustration of sunflowers passing through several stages of life, beginning with full blooming to withering out. The artist brilliantly produced it in several shades and hues. The painting is regarded especially for its innovative nature, which significantly highlights the use of the yellow spectrum, as well as the newly invented use of colors.