Christie's – My Own RE:public

Going, going, gone – Van Gogh (3)

As I have previously discussed (here and here), with the interest and anticipation of the lay person, the Cox Collection was duly auctioned on November 11 by Christie’s – far, far exceeding expectations, it brought in nearly $332 million! My attention was focused on the Van Gogh works, and according to Art News an agent (waving the paddle 619) took home the haystack and the cypress and olive trees (the latter for a staggering $71 million!) – for the same buyer or different is not known. Given the secrecy, I think it is fair to guess that these remarkable works of art, already so rarely seen, will disappear again into a private collection and we – the greater public – can bid [sic!] farewell to their public viewing anytime soon (as with the Portrait of Dr Gachet which disappeared after being sold in 1990 for $82.5m – also by Christie’s). And the fate of the much talked about red-haired, pink-cheeked, flower-chewing boy/girl that so entranced me, and that I considered – seriously showing my art market acumen – to be seriously undervalued (and, I was right; estimated at $5-7 million it sold for $46.7 million!) seems likely to be the same; even in reproduction, I love this picture – ‘they’ would have found a better home with ‘us’ for sure. But who knows, maybe the buyers are fans of the share economy – to be stretched beyond cars and couches and such pedestrian comforts to the much finer things of life (and commerce).

Martin Bailey, who has definitely become my person to go to on all things Van Gogh, blogs on the outcomes of an eventful (not to mention, profitable!) evening in New York.

On haystacks and cornflowers – Van Gogh (2)

From my last post, The New York Times has now published an article on Christie’s forthcoming auction that will include three works from Vincent van Gogh; one of which is the Meules de Blé of which I wrote, stolen by the Nazis and only now returning to the public arena.

Fortuitously, the NYT linked to The Art Newspaper and the Van Gogh expert, Martin Bailey’s blog piece which provides relevant and well-informed background to the van Gogh works being offered. My interest is now ignited by Jeune Homme au Bleuet (1890) – The “Young Man with a Cornflower”, has its own particular narrative through place and time, that had “him” as a “her” – Jeune fille au bluet (the mad girl in Zola’s ‘Germinal’) – when it all began …

And when did it begin? Well, according to Virginia Woolf “… on or about December 1910 […is when human character changed]“. And, Van Gogh’s girl/boy was right there at the legendary Autumn 1910 exhibition at the Grafton Gallery in London, Manet and the Post-Impressionists, curated by Roger Fry, about which Woolf spoke – where more than a word was created that defined a direction, but the visual artistic representation displayed that signaled an end and a beginning. And by the bye inflamed the establishment to various degrees of rage! In 2010, The Burlington Magazine celebrating the centenary of the show, included an interesting piece about the original exhibition catalogue.

Though I am not adverse to haystacks, nor to cypress and olive trees, this figure I do find captivating. Unlike the stolen haystacks, an image of Jeune Homme au bleuet is in Wikipedia. It’s not at all a good reproduction so I post it here reluctantly – the colors quite wrong; the cornflower is blue, as is the blouse, the hair copper-red, the face pink and lips paler as if masked, the eyes emerald – so I refer you again to the very good Christie’s site; for both the much better visual reproduction and, again, an excellent lot essay.

The gender ambiguity is one aspect, but in these days of fluidity (making ambiguity somewhat obsolete!) I am more taken by the almost carnivalesque nature of the portraiture; reminding me of Pippi Longstocking illustrations and depictions elsewhere – the essay description of “mischievous ragamuffin” seems more than apt.

Lost and Found: A haystack & what a haystack! – Van Gogh (1)

For Sale: $20-30 million (at least!)

Tracking down lost art is a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. So every story of success is worthy of note.

Looted, then lost, now finding its way back into the light of day: on November 11th a Vincent van Gogh watercolor on paper, executed in Arles in 1888 and titled Meules de blé, will be auctioned. Should anyone have a spare few tens of millions please inform yourself in a timely fashion on the Christie’s website – as I write “bidding begins in 29 days”!

This all came to my attention today via an article in Zeit Online written by one of Germany’s most prominent commentators on the art market, Stefan Koldehoff, who has written widely on provenance and stolen art. This particular work’s journey out of the nineteenth, through the twentieth century and into this, and across one continent and into another, sounds extraordinary – and it is, but it’s also not; for the stories surrounding the art – makers, buyers, sellers – that got entangled in the horrors of fascism and its aftermath are legendary, and are emblematic of the greater story of war, dispossession and displacement that defined that time.

At the moment I can’t seem to find a good English language report, but I dare say something will turn up – at the latest when a $$$ record is set in New York – money always sells! On the Christie’s site linked to above, the so-called “lot essay” gives some excellent historical background – from the time of execution until now. Quite how this work found its way into the United States remains unclear, but an amicable settlement has been reached between the current owners and the heirs of the two families in whose possession the work was up until its confiscation by the Nazis in occupied Paris in 1941.