(~$9.1m) Van Gogh - Sotheby's - Oct 9 2021

Walrus · Oct 3, 2021

JwRosenthal
Not often do we get to see art like this close up. We either see it in a gallery setting at distance or in books/catalog/online.
I was lucky enough to document a historic house in CT many years ago that had both winter and summer haystacks by Monet. I was using hot lights (1k watt tungsten lights) to light the space and the curatorial staff an I marveled at what those haystacks looked like with that much light- so many colors in each haystack, incredibly tight brush strokes-truly amazing. Being able to be close enough to almost lick the impasto gave me a real understanding of how Monet saw the world. I’m sure being that close to Vincent’s work would be the same.

That is way cool I saw a Monet exhibit in NYC and one wall was a series of six paintings he did of the same scene at different times of the day to get the different effects of sunlight. Could have been 4-5 but anyway they were the exact same area, damn near pictures, just different shading as the sun did its, thing. I could get close enough to enjoy them of course but your experience of encountering one outside the sterile existence of a museum must have been quite an experience, something one would not forget anytime soon I imagine.

Deafboy · Oct 3, 2021

Monet is magical. A true wizard of using shades of colours to evoque a pervading tone or mood.

Walrus · Oct 3, 2021

Deafboy
Monet is magical. A true wizard of using shades of colours to evoque a pervading tone or mood.

I think that wizard like talent is even more evident when people like me who know next to nothing about art stand before these paintings awe struck. I mean I have a couple art books that’s about it but i can lose myself looking at those works and I am certainly not a unique case, it’s similar to classical music it’s a talent that comes along once a century or whatever unit of measurement you prefer

JwRosenthal · Oct 3, 2021

Walrus
I think that wizard like talent is even more evident when people like me who know next to nothing about art stand before these paintings awe struck. I mean I have a couple art books that’s about it but i can lose myself looking at those works and I am certainly not a unique case, it’s similar to classical music it’s a talent that comes along once a century or whatever unit of measurement you prefer

Agreed about the music comparison. I have brought ardent classical haters (hater may be an extreme but they said they “don’t like classical”) to the symphony (we are lucky enough in Baltimore to still have a major symphony orchestra) and they have been awe-struck, totally blown away by the power and experience of live music performed by master crafts-people.
We are so inundated with stimuli that the experience of sitting and listening to live music without distraction, or standing in front of someone’s expression of their world experience (whatever the medium), can be an overwhelming experience.

myatt · Oct 3, 2021

Deafboy
Monet is magical. A true wizard of using shades of colours to evoque a pervading tone or mood.

Ah Monet, Monet, Monet...utterly magical savant. Btw, has anyone seen the S1E1 of the BBC TV show, Fake or Fortune? I was so mad at the final outcome!

Walrus · Oct 4, 2021

M myatt
Ah Monet, Monet, Monet...utterly magical savant. Btw, has anyone seen the S1E1 of the BBC TV show, Fake or Fortune? I was so mad at the final outcome!

I didn’t see that particular one but I’ve seen a few documentaries about “authenticating” art. It’s astounding the amount of “experts” who refuse to say a piece is authentic. One thing I got out of one documentary is a work is deemed authentic by consensus in a way. If enough people accept it as the real deal that is good enough. Kind of scary. The amount of scams and the work that goes into some forgeries was, kind of sad to say, impressive.

arturo7 · Oct 4, 2021

I find it fascinating that today, Van Gogh's work connects so deeply with so many people. But during his lifetime nobody paid him any attention.

Screwbacks · Oct 4, 2021

i also collect arts, because watches are works of art.😁

VjaceCZ · Oct 5, 2021

Does it come with B&P?

rcs914 · Oct 5, 2021

JwRosenthal
Not often do we get to see art like this close up.

The first time I went to the Getty museum, around 2006 I think, they were incredibly lax with how close you could get to the art - as long as you didn't physically touch it, you could be as close as you wanted to be. The first piece I saw where I was blown away was Jacques Louis-David's "Napoleon on a White Horse". I was able to get a nose length away from it looking at the details on the piece. It had been a corner piece of a lecture I'd had in college, and to see it in person was incredible.

But the highlight of the day was seeing Van Gogh's "Irises":

And while it is one of the very few paintings under glass at the Getty (if I recall correctly, although you can't tell from my picture), you can still get very close to it.

Mark020 · Oct 7, 2021

Shabbaz
Funny thing is, I live like 10 minutes from the Van Gogh museum and I've only been there one or two times.

Me too. Not my painter 😁

kip595 · Oct 7, 2021

rcs914
The first time I went to the Getty museum, around 2006 I think, they were incredibly lax with how close you could get to the art - as long as you didn't physically touch it, you could be as close as you wanted to be. The first piece I saw where I was blown away was Jacques Louis-David's "Napoleon on a White Horse". I was able to get a nose length away from it looking at the details on the piece. It had been a corner piece of a lecture I'd had in college, and to see it in person was incredible.

But the highlight of the day was seeing Van Gogh's "Irises":

And while it is one of the very few paintings under glass at the Getty (if I recall correctly, although you can't tell from my picture), you can still get very close to it.

Funny; that's where I saw Irises, and around the same time - NYC has great museums all-around, but the Getty may be my favorite - it just feels so...intimate compared to some of the others.

Saw a retrospective on Edward Hopper there with I think 2-dozen + originals loaned from collections all over the world a few years later, extraordinarily different, but no less extraordinary for it, IMHO.

As to the OP; the art world is strange and even popular artists have polarizing works. I too suspect this will go above estimate, which seems pandemic-cautious conservative at the least. But I also once scored an original Picasso (albeit small) for less than 3k incl. buyer's premium, simply because it wasn't one of his large boisterous pieces but a simple almost-doodle for a friend - loved that painting. Sadly it was taken when my original watch collection was stolen about 4-5 years back - I'll have to see if I have a pic of it somewhere in my old files tonight.

Very cool post, @marcn

marcn · Oct 7, 2021

kip595
I also once scored an original Picasso (albeit small) for less than 3k incl. buyer's premium, simply because it wasn't one of his large boisterous pieces but a simple almost-doodle for a friend - loved that painting.

[…]

I'll have to see if I have a pic of it somewhere in my old files tonight.

Wow! Please do post if you find it!

BlackTalon · Oct 7, 2021

There was a big Van Gogh exhibition in DC 15+ years ago. It was way better than I expected, although many of the paintings were a bit smaller than I expected. I used the Fishing Boats as the background on my work PC for the next ~10 years.

JwRosenthal · Oct 7, 2021

kip595
Funny; that's where I saw Irises, and around the same time - NYC has great museums all-around, but the Getty may be my favorite - it just feels so...intimate compared to some of the others.

Saw a retrospective on Edward Hopper there with I think 2-dozen + originals loaned from collections all over the world a few years later, extraordinarily different, but no less extraordinary for it, IMHO.

As to the OP; the art world is strange and even popular artists have polarizing works. I too suspect this will go above estimate, which seems pandemic-cautious conservative at the least. But I also once scored an original Picasso (albeit small) for less than 3k incl. buyer's premium, simply because it wasn't one of his large boisterous pieces but a simple almost-doodle for a friend - loved that painting. Sadly it was taken when my original watch collection was stolen about 4-5 years back - I'll have to see if I have a pic of it somewhere in my old files tonight.

Very cool post, @marcn

They not only took your watches but also the art on the walls?? They really had to know what they were looking at!

Mods · Oct 7, 2021

M myatt
Ah Monet, Monet, Monet...utterly magical savant. Btw, has anyone seen the S1E1 of the BBC TV show, Fake or Fortune? I was so mad at the final outcome!

Fantastic series. The level of investigation and analysis is incredible. Interesting to see there are institutes, like the wildenstein that control whether or not a painting for a specific artist can be sold as genuine by an auction house.

Just Livin · Oct 7, 2021

Crap.....seems the one I bought was a print 🙁

rcs914 · Oct 7, 2021

Deafboy
Monet is magical. A true wizard of using shades of colours to evoque a pervading tone or mood.

Here are some Monet's I took pictures of at the Getty too:

And a bonus Van Gogh:

What's kind of interesting is that the above painting is "A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul" which is owned by the Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands. No idea what it was doing at the Getty at the time - I can't find any info about it having been lent in 2006.

YY77 · Oct 7, 2021

rcs914
Here are some Monet's I took pictures of at the Getty too:

And a bonus Van Gogh:

What's kind of interesting is that the above painting is "A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul" which is owned by the Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands. No idea what it was doing at the Getty at the time - I can't find any info about it having been lent in 2006.

I found this:
https://www.getty.edu/museum/conservation/partnerships/kroller_muller/

rcs914 · Oct 7, 2021

YY77
I found this:
https://www.getty.edu/museum/conservation/partnerships/kroller_muller/

Thanks for that! What is really interesting to me is that there they call it "Corn field and tree in the mountains". I've also found the above name "A Meadow in the Mountains", and if I go to the Kroller-Muller museum site, the translation from Dutch calls it "Korenvelden voor berglandschap" which translates as "Corn fields in front of Mountain scenery".