Impressionist & Post Impressionist Paintings By Great Artists Are Auctioned Off In An Incredible Sale – 1922
And You Won’t Believe The Prices Realized
Self-Portrait of the Artist Vincent Van Gogh
The legend is that during his lifetime Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) was able to sell just one painting.Van Gogh sold “The Red Vineyard” in 1890 to Anna Boch for 400 francs. The exchange rate in 1890 was five francs to one dollar; the equivalent of $80.
The truth is Van Gogh did sell another painting. The painting was described as a self portrait according to an October 3, 1888 letter from Vincent’s brother, Theo Van Gogh to London art dealers Sulley & Lori. Vincent Van Gogh also sold some drawings to his uncle early in his art career.
Regardless of the lack of sales, Vincent Van Gogh would create about 2,100 works of art. Few dealers, artists, critics or collectors recognized Vincent Van Gogh’s talent. Van Gogh’s ascendancy as a great artist would occur after his suicide at the age of 37. Current prices for Van Gogh’s art have set records.
Perusing a 1922 magazine I came across the fact that several major art works had been auctioned off during a stupendous sale at the Plaza Hotel on January 30 and 31, 1922.
The American Art Association managed the auction of the collection of Dikran Khan Kelekian. Among the artists whose works were available at the auction were: Mary Cassatt; Edgar Degas; Paul Gauguin; Edouard Manet; Henri Matisse; Claude Monet; Camille Pissarro; Georges Seurat; Henri de Toulous- Lautrec and Vincent Van Gogh.
Seeing the prices realized at the auction was a bit of a shock. Not just because of the relatively low prices, but seeing how much these paintings have appreciated in the following hundred years. In 1922 to spend a thousand dollars on a painting was significant, considering that $1,500 was a very good annual salary for a white collar worker.
Sale Prices
Van Gogh’s, “Self-Portrait of the Artist” seen above, sold for $4,200 to the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Portrait of a Woman a.k.a. Fille à l’accroche-coeur (Girl with Lovelock) 1889
Portrait of A Woman” by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec went for $1,900 to collector Eugene Liston.
Paul Gauguin Maternité II 1899)
Stephan Bourgeois Gallery was the purchaser of Paul Gauguin’s “Maternité II” (Motherhood) for $7,000.
Renoir Portrait of Edmond Maitre – the reader 1871
“Portrait of a Man At Ease on a Sofa” (Portrait of Edmond Maitre) by Pierre Auguste Renoir would sell for $1,700 to Charles Sheeler.
Paul Cezanne Grande Nature Morte
The highest price paid at the auction was for Paul Cezanne’s still life “Grande Nature Morte” selling for $21,000 to Otto Bernet, the agent for a private buyer, Lillie P. Bliss.
The total sale price for 161 pictures in the auction was $254,879.
Where The Paintings Are Now
After Ms. Bliss’ death in 1931, New York’s Museum of Modern Art received Cezanne’s Grand Nature Morte. Unlike many of Lille Bliss’s 150 donations to MOMA which said her collection of works of art could be sold or exchanged for other works of art, Bliss’s will stipulated this was one of three paintings that can never be sold.
Incredibly, Toulouse-Lautrec’s “Portrait of A Woman” is now in Iran, at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.
In the late 1970s the Shah’s wife, Princess Farah bought the painting for the museum for an unknown purchase price. Farah would assemble over 150 works by such artists as Monet, Van Gogh, Lichtenstein, Gauguin, de Kooning, Pollock, and Kandinsky. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 would force the Shah’s family to flee the country. The terrific museum collection would keep rising in value, despite the anti-west, Revolutionary Guard regime’s antipathy towards the art.
The museum rarely displays any of the paintings. They are locked in the museum’s vault most of the time.
Renoir’s Portrait of a Man At Ease on a Sofa a.k.a. Portrait of Edmond Maitre (The Reader), 1871 was sold to a private buyer on May 15, 2024 by Sotheby’s for $2.6 million.
After Paul Gauguin’s death in 1903, Maternité II was sold for 150 francs ($30). The $7,000 sale in 1922 was a huge appreciation in value for this painting.
But that is nothing compared with its subsequent sales. Maternité II would continue to be an excellent investment for the succeeding 13 owners. The painting last sold in 2022 for $105.7 million.
The Best of All – Van Gogh
During Detroit’s financial crisis in 2014 the city did contemplate selling many of the museum’s prizes including the Van Gogh Self Portrait. Fortunately for the people of Detroit, they did not. Had they sold the painting it is estimated it would have brought between $80 to $150 million.
How much does the art world covet Van Gogh? Today the price for the self portrait would be over $200 million.
