The Scream

Following the news of this pastel version of “The Scream” by Edvard Munch sold recently by $120 Million, check out this nice promo of the auction by Sotheby’s.

“I was walking along a path with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.”

With this auction, the Scream takes the place 8th place of the most expensive paintings ever sold, inflation adjusted:

10 Most expensive paintings ever sold

 

The list uses wikipedia as source and is based on inflation adjustment by consumer price index as of December 2011 USD.

1-The Card Players by Paul Cézanne $250M (Millions)

Painted in 1892, sold in 2011 by George Embiricos and purchased by Royal family of Qatar in a private sale.

More on the card players here.

2- No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock $156.8M (Millions)
Painted in 1948, sold in 11/02/2006 by David Geffen to a private buyer in a private sale via Sotheby’s.

3-Woman III by Willem de Kooning $154.0M (Millions)

Painted in 1953, sold by David Geffen to Steven A. Cohen in 18/11/2006 in a private sale via Larry Gagosian.

4- Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt $150.2M (Millions)

Painted in 1907, sold by Maria Altmann to Ronald Lauder in 06/18/2006 , Neue Galerie in a private sale via Christie’s.

5- Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh $144.1M (Millions)

Painted in 1890, sold by Siegfried Kramarsky family to Ryokei Saito in 05/15/1990 Christie’s New York.

6- Bal du moulin de la Galette by Pierre Auguste Renois $136.6M (Millions)

Painted in 1876, sold by Betsey Whitney to Ryokei Saito in 05/17/1990 at Sotheby’s New York.

7- Garçon à la pipe, by Pablo Picasso $123.3M (Millions)

Painted in 1905, sold by Greentree foundation (Whitney family) to Barilla Group in 05/04/2004, Sotheby’s New York.

8 – Nude, Green Leaves and Bust by Pablo Picasso $110.1M (Millions)

Painted in 1932, sold by Frances Lasker Brody estate to a private buyer in 04/05/2010 at Christie’s New York.

9-Portrait of Joseph Roulin by Vincent van Gogh $107++M (Millions)

Painted in 1889, sold by a Private collection in Zürich to Museum of Modern Art, New York in 08/01/1989 in a Private sale via Thomas Ammann, Fine Art Zürich.

10- Dora Maar au Chat, by Pablo Picasso

Painted in 1941, sold by Gidwitz family to Boris Ivanishvili in 03/05/2006 at Sotheby’s New York.

A complete list of the most expensive paintings ever sold can be found here.

The Red Vineyard

The Red Vineyard was painted by Vincent van Gogh in 1888 and sold to Anna Boch for about 400 francs(around $1000 today according wikipedia). It is said to be the only painting Van Gogh sold during all his life. Food for thought

 

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Borrowing the title from Sergio Leone’s film, I’m going to share my impressions on 3 brushes I have in my studio. On the bottom of the picture below we have Winsor & Newton 13mm/ 1/2″  Artist’s Water Colour Sable ‘ One Stroke.

In the middle we have a very cheap Chinese brush that I bought 6 for $0.99 with shipping included (!) to Brazil. I can barely read the gold lettering on red handle but where I can read it says “820 / Cheng Zhen. The third is a Keramik 6 – 916 brush sold by Keramik Imports in Brazil, that I suspect it comes from China as well.

So, the Good is obviously the Winsor & Newton’s brush that while is not expensive, is made of selected Kolinsky sable hair. The handle is well balanced and ferrule is well constructed.

The Bad, is the second brush. While the Hair is fairly decent synthetic fibers, the handle leaves much to be desired. Ferrule is poorly constructed and the handle is very light weight. It is clear when you hold it that no attention given to the balance of the brush.

The Ugly is this Keramik brush. The hair fibers appears to be made from the poorest bristle available on Earth, it is extremely hard and pointed to various directions. The ferrule is as poor as the Chinese in the middle and on top of that, no balance to the handle as well. I have this brush in my studio to remind me to not buy any brush from this brand ever again.

Mona Lisa Twin

There are many copies of Leonardo’s famous painting but the articles spreading around regarding this Mona Lisa copy is really interesting; Conservators at Prado museum found out to this one was painted at same time as the original on the Louvre so much likely to be painted at Leonardo’s studio by one of his pupils.

The Mona Lisa copy had black paint over the background, added in 18th century as reported and was carefully removed by restorer, revealing interesting details not so well preserved in the Louvre painting.

Left: Louvre’s Mona Lisa. Center: Prado’s Mona Lisa copy with black background. Right: Prado’s Mona Lisa copy with restored background.

For more information (highly recommended), see article at

FT
Guardian(UK)
The Art Newspaper
Anorak (UK)

Monalisa Restoration

Still about Mona Lisa, the Louvre’s version have been virtually restored in 2004 by Multispectral camera technology. According to the article, at Lumiere Technology website,

“The hidden knowledge of the true colors was revealed by multispectrally scanning the painting in thirteen channels – from Ultra Violet to Infra Red.  Then the spectral response curve of the varnish in each pixel was isolated and subtracted from the digital file to virtually reveal the surface of the painting when it had freshly exited Leonardo da Vinci’s workshop.”

Left: Actual painting. Right: Virtually restored painting.

There is a lot of good information about the process, including other paintings scan on Lumiere website:

True Colors of the Mona Lisa Revealed

Mona Lisa: Inside the painting

Around Mona Lisa scan

Lumiere Technology’s home

10 years without John Buscema

This January 10th, completed 10 years without John Buscema.

 

Born Giovanni Natale Buscema, “Big John” helped to shape iconic super heroes of Marvel Comics including Fantastic Four, Captain America, Wolverine, Hulk, Silver Surfer, Conan and many others.

I do remember enjoying and learning from John’s drawings back in 1994 from Savage Sword of Conan as well as the different inkers who worked on John’s pencils. To add up, great stories from Roy Thomas.

Last year I bought a Marvel Silver Age Silver Surfer sketch drawn and signed by John Buscema.  Though not as elaborate as a full page, still make a nice addition to my collection.

John Buscema article on wikipedia here.