Paul Gauguin's tribute to Vincent Van Gogh expected to fetch £10m

The Telegraph ^ | Jan 2011

[SeekAndFind]

A still life of sunflowers by Paul Gauguin, painted in tribute to his friend Vincent Van Gogh, is expected to fetch up to £10 million at auction.

Gauguin painted the work, Nature morte à L'Espérance, in 1901 while he was living in Tahiti. It is the highlight of an Impressionist and Modern Art sale at Christie's in London on February 9.

The depiction of sunflowers was a fitting tribute to Van Gogh and a reference to the months in 1888 when the two artists shared a home, a period that ended in tragedy. The pair lived together in Arles, France, spending their days at work in what was known as the Yellow House. At the time, both were poor and unknown, although Gauguin was slowly developing a name for himself.

It was there that Van Gogh produced his own sunflower paintings and he decorated Gauguin's bedroom walls with them. However, his drinking and mental instability led their friendship to unravel. "Between two such beings as he and I, the one a perfect volcano, the other boiling inwardly, some sort of struggle was preparing," Gauguin wrote.

In the grip of manic depression, Van Gogh sliced off part of his left ear on December 23. Gauguin left Arles on Christmas Day and the two never saw each other again. Van Gogh died in 1890.

When Gauguin moved to Tahiti, he wrote to a friend back in France asking him to send sunflower seeds so that he could recreate a little corner of France in the South Seas. The painting was done "doubtless in part as a tribute to his friend and fellow artistic pioneer Vincent Van Gogh, who had died just over a decade earlier", a Christie's spokesman said.

[aruanan]

They have to be buying the provenance and the name(s), and not the beauty of the work.

Well, yeah.

[kabumpo]

I had a similar experience with that painting.

[kabumpo]

If it’s subjective then it has failed as art.

[fish hawk]

I'm a simple man but I do love art. I in no way mean to put down the talent of an artist, Dali included. I look at art, in my untrained eye, like this: would I hang that on my living room wall? I find that there are many artists that fit my walls just fine. I guess my point would be: I don't care for that art, although I see that artist is very talented. Frankly I like sculptures better than paintings but enjoy it all.

[skr]

One can be objective about whether or not an artwork is good, based on the workmanship, composition, choice of colors, etc., but whether or not one likes the piece is subjective.