The 5 most expensive paintings of the moment

The most expensive painting in history is the Mona Lisa, valued at $713 million dollars. It was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 19th century. XVI, and attracted attention since it was created because it breaks with the canons of the time. It belongs to France, specifically to the Louvre museum, and is the only one that has not been sold (and at that price, it probably never will be!)

It is a three-quarter portrait (when this angle was not used); It has an abstract background, when portraits of the time usually required backgrounds; In general, it is a very bold specimen and ahead of its time. For its realization, Leonardo applied the Sfumato technique, which consists of leaving aside the precise contours and edges so valued during the 15th century, to achieve a somewhat cloudy and imprecise image, an atmosphere that surrounds the protagonist and the entirety of the work.

Another characteristic is the use of aerial perspective, a technique that was only perfected in the Baroque but whose features we see in the bluish appearance of the colors and the sensation of transparency that the work transmits to us.

But Mona Lisa aside, we present you the 5 most expensive paintings in the world until this year. The prices of the paintings vary because many are sold at private auctions and exact prices are not reported. The list we present to you includes the paintings that are reported to have the highest sales prices.

1. No. 5

The most expensive painting in the world belongs to Jackson Pollock, a pioneering American artist of the abstract expressionist movement. The painting was painted in 1948 and sold at auction in 2006 for $151.8 million.

No. 5 is an emblematic painting that exhibits all the strength and aggressiveness of Pollock’s style, who painted with streams of paint on the canvas, creating not only shapes but also very marked textures. In this particular painting, spots of brown and yellow paint intertwine and overlap to create a nest effect.

2. Woman III

The second example on this list was painted by Willem de Kooning, and belongs to magnate Steven A. Cohen, who bought it for $149.1 million dollars in 2006.

De Kooning has a language that ranges from the figurative to the abstract composition, constantly working and experimenting with the technique of action painting (gestural painting) that is expressed through dripping, light brush touches, stains or dripping of paint with spontaneity but at the same time with a great sense of
check and balance.

3. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer

Painted by Gustav Klimt in 1907, it is currently the third most expensive painting in the world and was sold at auction to Ronald S. Lauder for $145.3 million in 2006.

Its journey is interesting, since it was commissioned from Klimt by Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, who used his wife Adele as the painting’s model. Adele’s will indicated that the painting should remain in the Austrian State Gallery, but during the Nazi occupation it was confiscated. The Bloch-Bauer family took it back in 2006, and it was sold to the cosmetics industry magnate.

Gustav Klimt led the artistic movement known as the Secession, a phenomenon that includes influences from art nouveau and that reaches out to the elite for its decorative and ornamental aesthetics. In Klimt particularly, the treatment of forms changes and the lines become elongated and irregular to give it sensuality and eroticism. The Secession was greatly welcomed by the Viennese bourgeoisie and Klimt remains the greatest exponent of this movement.

4. Portrait of Dr. Gachet

Fourth place is occupied by a painting by Vincent Van Gogh. There are two versions of the painting, and this one was sold to Ryoei Saito for $139.5 million in 1990. The second version is held by the Museé D’orsay in Paris. Both were painted by the artist in June 1890.

About the painting, Van Gogh wrote to his brother that “There are modern heads that could be looked at for a long time, and that will be seen again, perhaps, with nostalgia, a hundred years later.” In the painting we can see Van Gogh’s characteristic strokes, as well as the bright and cold colors that he managed to mix harmoniously.

This painting has great value, not only because it has all the characteristics of Van Gogh’s painting, but also because of the appreciation that he felt for the doctor who took care of him in the last months of his life, when he suffered from mental illnesses that led him to take his leave. life.

5. Boy with Pipe

This painting belongs to the Spanish Pablo Picasso, corresponding to the painter’s “pink period.” It was sold at auction at Sotheby’s, England, for $104 million, to an anonymous buyer.

‘Garçon à la pipe’ was painted by Picasso when he was 24 years old, in 1905, and is considered on the market to be a very rare masterpiece. It represents a poetic teenager dressed in blue, with a crown of red flowers, holding a pipe in his left hand on a background in pink-orange tones.

The prices of the paintings vary with each purchase, what is undoubtedly the value that each one represents for the history of art and for valuing our own history.