Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings.

Hundreds of thousands — even millions — of dollars are spent every year by art patrons eager to own the world's most sought-after paintings. Find out a little more about this shortlist of Picasso's, Van Gogh's and more works from famous artists who still command the highest prices, what makes these paintings so special, and why they're worth so very much...? No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock ($149,000,000?)Unconfirmed rumors that continue to buzz the art world now place this painting at the top of the list, at least temporarily. If true, the $140 million price tag would be the highest ever for a painting, besting the $135 million paid for the Gustav Klimt painting Portrait of Adele Block Bauer in June 2006.


10. Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens ($91,900,000)

Peter Paul Rubens’ Massacre of the Innocents is both the earliest work on this list as well as its only religious-inspired painting. Painted in 1611, Massacre represents a scene from the Bible’s Gospel According to Matthew.
Artist: Peter Paul Rubens
Year: 1611
Year of Sale: 2002
Sale Price: $76.7 million
Currency Adjusted: $91.9 million


9. Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier by Paul Cézanne ($94,600,000)

Van Gogh’s beardless self-portrait shows the artist hiding something– namely a nasty, Absinthe-fueled shaving accident. In the year of this portrait, Van Gogh cut off part of his ear amidst a bout of severe depression that would later lead to his suicide.
Artist: Vincent Van Gogh
Year: 1889
Year of Sale: 1998
Sale Price: $71.5 million
Currency Adjusted: $94.6 million

8. Portrait de l’artiste sans barbe by Vincent Van Gogh ($101,800,000)

One of Picasso’s greatest works was a portrait of his then-mistress Dora Maar. Miss Maar was 29-years-old at the time, 26 years younger than Picasso. The subject was seated with a black cat perched on her shoulder.
Artist: Pablo Picasso
Year: 1941
Year of Sale: 2006
Sale Price: $95.2 million
Currency Adjusted: $101.8 million


7. Irises by Vincent Van Gogh ($102,300,000)

Van Gogh’s second landscape on this list is named simply Irises, showing at first glance a rather sunny world that was much in contrast to the artist’s disposition.
Artist: Vincent Van Gogh
Year: 1889
Year of Sale: 1987
Sale Price: $53.9 million
Currency Adjusted: $102.3 million


6. Garçon à la pipe by Pablo Picasso ($118,900,000)

The “boy at the pipe” is Picasso’s most highly priced painting on this list, having sold for $104.2 million in 2004 (currency adjusted to $118.9 million). The boy in the painting was among the community of entertainers living in the Montmartre section of Paris, many of which were the subjects of Picasso’s red period.
Artist: Pablo Picasso
Year: 1905
Year of Sale: 2004
Sale Price: $104.2 million
Currency Adjusted: $118.9 million


5. Le Bassin Aux Nympheas by Claude Monet ($128,800,000)

Renoir’s sole entry in the top 15 most expensive paintings is his work Bal au moulin de la Galette. This painting was sold in 1990 to Ryoei Saito, the chairman of a Japanese paper company and a collector of fine art.
Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Year: 1876
Year of Sale: 1990
Sale Price: $78.1 million
Currency Adjusted: $128.8 million


4. Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre by Pierre-Auguste Renoir ($136,100,000)

This and the last painting were at one point the two most expensive paintings in the world, sold together to Ryoei Saito in 1990. This would become Van Gogh’s most expensive painting to date, selling for an impressive $82.5 million ($136.1 million today).
Artist: Vincent Van Gogh
Year: 1890
Year of Sale: 1990
Sale Price: $82.5 million
Currency Adjusted: $136.1 million

3. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt ($144,400,000)

Once the world’s most expensive painting, Gustav Klimt’s portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer took three years to create in oil and gold. The painting was commissioned by a Swiss sugar magnate, a fan of Klimt and the husband of the painting’s subject.
Artist: Gustav Klimt
Year: 1907
Year of Sale: 2006
Sale Price: $135 million
Currency Adjusted: $144.4 million


2. Woman III by Willem de Kooning ($147,000,000)

This, the second most-expensive painting in the world was among the collection sold by David Geffen in 2006. Woman III by Willem de Kooning was among six painted by the artist between 1951 and 1953, with this version ending up at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art– where it would be later hid from the public due to its inadherence to the government’s rules of morality.
Artist: Willem de Kooning
Year: 1953
Year of Sale: 2006
Sale Price: $137.5 million
Currency Adjusted: $147 million

1. No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock ($149,000,000)

Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist, but had a volatile personality and struggled with alcoholism all of his life. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy. [1]He died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related, single-car crash. In December 1956, he was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, and a larger more comprehensive exhibition there in 1967. More recently, in 1998 and 1999, his work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and at The Tate in London. [2] In 2000, Pollock was the subject of an Academy Award-winning film directed by and starring Ed Harris.

Pollock was introduced to the use of liquid paint in 1936, at an experimental workshop operated in New York City by the Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros. He later used paint pouring as one of several techniques in canvases of the early 1940s, such as "Male and Female" and "Composition with Pouring I." After his move to Springs, he began painting with his canvases laid out on the studio floor, and developed what was later called his "drip" technique. The drip technique required paint with a fluid viscosity. Therefore Pollock turned to synthetic resin-based paints called alkyd enamels, at that time a novel medium. Pollock described this use of household paints, instead of artist’s paints, as "a natural growth out of a need".[5] He used hardened brushes, sticks, and even basting syringes as paint applicators. Pollock's technique of pouring and dripping paint is thought to be one of the origins of the term action painting. With this technique, Pollock was able to achieve a more immediate means of creating art, the paint now literally flowing from his chosen tool onto the canvas. By defying the convention of painting on an upright surface, he added a new dimension, literally, by being able to view and apply paint to his canvases from all directions.

In the process of making paintings in this way, he moved away from figurative representation, and challenged the Western tradition of using easel and brush. He also moved away from the use of only the hand and wrist, since he used his whole body to paint. In 1956, Time magazine dubbed Pollock "Jack the Dripper" as a result of his unique painting style.[6]

Jackson Pollock’s 1948 painting entitled No. 5 1948 was arguably his greatest masterwork, the most vivid expression of the painter’s unique style. When it was sold by David Geffen in 2006, it became the world’s most expensive painting in history at a price-adjusted $149.70 million dollars.

Artist: Jackson Pollock
Year: 1948
Year of Sale: 2006
Sale Price: $140 million
Currency Adjusted: $149.70 million

By : Ray - http://www.miniseen.blogspot.com