Top 10 Most Expensive Painting Sold in 2018

 Money may not be able to buy you happiness, but owning a $115millon Picasso or a David Hockney masterpiece worth $90million would certainly put a smile on your face. 

Auction house Christie's has revealed its top 10 most expensive lots sold in 2018, which includes masterpieces from the Rockefeller art collection.

Christie's top selling lot was Pablo Picasso's Fillette à la Corbeille Fleurie painted in 1905, which was purchased for an astonishing $115,000.

Works by Edward Hopper, Hockney and Monet also made this year's top 10 list of priciest lots.

10. Jackson Pollock, Composition with Red Strokes - $55,437,500

Jackson Pollock's Composition with Red Strokes, which was painted six years before his death in 1950 and is composed of swirls and streaks of color, sold for $55,437,500 at auction on November 13.  

The piece was another sold on November 13 as part of the collection of 20th century American art amassed by Ebsworth.

Ebsworth died in April at the age of 83. 

He made a fortune in luxury travel after serving in the Army and being stationed in France, where he was a frequent visitor to the Louvre Museum, cultivating his love of art.  

American painter Pollock was born in Wyoming in 1912 and was a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. 

He became known for his unusual style of drip painting.

9. Su Shi, Wood and Rock - $59,500,000

 

Entitled Wood and Rock, the ink-on-paper handscroll depicts a dragon-like old tree with withered branches and a sharp rock resting at its root 

The nearly 1,000-year-old ink painting by one of China's greatest literati masters Su Shi fetched $59.5million at auction on November 26.

The auction house described the Song Dynasty artwork created by Su as 'one of the world's rarest Chinese paintings'.

Entitled Wood and Rock, the ink-on-paper handscroll depicts a dragon-like old tree with withered branches and a sharp rock resting at its root.

The painting was the most expensive item ever sold in Christie's Asia.

8. Willem de Kooning, Woman as Landscape - $68,937,500

 

Willem de Kooning's Woman as Landscape sold for $68,937,500 at an auction on November 13

oman as Landscape' sold for $68.9 million on November 13, having been valued pre-sale at $60-90 million, and set a new record at auction for the Dutch-born abstract expressionist, Christie's said.

It eclipsed the $66.3 million paid for his 1977 'Untitled XXV' in November 2016.

The piece was sold on November 13 as part of the collection of 20th century American art amassed by Barney Ebsworth.

The auction house had valued the entire Ebsworth collection at around $350 million. In the end his collection fetched $323 million. 

He was survived by his third wife Rebecca, daughter Christiane from this first marriage and two grandchildren.

7. Constantin Brancusi, La jeune fille sophistiquée (Portrait de Nancy Cunard) - $71,187,500  
 

La jeune fille sophistiquée was created by Constantin Brancusi, a Romanian sculptor, painter and photographer who was considered a pioneer of modernism and one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th Century.

The small bronze sculpture, just 31.5" tall, was conceived in Paris in 1928 and cast in 1932.

It sold at auction on May 15 for a whopping $71,187,500.   

Nancy Cunard was a British writer, heiress and political activist who first encountered Brancusi in 1923 through a meeting which came about through the Dada poet Tristan Tzara, one of her many lovers.

6. Henri Matisse, Odalisque Coucheé aux Magnolias - $80,750,000

 The Odalisque Couchée Aux Magnolias is considered one of the greatest Henri Matisse works to come to the market.

It was painted in Nice in 1923, when he was said to be at the height of his powers.

It has been described by experts as a ‘completely new way of painting’, as Matisse gave the boldly coloured background of the work much greater weight. It features his favourite model, Henriette Darricarrère, a ballerina who is said to have used her training to pose for up to ten hours at a time.

The Rockefellers — who acquired the painting in 1958 — hung it in a prime position in the living room of their palatial home in New York state.

Its sale set a new auction record for the French master when it was purchased for $80,750,000 on May 8.   

5. Claude Monet, Nymphéas en Fleur - $84,687,500

 Claude Monet's Nymphéas en Fleur sold for $84,687,500 at an auction selling off the masterpieces from the Rockefeller art collection

During the last two decades of his career, Claude Monet devoted himself to painting the water-lily pond at his home in rural Giverny, France.

The Nymphéas series, 1914-17, was part of the culmination of these works and the most ambitious undertaking of his career: 22 mural-sized canvases completed just months before his death.

Monet did not exhibit any of these compositions during his lifetime. In comparison to his early work, Nymphéas en Fleur was painted with loose, expressive strokes and was much more daring in color and composition.

Nymphéas en Fleur was one of the masterpieces sold from the Rockefeller art collection on May 8, and realized $84,687,500. 

4. Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Composition - $85,812,500

Kazimir Malevich's  Suprematist Composition sold for  $85,812,500 at an auction on May 15

Kazimir Malevich, a Russian painter, was a towering figure of the early 20th century avant-garde, famed for his so-called Suprematist paintings that rejected figurative art. 

Suprematist Composition, sold at auction on May 15, lends its name to the art movement Malevich founded in 1915 or 1916, which involved black or boldly-colored geometric shapes on a light background.

3. David Hockney, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) - $90,312,500

 David Hockney's Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold for $90,312,500 on November 15

The iconic 1972 painting by British artist David Hockney soared to $90.3million at Christie's on November 15, smashing the record for the highest price ever paid at auction for a work by a living artist.

With Christie's commission, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), surpassed the auction house's pre-sale estimate of about $80million, following a bidding war between two determined would-be buyers once the work hit $70million.

Hockney's previous auction record was $28.4million.

2. Edward Hopper, Chop Suey -  $91,875,000

 Chop Suey by Edward Hopper sold for an astonishing $91,875,000 at an auction on November 13

The 1929 canvas 'Chop Suey' by Hopper, America's most popular modernist, went for $91,875,000 on November 13 after being valued pre-sale at an estimated $70-100 million.

It was the jewel in the crown of a remarkable collection of 20th century American art amassed by St. Louis-born entrepreneur Barney Ebsworth, who made his fortune in travel, founded cruise lines and was an original investor in Build-A-Bear. He died in April.

The painting easily set a new auction record for the artist - previously $40.4 million paid in 2013 for 'East Wind Over Weehawken.'

Christie's had marketed 'Chop Suey' as 'the most iconic painting by Hopper left in private hands' and the price tag chalked up a whopping profit on the $180,000 Ebsworth paid for the work in 1973. 

1. Pablo Picasso, Fillette à la Corbeille Fleurie - $115,000,000 

Painted in 1905, this Pablo Picasso work, Fillette à la Corbeille Fleurie, was bought the same year by collector Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo.

Their purchase, along with two other so-called Rose Period paintings, is credited with jump-starting the Spanish artist’s career.

It is said to portray the themes with which Picasso would wrestle all his life — love, sex, beauty, tenderness and violence. The model was a teenage flower seller who also posed for Modigliani and Van Dongen.

It remained in the Stein collection until 1968, when it was bought by the Rockefellers for less than $1 million. It had pride of place in the library of their 65th Street New York home.

Its sale on May 8 made it the second most expensive Picasso to sell at auction, after the Les Femmes d’Alger (version ‘O’) which sold for more than $165million in 2015. 

SOURCE:Dailymail