Garçon à la pipe by Pablo Picasso

Garçon à la pipe by Pablo Picasso
So far the highest price a painting has ever fetched at auction (as the others were all sold privately), and was the first painting to break the $100 million barrier (it was sold in 2004). The strange thing is that it was never made public as to who expressed such an interest in Picasso’s portrait of a smoking Parisian.

Garçon à la pipe replaced Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent Van Gogh which sold for a pittance of only $82.5 million.

The oil on canvas painting, measuring 100 × 81.3 cm (slightly over 39 × 32 inches), depicts a Parisian boy holding a pipe in his left hand. The boy in the painting was among the community of entertainers living in the Montmartre section of Paris. On May 5, 2004 it sold for $104.1 million USD at an auction in Sotheby's in New York, after having been given a pre-sale estimate of $70 million by the auction house.
Garçon à la pipe by Pablo Picasso

Dora Maar au Chat by Picasso

Dora Maar au Chat by Picasso
Although Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973), experienced financial difficulties early in his life, his paintings now sell into millions. Dora Maar au Chat fetched $95.2 million in 2006.

It was painted in 1941. It depicts Dora Maar, the painter’s Croatian mistress, seated on a chair with small cat perched on her shoulder.

The canvas was one of many portraits of Dora Maar painted by Pablo Picasso over their nearly decade long relationship. Picasso fell in love with Dora Maar at the age of 55 and soon began living with her.

This painting was done during the year 1941, when the Nazis were occupying France. In the 1940s, the painting was obtained by Chicago collectors Leigh and Mary Block. They sold the painting in 1963.
Dora Maar au Chat by Picasso

Self portrait with Bandaged Ear by Vincent van Gogh

Self portrait with Bandaged Ear by Vincent van Gogh
It was painted within a short time of his having had a mental breakdown. During which he cut off part of his ear. The picture shows that van Gough must have mutilated his right ear, because it is clear this one that is bandaged in the picture. A moment’s reflection though, tells that it actually must have been his left ear that was cut, because the picture is a self portrait, carried out with him looking in a mirror and therefore inverting left and right.

Van Gogh’s self portrait makes the point that anything with asymmetry from left to right is distinct from its mirror image. But it turns out for us to be able to distinguish an object’s left and right, it also has to have asymmetries along two other axes. In the case of van Gogh’s picture, for example, these are the asymmetries from top to bottom and front to back.

He was hospitalized after the incident following an attack of his friend and then admitted himself to a mental hospital. Before that, he became very ill with heat stroke, fainting spells and seizures. In angers, he cut off part of his ear with his razor. After Vincent’s ear had healed sufficiently, his doctor advised him to avoid excitement and alcohol and to wear his hat in the sun.
Self portrait with Bandaged Ear by Vincent van Gogh