A Vincent van Gogh painting displaying the artist’s shift from dark realism to vibrant impressionism could become the most expensive Western painting sold in Asia if it fetched its top estimated value of US$49 million at a Hong Kong auction yesterday.
Les canots amarres — or “the moored boats” would be the centerpiece of an inaugural evening sale held to celebrate the opening of auction house Christie’s new Asia-Pacific headquarters.
Christie’s said the painting could fetch between HK$230 million and HK$380 million (US$30 to US$49million) on the auction floor.
Photo: Reuters
To date, the most expensive Western painting sold in the region is Warrior by Jean-Michel Basquiat, the auction house said.
It had the Christie’s gavel dropped at HK$323.6 million — about US$41.9 million at the time — in Hong Kong in 2021.
Owned by the Italian royal family of Bourbon Two Sicilies, the Van Gogh painting is “the most important painting by the artist ever to be offered in Asia,” Christie’s said in its introduction.
“Les canots amarres marks a vital stepping stone in his career,” it said.
The painting is one of about 40 works Van Gogh developed around the scenic French town of Asnieres, a boating hub on the outskirts of Paris, during the summer of 1887.
With those paintings, “he left behind for good the dark, earthy tones of his realist pictures of old. He now adopted a vibrant palette and loose expressive brush instead,” Christie’s said.
In a letter to his sister, Willemina, in October 1887, the artist wrote: “When I painted landscape in Asnieres this summer, I saw more color... than ever before.”
Princess Camilla of the House of Bourbon Two Sicilies called it a painting “of incredible history in the very particular moment of the artist’s [career].”
She said she chose Hong Kong for the sale to tap into the Asian market’s “strong and expanding base of collectors who are increasingly interested in Western art.”
Born in the Netherlands in 1853, Vincent van Gogh was among the most famous and influential figures in Western art.
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