Isabella Flores
Vincent van Gogh is one of the most famous painters in history, with his unique post-impressionist technique and striking use of colour. During his lifetime, van Gogh sold very few paintings and was not widely appreciated. Today, his original artworks sell for millions and are scattered across museums and private collections worldwide. This article will explore how many of van Gogh's paintings are in private collections and the stories behind some of these sales.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Total number of Van Gogh's paintings | 900 |
| Number of self-portraits | 35 |
| Most expensive painting sold | $82.5 million for "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" |
| First full-sized painting confirmed | "Sunset at Montmajour" in 2013 |
| Most iconic painting | "Starry Night" |
| Number of sunflowers paintings | 5 |
| Number of paintings sold during his lifetime | 1 |
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What You'll Learn
Van Gogh's most expensive paintings
During his lifetime, Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting, The Red Vineyard, which was bought for 400 francs by the painter and art collector Anna Boch. However, today, his paintings are among the world's most recognizable and expensive works of art.
Van Gogh's most expensive painting, Orchard with Cypresses, sold for a record-breaking $117.2 million in November 2022 at Christie's New York. The vibrant painting, showcasing a fenced orchard with cypress trees in the background, was completed in 1888 and previously belonged to the late Paul G. Allen.
The second most expensive Van Gogh painting ever sold is the Portrait of Dr. Paul Gachet, which was purchased for $82.5 million in 1990. Dr. Gachet took care of Van Gogh during his final months and became close friends with the artist. The painting exquisitely captures the doctor's solemn state of mind, with a red table and medical artifacts like books, digitalis, and purple foxglove.
Another notable sale is Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers et cyprès (Wooden Cabins Among Olive Trees and Cypresses), which sold at a Christie's New York auction for $71 million in November 2021 to an anonymous buyer. This painting depicts the wooden cabins visible from Van Gogh's room at the San Rémy asylum, with exuberant colors conveying a sense of optimism.
Van Gogh's Sunflowers also broke records when it was sold for $39.9 million at Christie's London in 1987, becoming the highest amount paid for a work of art at the time. A few months later, his Irises painting was sold for $53.9 million at Sotheby's New York, setting a new auction record. In 2018, Sunflowers was estimated to be worth over $80 million, and experts believe it could fetch several hundred million dollars if auctioned today.
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Private sales of Van Gogh's paintings
During his lifetime, Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting, The Red Vineyard, which was bought for 400 francs by the painter and art collector Anna Boch. Van Gogh's fame grew in the years following his death, and his paintings are now among the world's most recognisable and expensive works of art.
Van Gogh's paintings rarely come up for auction, but when they do, they tend to achieve historic prices. In 1987, his painting Irises sold for a record US$53.9 million at Sotheby's New York, and three years later, his Portrait of Dr. Gachet sold for US$82.5 million at Christie's, setting a new price record. In 1990, the same painting, Portrait of Dr. Gachet, sold for $83 million at Christie's New York, once again setting a world record.
Most of Van Gogh's paintings are sold in blind auctions for hundreds of millions of dollars. The Sunflowers still life sold for £23 million at Christie's London in 1987, three times more than any artwork had previously fetched at auction. Van Gogh's auction performance has been making headlines, with the sale of Irises representing a paradigm shift in the art market. According to Sotheby's Mei Moses, the average compound annual return for Vincent van Gogh resold at auction between 2003 and 2017 was 10.1%, with 93.6% of 47 such works increasing in value.
While some owners of Van Gogh's paintings have loaned the masterpieces to galleries, others have chosen to keep them for themselves. As a result, many of Van Gogh's paintings are in private collections and are not easily accessible to the public.
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Van Gogh's paintings in museums
During his lifetime, Vincent van Gogh was underappreciated, and he died penniless. However, today, his work is considered a high point of European art, and millions of people flock to museums and galleries worldwide to admire his paintings.
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is dedicated to the artist's work and that of his contemporaries. It owns over 200 paintings and 500 drawings by van Gogh, as well as nearly all of his letters. The museum also features rotating exhibits and accessible programming, including a tour for visually impaired visitors who can feel 3D prints of the famous paintings. The Van Gogh Museum owns the largest collection of van Gogh's work in the world.
The Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, the Netherlands, has the world's second-largest collection of van Gogh paintings, with 91 paintings and 180 drawings. The museum is set within the Hoge Veluwe National Park, a wild oasis that echoes the artist's tumultuous life.
Other museums with notable collections of van Gogh's work include the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the National Gallery in London, the Bridgestone Museum of Art in Tokyo, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, and the MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand in Brazil.
Van Gogh's paintings can also be found in various other museums around the world, including Basel, Detroit, New Haven, Buenos Aires, Vatican City, Tokyo, Munich, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC.
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Van Gogh's self-portrait paintings
During his lifetime, Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh was little appreciated, and he sold only one painting, "The Red Vineyard", bought for 400 francs by the painter and art collector Anna Boch. Today, however, Van Gogh is considered one of history's greatest painters and a significant contributor to modern art. He is known for his numerous self-portraits, landscapes, portraits, and sunflowers, which are among the world's most recognisable and expensive artworks.
Van Gogh created at least 32 self-portraits over a ten-year period, with at least 24 of them produced during his two-year stay in Paris. To save money, he sometimes painted self-portraits on the back of other paintings, avoiding the cost of models and expensive canvases. In July 2022, a hidden self-portrait was discovered in the collection of The National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh, which he painted on the back of a study for "The Potato Eaters".
Van Gogh's self-portraits often depict him as restrained and serious, with a look of concentration on his face. However, something of Van Gogh's personality can be found in each self-portrait. For example, he described the last self-portrait he did in Paris as "quite unkempt and sad", reflecting how he felt at the time: mentally and physically exhausted.
Van Gogh's self-portraits have inspired many other artists. One example is the French artist Guillaume Bruère, who, in September 2019, drew a series of nine sheets at the Van Gogh Museum after Vincent's "Self-Portrait with Felt Hat". Another self-portrait from 1889, often called the Oslo self-portrait because it is owned by the Nasjonalmuseet in Norway, is also "unmistakably" his work, according to experts. This painting was completed after Van Gogh's letter of 22 August 1889, in which he indicated that he was still "disturbed" but ready to begin painting again.
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Van Gogh's sunflower paintings
Vincent van Gogh's sunflower paintings are among his most famous works. The Dutch painter created two series of still-life sunflower paintings, with the first executed in Paris in 1887 and the second in Arles a year later. Van Gogh's sunflower paintings show sunflowers in all stages of life, from full bloom to withering, and they are considered innovative for their use of the yellow spectrum.
The first series of sunflower paintings depicts the flowers lying on the ground, while the second set shows a bouquet of sunflowers in a vase. Van Gogh's friend Paul Gauguin, who had been impressed by the first series, acquired two of the Paris versions. About eight months later, Van Gogh painted another series of sunflowers, intending to welcome and impress Gauguin again. This time, the sunflowers were part of the painted decoration for the Yellow House that he prepared for the guest room of his home in Arles, where Gauguin was supposed to stay.
Van Gogh began painting the second series of sunflowers in late summer 1888 and continued into the following year. In a letter to his brother, Theo, from August 1888, Van Gogh wrote: "I'm painting with the gusto of a Marseillais eating bouillabaisse, which won’t surprise you when it's a question of painting large sunflowers." At the time, he was working on three paintings simultaneously and intended to do more, as he wanted to create a decoration for the studio he hoped to share with Gauguin.
In total, Van Gogh painted seven versions of the sunflower paintings. Five of these are now found in museums around the world, including the Sompo Museum of Art in Tokyo, Japan, and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. One version is in private hands, and another was lost during World War II.
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Frequently asked questions
Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime, "The Red Vineyard", which was bought for 400 francs by the painter and art collector Anna Boch.
Many of Van Gogh's original paintings are scattered across the world's greatest museums and private collections. Some of the paintings that have been sold to private collectors include "Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat", "Portrait of Dr. Gachet", "Orchard in Blossom", "Interior of a Restaurant", and "Landscape at Sunset".
Many of Van Gogh's paintings are housed in museums around the world. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has a significant collection, including "Sunflowers" and "The Potato Eaters". The Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, Netherlands, also has a considerable collection of his paintings. Additionally, "Starry Night" is exhibited at MoMA.
Some of Van Gogh's most famous paintings include "Starry Night", "Sunflowers", "The Potato Eaters", "Wheatfield with Crows", and his numerous self-portraits.
Van Gogh's paintings are among the world's most expensive works of art, often selling for millions of dollars. Some notable sales include "Irises" for US$53.9 million, "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" for US$82.5 million, and "Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers" for £24.75 million (approximately US$38.5 million).
