1. Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?) by Paul Gauguin, 1892
Sold in 2015 for $300M
A traditionally dressed young Tahitian woman wears a white
tiare flower behind her left ear, signifying her readiness to take a lover.
Behind her is a woman in high-necked mission dress. She was characterized by
the gesture of her hand as a Buddhist mudra signifying threat or warn.
2. The
Card Players by Paul
Cézanne, 1892
Sold in 2011 for $250M
The painting shows two male Provençal farmers smoking their
pipes and playing cards. They were studious and determined on the cards in
their hands.
3. Le Rêve (The Dream) by Pablo Picasso, 1932
The woman in the potrait is her 24-year-old mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter. It is said to have been painted in one afternoon, on January 24, 1932. It belongs to Picasso's period of distorted depictions, with its oversimplified outlines and contrasted colors resembling early Fauvism. The erotic content of the painting has been noted repeatedly, with critics pointing out that Picasso painted an erect penis, presumably symbolizing his own, in the upturned face of his model.
4. Three
Studies of Lucian Freud by Francis
Bacon, 1969
Sold in 2013 for $142.4M
The oil painting shows Freud sitting on a cane-bottomed wooden chair within a cage, on a curved mottled-brown surface with a solid orange background. Behind each figure is a headboard of a bed, originating in a set of photographs of Freud by John Deakin which Bacon used as a reference.
5. No.
5, 1948 by Jackson
Pollock, 1948
Sold in 2006 for $140M
The painting was done on an 8' x 4' sheet of fibreboard,
with thick amounts of brown and yellow paint drizzled on top of it, forming a
nest-like appearance.
6. Woman III by Willem
de Kooning, 1953
8. Garçon
à la pipe (Boy with a Pipe) by Pablo
Picasso, 1905
Sold in 2004 for $104M
A Parisian boy wearing a wreath of flowers and holding a pipe in 1905. The boy was a teen model who hang around at Picasso's studio and voluteered to pose for this painting.
9. Portrait
of Dr.Gachet by Vincent
Van Gogh, 1890
Sold in 1990 for $82.5M
I painted a portrait of M. Gachet with an expression of melancholy, which would seem to look like a grimace to many who saw the canvas. And yet it is necessary to paint it like this, for otherwise one could not get an idea of the extent to which, in comparison with the calmness of the old portraits, there is expression in our modern heads, and passion and like a waiting for things as well as a scream. Sad and yet gentle, but clear and intelligent - this is how one ought to paint many portraits (webexhibits.org/vangogh)
10. Bal
du moulin de la Galette (Dance at Le moulin de la Galette) by Pierre-Auguste
Renoir, 1876
Sold in 1990 for $78.1M
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The painting portrays a popular Parisian life in one typical
Sunday afternoon at Moulin de la Galette in the district of Montmartre in
Paris. The Moulin de la Galette was an open-air dancehall and café that was visited by many artists living in Paris. During the late 19th century, working class Parisians would dress up and
spend time in Moulin de la Galette dancing, drinking, and eating galettes into the evening.
