Posthumous fame
how much did wheatfield with cypresses cost in 1993?
Vincent van Gogh
Posthumous fame. Following his first exhibitions in the late 1880s, Van Gogh's fame grew steadily among colleagues, art critics, dealers and collectors. After his death, memorial exhibitions were mounted in Brussels, Paris, The Hague and Antwerp. In the early 20th century, there were retrospectives in Paris (1901 and 1905), and Amsterdam (1905), and important group exhibitions in Cologne (1912), New York (1913) and Berlin (1914). These had a noticeable impact on later generations of artists. By the mid 20th century Van Gogh was seen as one of the greatest and most recognizable painters in history. In 2007 a group of Dutch historians compiled the "Canon of Dutch History" to be taught in schools and included Van Gogh as one of the fifty topics of the canon, alongside other national icons such as Rembrandt and De Stijl. Together with those of Pablo Picasso, Van Gogh's works are among the world's most expensive paintings ever sold, based on data from auctions and private sales. Those sold for over US$100 million (today's equivalent) include Portrait of Dr. Gachet, Portrait of Joseph Roulin and Irises. A Wheatfield with Cypresses was sold in 1993 for US$57 million, a spectacularly high price at the time, while his Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear was sold privately in the late 1990s for an estimated US$80/$90 million. A newly discovered painting by the Dutch artist was publicly unveiled on September 10, 2013, after it was retrieved from the attic of a Norwegian collector who misjudged the work as a fraud following its purchase in 1908. "Sunset at Montmajour" is a large oil landscape painting and, as of September 24, 2013, is displayed at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum.