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10 most expensive paintings in the world this year

Picasso's Lover painting cost 139.4 million USD, Gustav Klimt's "Lady with a Fan" reached more than 108 million USD, are the most expensive works this year.

1. Femme à la Montre

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According to statistics from the art website Artsy, leading the million-dollar works in 2023 is Femme à la Montre (Girl with a Watch) by Picasso. The painting was hammered for 139.4 million USD, including taxes and fees, at the Sotheby's auction in New York on November 8.

The artist painted the work in 1932, measuring 130x96.5 cm, depicting the portrait of French model Marie-Thérèse Walter - his lover and also his "golden muse". They had a relationship in 1927-1935, when the artist married his first wife - dancer Olga Khokhlova. The National commented that the painting has a balanced composition, outstanding colors, showing the artist's elaborate creative process.

The painting was once owned by Emily Fisher Landau - a famous American contemporary art collector. She bought the painting in 1968, hanging above the fireplace in the living room of her New York apartment.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was a Spanish painter and sculptor. He is one of the most famous artists of the 20th century. The artist is famous for paintings such as: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Portrait of Aunt Pepa. Some of his works are among the most expensive works of art in the world, such as Nude on a black armchair, Les Noces de Pierrette, Garçon à la pipe.
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2. Dame mit Fächer


The second most expensive painting this year is Dame mit Fäche (Lady with a Fan), with a sale price of more than 108 million USD. According to The Value, the work received the most attention from collectors when it appeared in the Modern and Contemporary Art Auction Week in London, organized by Sotheby's.

The painting was painted by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt from 1917 to 1918, measuring 100x100 cm, depicting a girl wearing a soft robe, holding a fan. The image of the costume and fan has Chinese artistic colors, while the character bears the mark of a beautiful woman of the Ukiyo-e (Floating World) painting school from Japan. The identity of the girl in the work is still a mystery, some researchers believe that she is a dancer.

The phoenix, lotus, and crane motifs in the painting are all typical of Oriental art. He loved Asian art. In the 1890s, the artist studied paintings from Japan, China, Korea, and India.

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) had many paintings sold at high prices, the record was Water Serpents II, over 183 million USD. The painting ranked seventh among the 10 most expensive paintings in the world. The Times magazine ranked Klimt as one of the 10 greatest painters of the 20th century. He is considered an outstanding name of the Symbolist school, mainly painting the female body, exploiting their charm, whether in modest clothing or nude.
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3. Water Lily Pond

Coming in third is Claude Monet's Water Lily Pond, which fetched $74 million at Christie's New York on November 10. The oil painting was completed by the artist between 1917 and 1919, measuring 100x200 cm. After about 100 years, the painting has just appeared publicly on the market, attracting the attention of collectors.

Water lilies appeared frequently in Claude Monet's works in his later years, with more than 200 paintings. The water lily pond is located in the grounds of the famous artist's house in Giverny, France. He planted trees such as rhododendrons, Japanese apples, and cherries around the pond. He once said that he observed the pond in each season, at different times of the day to understand the changes of the water surface under the influence of light, when clouds pass by, when there is wind or when it is about to rain.

Claude Monet (1840-1926) was a pioneer painter who founded the French Impressionist school. He showed his artistic talent early on, drawing caricatures in his teens. Despite his painful life and suffering from cataracts in his later years, Claude Monet still strived to create. Throughout his career, he created 2,000 paintings, many of which were completed in his home garden. In 1926, the famous artist passed away from lung cancer.
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4. El Gran Espectaculo

The second most expensive painting this year is Dame mit Fäche (Lady with a Fan), with a sale price of more than 108 million USD. According to The Value, the work received the most attention from collectors when it appeared in the Modern and Contemporary Art Auction Week in London, organized by Sotheby's.

The painting was painted by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt from 1917 to 1918, measuring 100x100 cm, depicting a girl wearing a soft robe, holding a fan. The image of the costume and fan has Chinese artistic colors, while the character bears the mark of a beautiful woman of the Ukiyo-e (Floating World) painting school from Japan. The identity of the girl in the work is still a mystery, some researchers believe that she is a dancer.

The phoenix, lotus, and crane motifs in the painting are all typical of Oriental art. He loved Asian art. In the 1890s, the artist studied paintings from Japan, China, Korea, and India.

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) had many paintings sold at high prices, the record was Water Serpents II, over 183 million USD. The painting ranked seventh among the 10 most expensive paintings in the world. The Times magazine ranked Klimt as one of the 10 greatest painters of the 20th century. He is considered an outstanding name of the Symbolist school, mainly painting the female body, exploiting their charm, whether in modest clothing or nude.
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5. Insel im Attersee

After Lady with a Fan, Gustav Klimt continued to make the list of the most expensive paintings sold in 2023 with Insel im Attersee (Island in Attersee). The painting ranked fifth according to Artsy, priced at $53.2 million at Sotheby's New York Modern Evening Auction in May.

The work was once in the collection of Austrian art historian Otto Kallir. In 1940, the painting was displayed in the Saved From Europe exhibition in New York, USA. This is one of many paintings completed by Klimt in a square format, measuring 100.5x100.5 cm. He used many color tones to describe the ripples on the surface of the lake.

The painting was painted by Klimt around 1901. Sotheby's said the artist and his "muse" - textile designer Emilie Flöge - along with relatives and friends went to the south bank of the Attersee in Weissenbach, Austria, for a summer vacation. They stayed there for nearly 15 years (1900-1914), isolated from the outside world and the local people. During this time, he created many works such as Forsthaus In Weissenbach Am Attersee (1912), Landhaus Am Attersee (1914).
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6. Figure in Movement

Arsty ranked Francis Bacon's Figure in Movement at number six, selling for $52.2 million. The price was set at Christie's New York in November, the first time the painting has appeared on the market since 1976.

The painting depicts the artist's chaotic memories through distorted imagery. The large canvas depicts two people struggling in a transparent cube, inspired by the sudden death of the artist's lover, George Dyer, in 1971. Above the two, Bacon painted a mythical creature often associated with loss, revenge and guilt.

Francis Bacon (1909-1992) was an Irish-born British figurative painter known for his bold, sensual, raw and somewhat grotesque works. From 1950, Bacon began incorporating his work, portraits of friends and lovers into his works. According to Christie's, Bacon liked to paint from photographs, once saying that this helped him interact with the impulses of his nervous system.

Many works by Francis Bacon have sold for high prices. The 1976 Triptych sold for $86.3 million at Sotheby's in 2008. In March 2022, the 1986-1987 Triptych sold for $50.2 million at Christie's London auction. The artist's record is the 1969 triptych Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which Christie's hammered for $142.4 million in 2013.
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7. Recollections of a Visit to Leningrad

Coming in at number seven was Richard Diebenkorn's Recollections of a Visit to Leningrad, which sold for $46.4 million at Christie's in November.

The painting was made in 1965, when the artist visited the Soviet Union and first saw some of the paintings of Henri Matisse, a French artist known for his groundbreaking use of color and form. The experience sparked a change in Richard Diebenkorn's style. He began to combine sharp geometry with bright colors in his paintings.

Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) was an American artist who established the Abstract Expressionist movement in California in the early 1950s. From then through the 1960s, he developed a form of Northern California realism known today as Bay Area Figurative. In the late 1960s, the artist began a series of lyrical, geometric abstract paintings.
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8. Untitled

Mark Rothko's Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange) was the eighth most expensive piece at Christie's in November, selling for $46.4 million. The oil on canvas was painted in 1955. He divided the composition into two main rectangular panels, each of which was colored a glossy orange, and each panel was surrounded by a strip of pale yellow and overlapped. Mark Rothko was born in 1903 in Lavita, then moved to the United States to settle down and study. He owns many paintings worth over $50 million, such as Number 6 (Violet, Green and Red (1951), which sold for $186 million in 2014, or Number 1, which sold for $75.1 million at Sotheby's in New York in November 2013.

The artist is famous for his color field art style. The contrast of light and dark, hot and cold colors represents his views on the conflicts and difficulties of modern life. The value of Rothko's paintings increased in the decades after his suicide in 1970.
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9. Murnau mit Kirche II

Wassily Kandinsky's Murnau mit Kirche II (Murnau with Church II) came in ninth, fetching $44.8 million at a Sotheby's London auction in March. According to the auction house, it was the most expensive work by the artist.

Completed in 1910, the painting depicts a colorful view of the German village of Murnau, with its sprawling church steeples. It marked the Russian master's transition to abstraction.

The painting was once displayed in the dining room of the Jewish couple Siegbert Stern and Johanna Margarethe Stern, founders of a textile company. After Siegbert Stern died in 1935, the painting was lost and discovered nearly 10 years ago at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Wassily Kandinsky (1866 -1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. He initiated abstract painting in 1910, which was a stepping stone for Expressionism and Abstract Art, and is considered a "giant tree" in the art world. In his paintings, the artist exploited the correlation between color and form, creating an aesthetic experience that appeals to the eyes, sounds, and emotions of the public.
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10. Les Flamants

Les Flamants (Flamingos) - a work by Henri Rousseau - ranked 10th among the most expensive paintings this year, according to Artsy statistics. The work was hammered by Christie's New York for $43.5 million, during the 20th Century Evening Sale on May 1.

The artist painted Les Flamants in 1910, one of nearly 20 tropical jungle paintings. The painting reflects the artist's imagination, depicting giant flowers, taller than flamingos and humans. According to the auction house, the painting evokes peace and tranquility, in which humans and animals live in harmony.

Rousseau first focused on tropical landscapes in 1891, with Surpris! (Tigre dans une tempête tropicale), currently kept at the National Gallery in London. By the early 20th century, this theme dominated his works.

Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) was born in the town of Laval, France. According to The Value, he was a customs officer and did not attend any art school. At the age of 49, he retired early and devoted all his time to painting. Rousseau moved to a workshop in Montparnasse, then taught himself to compose, coming up with his own creative methods. "Alone and without any teachers other than nature and some advice from Gérôme and Clément," Rousseau said.
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