PAUL GAUGUIN : L'HOMME A LA HACHE

One of the most expensive pictures in the world, l'Homme à la hache (The man with an axe), was painted in 1891 as an oil on canvas in the Pacific island of Moorea (Tahiti) by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903).

Gauguin's arrival in Tahiti, after a passage of 69 days, was not especially memorable. His ship dropped anchor in the port of Papeete during the dead of night, as per normal practice, to take advantage of the high tide. Stories in the local press had anticipated Gauguin's coming, for the artist carried a commission from the French government to paint the island and its people.

A young naval lieutenant named Jénot helped him get settled in town. The famous painter's presence quickly raised eyebrows--because of his longish hair, he was called taata-vahine ("man-woman"). Gauguin returned to France in August 1893, with only four francs in his pocket. He rented a room in Paris, and made use of a studio in the same building that the painter Alphonse Mucha had lent him. Gauguin convinced the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel to mount an exhibition of his new paintings. The show opened on 10 November, and consisted of 41 Tahitian paintings, plus some sculptures and three earlier Breton pictures, accounting for almost all of the work he had done in the South Seas and deemed important, including L'homme à la hache. Only eleven paintings were sold, and the show was not a financial success.

But in 2006, this picture got its revenge and reached new heights when it was sold for $ 40,33 million in New York City. This particular sale by Chrisite's set nine new auction records, including for Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Paul Gauguin. Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II sold for $87,936,000 (with premium), the third highest price for a painting at auction.

KLIMT : PORTRAIT OF ADELE BLOCH-BAUER I

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian painter born in Vienna in 1862. He began (1883) as an artist-decorator in association with his brother Ernst and Franz Matsoh. In 1886-92, Klimt executed mural decorations for staircases at the Burgtheater and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna; these confirmed Klimt's eclecticism and broadened his range of historical references.

In January 1918 Klimt suffered a stroke in his apartment and after a short stay in hospital died from pneumonia on 6 February.

This picture (138 x 138 cm) was painted in Vienna in 1907 and commissioned by Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy industrialist who had made his fortune in the sugar industry and sponsored the arts and supported Gustav Klimt. His wife Adele became the only model who was painted twice by Klimt when he completed a second picture of her, Adele Bloch-Bauer II, in 1912.

After having been looted by the Nazis, the picture was confiscated by the Austrian Governement at the end of the war. The heirs to the Bloch-Bauer estate sued the Austrian authorities and after a protracted battle won the case : in 2006 the canvas was shipped to the USA where it was sold in June for a rumored $ 135 million to Ronald Lauder, fabled art collector, heir of the cosmetic conglomerate Estée Lauder and honorary chairman of the MOMA who bought it for his Neue Galerie in New York City.

KLIMT : LIFE IS A STRUGGLE

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian painter born in Vienna in 1862. He began (1883) as an artist-decorator in association with his brother Ernst and Franz Matsoh. In 1886-92, Klimt executed mural decorations for staircases at the Burgtheater and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna; these confirmed Klimt's eclecticism and broadened his range of historical references.

In 1897 Klimt founded the Association of Austrian Artists ( Vereinigung bildender Künstler Üsterreichs) better known as the Secession on the model of the Berlin Secession launched in 1892. Klimt was elected president.

The Secession broke away from the conservative artistic establishment. Klimt and his colleagues Josef Hoffmann and Carl Moll were for the freedom of individual artistic work and hoped to forge closer connections with the international avant-garde. They embarked on a programme of exhibitions on a scale that has not been seen since.

In March – June 1898, The Secession presents its first exhibition, focusing on international art, it is a great public success with more than 56,000 visitors. In 1907, Klimt met Egon Schiele (1890-1918). Klimt's work is to have a decisive influence on Schiele who died prematurely of the Spanish flu epidemic that killed 20 million persons at the end of the war, killing more thant the war itself.

In 1917 Klimt was elected honorary member of Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. In January 1918 Klimt suffered a stroke in his apartment and after a short stay in hospital died from pneumonia on 6 February. Egon and Gustav passed away almost at the same time leaving a huge void in European painting.

His Life is a Struggle was painted in 1903 and was bought in 1990 by the Aichi Prefecture (Japan) for the Museum of Art of the city for $11.4 million.