Stolen Art DealerPainting of a boy seen from the thighs up in a crimson waistcoat, one hand on his hip, in front of drapery painted in patches of blue, green and yellow.
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Catalogue No. 1299 · Sotheby's · London
Boy in a Red Waistcoat
About $7.2 million in today’s money: 82 years of the typical US household’s income. Source
- Artist
- Paul Cézanne (French, 1839–1906)
- Title
- Boy in a Red Waistcoat (Le garçon au gilet rouge)
- Date
- 1888–90
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 89.5 x 72.4 cm (35 1/4 x 28 1/2 in)
Paul Cézanne painted Boy in a Red Waistcoat (Le garçon au gilet rouge) between about 1888 and 1890, according to the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The oil on canvas measures 89.5 by 72.4 centimetres. A boy is shown from the thighs up in a crimson waistcoat, one hand on his hip, in front of drapery painted in patches of blue, green and yellow. Cézanne made several versions of the subject, and this is the one now in Washington.
The dealer Ambroise Vollard sold it in 1896 to Egisto Fabbri. In 1929 it was sold to Jakob Goldschmidt, who lived in Berlin and New York and died in 1955. It was offered from his estate at Sotheby's in London on 15 October 1958, as lot 6. The Carstairs Gallery bought it for Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon, who gave it to the National Gallery of Art in 1995.
The Observer, quoting the Daily Telegraph of 16 October 1958, gives the hammer price as £220,000, about $600,000 in its account. The Telegraph called it the highest price paid for a work of art at auction to that date. Sotheby's says the auction record was broken twice that night.
The sale
- Auction house
- Sotheby's, London
- Date
- 15 October 1958
- Lot
- 6
- Sold for
- $616,000 (hammer price) · £220,000
- Record
- The Daily Telegraph, as quoted by the Observer, called it the highest price paid for a work of art at auction up to that date. Sotheby's says the record for a work of art at auction was broken twice that night. (as of October 1958)
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Provenance
1888–90
Painted by Cézanne (NGA dates the work 1888-1890)
undated
(Ambroise Vollard, Paris); sold 1896 to Egisto Fabbri, Paris and Florence, until at least 1925
undated
(Paul Rosenberg, Paris, and Wildenstein Galleries, Paris)
1929
Sold to Jakob Goldschmidt, Berlin and New York (died 1955); his estate
1958-10-15
Goldschmidt sale, Sotheby's, London, 15 October 1958, no. 6; purchased by Carstairs Gallery, New York, for Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia
1995
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon to the National Gallery of Art, Washington
Sources
- National Gallery of Art, Washington: Boy in a Red Waistcoat (1995.47.5)
- Hollywood Comes to Bond Street as Sotheby's Invents the Gala Sale (Sotheby's)
- Sotheby's Isn't Microsoft, So Lay Off My Old Buddies (Observer, 2000)
Prices include the buyer’s premium, in US dollars at the time of sale, unless marked as a hammer price.