It was 1901. A small gallery
in Paris held an exhibition of 60 works by the artist Vincent Van
Gogh. The best, Poppy Field, cost 400 francs,
about $55 at the time...about $850 in today's worth. All the rest were
less.
One visitor came back day after day until finally approaching the
gallery owner. "My wife just had a little girl", he said." We
are already looking to her future. We have decided to create her dowry
from things bound to go up in value." He talked at length on how he
adored the Poppy Field. But, he was pressed for decisions and would ask
his brother-in-law for advice. The man said, "But
let me first talk with my future brother-in-law, an advisor to many with
money on art matters. Let me first ask his advice and I will
return."
Twenty years later, the man walked back in the same gallery holding
a watercolor by Detaille to sell. The gallery owner recognized him even so many
years later.
"I have come to a time to sell my art, bought on good
advice. My daughter is to marry!", the man said. "Pray tell me what you will
offer. My brother-in-law managed to get me this fine watercolor for
fifteen thousand francs. Surely, it will sell for 100,000! "
The gallery owner turned his head and offered nothing. The man became
angry. "So, your memory holds after 20 years!", he exclaimed.
"Is it your anger or your pride that won't let you tender an offer?"
The gallery owner turned slowly back. He looked long and low at the man,
trying to find the words.
"It is neither anger nor pride that holds my offer to purchase your
work," said the gallery owner. "It is a desire to keep your feelings
intact. But it is too late for that. For you have worthless art from an
invisible artist, bought on the advice of a fool. No, your art is not
100,000 and not 10,000 but not even 1000, of that I am sure. And I am
sure, too, that I could not sell you the Poppy Field today, if I had it,
for less than 300,000! If you had followed your heart on that day 20 years
ago, your daughters dowry would spill from its box!"
The man left, holding his watercolor, never to return.
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The gallery
owner was Ambroise Vollard (1868-1939), dealer and promoter of
impressionist and avant-garde art. He accumulated Van Gogh art shrewdly
and frequently early on, along with art from others outside the art world
at the time. In 1943 in New York City, two
artists held almost simultaneous shows of their
work. Jackson Pollock and Louise Pershing
exhibited their works for sale in galleries steps
away from each other. Pollock's 12 works were
priced at $50 to $750 and Pershing's 14 were
priced $25 to $500. Pershing's work was
colroful and well liked by gallery owners. Pollock's art remained
misunderstood then as much of it is today. Today, sixty years
later, Pollock's art sells in the millions when it
appears and
Pershing's work sits in a Pittsburgh garage, still
selling for around $500 to a
thousand.
And so goes even today the
shadowy process of art advice.
Here at OutsiderArt.info, you get free art advice. We
serve as your art advisor by showing you the art of our artists and
stepping an arms length away. As you look at the art, listen to the
small sentences running through your mind, follow the advice coming from
within. The art exhibited here at OutsiderArt.info comes from the same
field as those poppies over a hundred years ago.
To help make things a little easier for the beginning
collector, the accumulator, the branching outs and the veterans,
OutsiderArt.info is beginning to enable sales direct from the site.
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