Who bought the only painting Van Gogh ever sold?
Week Six is Caramel, Banana, Sap Green & Dove Grey
It’s my birthday this week, I had a browse for artists born on the same day which led me to discover the Belgium impressionist Anna-Rosalie Boch (Anna Boch) (1848-1936).
Boch was was born on the tenth of February into a wealthy family, involved in porcelain manufacture since 1748. Maybe you have recognised the surname already: Anna’s father, Frédéric Victor Boch, was the co-founder of the faience porcelain factory Boch Frères-Kéramis in La Louvière while her uncle, Eugene von Boch, merged his business to create the German company Villeroy & Boch.
The arts were important to the Boch family: her brother Eugène painted and her cousin Octave was an art critic. Anna herself was a skilled pianist and painter who trained under Isidore Verheyden. She experimented with Pointillism but is best known for her Impressionist landscapes of Belgian countryside and Mediterranean scenes. Her talent led to her becoming the only female member of the progressive Belgian art group, Les Vingt.
Having said all of that, Boch is unfairly remembered more as an avid art collector with a keen eye for talent. She bought works by Paul Gauguin, Paul Signac and James Ensor and even owned Vincent van Gogh’s The Red Vineyard, believed be the only ever painting that he sold in his lifetime.
Boch knew Van Gogh through her brother and acquired the painting in 1890 for four hundred francs (around $2,000 today) at a Les Vingt exhibition. Apparently Van Gogh was embarrassed that she had paid the full sticker prices when she should have gotten a ‘friend’s discount’. It’s now estimated to be worth over $100m and is held by the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow.
Boch never married and when she died in 1936 she left her own paintings to her god child (her gardener’s daughter) and her collection was sold with proceeds used to support retired artists, many of whom Boch had championed over the years. She deserves to be remembered for much more than her Van Gogh!
Read more about Boch here and here and about The Red Vineyard here.
“Wheat Sheaves in a Summer Landscape”, oil on panel, Anna Boch, date unknown
Colour Combination
The colours this week are Caramel, Banana, Sap Green & Dove Grey. Use them along with a contrasting dark and neutral light colour to create an artwork in any medium or style. Share this post with someone who might enjoy a weekly dollop of colour and creativity.
Shapes
Along with the colour prompt I am including some shapes from her Pointillist painting which you can download as a PDF and print out.
Happy happy birthday 🎂 Este'
Wishing you the happiest of birthdays!
Best wishes from Louisiana...