Pieces Artists Keep, and Why

Claude Monet, "Camille on He Deathbed," 1879

When you read about artists of the past you sometimes read about works they made that were personal favorites, often never sold. Owing to one thing and another, the works remained in possesion of the artist because of extreme emotion--Monet's deathbed painting of Camille Doncieux for example--or because of other circumstances. Camille had been his model and wife for more than twenty years before she died in her thirties of cancer. Monet painted this picture after she died, later writing about how the colors changed in her face as he did so. He kept the painting until his own death in 1926, most likely as a deeply personal memento of the love of his life.

John Sargent, "Madame X," 1884

Sometimes it may not have been sentiment but notoriety that prompted an artist to retain a work. John Sargent's painting, "Portrait of Madame X" scandalized the Paris Salon of 1884, partly because he painted the right strap of the gown falling over her shoulder--seemingly as if she were about to undress. The critics were savage about the work. Sargent repainted the strap and kept the work for another thirty years before selling to the Metropolitan Museum in New York. As to why he kept it, perhaps he wanted to sell and nobody was buying. Or perhaps he felt it was under-appreciated, or maybe he simply liked it that much. He was supposed to have said it was his best work, and I think he kept it more out of a dislike for the criticism, although he did exhibit the work quite a few times before the later sale.

Leonardo da Vinci "Mona Lisa," 1503-1516

Mona Lisa, or La Gioconda was a particular favorite of da Vinci's. It is most commonly said to be a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a silk merchant of Florence. It's known that da Vinci did indeed paint such a portrait; what is still at odds is whether the portrait we know by that name is actually the one of Lisa. At any rate, if this is the painting, it was started in 1503 and continued in his possession until he died. Of course, he may have kept it because he had difficulty finishing anything. Was it because he loved it or because it frustrated him? Certainly it was documented that he was working on it even ten years or so after he began it as a commission. At any rate, it is of course now the most famous painting in the world despite having been out of sight for all of those years.

"The Dying Woman," 2008

Probably we all have works we're reluctant to sell, or never intended for sale. In my own case it's a silvepoint drawing called "The Dying Woman," that continues to evoke strong emotions. It's a work I'll never sell. The lady in the drawing is at the end stage of metastatic lung cancer with only a few weeks to live when this was made. In a sense it's more like Monet than da Vinci. It's not a favorite because of what it is or how it was made. Instead it evokes strong and painful emotion. I cannot look at it long. I suspect Monet felt the same.