Pablo Picasso

Garçon à la Pipe (Boy with a Pipe) is a painting by Pablo Picasso, painted in 1905, during the 24-year-old artist's Rose Period. The oil on canvas painting depicts a Parisian boy holding a pipe in his left hand.

It sold for $104.1 million USD at an auction in Sotheby's in New York, after having been given a pre-sale estimate of $70 million by the auction house. Many art critics have stated that the painting's high sale price has much more to do with the artist's name than with the merit or historical importance of the painting.

I am just in love with the contrast between the man and his wings and even the background. The blue against that peachy background is striking. And the way the flower wings tease you as to where they are meant to be... on the man's back, in his imagination, or as part of the background. It may not be one of Picasso's most admired paintings, but still... $104.1 million!

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso, Child With Dove

I admire simple shapes and great texture and this is full of 'em. And even though the shapes are SO simple, this little child is so full of expression. I love the dark outline of the figure too.

Minerva Teichert

Minerva Teichert
"Mary and Martha"

I love her long lean figures here. You can almost see the fashions of the era she comes from even in this biblical painting... or maybe it is my imagination.

Minerva Teichert

Minerva Teichert

"Esther"

I absolutely admire the way she interprets biblical stories in her paintings. I love her loose style and her almost muted color palates.

Marie-Louise-Elisabeth Vigee le Brun

Marie-Louise-Elisabeth Vigee le Brun (1755-1842)

Princess Eudocia Ivanovna Galitzine as Flora, 1799
Oil on canvas

To see this painting in person and to know the artist's history makes it much more impressive. The figure's skin is so luminescent! You almost expect that if you touch it, it will be supple. It makes me appreciate the true beauty and potential of a glaze painting. The painter is French and was forced to flee France when the French Revolution broke out. She had been a favorite of the Queen's. She spent many years in exile painting foreign nobility like the russian princess portrayed here. They loved her flattering french style... of course.