the artnet nude 100

by Walter Robinson and Randi Harari  
 

Our methodology was straightforward. We instructed ArtNet Auctions Online to rank the 1.5 million art works in our database by price, and then selected the nudes from the list. All the usual suspects are there: Picasso, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne -- even de Kooning.

Our purpose is more complex. Why compile the ArtNet Nude 100? Because we never heard of anyone hiding a stack of still-life pictures under their mattress! More seriously, we wanted to begin an investigation into the populist roots of fine art in America -- that is to say, not in the salon but in the saloon. The ArtNet Nude 100 is democratic undertaking, designed for the art tourist. It's an unalloyed pitch for hits.

We hope the ArtNet Nude 100 will draw attention to Auctions Online, which was only recently moved into our Web site. This amazing bit of computer programming is a uniquely independent appraisal tool for people buying or selling art -- in addition to the various uses it also might have during the art world's slow summer months.

Finally, we should note that, despite the changes in the contemporary art world wrought since the 1960s by the feminist revolution, the art market remains -- at least at the high end -- a resolutely patriarchal place. (Readers are encouraged to develop this theme at length on their own; we will not do so here.) At this atavistic level, it seems, the practice of art involves a male artist looking and a female model on display. Quaint though such a picture may be, we still say that portrayal of the nude can approach the sublime. And we hope that this traditional frame can be made to fit the issues of gender psychology that animate so much art practice today.

Before we present the ArtNet Nude 100, however, allow us a few observations.

1. As is probably the case in the art market overall, Picasso is the winner, hands down, taking the top three places. Surprisingly, the #1 and #2 spots are occupied by Le miroir, Picasso's famed 1932 portrait of his lover Marie-Thérèse. Needless to say, this image is not your typical pin-up -- though it is widely considered to be a consummately romantic picture despite its modernistic distortions. Paintings by Picasso -- a total of 15 -- tied with Renoir as the most frequent on the list and Picasso works generated the most money in total sales -- over $105 million. Six Picassos are among the top 20 on the list.
2. Renoir's 15 nudes sold for about $47.5 million, less than half of Picasso's total for the same number of works. Two Renoirs make the top 20. Four Renoir works sold more than once -- Baigneuse sold three times, and Après le Bain, Baigneuse debout and Deux baigneuses each sold twice.
3. Alberto Giacometti's series of standing women appear a number of times in the Nude 100. Grande femme Debout I sold three times, tying with Renoir's Baigneuse and Degas' La toilette -- the three most frequently sold works. Giacometti's Grande femme debout III and Femme debout are also on the list.
4. In addition to Picasso and Renoir, leading purveyors of the nude are Matisse, with 12, and Degas, with 11. Two post-war artists make the ArtNet Nude 100 -- Francis Bacon and Willem de Kooning .
5. Old Masters only make a modest appearance in the Nude 100. Needless to say, masterpieces by such artists as Botticelli or Rubens rarely come up for auction. Titian makes #5, however, and Veronese comes in at #34.
6. Only one nude male figure makes the list, Bourdelle's Herakles Archer (#69, #98). Figure groups by Cézanne (#15, #48) and other artists, however, do include males.
7. The total hammer price of the top 100 is $357,244,861. Although the list includes 100 works, only 32 artists are represented.