Irises Auction History

Provenance summary: Painted in May 1889 at Saint‑Rémy and exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in September 1889 [1]. Dealer Julien “Père” Tanguy sold it in 1891 to Octave Mirbeau, who in 1912 transferred it to Galerie Bernheim‑Jeune, Paris [1].

By 1925–1929 it was with Jacques Doucet [1]. In 1947 M. Knoedler & Co., New York, sold it to Joan Whitney Payson (press accounts reported about $80,000–$84,000) [1][4]. After Payson’s death it passed by inheritance to John Whitney Payson in 1975 [6], was on long‑term loan to the Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art at Westbrook College from 1977 to 1986 [5], then achieved a record $53.9m at Sotheby’s New York on 11 November 1987 (buyer later reported as Alan Bond) [2][3]. On 21 March 1990 Bond sold it privately to the J. Paul Getty Museum, where it remains (accession 90.PA.20) [1][3].

Irises became a touchstone for the late‑1980s art market when it fetched $53.9 million at Sotheby’s New York in November 1987, a world auction record for any artwork at the time and a potent signal of market resilience after the October stock‑market crash [2]. The buyer—widely reported as Alan Bond—later resold the picture privately to the J. Paul Getty Museum in March 1990 for an undisclosed price. Bond’s financing difficulties and Sotheby’s role in guarantees and loans around the transaction drew scrutiny and contributed to evolving transparency in auction‑house guarantee practices [3][7].

Within Van Gogh’s market, the 1987 Irises price reset expectations for late Saint‑Rémy and Auvers‑period works. The record held until May 1990, when Portrait of Dr. Gachet achieved $82.5 million at Christie’s, establishing a new peak for the artist and for any auctioned work at the time [11]. Subsequent decades affirmed sustained depth of demand: Laboureur dans un champ realized $81.3 million in 2017; Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers et cyprès made $71.35 million in 2021; and Orchard with Cypresses reached $117.18 million in 2022, now the Van Gogh auction record [9][10][8].

Because Irises entered the Getty’s collection in 1990, further public price discovery for this specific canvas is unlikely. Even so, its documented provenance—from Tanguy and Mirbeau through Bernheim‑Jeune, Doucet, Knoedler, and the Whitney Payson family—enhances its art‑historical significance and exemplifies the ownership characteristics that underpin valuations for top‑tier Post‑Impressionist paintings [1][3]. As a result, the 1987 Irises sale remains a bellwether comparison point in appraisals and scholarship on Van Gogh’s late florals and landscapes.