Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear Auction History

Painted in Arles in January 1889, the work later entered the collection of Père (Julien) Tanguy and subsequently Comte A. de La Rochefoucauld, both in Paris. By 1928 it was with the dealer Paul Rosenberg, Paris [1].

In October 1928 Rosenberg sold the painting privately to Samuel Courtauld, London, for about £10,000 [1][2]. Courtauld bequeathed it to The Courtauld Gallery (Samuel Courtauld Trust) in 1948, where it remains [1].

Self‑Portrait with Bandaged Ear has never appeared at public auction; its passage through private hands concluded with Samuel Courtauld’s 1948 bequest to his London museum, taking it permanently off the market [1]. The only known price is the October 1928 private transaction from dealer Paul Rosenberg to Samuel Courtauld for around £10,000, a substantial sum that reflects the painting’s stature and the momentum of early 20th‑century collecting of Van Gogh in Britain [1][2].

Because the work is institutionally held, it does not participate in contemporary price formation via the auction market. To gauge the artist’s market at the top end, one must look to other Van Gogh sales: Orchard with Cypresses (1888) set the artist’s current auction record at $117.2m at Christie’s in 2022 [3]; Portrait of Dr. Gachet (1890) realized $82.5m in 1990, then a world record [4]; and Self‑Portrait (Portrait of the Artist Without a Beard) (1889) fetched $71.5m in 1998 [5]. More recently, a still life, Piles de romans parisiens et roses dans un verre (1887), achieved $62.7m in 2025, underscoring depth across genres in the Van Gogh market [6].

Taken together, these benchmarks highlight the exceptional demand for major Van Gogh works while clarifying that this Courtauld self‑portrait—iconic, documented, and museum‑enshrined—sits outside the auction‑driven price mechanism. Its 1928 price and 1948 bequest are historically significant milestones that shaped the artist’s reception and the growth of a leading public collection rather than ongoing market comparables [1][2].