While researching a new blog post about seeing Eugene Delacroix's murals in the church of St. Sulpice, Paris, I came across this announcement from the Journal of the Society of Arts, 1864:
It's a report of the sale of the entire contents of his studio, which is on the Rue Furstenberg in the St Germain des Pres district -- and which I wrote about visiting two years ago. Certain details indicate the excitement of the writer, even in what is otherwise a report of objects and prices: "contains no less than 858 lots," "numerous and remarkable decorative works of art." It goes on to describe the sketchbooks and watercolours:
The final part of the notice talks about the success of the sale, and the large sums of money being paid for the works:
The final total is between 7,000 and 8,000 pounds, which would be roughly 600,000 pounds at the current exchange (I used a chart from the Bank of England's website to do the conversion). A later notice, at the completion of the sale, states a total of 15,000 pounds, or about 1.5 million. Even that seems on the low side, considering how much an estate sale of a comparably important artist of our times would fetch.
It's a report of the sale of the entire contents of his studio, which is on the Rue Furstenberg in the St Germain des Pres district -- and which I wrote about visiting two years ago. Certain details indicate the excitement of the writer, even in what is otherwise a report of objects and prices: "contains no less than 858 lots," "numerous and remarkable decorative works of art." It goes on to describe the sketchbooks and watercolours:
The final part of the notice talks about the success of the sale, and the large sums of money being paid for the works:
The final total is between 7,000 and 8,000 pounds, which would be roughly 600,000 pounds at the current exchange (I used a chart from the Bank of England's website to do the conversion). A later notice, at the completion of the sale, states a total of 15,000 pounds, or about 1.5 million. Even that seems on the low side, considering how much an estate sale of a comparably important artist of our times would fetch.