The Market for Impressionism
Hawthornden Lecture Theatre, National Gallery ComplexIn 1892 Degas’ painting L’Absinthe was sold for a mere 180 guineas at auction. A century later another Impressionist work, Renoir’s Moulin de la Galette, sold at Sotheby’s for $78 million. Philip Hook, Director of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department, examines the story of the developing market for Impressionism.