Orientalist Art

Sotheby’s is having an auction of Orientalist Art on March 18, 2009.  The painting above is by Rudolph Ernst, entitled “A Hard Bargain”.  Ever hear of Rudolph Ernst’s paintings in your college history of art classes?  Probably not, yet his works sell today for millions of dollars, and Orientalist Art is growing in popularity and demand among collectors.  If I had millions I’d buy the whole lot, and would receive a damn fine return on them in the future.  Paintings such as Ernst’s put contemporary art to shame.  There’s nothing more amazing than a painting that took an artist’s whole being to create.  In my career, I’m shooting for getting my paintings into the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., to preserve them as historical documents like the one above.  That’s where it’s really at.