If you look at the art world today – some of the highest prices paid are those from the French Impressionists – names such as Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Cezanne, Renoir, Degas, Sisley and others. These mostly French citizens felt they had to paint something else than what was considered the norm. They used different techniques, perspectives, tried to capture the countryside differently. At the present time if you were the owner of one of the paintings it likely would be worth close to a million or more. Back in the 1870’s the paintings could be bought for considerably less, hundreds was more likely a cost, all of the artists had to do other things to earn a living in order to paint. In the book The Private Lives of the Impressionists, Sue Rose, HarperCollings Publishers, 2006 examines who the impressionists are in order to understand their work. If you were to paint, you subjects would be things around you and people you know. Therefore your background is needed to be looked at to understand who and why you are painting in the manner you are painting in. To be an artist, you first need to understand the masters in the museums for their technique, colours, the manner in which they painted. Next you go to studio and learn more and finally you develop your style. Hopefully, somebody likes it, a dealer is found to display it and the painting is sold. The more you sell or the higher the prices you sell at, the more time you can spend painting and the cycle repeats itself.

With the impressionists of France, the art dealer brought the work to the US which was developing a group of people interested in acquiring art and with sales in the US, the prices rose in France and Europe. The cycle continues as prices rise – museums need to have a piece to show and the cycle continues.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, the impressionists banded together to both challenge the existing painting dealers and to display their paintings. It is a continuing cycle in the art world – artists display their paintings at galleries who sell on consignment and the artists depend on the galleries to bring in potential buyers for the art. It is the reason galleries are forever hosting functions at the gallery. Unless you have a good eye, buy what you like, for you have to look at it. Every once is a while, a great talent is to be found and prices rise, but if you stick to what you like in the case of dividend stocks  while you are paid with a dividend, the stock will typically rise in value. If you enjoy looking at the painting, others will likely enjoy it and in the long run you may be  rewarded as the value increases.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions