Peter Doig pictured with his 2017 painting, ‘Two Trees’.
Peter Doig is an artist who rose to prominence in the 1990s. Since then, his atmospheric, unusual, and hauntingly beautiful paintings and prints have captured the attention of the world, and he has successfully established his reputation as one of the most important artists of our time.
Doig’s popularity is reflected in the prices his work fetches at auction; in 2007, he became Europe’s most expensive living painter, and in 2021, his painting Swamped was sold by Christie’s for £25.4 million, setting a new record for the artist. But his prints, which account for 65% of Doig’s work sold at auction, also fetch significant prices, usually reaching between £1,000 and £5,000.
Doig once said all his paintings “have an element of autobiography in them, but I resist making the autobiographical readings overly specific”. Therefore, it is useful to know some things about the artist’s life when considering his artwork; below are five facts you might not have known about Peter Doig.
Free Specialist Print Valuations
Please use the form below to submit images of your print and receive a free, no-obligation valuation from a specialist auctioneer. We will also actively seek the highest offer from our network of private collectors to help you sell your print.
"*" indicates required fields
He’s Lived In Many Countries
Peter Doig was born in Scotland, but when he was young, his family moved to Trinidad due to his father’s job in a shipping company, and a few years later, they moved to Canada. Doig spent some years at a boarding school in Scotland, then he eventually headed to London to study at art school, which culminated in an MA from the Chelsea School of Art. After establishing his reputation in the 1990s, Doig returned to live in Trinidad in 2002, though in 2021, he decided to come back to London, where he has been ever since.
This nomadic existence has deeply influenced Doig’s work, with many of his paintings and prints representing isolated, transient figures who sometimes appear to be hovering in liminal spaces, such as those in Blizzard ‘77. The artist has frequently called himself “an outsider”, explaining his childhood gave him the sense that he doesn’t “really belong anywhere.” This sense of being outside something is echoed in Doig’s work in other ways, too; some figures are outside society, others appear to be outside time itself, such as those in the 100 Years Ago prints from 2001.
His Most Expensive Print Sold For £170,000
Untitled, Ping Pong Player is a monotype from 2011, and it was sold by Christie’s in March 2018 for £170,000, setting a new record for Doig. It’s actually a reworking of one of Doig’s earlier paintings, with the print appearing subtler and more nuanced than the painting. Although the strange, indistinct figure in the image is in the same position, playing a game against an invisible – or imaginary – opponent, the print is created in Doig’s signature dreamy, fantastical style, deviating from the harder lines and bold blocks of colour found in the original painting.
Untitled, Ping Pong Player sold by Christies in 2018
He Spends A Lot Of Time Finishing His Paintings
Doig usually spends several years working on his paintings, saying, “I tend to start things and then leave them when I get stuck before returning to them… Sometimes that process takes five years or even longer. The minimum is probably a couple of years.” It’s worth it for the final result, though; his Zermatt paintings, for instance, were created during numerous separate trips to Switzerland over the course of several years, and the prints which resulted from the paintings are now among Doig’s most popular at auction, having fetched £35,000 in January 2023.
He Stood Apart From The YBAs
The British art scene in the 1990s was dominated by the shock tactics of the YBAs and the extravagant, controversial pieces they produced. It was a time when Tracey Emin was exhibiting her unmade bed, Damien Hirst was making waves with his pickled tiger shark, and there was a general sense that painting was a medium of the past.
Doig, however, didn’t embrace this phenomenon, and instead, he quietly worked away, saying that although it was a strange time to be a painter, he “really enjoyed” it. Perhaps one of the reasons he avoided being swept up in the craze of the YBAs was, as he said, that “I don’t think I was chasing anything… I think that’s a big mistake for artists – to try and chase something and want to be part of something.” Doig’s reserved self-confidence and belief that painting was not dead paid off in the end though; his work is now among the most popular in the world, and the prints he created in the 1990s (such as Blizzard ’77 and Ten Etchings) retain the refreshing timelessness of when they were first created.
He’s Uncomfortable About The High Prices Of His Work
Peter Doig became Europe’s most expensive living artist in 2007 when his painting White Canoe was sold for £5.7 million. His reaction was to “feel sick”, explaining “that someone should have put their hand in their pocket and spent that much money on a painting of mine seemed so unconnected to anything that I ever did.” He has since spoken out about problems in the art market, calling for more transparency, especially in the secondary market.
But despite the astronomical prices his paintings and prints fetch at auction, Doig is unquestionably humble about the lovely work he produces, saying his finished pieces are the result of “mistake, after mistake, after mistake.” The culmination of all those mistakes, however, is undeniably beautiful, making it very clear why Doig is among the most expensive artists alive today.
