1990
Doig wins an award from London’s Whitechapel Gallery. A film buff, he begins White Canoe, a lakeside scene inspired by Friday the 13th.

1994
Doig’s watercolors are offered for a few thousand dollars each at a New York art fair. Software entrepreneur Peter Norton later buys Doig’s 1994 painting Corn Cob, now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

1995 to 1997
Successful exhibitions in Germany and Doig’s small output—about 10 paintings a year—boost demand. Prices for his paintings rise into the $20,000 to $40,000 range.

1999
Doig’s U.S. dealer, Gavin Brown, becomes famous for a dung-dotted portrait of the Virgin Mary by Chris Ofili, another artist he represents. Crowds swarm Brown’s gallery. A Doig sells for $172,245.

2000 to 2002
Influential collectors Mira and Don Rubell (brother of Studio 54 founder Steve) and British advertising magnate Charles Saatchi buy Doigs. Nineteen of his works are auctioned, two for more than $400,000 each. 

2004
The spotlight shifts to artists like Dana Schutz and Marlene Dumas. Works by Doig stall at auction. Not one breaks $100,000.

2005
Every Doig offered at auction sells, one for $650,000, after the Museum of Modern Art commissions one for its reopening.

2006
Doig is included in the Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial. The artist cracks $1 million for a painting. In September, Sotheby’s takes a position in the artist, reportedly buying six works from Saatchi for $11 million.

February 2007
White Canoe goes on sale at Sotheby’s with a $1.5 million estimate. A bidding war, which drives the price to $11.3 million, is won by Russian collector Boris Ivanishvili. 

September 2007
Four Doigs hit the auction block in small, off-season sales in New York. Sotheby’s offers the priciest, his 1993 Night Fishing. Estimated at $250,000, it instead brings $121,000. 

November 2007
Doigs appear at the fall auctions.