LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
What did the seven paintings described in last week’s theme clues have in common? They all featured a certain type of flower in them. They were:
17-A — [Someone paid $82.5 million for one painting of his] = Vincent VAN GOGH’s “Portrait of Dr. Gachet,” where the doctor is holding foxglove.
22-A — [Someone else paid £41 million for one painting of his (don’t use the “water”)] = Claude MONET’s “Le Bassin aux Nympheas,” which contains water lilies.
27-A — [This Anglo-Italian artist produced an album of 88 paintings in the 1890s] = Enrico COLEMAN, and all of the paintings in the album are of orchids. Here’s one of them:
39-A — [He painted a “Portrait of” his second wife in 1954, in which she wears a watch, faces left, and has a black, gold and white dress on] = Pablo PICASSO’s “Portrait of J.R. With Roses,” which contains roses.
48-A — [Her 1926 painting now sits in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 36 x 29 7/8 inches in size] = Georgia O’KEEFFE’s “Black Iris,” which contains an iris.
57-A — [His 1907 painting used a (living, but not human) subject made more famous by 17-Across] = Gustav KLIMT’s “The Sunflower,” which contains a sunflower.
65-a — [Her 1643 painting sits in the Franz Hals museum in Haarlem, the Netherlands] = Judith LEYSTER’s untitled 1643 print, which is of a tulip.
Which artistic profession do these point to? Take the first letter of those seven flowers (subtracting the “water” part from “water lilies” as the MONET clue instructs) and you get…
Foxglove
Lily
Orchid
Rose
Iris
Sunflower
Tulip
…meta answer FLORIST, found by 328 solvers. Spring is flower time, after all. 
ERRATA:
Two mistakes last week: DESI was not right for [Ethel’s neighbor] at 23-Across, since his name was “Ricky” on the show. And at 48-Across I had the O’Keeffe painting sitting in the nonexistent “Museum of Metropolitan Art” instead of the “Metropolitan Museum of Art.”
Dele liked the meta:
Buttercup rhododendron azalea violet oleander!
Bruce writes:
That moment when M?NET could be two famous artists.
And jimaquaman reminisces:
An art teacher told me that I was either a budding artist or a blooming idiot. True story. Note: I was not a budding artist.
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 328 correct entries received, is Kanchana Sethu Mesard of Belmont, Mass. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Kanchana will also receive a copy of my forthcoming book Crunchy Crosswords.
NEW YORK MAGAZINE CROSSWORD CONTEST:
My third contest puzzle for New York magazine is here. Deadline is April 2nd at midnight! Week 1 difficulty level.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a famous novel with 14 letters in its title. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Wednesday at 3 PM ET (NOTE EXTRA DAY BECAUSE OF MY LATE START THIS WEEKEND). Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at 3 PM on WEDNESDAY.
To print the puzzle out, click on the image below and hit “print” on your browser. To solve using Across Lite either solve on the applet below or download the free software here, then join the Google Group (2,235 members now!) here. Or you can download the .puz file (you may have to right-click the link and save to your Downloads folder).
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.