Vincent
Willem van Gogh was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose work,
notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty and bold color, had a
far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. He is considered by art
lovers all over the world as one of the greats. He struggled with
bouts of mental distress throughout his life, and died of a
self-inflicted gun wound in 1890, when he was just 37 years old.
Most
of his paintings have been well documented and catalogued. In fact he
sold only one painting while he was alive, though his work was just
beginning to win acclaim. The Van Gogh Museum, which houses 140 of
the Dutch master’s works, receives more than a million visitors
annually, and Van Gogh paintings are among the most valuable in the
world. There is however one painting, which was listed among Theo van
Gogh’s collection, as number 180, and was catalogued, that has been
missing for last 100 years. There was never any doubt about existence
of this painting as Van Gogh himself had described it in detail in a
letter to his brother Theo. For the same reason, the painting could
be dated exactly as Van Gogh had said in his letter that it was
painted on the previous day or July 4, 1888.
This
long lost painting done by the painter, when he spent years in a
Norwegian attic, is the first relatively large full size canvas (36.7
by 28.9 inches), by the Dutch master and is known as “Sunset at
Montmajour.” It depicts trees, bushes and sky, painted with Van
Gogh’s familiar thick brush strokes. The location it depicts can be
identified. It is near Arles, France, where Van Gogh was living at
the time, near Montmajour hill, and the ruins of an abbey of the same
name. The ruins can be seen in the background of the work, on the
left side. Van Gogh had also referred to this painting in two other
letters in the same summer it was painted, but had said that he
considered it a failure in several respects. Probably for this reason
Willem Van Gogh had never signed it.
As the
painting was unsigned, when Theo van Gogh’s collection was sold in
1901, this painting was never attributed to the painter, even when it
had the collection number 180 written at the back. In an ironical
decision, Van Gogh museum had itself rejected the painting’s
authenticity in the 1990s, in part because it was not signed. This
painting now belongs to an unidentified private collector.
The
museum however has now rediscovered the painting and confirms that it
is a genuine Van Gogh work. Researcher Teio Meedendorp from the Van
Gogh museum, says that the new research techniques and a two-year
investigation had convinced them that it is an original Van Gagh. He
adds: “he and other researchers have found answers to all the key
questions, which is remarkable for a painting that has been lost for
more than 100 years.” Van Gogh museum does not disclose full
details of how the painting had been recovered, but says that it had
been owned by a Norwegian man who had been told it was not by Van
Gogh, so he had put it in the attic.
Van
Gogh museum has unveiled the picture at the museum and it would be
kept on display upto 24th
September. The Museum director Axel Rueger describes the discovery of
the painting as a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Art
lovers and those who particularly love Van Gogh's style, can now see
at the museum, something that was missing all these years.
11
September 2013
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