A painting by Vincent van Gogh that has not been on public display for a century will be auctioned in March with an estimated sales price of between 5 and 8 million euros (between just over 6 and 9.7 million dollars). they announced on Wednesday that Sotheby’s and Mirabaud Mercier will reside.
The work “Street scene in Montmartre (Alley of the two brothers and the pepper mill)” was painted in the spring of 1887 during Van Gogh’s period in Paris (1886-1888) and shows a couple walking through the hill of Montmartre.
This painting, which has been in a French private collection for a century and has not been seen in public since then, will be the star of the Impressionist art auction held by both houses in Paris on March 25.
On the painting’s journey since Van Gogh painted it in 1887, the curator of the sale, Fabien Mirabaud, said at a press conference that they believe that ‘Théo, his brother, kept it, that he went through unknown intermediaries and that before 1920 was already in the hands of the family that has owned it ever since. “
The two auction houses avoided giving details of the family’s identity, but explained that one of the conditions attached to the auction was that the auction be held in Paris, where they would like it to stay. “although they are assuming that the auction may finish abroad,” explains Fabien Mirabaud, of the firm that bears his name.
On the scene of the painting, Aurélie Vandevoorde, director of Sothebys Impressionist art, indicated that the Parisian hill of Montmartre at that time consisted of two parts: ‘a more urbanized one, with the well-known cabarets, and a more rural one, orchards, mills, barns … That is the part that Van Gogh depicted. “
The Dutch painter “preferred to show a rural scene rather than a portrait of the dance halls or cabarets in the area,” added Mirabaud.
The work will be exhibited at Sotheby’s in Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Paris before being auctioned in the French capital on March 25.
The experts managing this offer are confident that the estimated starting price will be reached, which is, for example, a lower entry price than that achieved in 2020 by a rural landscape of the same painter sold in the Netherlands for 15 million euros (more than 18 million euros). dollars).
“It is a revolutionary painting because it incorporates light colors and vibrant pigments into Van Gogh’s work. It laid the foundation for his inimitable style,” says Etienne Hellman, specialist in the Modern Art and Impressionism department at Sotheby’s.
The expert Aurélie Vandevoorde also pointed out that “in this painting the artist is restoring the tradition of the Dutch landscape” which he uses to paint Montmartre, an artist’s district.
The statement notes that this painting is part of a “very rare series” of Van Gogh paintings featuring the famous Galette Mill in Montmartre.
The Dutchman Van Gogh (1853-1890) lived in Paris between 1886 and 1888, a period in which he coincided with some of the leading artists of the time, such as Gauguin, Pissarro or Toulouse-Lautrec, contacts that marked a strong evolution in his painting , with which he stood out in post-impressionism and expressionism.