Who Purchases the Art for the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has quietly bought a fix of about half of Van Gogh'south prints in a single buy, we can exclusively report. They come up from a Minnesota collector who acquired the three lithographs and an etching in the early 2000s.
The lithographs are very rare and only between four and viii examples of each survive, with most in European museums. None of the three lithographs are represented in whatsoever other U.s.a. museum. Altogether Van Gogh made prints of but ten subjects, so the Met has in one swoop caused nearly one-half of them.
The Met's acquisition was arranged through Christie's, acting on behalf of the Minnesota possessor. The New York museum is keeping the seller's name confidential, at their asking. The prints volition be unveiled in a display during the summer.
Van Gogh'due south At Eternity's Gate (Nov 1882) Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Van Gogh's first prints were made in Nov 1882, while he was living in The Hague. These include At Eternity's Gate, which is part of the group acquired by the Met. This is a specially interesting lithograph, since on another example of the impress the creative person added the championship in English with a pencil.
Vincent had probably intended to utilize At Eternity'southward Gate in his quest to seek piece of work from the publications The Illustrated London News or The Graphic. The location of the inscribed example may come every bit a surprise: it is at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.
The Met's newly acquired case has pinhole damage in the corners. Van Gogh would casually pin works to the walls of his accommodation, then this print could well take been pinned inside the small apartment in The Hague that he shared with his lover Sien Hoornik.
Iv years afterward, Van Gogh gave this example of the impress to his Australian friend, the Impressionist artist John Peter Russell. This was probably in part exchange for Russell's powerful Portrait of Van Gogh (1886).
Van Gogh's Burning Weeds (July 1883) Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Burning Weeds (July 1883), another of the Met's acquisitions, was done the following year and depicts a rural scene on the outskirts of The Hague. Its field of study matter and mode reveal Van Gogh's adoration for the mid-19th century French artist Jean-François Millet, famed for his images of peasant life. Vincent had included a preliminary sketch in a letter to his brother Theo.
Vincent's sketch Burning Weeds in his letter to Theo, around 11 July 1883 Credit: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Van Gogh had some difficulties in making the lithograph and touched up the Met's version of the print with ink to strengthen further details. This is especially visible on the actual print (but less so in reproductions) in the area around the homo's clogs.
The Met's example was sold by Vincent'southward nephew in 1930. Afterwards passing through several collections it was auctioned at Sotheby'southward in 2003, going for £252,000 to the Minnesota buyer.
Van Gogh's Gardener by an Apple tree Tree (July 1883) Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Fine art, New York
Gardener by an Apple Tree (July 1883), was based on a drawing that he made in the grounds of an almshouse in The Hague. Vincent over again included a preliminary sketch of the image in a alphabetic character to Theo. The Met's impress has likewise been touched upward with ink.
Vincent'southward sketch Gardener by an Apple tree Tree in his alphabetic character to Theo, around 13 July 1883 Credit: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Van Gogh gave the copy of the lithograph that has ended up at the Met to another creative person friend, Anton van Rappard. Like the Met's At Eternity's Gate, this instance was eventually owned past the Lausanne-based American businessman Samuel Josefowitz in the 1990s.
Van Gogh'southward Portrait of Dr Gachet (June 1890) Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The etched Portrait of Dr Gachet (June 1890) depicts the doctor who kept an heart on Van Gogh in the last weeks of his life, in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, just north of Paris. Vincent as well made a masterful painted Portrait of Dr Gachet, which has disappeared into a mysterious private collection. It was Dr Gachet who cared for Van Gogh after he had shot himself until his death two days afterward.
Dr Gachet's son afterward recalled how Van Gogh fabricated the etching: "After an outdoor lunch in the courtyard, once the men'south pipes were lit, Vincent was handed an etching needle and a varnished copper; he enthusiastically took his new friend as the subject."
Although Van Gogh had never previously etched, under the doctor'southward guidance in less than one-half an hour he had completed a portrait of his host smoking in the garden. The two men then rushed upstairs to Gachet'southward studio, where they printed some copies. Dr Gachet inscribed the artist's name in ink in the lower left on the Met's example.
The etching is much more common than the lithographs, with effectually 70 impressions known. Last autumn two examples sold at sale, fetching SF330,000 ($362,000) with buyer'south premium at Kornfeld, Bern and $161,000 at Swann, New York (prices vary considerably depending on the impression).
Van Gogh'southward sketch of The Yellow House in his letter of the alphabet to Theo, nigh 29 September 1888 Credit: Image from Vincent van Gogh: The Letters (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam)
As for the anonymous seller to the Met, they might also take been the fortunate owner of an important alphabetic character sketch of The Yellow House (September 1888). This was caused by an unnamed Minnesota buyer at Christie's in 2003 for £845,000 (they sold it a decade later, again at Christies, for $5.5m). All four of the Met's prints had been acquired by an anonymous Minnesota buyer in 1999-2004, and then the seller could well as well take been the possessor of The Yellow Business firm, although this remains speculation.
When Vincent set out in 1882 to create his first lithographs he did so with the intention of making his art accessible to ordinary people. He wrote to his brother Theo that his idea was to draw working men "from the people for the people". Vincent decided that "the toll of the prints is non to exceed 10 or at the most 15 cents".
In that location is no prove that Vincent actually succeeded in selling any of his prints, but had he done then then the set of iv acquired by the Met would have earned him less than one dollar. Although the price paid by the Met is not being disclosed, their prints are now worth several million dollars.
Martin Bailey is the author of Van Gogh's Finale: Auvers and the Artist's Rising to Fame (Francis Lincoln, 2021, available in the UK and U.s.a. ). He is a leading Van Gogh specialist and investigative reporter for The Fine art Newspaper. Bailey has curated Van Gogh exhibitions at the Barbican Art Gallery and Compton Verney/National Gallery of Scotland. He was a co-curator of Tate Britain'southward The EY Exhibition: Van Gogh and Britain (27 March-11 August 2019).
Martin Bailey's recent Van Gogh books
Bailey has written a number of other bestselling books, including The Sunflowers Are Mine: the Story of Van Gogh's Masterpiece (Frances Lincoln 2013, bachelor in the UK and US ), Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence (Frances Lincoln 2016, available in the United kingdom and U.s.a. ) and Starry Night: Van Gogh at the Aviary (White Lion Publishing 2018, available in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland and Us ). Bailey's Living with Vincent van Gogh: the Homes and Landscapes that Shaped the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, bachelor in the Britain and The states ) provides an overview of the creative person's life. The Illustrated Provence Letters of Van Gogh has been reissued (Batsford 2021, available in the Uk and US ).
• To contact Martin Bailey, please email: vangogh@theartnewspaper.com. Please kindly refer queries about authentication of possible Van Goghs to the Van Gogh Museum .
Read more from Martin's Adventures with Van Gogh webloghere
Source: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/01/14/new-yorks-metropolitan-museum-buys-four-extremely-rare-van-gogh-prints
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