Disputed Van Gogh painting Le Blute-Fin Mill goes on displayLe Blute-Fin Mill, painted in Paris in 1886, is the first Van Gogh work to be authenticated since 1995Dirk Hannema was known as a brilliant art curator but a bit of a fool. He claimed he had seven Vermeers in his collection, several Van Goghs and a few Rembrandts, but no one believed him.
Now, 25 years after his death it turns out he was right – at least about one work, by Vincent van Gogh. The painting, Le Blute-Fin Mill, went on display today in the Museum de Fundatie in the central Dutch town of Zwolle.
Louis van Tilborgh, curator of research at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, said the painting was unusual for the impressionist, depicting large human figures in a landscape. It shows Parisians climbing wooden stairs to a windmill in the Montmartre district.
But the work was typical of Van Gogh's at that time in other ways, with its bright colours lathered roughly on the canvas. Van Tilborgh said it was painted in 1886 when the artist was living in Paris. The canvas bore the stamp of an art store he frequented, and used pigments common in other works. The painting "adds to his oeuvre," he said. "You can link it to certain works of Van Gogh in that period, but not that many."
It is the first Van Gogh to be authenticated since 1995 and the sixth to be added to the confirmed list of the artist's paintings since the latest edition of the standard catalogue was published in 1970, Van Tilborgh said.
Van Gogh painted about 900 works. Afflicted by mental illness, he died of a self-inflicted wound in 1890, aged 37.
Hannema, who died in 1984, bought the painting in 1975 from a dealer in Paris. He paid 5,000 guilders for this and another work, and insured it for 16 times what he paid. He touted the painting with "absolute certainty" as a Van Gogh, but no one was listening. He had been discredited since he bought a purported Vermeer in 1937 that later was shown to be a forgery.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/24/van-gogh-le-blute-fin-mill
