New van Gogh painting discovered: 'Sunset at Montmajour'

More than 120 years after Vincent van Gogh's death, a new painting by the Dutch master has come to light. 

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which holds the largest collection of the artist's work, announced Monday the discovery of the newly identified painting, a landscape titled "Sunset at Montmajour." "A discovery of this magnitude has never before occurred in the history of the Van Gogh Museum," the museum's director, Axel Ruger, said in a statement. Van Gogh is believed to have completed the relatively large painting in 1888, two years before his death and during "a period that is considered by many to be the culmination of his artistic achievement," Ruger said. The picture depicts a landscape in the vicinity of Arles in the south of France, where van Gogh was working at that time, the museum said.

Ruger said the museum attributed the painting to van Gogh after "extensive research into style, technique, paint, canvas, the depiction, van Gogh's letters and the provenance." Starting September 24, it will appear in "Van Gogh At Work," an exhibition currently on show at the museum in Amsterdam.Van Gogh (1853-1890) crafted some of the world's best known and most loved paintings, including "Sunflowers," "Irises" and "Starry Night," and a number of self-portraits.

He painted "Sunset at Montmajour" during the same period in which he produced "Sunflowers," Ruger said. Van Gogh achieved little recognition as an artist during his lifetime, but his reputation blossomed in the years after his suicide at the age of 37, following years of mental illness. His works now hang in leading museums and galleries around the world. During the art market boom of the late 1980s and early 1990s, three of van Gogh's works succeeded each other as the most expensive paintings ever sold: "Sunflowers" for $39.9 million, "Irises" for $53.9 million and "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" for $82.5 million.

In its statement, the Van Gogh Museum didn't divulge the full story behind the discovery of "Sunset at Montmajour," saying it would be published in the October edition of The Burlington Magazine, a fine art publication, and at the museum. Louis van Tilborgh and Teio Meedendorp, two senior researchers at the museum, said the painting had belonged to the collection of van Gogh's younger brother, Theo, in 1890 and was sold in 1901.

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New Vincent Van Gogh painting identified

Sunset at Montmajour - which depicts trees, bushes and sky - had spent years in a Norwegian private collector's attic after he had been told the work was not by the Dutch master. The museum said the painting was authenticated by letters, style and the physical materials used. It is the first full-size canvas by Van Gogh discovered since 1928.

Museum director Axel Rueger called the discovery a "once-in-a-lifetime experience'' at an unveiling ceremony. He said the institution had previously rejected the painting's authenticity in the 1990s partly because it was not signed. However thanks to new research techniques and a two-year investigation, it concluded the artwork was by the artist.  Researcher Teio Meedendorp said he and other researchers "found answers to all the key questions, which is remarkable for a painting that has been lost for more than 100 years".The piece can be dated to the exact day it was painted because the artist described it in a letter to his brother, Theo, saying he had painted it the previous day - on 4 July 1888.

. .researchers have now identified the location Sunset at Montmajour depicts as being near Montmajour hill, near Arles in France, where the artist was living at the time. Writing in The Burlington Magazine, Meedendorp said almost all the pigments used in the artwork were ones he "habitually had on his palette at this time", including a cobalt blue he began using from the summer of 1887 onwards. The painting was also listed among Theo van Gogh's collection as number 180 - and that number can still be seen on the back of the canvas.

After the work was sold in 1901, it apparently vanished until it re-appeared in the estate of Norwegian industrialist Christian Nicolai Mustad upon his death in 1970. According to Mustad's family, the French ambassador to Sweden visited the collector soon after he bought the painting and suggested it was fake or had been wrongly attributed. Consequently, Mustad banished the piece to the attic. After his death, the collector's family contacted the Van Gogh museum in 1991 to verify its authenticity, but it was eventually decided it was not by the artist. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24014186