Apreviously unseen Vincent van Gogh drawing of an exhausted old man has been discovered, a museum dedicated to the artist has confirmed.
A Study for Worn Out was drawn early in the artist’s career in 1882, the Van Gogh Museum said on Thursday.
The sketch has been sitting in a Dutch family’s private collection for more than a century. But on Thursday, it went on display at the Amsterdam Museum for the first time.
The public will be able to see it until January 2 before it is returned to the private collection.
The small pencil drawing signed “Vincent” depicts an elderly labourer dressed in a waistcoat, trousers and boots sitting on a wooden chair with his head in his hands.
“This one has never been seen before anywhere. It is the first time this drawing is out in the open,” said Teio Meedendorp, a senior researcher at the Van Gogh Museum.
He told the BBC it was “absolutely impossible” to say how much it was worth.
Van Gogh appeared to have used the drawing as the basis for a slightly different version of the drawing shortly afterwards, which he preferred, and which is currently in the museum’s collection under the title Worn Out.
The artist made Study for Worn Out when he was living in Hague and still learning to draw around the age of 29. Experts say it offers an exceptional insight into Van Gogh’s working process at the time.
The museum’s director, Emilie Gordenker, said the team was “delighted with this discovery.”
“We are very happy to have made a contribution to our specialist field. It is quite rare for a new work to be attributed to Van Gogh. We are proud to be able to share this early drawing and its story with our visitors,” she said.
The owner of the work, who wants to remain anonymous, asked the museum to determine whether the drawing could be attributed to Van Gogh.
The announcement comes six months after a Van Gogh painting of a Paris street went on display for the first time after spending more than 100 years behind closed doors.
A Street Scene in Montmartre has been owned by a French family for most of the time since it was painted in 1887. The painting went on to fetch 13.09 million euros N6, 304, 617, 683) at auction in March. (BBC)
