Understanding How The Only Painting That Van Gogh Sold During His Lifetime Ended Up In Russia

Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh left a significant impact on the world of art. His masterpieces, known for impressive brushwork and vibrant colours, continue to mesmerize many even today. However, not many are aware of Van Gogh’s path that led to this legacy. 

More about Vincent Van Gogh’s sold painting during his lifetime 

For the unversed, Van Gogh decided to become an artist at the age of 27 and, in his decade-long artistic career, he created over 2,000 artworks. However, during his lifetime, he managed to sell only one painting. However, there is a lot of debate around this which completely depends on how you define “sell,” as the Van Gogh Museum points out. 

According to reports, the artist did trade works with other artists, and an art dealer commissioned some paintings in a charitable effort to help his nephew. Reports also suggest that there is one known painting that he sold after a public exhibition. It was sold to someone he wasn’t related to. 

The painting has been titled as The Red Vineyards Near Arles (1888) and it depicts a landscape near Montmajour Abbey during the grape harvest. The painting beautifully showcases the evening sun which has turned the landscape into a fiery red as workers labor in the fields. 

On the occasion of its blockbuster 1984 show “Van Gogh in Arles,” the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York pointed out that, “His move from Paris to the Midi gave rise to bold experimentation in the use of color and to explorations of style and subject matter,” resulting in “a turning point in the course of nineteenth-century Western art.”

According to reports, the Belgian painter Anna Boch, a member of the group, bought the canvas. However, the price at which it was sold is still not clear. Different sources indicate different prices, either 350 or 400 francs. 

Van Gogh wrote a letter to his art dealer brother Theo. He said that Boch paid the sticker price, when she should have gotten a “friend’s price.” The letter is now displayed in the collection of Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum,

The painting later made its way to a Paris art gallery, where Russian collector Ivan Morozov purchased it. Nationalized during the Bolshevik Revolution, the painting went to its current owner, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.