Amsterdam museum unveils newly discovered Van Gogh painting

USPA News - A newly discovered landscape painting by Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, one of the best known painters in the world and whose work had a great influence on 20th century art, was unveiled in Amsterdam on Monday, more than 120 years after his death. The large oil landscape painting, named "Sunset at Montmajour," is from 1888 which is by many considered to be at the height of the Dutch master`s career.

During this time period, spent mostly in Arles in southern France, Van Gogh also painted world-famous works such as "Sunflowers," "The yellow house" and "The bedroom." "A discovery of this magnitude has never before occurred in the history of the Van Gogh Museum. It is already a rarity that a new painting can be added to Van Gogh`s oeuvre," said Axel Rüger, the director of the museum that is located in the Dutch capital. It is the first full-size canvas by Van Gogh discovered since 1928. The painting had been left abandoned in the attic of a Norwegian collector who thought the painting was a forgery after buying it in 1908. But experts concluded the painting was indeed by Van Gogh after a two-year investigation, during which they carried out extensive research into the work`s style, technique, paint, canvas, depiction, and letters from the artist himself in which he refers to it. "We carried out art historical research into the style, the depiction, use of materials and context, and everything we found indicated that this is a work by Van Gogh," researchers Louis van Tilborgh and Teio Meedendorp said in a joint statement. "Stylistically and technically speaking, there are a plenty of parallels with other paintings by Van Gogh from the summer of 1888." Van Tilborgh and Meedendorp said the painting shows "very strong and typical" characteristics of Van Gogh, although accompanied by weaker and less convincing elements. "Technical research has shown that the pigments used correspond with those of Van Gogh`s palette from Arles - including the discolorations that are so characteristic of his oeuvre," they said. The newly discovered painting, which is relatively large at 93.3 by 73.3 centimeters (36.7 by 28.8 inches), also used the same type of canvas and underpainting as was used for "The rocks," which Van Gogh painted during the same period and which is highly comparable in terms of style. The researchers also identified the location of the landscape portrayed in the painting, namely a field near the Montmajour hill close to Arles. "Sunset at Montmajour" will be exhibited to the public as part of the "Van Gogh at work" exhibition from September 24 at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.