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The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has announced that a photo would be one of only two photographs of surviving artist Vincent Van Gogh. It's actually a photo of his brother Theo.
It had long been thought that the black-and-white picture showed Vincent at the age of 13 and appeared in the biographies of the notoriously shy artist in front of the camera behind "Sunflowers" and in a series of self-portraits.
But after doubts were expressed about the identity of the boy in the photo, research experts have shown that it was not Vincent, but his little brother Theo, then aged 15.
"When I learned that it was probably a photo of my great-grandfather Theo, and not Vincent, I was surprised, but I am pleased that the mystery was solved ", Willem van Gogh, great-grandson of Theo and advisor to the Van Gogh Museum's board of directors, said in a statement.
Vincent Van Gogh was killed at the age of 37, in 1890, after a life laden with emotion, detailed in years of correspondence with Theo, an art dealer who supported the artist on the emotional and financial levels.
While Vincent Van Gogh is famous for his brightly colored and emotionally turbulent oil self-portraits, he has shown a surprising reluctance to be photographed.
The only other photograph known to him shows him at 19 years old.
The photo taken to represent Vincent Vincent as a young man of 13 years, taken by the Brussels photographer Balduin Schwarz, appeared at an exhibition organized in 1957 by a Belgian researcher who identified it in a catalog as being "Portrait of Vincent Van Gogh (circa 1886)". ) & # 39;
But after a Dutch TV program raised questions about it and another Van Gogh expert expressed doubts about when the photo was taken, the Van Gogh Museum launched an investigation .
The problem was that the two brothers were alike, with red / blond hair, but Theo had more delicate features and a "very light eye color" that looked like the one we could see in the photo, the Museum.
The museum then commissioned a forensic study to a professor from the University of Amsterdam.
The study showed with "a high degree of probability" that the photo was from Theo.
"Thanks to this discovery, we are a poorer illusion and a richer Theo's portrait," said Axel Rutger, director of the Van Gogh Museum.
"In fact, we are again in the situation as before the false identification of 1957 – with a single photographic portrait of the young Vincent van Gogh, aged 19."
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