Rarely seen Van Gogh painting on display prior to auction

PARIS (AP) – A rare painting by Dutch impressionist master Vincent van Gogh depicting a street scene in the Parisian district of Montmartre will be on public display for the first time ahead of its auction next month.

Sotheby’s auction house said the work, painted in 1887, remained in the same family collection for more than 100 years – out of public view.

It will be on display next month in Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Paris before an auction scheduled for March 25 in the French capital.

“It is an important painting in the work of Vincent van Gogh because it dates from the period when he lived in Paris with his brother Theo,” Etienne Hellman, senior director of Impressionist art, told The Associated Press. modern at Sotheby’s.

Van Gogh moved to Paris in 1886 and lived in Montmartre. He left the capital in 1888 for the south of France, where he lived until his death in 1890.

“Before that, his paintings are much darker… In Paris, he discovers color,” Hellman said. “The color explodes in the painting.”

“Street scene in Montmartre” represents a windmill named the Moulin à Poivre, seen from the street under a bright sky, with a man, a woman and a little girl walking in front of the wooden palisades which surrounded the place.

“Paris marks this period when … the great Impressionists influenced his work,” Hellman said.

Sotheby’s said the painting had already been published in seven catalogs, but had never been on display.

Claudia Mercier, auctioneer of the Mirabaud Mercier house, declared: “It is also an important painting because there are very, very few of them that remain in private hands … especially at this time, most are now in museums.

Sotheby’s estimated the value of the painting to be between 5 and 8 million euros (between 6.1 and 9.8 million dollars). This one who did not reveal the identity of the owner.

It will be exhibited in Amsterdam from March 1 to 3, in Hong-King from March 9 to 12 and in Paris from March 16 to 23.

The pepper mill was destroyed during the construction of an avenue in 1911, but two similar windmills are still present today on the Butte Montmartre.