After more than a century, a rare painting by Vincent Van Gogh depicting a Paris street scene has been put to display for the first time. The Dutch post-impressionist artist painted the masterpiece, named 'A street scene in Montmartre,' in 1887.
The artwork is to be exhibited by Sotheby's auction house in Amsterdam, Hong Kong, and Paris and will be auctioned in March for an estimated value between 5 million euros and 8 million euros.
"The appearance on the market of a work of this caliber, and from such an iconic series, is undoubtedly a major event," according to a statement by the auction house, Sotheby's.
A street scene in Montmartre illustrates a man and woman walking arm-in-arm backgrounded by a ramshackle fence with a windmill. Experts believes the painting is part of a series of Gogh's artworks in Montmartre while the area was filled with fields, houses and windmills on the edge of the city.
"It's an important painting in the oeuvre of Vincent van Gogh because it dates from the period in which he's living in Paris with his brother, Theo," said Etienne Hellman, senior director of Impressionist and Modern Art at Sotheby's, to AP. "Before this, his paintings are much darker... In Paris he discovers color. Color blows up into the painting."
A small number of Van Gogh's Montmartre painting series, according to specialists, are still in private possession. Within a decade, Van Gogh created about 2,100 modern artworks, including landscapes, still life paintings and portraits. His masterpieces include The Starry Night, The Potato Eaters, The Red Vineyard, Almond Blossoms, Van Gogh self-portrait and so much more.
One of the pioneers of modern art, he was consumed with depression and mental instability, which later ended up in suicide. Gogh shot himself and died two days later with inflicted chest wounds on July 29, 1890.