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Van Gogh's painting may fetch $40 mn
L'Arlesienne, Madame Ginoux, is one of the last privately held portraits by Gogh during his post-Paris period.
"L'Arlesienne, Madame Ginoux," one of the last privately held portraits painted by Vincent Van Gogh during his post-Paris period, is expected to sell in May for over $40 million, Christie's auction house said.
L'Arlesienne is thought to be one of the first Van Gogh paintings to arrive in America. It was purchased by Dr Harry Bakwin, an American doctor, and has been in the Bakwin family collection since 1929.
The portrait, executed in February 1890, is based on a drawing of Madame Marie Ginoux by Van Gogh's friend and collaborator Paul Gauguin.
The two lived together in Arles, in the south of France, for 15 tumultuous months, after which Van Gogh was committed to an asylum in San Remy.
Ginoux was the owner of a cafe Gauguin and Van Gogh frequented. The two artists often used Arles residents as models, and convinced her to pose for sketches in 1888.
The troubled artist painted "L'Arlesienne" in 1890, after leaving the asylum, as a direct homage to his friend.
In a letter Van Gogh wrote to Gauguin, he wrote, "I tried to be respectfully faithful to your drawing...It is a synthesis of the Arlesiennes, if you like; as a syntheses of the Arlesiennes are rare, take this as a work belonging to you and me as a summary of our months of work together."
