Van Gogh’s Sower in a Wheatfield with setting Solar (July 1888) shall be auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York on 18 November, with an estimate of $8m-$10m. If it exceeds the $8.8m hammer worth of La Mousmé (August 1888), a portrait of a younger girl from Arles which offered at Christie’s in 2021, it is going to set a brand new public sale report for a Van Gogh drawing.
Sower in a Wheatfield with setting Solar belonged to Leonard Lauder, who died in June, aged 92. Alongside along with his brother Ronald, one other vital artwork collector, he inherited a significant stake within the main American cosmetics firm established by their mother and father, Estée and Joseph Lauder.
Van Gogh’s The Sower (June 1888)
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
Leonard Lauder’s drawing, which Van Gogh made for his artist pal Emile Bernard, is a duplicate of a portray. The unique portray, entitled The Sower (June 1888), now belongs to the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, within the east of the Netherlands. It’s at present on mortgage to London’s Nationwide Gallery, within the exhibition Radical Concord: Helene Kröller-Müller’s Neo-Impressionists (till 8 February 2026).
Van Gogh wrote to Bernard on 19 June 1888, describing the portray he was engaged on: “Giant subject with clods of ploughed earth, principally downright violet. Subject of ripe wheat in a yellow ochre tone with just a little crimson.” The sky was “nearly as shiny because the solar itself”. Van Gogh was not looking for to depict sensible tones. “I might hardly give a rattling in regards to the veracity of the color,” he wrote.
Sketch of The Sower in Van Gogh’s letter to Bernard, 19 June 1888
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Basis)
In his letter to Bernard, Van Gogh integrated a tough sketch of the portray. On it he added some color annotations, such a “jaune” (yellow) for the solar. Over the subsequent few weeks Van Gogh reworked the portray after which made the extra completed drawing for Bernard—the work now developing at Sotheby’s.
In mid-July 1888 Van Gogh despatched Bernard a gaggle of 9 drawings based mostly on his latest work, together with Sower in a Wheatfield with setting Solar.
For the solar and its rays, he used a pen with a superb line, whereas the wheatfield was drawn with broad strokes from a reed pen, which the the artist crafted from reeds rising alongside the canals exterior Arles. His signature, “Vincent”, is inconspicuously inscribed within the lower-right nook among the many wheat. Just a few weeks later he made the same drawing of the portray which he despatched to his brother Theo.
Cosmetics inheritor
The drawing despatched to Bernard and developing at Sotheby’s boasts a distinguished historical past. Artists almost all the time want money and Bernard offered the Van Gogh someday between 1899 and 1904 to the avant-garde Parisian vendor Ambroise Vollard. The following proprietor was Théodore Duret, a critic who wrote an vital early monograph on Van Gogh, revealed in 1916.
In 1929 the drawing went to America, the place it was shortly purchased by the businessman and later authorities official John Nicholas Brown II. On his dying in 1979, it handed to his son John Carter Brown, who was then the director of the Nationwide Gallery of Artwork in Washington, DC. John Carter shortly offered the Van Gogh and it was purchased by Estée and Joseph Lauder. On Estée’s dying in 2004, it went to her elder son Leonard.
Leonard Lauder with Claes Oldenburg’s Typewriter Eraser (1977)
Leonard Lauder grew to become an vital collector, amassing a superlative group of 89 Cubist works, which he donated to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in 2013. He was additionally a significant benefactor of the Whitney Museum of American Artwork, donating $131m in 2008.
Twenty three main works from Lauder’s assortment are to be offered by Sotheby’s on 18 November together with the Van Gogh, together with a vital trio of work by Gustav Klimt. This sale is anticipated to fetch over $400m.
Leonard’s brother Ronald is a voracious collector and has purchased 4 Van Gogh drawings. These embody The Olive Timber (June-July 1889), which is now a promised reward to New York’s Museum of Trendy Artwork. It was lent to the 2024-25 exhibition at London’s Nationwide Gallery, Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers. He’s additionally believed to personal Van Gogh’s sketch of the Postman Joseph Roulin (August 1888), which was loaned to the Boston displaying of Van Gogh: The Roulin Household Portraits on the Museum of Advantageous Arts (closed 7 September). Different drawings he has acquired are Boats on the Seashore, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (June 1888) and Backyard with Flowers (July 1888).
Two days after Sower in a Wheatfield with setting Solar comes up at Sotheby’s on 18 November, the public sale home will supply two different Van Goghs from the Pritzker assortment: the portray Parisian Novels (November-December 1887) and the drawing Public Backyard with Benches (April 1888).
Different Van Gogh information
Additionally on 18 November, Christie’s is auctioning the Van Gogh drawing Fisherman with Basket on his Again (January-February 1883) in New York, with an estimate of $400,000-$600,000. The drawing final handed by way of an public sale in 2003, when it fetched $232,000. It was owned by the Colorado financier and collector Matthew Healey, who died in January.
Van Gogh’s Fisherman with Basket on his Again (Visser met een Mand op zijn Rug) (January-February 1883)
Christie’s
Martin Bailey is a number one Van Gogh specialist and particular correspondent for The Artwork Newspaper. He has curated exhibitions on the Barbican Artwork Gallery, Compton Verney/Nationwide Gallery of Scotland and Tate Britain.
Martin Bailey’s latest Van Gogh books
Martin has written numerous bestselling books on Van Gogh’s years in France: The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh’s Masterpiece (Frances Lincoln 2013, UK and US), Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence (Frances Lincoln 2016, UK and US), Starry Night time: Van Gogh on the Asylum (White Lion Publishing 2018, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale: Auvers and the Artist’s Rise to Fame (Frances Lincoln 2021, UK and US). The Sunflowers are Mine (2024, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale (2024, UK and US) are additionally now out there in a extra compact paperback format.
His different latest books embody Dwelling with Vincent van Gogh: The Houses & Landscapes that formed the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, UK and US), which offers an summary of the artist’s life. The Illustrated Provence Letters of Van Gogh has been reissued (Batsford 2021, UK and US). My Buddy Van Gogh/Emile Bernard offers the primary English translation of Bernard’s writings on Van Gogh (David Zwirner Books 2023, UKand US).
To contact Martin Bailey, please e mail vangogh@theartnewspaper.com
Please notice that he doesn’t undertake authentications.
Discover all of Martin’s adventures with Van Gogh right here
