In early 1945, simply earlier than the tip of the Second World Battle, Vincent van Gogh’s nephew gave two of the artist’s drawings to the proprietor of a cheese enterprise—in alternate for 35 packets of butter and just a little meat. One of many drawings, Head of a Peasant Girl, left profile, shall be provided at Sotheby’s on 25 June, estimated at £400,000-£600,000. This implies that the pair of Van Goghs would now be price round £1m.
The £1m drawings exchanged for butter and meat: Head of a Peasant Girl, proper profile and Head of a Peasant Girl, left profile (each December 1884-Might 1885). The latter comes up at Sotheby’s, London on 25 June (estimate £400,000-£600,000)
piemags / Alamy Inventory Picture and Sotheby’s
The artist’s nephew, Vincent Willem van Gogh (named after the artist), exchanged the 2 drawings for 35 packets of butter, every weighing 250 grams, together with some bacon and presumably another smoked meat. At present meals costs, this basket would possibly now price round £100 within the UK.
Intriguingly, the 1945 swap was organized with the assistance of Charley Toorop, an artist who’s presently the topic of an exhibition at Otterlo’s Kröller-Müller Museum. The present, Charley Toorop: Love for Van Gogh, runs till 14 September. Toorop was a fantastic admirer of Van Gogh and should have recognized the nephew.
We now have been in a position to determine the corporate which provided the butter and meat: it was Visser Kaas, then primarily based in Heiloo, north of Amsterdam. The household cheese enterprise had been established in 1916 and the wartime swap was organised with Pieter Visser. Right this moment it stays an necessary Dutch cheese producer, famend for its Gouda.
Vincent Willem van Gogh (round 1915-30)
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Basis) (stock b5199)
1945 was a horrible yr for V.W. van Gogh. Residing in Laren, a small city east of Amsterdam, his household confronted the challenges of the “Starvation Winter”, the interval within the Netherlands between November 1944 and liberation in Might 1945 when the German occupiers blockaded meals shipments. 20,000 Dutch folks died from hunger.
The early weeks of 1945 had been troublesome for the Van Gogh household, however they had been quickly struck down by a horrible tragedy. V.W. van Gogh’s eldest son Theodor, aged 24, was arrested on 1 March 1945 by the German occupiers on suspicion of aiding the resistance.
Every week later Theodor confronted a German firing squad. He was amongst 263 Dutch prisoners who had been executed as a reprisal after the resistance’s try and assassinate Hanns Rauter, the German chief of the occupying SS paramilitary power.
Theodor van Gogh (round 1940), aged round 20, and his grave, Area of Honour Cemetery, Overveen, close to Haarlem
Courtesy of the Van Gogh household and Johan van Gogh
It was on 30 March, three weeks after the execution, that Visser confirmed the food-for-drawings association, serving to V.W. van Gogh feed his three youthful youngsters. By likelihood, this was the birthday of Van Gogh the artist.
The Sotheby’s drawing
Head of a Peasant Girl, left profile (December 1884-Might 1885)
The Artwork Newspaper
The 2 drawings exchanged with Visser represented a pair, each depicting the profile of a peasant girl. Relationship from December 1884-Might 1885, they had been carried out within the southern Dutch village of Nuenen, the place Van Gogh was dwelling along with his dad and mom. The sitter stays unidentified, though she would possibly nicely be Gordina de Groot.
Van Gogh by no means discovered a purchaser for the drawings they usually later handed all the way down to his nephew. By the Thirties V.W. van Gogh very hardly ever offered or gave away works from his assortment, so the alternate for butter and meat was fairly distinctive.
On Visser’s dying in 1957, the 2 drawings went to his widow, Ida Maria Visser-Omes. The next yr she offered them to the Amsterdam seller E.J. Van Wisselingh. Each had been purchased by the Dallas collector Lawrence S. Pollock. They had been then auctioned at Christie’s in 1997, going to totally different consumers. Head of a Peasant Girl, proper profile has since handed to a different non-public assortment.
The opposite drawing, Head of a Peasant Girl, left profile, was offered two extra instances, at Sotheby’s in 2001 and Christie’s in 2012, when it went for $722,500. Developing once more at Sotheby’s on 25 June, its poignant wartime story can lastly be informed.
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 current 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 Evening: 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 current books embody Residing with Vincent van Gogh: The Houses & Landscapes that formed the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, UK and US), which gives 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 gives the primary English translation of Bernard’s writings on Van Gogh (David Zwirner Books 2023, UKand US).
To contact Martin Bailey, please electronic mail vangogh@theartnewspaper.com
Please be aware that he doesn’t undertake authentications.
Discover all of Martin’s adventures with Van Gogh right here
