New Van Gogh!

Quite amazingly, 188 123 years after his death, a new unknown painting by Vincent Van Gogh has been discovered and authenticated!

The owner, a Norwegian industrialist, had originally been told it was a fake, but six decades later, it was found to be real. The last painting of Van Gogh’s was discovered in the 1920’s.It was a combination of the brushwork, the paints, and a letter to his brother describing the painting, as well as the light in that area as a “shower of gold” that lead to its authentication by no less an authority as the Van Gogh Museum in The Netherlands. The painting is titled “Sunset at Montmajour”. It was painted during the time Van Gogh lived in the South of France and painted other works such as his Sunflowers series.

Interestingly enough, there’s a new book to be published on the Sunflowers paintings, four of which were made, and only two of which in circulation today. One was destroyed in the attack on Hiroshima, and the other is deep in a private collection. The new book is called “The Sunflowers are Mine” and it traces the lives of the four sunflower paintings.

I’ve always been a fan of Van Gogh. When I lived in Wales, they shot the TV show Dr. Who in and around where I lived. The Time Lord and his companion go back to Holland and visit Van Gogh, and the show gives such a poignant idea of what the artist’s madness did to him, that I cry every time I watch the episode.