Van Gogh’s The Parsonage Backyard at Nuenen in Spring (March 1884) was seized in a nighttime smash-and-grab raid in 2020 from an exhibition in Laren, simply east of Amsterdam. It had been on mortgage from the Groninger Museum, the place it has been one of many stars of the gathering since its acquisition in 1962. The Van Gogh panorama was insured for €2.5m.
Final September the portray was dramatically recovered by the Dutch personal artwork detective Arthur Model, because of his contacts with an middleman who had hyperlinks to the felony underworld. The portray was delivered to Model’s Amsterdam residence in a blue plastic Ikea bag.
Dutch artwork detective Arthur Model with Van Gogh’s The Parsonage backyard at Nuenen in Spring, a couple of minutes after its restoration on 11 September 2023
Arthur Model, Amsterdam
By success, the Van Gogh image has survived remarkably properly, partly as a result of it was mounted on an oak board. Earlier than the newest examination it had at all times been assumed that it had been painted on paper (affixed to the board), however conservator Marjan de Visser instantly noticed that it’s on linen. Surprisingly, this primary truth had apparently not been realised earlier.
De Visser discovered some injury and scratching to the previous varnish coating, sometimes penetrating by the paint layer to the white floor (one such place is just under the determine of the lady). The remaining varnish is prone to be eliminated, though a closing choice has but to be made. Losses will likely be retouched, so they are going to be hardly noticeable.
A pre-theft {photograph} of Van Gogh’s The Parsonage Backyard at Nuenen in Spring (March 1884)
Groninger Museum, Groningen
The panorama, painted in Van Gogh’s early, darkish tones, was created when he was dwelling together with his mother and father within the village of Nuenen, within the south of the Netherlands. It depicts the again backyard of his father’s parsonage, with the tower of the previous church within the distance. The determine of a lady, wearing black, is proven strolling away.
Van Gogh started the portray as a winter scene, additionally making an ink sketch during which the bushes are naked. He had given the sketch, which he described as a “winter backyard”, to his artist pal Anthon van Rappard. Quickly afterwards, on 8 March 1884, he wrote to say that “it’s already a spring backyard—by now. And it’s modified so much.” Within the portray he added foliage to the bushes and even slightly blossom.
Van Gogh’s sketch of The Parsonage Backyard at Nuenen (February 1884)
Personal assortment
De Visser has simply accomplished her preliminary investigations into the recovered portray. It could now be seen for a brief interval in Rotterdam, within the conservation studio on the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum depot.
After that, it will likely be proven on the Groninger Museum in Groningen in a particular show entitled 150 Years of the Groninger Museum: Behind the Scenes (29 March 2024-1 June 2025). The recovered Van Gogh will likely be offered in order that the reverse can also be seen, exhibiting the injury. We are able to report that the Ikea bag can even be displayed, since this object is now a part of the portray’s story. The precise restoration will in all probability start early subsequent yr.
Within the meantime, the Groninger Museum will likely be presenting a particular exhibition, unrelated to the theft. The present, How Van Gogh Got here to Groningen (30 November-5 Could 2025), will recount the story of one of many earliest exhibitions on the artist, held within the metropolis in 1896.
Different Van Gogh information:
The Musee d’Orsay had an astonishing 794,000 guests for its exhibition Van Gogh à Auvers-sur-Oise (3 October 2023-4 February 2024), after its earlier presentation at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum. That is the biggest variety of guests to a present on the Paris museum because it opened in 1986.A Van Gogh self-portrait (autumn 1887) is to return to Nationwide Museum Cardiff, on mortgage from the Musée d’Orsay. It is going to be on show from 16 March till 24 January 2025 within the exhibition Artwork of the Selfie.
Van Gogh’s Head of a Peasant Lady in a White Cap (December 1884)
M.S. Rau, New Orleans
The New Orleans vendor M.S. Rau is providing an early Dutch portray, Head of a Peasant Lady in a White Cap (December 1884), for $4,950,000. The image will likely be exhibited on their stand on the Tefaf Maastricht artwork truthful (public days 9-14 March).
