Newly discovered unusual Van Gogh sketches displayed in Amsterdam

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam will display Van Gogh’s newly discovered artwork in the exhibition titled Here to Stay. The Dutch painter’s sketches of peasants were found in a novel about the French peasantry, and images of them were first provided by the museum to The Art Newspaper.

The recently emerged sketches were drawn on a narrow strip of paper. “I believe that it was made as a bookmark. It would be curious to draw three sketches in this configuration unless there was a reason, and it fits snugly inside the book in which it was found,” Teio Meedendorp, a senior researcher at the Amsterdam museum, told The Art Newspaper.

Van Gogh is believed to have made the drawings in 1881 in Etten-Leur, France. In 1883, the painter sent the book titled Histoire d'un Paysan to a friend. After the death of this friend in 1892, the book with the special bookmark remained in his family, who eventually sold it to the Amsterdam museum in 2019.

New discoveries of previously unknown Van Gogh artworks are considered rare. “Although it is presented in the show as simply a trio of sketches, the artwork almost certainly served an unexpected purpose,“ The Art Newspaper said.

The three sketches will be displayed until September 12 as a part of the broad collection of artwork from Van Gogh and artists associated with him.

One of Van Gogh’s most unusual artworks has just emerged—three unknown sketches of peasants. They are drawn on a thin vertical strip of paper, a curious format for an artist to choose. The drawings were found in a novel on the French peasantry and the paper is exactly the sam pic.twitter.com/QslJLTMwPL

— MadCap Workshops (@madcapworkshop) June 26, 2021