Complete set of Van Gogh's lithographs together in museum for first time

All three prints of Vincent van Gogh’s lithograph Old Man Drinking Coffee are currently on display in the Van Gogh Museum, the museum announced. It is the first time the prints have been reunited since 1882 and the first time ever they’re displayed together in a museum.

Old Man Drinking Coffee is one of a series of lithographic prints Van Gogh made in the Hague in 1882. He made three prints of this lithograph. The Van Gogh Museum already owned two of them and the preparatory sketch, but the location of the third was unknown for a long time.

The third print was recently rediscovered. Monique Hageman, who has worked as a research assistant at the Van Gogh Museum since 1986, acquired it on auction and provided it to the Van Gogh Museum on a long-term loan. She also promised to bequeath the lithograph to the museum after her death.

“The promised gift means that the Van Gogh Museum will, for the first time, have a complete print run in its collection,” the museum said. “The museum will preserve the group as part of the Dutch national cultural heritage.”

Van Gogh experimented with lithography during his time in The Hague (1881-1883). He aimed to make cheap prints so that ordinary people could also access his work, according to the museum. Letters the Dutch artist wrote to his brother Theo and friend Anton van Rappard show his enthusiasm about the process. He eventually made nine different lithographs in various print runs, using transfer paper to draw his sketch and give to an experienced lithographer to transfer the image to stone.

“I’ve always thought printing a miracle, the kind of miracle by which a grain of wheat becomes an ear. An everyday miracle – all the greater because it’s everyday. One sows a single drawing on the stone or in the etching plate and one reaps a multitude.” Van Gogh wrote in a letter to his brother between 29 March-1 April 1883.

The man in Old Man Drinking Coffee is Adrianus Jacobus Zuyderland, a resident of the Old Men and Women’s Home in The Hague. “Zuyderland occupies a special place in Van Gogh’s oeuvre, as the artist portrayed him most often of all of his models,” the museum said.