The “Montmartre Street Scene” was painted in the spring of 1887, three years before the Dutch master is believed to have died by suicide.
It shows Parisians walking through a rural and rare landscape in Montmartre, a historic district that today is one of the most popular destinations in the city.
The painting is to be on public display for the first time before being auctioned off in Paris. It is expected to bring in between 5 million and 8 million euros ($ 6 million and $ 9.7 million) when it enters the hammer in March.
“The first time we looked at this painting, we were immediately captivated,” said Claudia Mercier and Fabien Mirabaud of the Parisian auction house Mirabaud Mercier, who discovered the work.
“It is with great pleasure that we can now present this to the world, after being cherished by the same French family for a century,” they said in a statement.
The painting is part of a series of works depicting the famous Moulin de la Galette, a windmill transformed into a dance hall in Montmartre. The neighborhood is still popular with tourists and locals for the sense of the village, but the surrounding streets were built and now do not look much like the painting scene.
The painting is expected to bring in almost $ 10 million. Credit: Sotheby’s / ArtDigital Studio
Sotheby’s said the painting provided a portal to Montmartre in the late 19th century, when old-fashioned mills became tourist attractions and recreational places where Parisians met to drink, dance and relax.
“Very few paintings from Van Gogh’s Montmartre period remain in private hands, with most of the series now in the collections of prestigious museums around the world,” said Aurélie Vandevoorde and Etienne Hellman, senior directors of Sotheby’s Impressionism and Modern Art. France, which handles the sale, in a statement.
“The appearance on the market of a work of this caliber and such an iconic series is, without a doubt, a major event, and indeed an opportunity, both for the artist’s collectors and for the wider art market.”
The painting will be auctioned by Sotheby’s in Paris on March 25. Prior to that, it will be on public display in Amsterdam and Hong Kong before heading to France.