“Street scene in Montmartre” was painted in the spring of 1887, three years before the Dutch master died by suicide.
It shows Parisians walking through sparse countryside in Montmartre, a historic neighborhood that is now one of the city’s most popular destinations.
The painting must be exposed to the public for the first time, before being sold at an auction in Paris. The expectation is to reach between 5 million euros and 8 million euros (US $ 6 million and US $ 9.7 million) when it is under the hammer in March.
“The moment we set eyes on this painting for the first time, we were immediately captivated,” said Claudia Mercier and Fabien Mirabaud, from Paris auction house Mirabaud Mercier, who discovered the work.
“It is with great pleasure that we can now present this to the world, after being valued by the same French family for a century,” they said in a statement.
The painting is part of a series of works representing the famous Moulin de la Galette, a windmill transformed into a dance hall in Montmartre. The neighborhood is still popular with tourists and residents for its village feel, but the streets around it were built and now bear little resemblance to the painting scene.
The painting is expected to yield about $ 10 million. Credit: Sotheby’s / ArtDigital Studio
Sotheby’s said the painting provides a gateway to Montmartre in the late 19th century, when obsolete mills became tourist attractions and leisure places where Parisians gathered to drink, dance and relax.
“Very few paintings by Van Gogh’s Montmartre Period remain in private hands, with most of the series now in collections of prestigious museums worldwide,” said Aurélie Vandevoorde and Etienne Hellman, senior directors in the Impressionist and Modern Art department at Sotheby’s France, which is handling the sale, in a statement.
“The appearance on the market of a work of this caliber and such an iconic series is undoubtedly a great event, and indeed an opportunity, both for the artist’s collectors and for the art market more broadly.”
The painting will be auctioned by Sotheby’s in Paris on March 25. Before that, it will be shown publicly in Amsterdam and Hong Kong before heading to France.