Discredited Art Collector's Treasure A Van Gogh After All

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Feb 26th 2010 at 12:01AM

It's no Starry Night but "Le Blute-fin Mill" is a Van Gogh after all. Experts have said that the painting of windmills and people against a pale sky is by the Dutch artist. The painting doesn't immediately strike the eye as a Van Gogh, but experts at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum have verified that it dates back to 1886.

"Le Blute-Fin Mill", was put on display in the Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle, Amsterdam. It was bought 35 years ago by Dirk Hannema, the founder of the museum, who kept the painting in his own home until he died in 1984. The painting then made its way to the museum but was only displayed a couple of times. Hannema paid around $2,700 for the painting in Paris and was certain that it was an original. His words went unheeded because he had been discredited years before when he bought a Vermeer (one of the works of forger Han van Meegeren) and made it a star exhibit. Hannema had a preferences for seeking out the works of masters that were yet to be attributed to them, the problem was that he was not always right and his eagerness made him an easy target for an enterprising forger (for a riveting read on van Meegeren, check out The Forger's Spell).

The museum had tried back in 1993 to have the windmill painting authenticated but at that point the experts weren't available. Its is believed that Van Gogh painted the work in Paris, the canvas bears the stamp of an art store that he was known to buy materials and pigments from, according to an AP interview with Louis van Tilborgh, curator of research at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Gallery: The Brief And Prolific Life Of Vincent Van Gogh

Tags: amsterdam, art, dirk hannema, DirkHannema, van gogh, VanGogh

Filed under: Art

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Leon Stark Feb 27th 2010 11:44AM

Throughout the world, experts and plain people find various valuable original documents and paintings at various times, unbidden and sometimes most fortuitously timed. Artists change styles and sometimes do "contract work" to earn money and pay debts. The contracted pieces may or may not fulfill the known styles of other of their later or non-contracted work.

This "Les Blute-fin Mill" painting seems to be such a contracted piece under the request and direction of the store owner. Vincent Van Gogh was apparently paying off a debt for art supplies. This was a common practice, artists were often struggling and in debt, and barter was considered a viable option.

The stamp of the art store seemingly instead of the signature (or over the signature) would indicate that the art-supply store owner claimed the rights to the picture and any disposition of it. Vincent would then be out of luck, and again in debt if he did not pay up for future supplies. I expect some other works from that same store that are of other (semi-)famous artists (and forgers ;-).

Bilbo Feb 27th 2010 12:14PM

The shame is that more people in the art world are more interested in discrediting works rather than doing their homework and making sure art works are attributed to the right artists. What they are about is taking their lack of actual art talent and making their supposed expertise into power. Dirk Hannema was actually a hero to have saved this piece and believed in it. What are the names of the supposed art experts who denied this to be a Van Gogh? They are the ones who should be skewered as charlatans, not an obviously gifted collector. Power breeds corruption true appreciation of art to share it with others should be revered.

mike westman Feb 27th 2010 4:42PM

In a way you have hit a big part of the art world right on. I am a 'picker' who seeks out works of art that are not properly identified or are not in the proper place. I have difficulties with the art establishment who seem more interested in protecting their profits and prestige than actually doing any kind of homework or investigative work relative to new discoveries. I have several friends who have found, proved and tried to submit works of art to the 'experts' ...only to have them rejected because there was no economic incentive by the expert to authenticate the work.

It is a political game and the little guy (within the profession) gets the short shrift.

Unfortunately that is the way it works. Very conservative, very clubby and very elitist.

Bruce Tidwell Feb 27th 2010 12:56PM

It does seem that, often times, the reputation of the person who finds the piece has at least as much to do with authentication, as the work itself. It's as if the "experts" don't feel that certain people "deseve" to have discovered a work by a major artist. The prejudice revealed exposes the essential subjective prejudice in defining what constitutes an artistic "masterpiece," or a "great artist."

deegan Feb 27th 2010 12:56PM

Mr. Stark seems to know what he is talking about. I used to own a business that supported artists and galleries and I sometimes took an artists' work in exchange for my work. I specialized in making custom gessoed panels to the artists specifications and it took a lot of time and effort on my part. Consequently I had to charge what most artists would consider outrageous prices, but the artists that got them liked them enough to pay the price. When they didn't have the money, I would get a piece of work if I liked it well enough to have it in my home. Keep in mind that I had to eat also. I couldn't do this all the time. Besides, by the time an artist reached the level of success that they could pay for my work, most of them were successful enough to have clients waiting in line for their work. I was fortunate enough to accumulate a house full of art work that I have been able to enjoy for many years.

MAlleNrOhSLVR Feb 27th 2010 1:14PM

I'm an art majour now and we barter all the time, we trade excess supplies among ourselves for stuff we need, I might design a business card or flier for a photo majour who in turn will do copy work of my stuff for me to put in my digital portfolio, we do art trades from time to time too, I've traded a print for a drawing, jewelry I've made for other work, etc. even today, bartering is still viable and for poor college students, it saves us a whole helluva lot of money, I might even gesso canvases for someone in exchange for them building me some panel mounts, etc.

Barbara Loden Feb 27th 2010 1:59PM

You are an art major but you can't spell it. LOL

Thatgrl Feb 27th 2010 3:00PM

Barbara, you are an jerk...LOLOLOLOL yourself :)

mary melcher Feb 27th 2010 2:49PM

I am reminded of Thomas Hoving's find for the Metropolitan in NYC, of the carved ivory Bury St. Edmonds cross. For years, word had it that such a rare object existed. It took a newly graduated art major (Hoving) to actually locate it. He found it in a trove of fakes and forgeries in the possession of a disreputable "art" collector--the irony was that all was fake--but one--the cross. Hoving was very young and impressionable--often just the sort of person who can finally locate some rare and storied object passed over by experts because of the bad reputation of the owner.