Rare Van Gogh Drawing at Christie’s Auction
PARIS — In a significant discovery for Van Gogh enthusiasts, Christie’s will offer an almost unknown double-sided drawing by Vincent van Gogh, created during the artist’s final months in Auvers-sur-Oise, at its Impressionist & Modern Art sale on 17 April 2026 in Paris.
The graphite and estompe work on paper, measuring 21.2 x 23.8 cm, bears the title Cueilleuses de pois (recto); Esquisse d’un paysage (verso). The recto depicts female pea pickers bending over in a field near the River Oise, their forms rendered with vigorous hatching and dynamic poses. Van Gogh inscribed color notations directly on the sheet — “jaune / rose / violet / vert / vert clair / vert bleu” — indicating his intention to develop the sketch into a painting.
The verso features a looser landscape study: rows of trees flanking a field, with hills and a solitary cloud in the background, annotated simply with “violet.” Both sides were preparatory studies for unrealized or lost oil paintings, offering rare insight into the Dutch master’s creative process just weeks before his death on 29 July 1890.
Provenance traces back to Dr. Paul Gachet, the physician who cared for Van Gogh in Auvers and received the sheet directly from the artist or shortly after his passing. It remained with Gachet’s family until 1954, later passing through collections in Argentina and Spain. The work appeared briefly in a 1959 exhibition in Buenos Aires but has otherwise remained largely unseen, meriting only a brief, unillustrated entry in early catalogues. Its authenticity has now been confirmed by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
Experts note that of the ten Auvers sketches with color annotations, none resulted in known surviving paintings, underscoring the poignant fragility of Van Gogh’s late productivity. The drawing carries an estimate of €100,000–€150,000.
This unassuming yet historically rich sheet highlights how even minor works on paper continue to illuminate one of art history’s most enduring figures.
