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A Vincent van Gogh painting unseen in public for more than 60 years is back on view, and hundreds of people lined up at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on Tuesday to see it. “Chestnut Trees in Blossom” goes to auction in New York on Nov. 18, where it is expected to sell for about $180 million.
Once the hammer falls, the new owner will decide whether the public gets another look.
Van Gogh finished the canvas on May 24, 1890, in Auvers-sur-Oise, the French village where he spent his final weeks. He died there two months later, at 37.
The painting headlines the Blaquier-Arrieta Collection, assembled by the late Argentine businessman Carlos Pedro Blaquier and art patron Maria Elena “Nelly” Arrieta de Blaquier. The 12-work sale is expected to bring in about $450 million. It also includes works by Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Paul Gauguin and Alfred Sisley.
How can you see the Van Gogh painting before the Nov. 18 auction?
The full collection is on view at Sotheby’s Maison in the Landmark Chater building in Central, Hong Kong, through Thursday. From there, the works travel to Paris and then to New York ahead of the sale.
You can also see it from home. Sotheby’s has posted the painting online as part of its “Legendary: The Blaquier-Arrieta Collection” evening auction, with a full image of the oil on canvas, which measures 28 by 23 1/4 inches.
How much could the Van Gogh painting sell for at the Nov. 18 auction?
Sotheby’s hasn’t posted an official estimate online; its lot page lists the figure as available upon request. Scott Niichel, a vice chairman at Sotheby’s, said the painting is in position to set a new auction record for the artist.
That record currently belongs to “Orchard with Cypresses,” a Van Gogh painted in 1888 that sold for $117 million in 2022.
Rarity drives much of the interest. Van Gogh made the painting shortly after leaving a psychiatric asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence. It is one of only eight of the 50 landscapes he painted in Auvers-sur-Oise that remain in private hands.
The canvas shows a chestnut tree in full bloom towering over a sunlit road, with a lone figure walking in the foreground and a small group further back. Niichel described the period as an unusually hopeful and energetic one for Van Gogh.
He also suggested the crowds in Hong Kong point to a possible buyer from Asia.
Why hasn’t this Van Gogh painting been seen in public in 60 years?
The painting has spent most of its history moving from one private owner to the next, starting with the artist’s own family. Its owners have included:
- The Van Gogh family: Theo van Gogh, the artist’s brother, received it after Vincent died on July 29, 1890. It then went to Theo’s widow, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh.
- Samuel Fischer: the German publisher whose house, S. Fischer Verlag, was the first to publish Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse.
- George “Buddy” DeSylva: the American songwriter and film producer who co-founded Capitol Records.
- Harriet Harris-Jonas: a collector who bought it in 1953. The Metropolitan Museum of Art led patrons on tours of the works in her Fifth Avenue apartment.
- The Blaquiers: bought it from the art dealer Wildenstein in 1975.