After more than six decades out of public view, Vincent van Gogh’s “Chestnut Trees in Blossom” drew hundreds of people in Hong Kong. On Tuesday, visitors queued to see the work up close ahead of its sale at Sotheby’s in New York on November 18. It is expected to fetch $180 million.
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At the center of the composition stands a large chestnut tree in blossom, its dense canopy covering most of the painting. Van Gogh created the work in May 1890 while staying in the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise. It ranks among the most important works from the final phase of the Dutch artist’s life. He died about two months later, aged 37.
Scott Nitchel, head of the modern and contemporary art department at Sotheby’s in New York, believes the painting could set a new auction record for a Van Gogh work. He describes it as displaying the optimism, vitality, enthusiasm and bold colors that distinguished the artist’s work during that period.
Li Shanshan, 50, traveled about two and a half hours from the Chinese city of Shenzhen to Hong Kong to see the painting. He said he had never heard of the work before, and that this was precisely what had prompted him to go and see it for himself.
The same auction will also feature 11 other paintings that have likewise been absent from public exhibitions for many years. The collection includes works by Paul Cézanne and Claude Monet. In late September, Sotheby’s in London presented five of them, including Cézanne’s “Harlequin” and Monet’s “The Pottery Garden.”
The painting’s passage from one owner to another began after Van Gogh’s death in July 1890. It first passed to the artist’s brother, Theo, and then to Theo’s wife, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem.
One of its later buyers was Samuel Fischer, the German publisher who founded the publishing house S. Fischer Verlag. The painting subsequently entered the collection of the American George “Buddy” DeSilva, a composer and producer who was also one of the co-founders of Capitol Records.
The collector Harriet Harris-Jonas bought the work in 1953. Her significant art collection had led the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to arrange visits for supporters to her Fifth Avenue apartment, where they could view the works she owned.
The Blackie family bought the painting through the art dealer Wildenstein in 1975. From then on, the work remained out of public view until it was presented in Hong Kong ahead of the much-anticipated auction in New York.
