Cnn
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A painting bought during a garage sale in Minnesota is a portrait previously unknown to the Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh, according to an analysis of newly published experts.
He was manufactured by Van Gogh during his stay in a psychiatric hospital in the south of France in 1889, experts commissioned by the artistic research firm LMI Group International said after analyzing canvas weaving, the paint pigment and other characteristics.
Acquired by an antiquity collector in 2016, the painting bears an inscription of the word “Elimar” in the lower right corner.
Measuring 45.7 centimeters by 41.9 centimeters (18 inches by 16.5 inches), the experts identified the painting as a van Gogh following a process that took four years.
Oil paint on the canvas is a portrait of a fisherman with a white beard, smoking a pipe while repairing his net.
It is based on a painting by the Danish artist Michael Ancher (1849-1927), according to LMI, and is one of the many “translations” of works by Van Gogh by other artists.
The researchers also found hair rooted in the canvas and sent them analyzed. Although it was found from a human man, the efforts to correspond to his DNA with the descendants of Van Gogh were thwarted by his “degraded state,” said LMI.
“By integrating science and technology with traditional knowledge tools, the historical context, formal analysis and research on provenance, we aim both to extend and to adapt the resources available for the authentication of ‘Art based on the unique properties of works in our care, “said Lawrence Mr. Shindell, president, president and chief executive officer of LMI Group, in a press release this week.
Despite the exhaustive analysis, painting must still be attributed to Van Gogh by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.
The museum previously refused to allocate the table to Van Gogh when it was approached by the former owner in December 2018.
However, LMI, who acquired the table in 2019, is convinced that he is authentic.
“The discovery of a Van Gogh painting previously unknown should not surprise,” said the report. “It is well known that Van Gogh has lost many works, gave works to friends and was not particularly careful with any work that he considered a study, of which there were many.”
LMI declared in the press release that painting “is an emotionally rich and deeply personal work created during the final and tumultuous chapter of Van Gogh’s life”.
The Dutch master produced some 900 paintings during his lifetime. It is believed that he suffered from a combination of bipolar and limits personality disorders, although these diseases have never been diagnosed.
In 2020, researchers from the University Medical Center Groningen, in the Netherlands, said that they thought that Van Gogh had experienced two brief psychotic episodes, presumed to be delirium caused by the withdrawal of alcohol, after his admission to the ‘Hospital after cutting your ear with a razor in 1888.
Van Gogh died by suicide in 1890 at the age of 37.