Van Gogh drawings discovered in old book | Inland

According to researcher Teio Meedendorp, Van Gogh intended the elongated paper with the three simple pencil drawings as a bookmark, given that the strip is exactly the same length as the book (28 centimetres).

Van Gogh (1853-1890) probably made the drawings in 1881 in Etten-Leur. In 1883 the painter sent the book, Story of a Peasant, to a friend. After the death of this friend in 1892, the book with the special bookmark remained in his family, who eventually sold it to the Amsterdam museum in 2019.

It is not often that unknown work by Van Gogh appears, on average once or twice every ten years.

The paper with the sketches can be seen in the exhibition ‘Unknown. 10 years of special acquisitions and their stories’.

–