{"id":489835,"date":"2026-03-22T20:44:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T20:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/489835\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T20:44:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T20:44:34","slug":"van-gogh-goes-to-china-with-a-more-affordable-early-painting-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/489835\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Gogh goes to China, with a more affordable early painting – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christie\u2019s is to auction A Girl in a Wood<\/a> (August 1883) in Hong Kong, in a bold move to tap the Chinese market. The estimate at the 27 March sale is $1.3m-$2.6m (HK$10m-$20m), a relatively modest sum compared with Van Gogh\u2019s later paintings. His early Dutch works go for much less than those done in France.<\/p>\n

In A Girl in a Wood the diminutive figure is dwarfed by the foreground tree, with its roots spreading over the reddish ground. A path in the middle distance draws the eye into the composition, with a brightly illuminated sky on the horizon.<\/p>\n

The forest landscape was painted while Van Gogh was living in The Hague. It was probably done in the Haagse Bos, the wood that lies to the north east of the centre of the city, within easy walking distance.<\/p>\n

The Christie\u2019s picture has long been considered to be one of his very first oil paintings, dating from August 1882, along with the similarly titled Girl in a Wood (now Kr\u00f6ller-M\u00fcller Museum, Otterlo). But recent research by specialists at Amsterdam\u2019s Van Gogh Museum redated the Christie\u2019s picture to a year later, to August 1883.<\/p>\n

The Christie\u2019s painting is on canvas, whereas a year before, in 1882, he had been using oil paint on paper. An examination of the Christie\u2019s work reveals that it was painted on the same roll of canvas as a third composition, Edge of a Wood<\/a> (August-September 1883).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Van Gogh\u2019s Edge of a Wood (August-September 1883)<\/p>\n

Kr\u00f6ller-M\u00fcller Museum, Otterlo<\/p>\n

The pair of later forest scenes would have been among his last paintings done in The Hague. Two weeks later he abandoned his girlfriend, Sien Hoornik<\/a>, and left to work in Drenthe, in the north of the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

China, now a major market<\/p>\n

A Girl in a Wood was last sold in 2002, also at Christie\u2019s, when it fetched $670,000. It was then acquired by a Chinese buyer, the Parkview property company and its chairman George Wong (who died in 2017). Last year there were unconfirmed reports that the company had been hoping to use the painting as collateral for a finance arrangement with Sotheby\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wong was among the first Chinese collectors to buy a Van Gogh, although the situation has changed radically in recent years. Now as many as half<\/a> of Van Gogh\u2019s works sold at auction have gone to China.<\/p>\n

Sotheby\u2019s was the first<\/a> Western company to actually auction a Van Gogh in Asia. In 2021 it sold Still life: Vase with Gladioli (August-September 1886) in Hong Kong for the equivalent of $9m.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Van Gogh\u2019s Still life: Vase with Gladioli (August-September 1886) and Moored Boats (July 1887), which were auctioned in Hong Kong in 2021 and 2024<\/p>\n

Sotheby\u2019s and Christie\u2019s<\/p>\n

In 2024 Christie\u2019s followed suit, auctioning Moored Boats<\/a> (July 1887) in Hong Kong. It sold for the equivalent of $32m.<\/p>\n

A Girl in a Wood will now be displayed at Christie\u2019s Hong Kong from 24 March until the sale three days later. It has not been shown by Christie\u2019s in New York and was only in London for a brief low-key display last month, an indication of China\u2019s dominance of the Van Gogh market.<\/p>\n

Arco Yu, co-head of the 27 March sale, says that \u201cAsian clients are bidding on high-value Van Gogh works in Christie\u2019s sales internationally, which is why we are offering his works here in Hong Kong\u201d. She adds that it is \u201cvery rare for Asian collectors to see an early Van Gogh\u201d, so the coming display and sale offers an unusual opportunity.<\/p>\n

Other Van Gogh news<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Virginie Demont-Breton\u2019s The Man is at Sea (early 1889), the print and Van Gogh\u2019s painting (October 1889)<\/p>\n

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Le Monde Illustr\u00e9 (6 July 1889) and private collection<\/p>\n

The Van Gogh Museum has just bought Virginie Demont-Breton\u2019s painting The Man is at Sea<\/a> (<\/a>1889), a work which inspired Van Gogh. It depicts a mother, holding her baby, who sits by the fireplace, worrying about the dangers faced by her fisher husband.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While at the asylum outside Saint-R\u00e9my-de-Provence Van Gogh saw a print of The Man is at Sea. Writing to his brother Theo in September 1889, Vincent described it as \u201ca very pretty engraving\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The following month, after he had begun transforming black-and-white prints by other artists into paintings, he made his own personal version of The Man is at Sea. Van Gogh\u2019s colours were very much his own and he never had the opportunity to see Demont-Breton\u2019s painting.<\/p>\n

The Demont-Breton painting came up for sale at the Tefaf art fair in Maastricht earlier this month, from the collection of Dallas-based Michael and Stephanie Seay. Owned by them for 20 years, it had hung in their dining room. The painting was sold to the museum through Texas-based Gallery 19C<\/a>, at a price of around \u20ac600,000.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ton de Brouwer (right) with Van Gogh\u2019s nephew, also called Vincent Willem van Gogh, at the opening of Nuenen\u2019s Van Gogh documentation centre, 1976<\/p>\n

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Ton de Brouwer Archive)<\/p>\n

We pay tribute to Ton de Brouwer (1943-2026), the specialist on Van Gogh\u2019s period in Nuenen, who died on 12 February, aged 82. In 1976 he had set up the Van Gogh Documentation Centre in Nuenen, the village in the south of the Netherlands where Vincent\u2019s parents lived. De Bouwer\u2019s efforts eventually led to the establishment of the present visitor centre, the Van Gogh Village Nuenen. <\/a><\/p>\n

De Brouwer went on to write a series of publications on the artist. His final contribution was in 2024, when he convincingly redated Van Gogh\u2019s sketch of Austin Friars church<\/a> in London. He argued that it was not drawn in London in front of the church, but a few months later from a print (Eigen Haard magazine, 7 July 1877), after Van Gogh had moved to Amsterdam.<\/p>\n

De Brouwer\u2019s extensive archive has been donated to the Van Gogh Museum. He was buried in the old cemetery<\/a> in Nuenen, which was painted by the artist several times with the church tower.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Van Gogh\u2019s The Old Tower at Nuenen (February 1884)<\/p>\n

Kr\u00f6ller-M\u00fcller Museum, Otterlo<\/p>\n

Martin Bailey is a leading Van Gogh specialist and special correspondent for The Art Newspaper. He has curated exhibitions at the Barbican Art Gallery, Compton Verney\/National Gallery of Scotland and Tate Britain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Martin Bailey\u2019s recent Van Gogh books<\/p>\n

Martin has written a number of bestselling books on Van Gogh\u2019s years in France: The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh’s Masterpiece (Frances Lincoln 2013, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>), Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence (Frances Lincoln 2016, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>), Starry Night: Van Gogh at the Asylum (White Lion Publishing 2018, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>) and Van Gogh\u2019s Finale: Auvers and the Artist\u2019s Rise to Fame (Frances Lincoln 2021, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>). The Sunflowers are Mine (2024, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>) and Van Gogh\u2019s Finale (2024, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>) are also now available in a more compact paperback format.<\/p>\n

His other recent books include Living with Vincent van Gogh: The Homes & Landscapes that shaped the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>), which provides an overview of the artist\u2019s life. The Illustrated Provence Letters of Van Gogh has been reissued (Batsford 2021, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>). My Friend Van Gogh\/Emile Bernard provides the first English translation of Bernard\u2019s writings on Van Gogh (David Zwirner Books 2023, UK<\/a>and US<\/a>).<\/p>\n

To contact Martin Bailey, please email vangogh@theartnewspaper.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Please note that he does not undertake authentications.<\/p>\n

Explore all of Martin\u2019s adventures with Van Gogh here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christie\u2019s is to auction A Girl in a Wood (August 1883) in Hong Kong, in a bold move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[14910,6225,6485,6486,891,1120,96,32230,56,54,55,14911],"class_list":{"0":"post-489835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-adventures-with-van-gogh","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-china","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-still-life","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom","19":"tag-vincent-van-gogh"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}