The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has authenticated the painting as a work by Van Gogh. Teio Meedendorp, a senior researcher at the museum, said it was a "spectacular" discovery that sheds light on Van Gogh's early career as an artist living in The Hague - a time when he was little known before he set foot in Paris and the south of France.
The 50x30cm painting, titled Study for “Worn Out,” was drawn with a carpenter’s pencil on a piece of rough watercolor paper. It depicts an exhausted old man, dressed in a vest, trousers, and boots, sitting on a wooden chair, looking exhausted.
The work Study for "Worn Out" is on display at the Van Gogh Museum.
The work was painted in late 1882 when Van Gogh was 29 years old and in the second year of his artistic career. At that time, he painted many pictures of people, studying as many people as possible, often hiring models from the Dutch Reformed Old Men's and Women's Houses and paying them a fee, which might have been 10 pence in today's money or a few cups of coffee.
Not long after the painting Study for "Worn Out" was created, Van Gogh also created a similar work titled Worn Out. This painting is now in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum. In addition, the Van Gogh Museum also has a lithograph with a similar theme called At Eternity's Gate.
Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Meenendorp said Van Gogh gave the works English titles, partly in the hope that his drawings would be noticed and he would get a job as a magazine illustrator. However, that did not happen, and he had little commercial success during his lifetime.
The painting has been in a private collection in the Netherlands since around 1910. Study for "Worn Out" is scheduled to be on display at the Van Gogh Museum until January 2, 2022, before being returned to its owner.
Over the course of a year, the Museum receives numerous requests from people who believe they own a Van Gogh. Very few of these works are genuine and are displayed at the Museum.
