LONDON, April 27 — Vincent van Gogh’s “Le Pont de Trinquetaille” is sure to cause a stir among art collectors when it goes under the hammer May 13 at Christie’s, as part of the auction house’s “20th Century” sale. The painting is estimated to fetch US$25-US$35 million (RM103 million-RM144 million).
“Le Pont de Trinquetaille” was painted by the Dutch artist shortly before he committed suicide at the age of 37. It is one of the few landscapes from his Arles period, a coveted and particularly fruitful period of his career. In fact, Vincent van Gogh created around 200 paintings during his stay in the South of France, with Provençal inspirations echoed in the warm, bright colour palette that the painter chose to capture the street scene in “Le Pont de Trinquetaille.”
“Works of this scale and importance are incredibly rare and everything about it, from the vibrant, ‘absinthe’ colour of the sky and the highly structured composition to the thick and expressive brushwork of the water speaks of an artist at the very height of his creative powers,” said Christie’s senior international director of Impressionist and modern art, Jay Vincze.
This Vincent van Gogh painting could fetch up to US$35 million during the upcoming “20th Century” sale. It last came to market in 2004, when it sold for US$11.2 million at Christie’s New York. The painting has since featured in the traveling exhibition “Munch: Van Gogh,” shown at Munch Museet in Oslo and Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum.
“Le Pont de Trinquetaille” isn’t the only van Gogh painting to be sold at auction in recent months. In March, “Scène de rue à Montmartre” fetched €13 million (approx. RM64 million) in auction at Sotheby’s Paris, setting a record for the painter in France. A few weeks before that, “La Mousmé” topped its US$10 million high estimate to fetch US$10.4 million at Christie’s New York. — ETX Studio
