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Van Gogh Museum
Tree Roots is believed to be Vincent van Gogh’s final painting
A postcard has helped find the likely place where Vincent van Gogh painted what may have been his final masterpiece, art experts say.
Tree Roots’ probable location was found by Wouter van der Veen, chief scientific officer of the Institut Van Gogh.
He recognized similarities between the painting and a postcard dating from 1900 to 1910.
The postcard shows trees on a bench near the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise.
The site is 150 meters from the Auberge Ravoux, the inn in the village, where Van Gogh stayed for 70 days before killing himself in 1890.
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“The similarities were very clear to me,” said Van der Veen, who had the revelation at his home in Strasbourg, France, during the shutdown.
Van der Veen presented his findings to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, whose researchers conducted a comparative study of the painting, the postcard, and the hillside.
The experts, senior researchers at the Louis van Tilborgh museum and Teio Meedendorp, concluded that it was “very plausible” that the correct location had been identified.
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arténon through the Van Gogh Museum
Wouter van der Veen noted the similarities between the postcard (on the left) and the painting, overlapping it on the right
“In our opinion, the location identified by Van der Veen is very likely correct and a remarkable discovery,” Meedendorp said.
“On closer observation, the overgrowth on the postcard shows very clear similarities to the shape of the roots in Van Gogh’s painting. That this is his latest work of art makes it even more exceptional and even dramatic.”
Van der Veen visited the site to verify his theory in May 2020, once the coronavirus restrictions were lifted in France.
A ceremony was held on Tuesday in Auvers-sur-Oise, a few kilometers north of Paris, to mark the discovery of the apparent location.
Emilie Gordenker, CEO of the Van Gogh Museum, and Willem van Gogh, the great-grandson of Vincent’s brother Theo, attended to reveal a memorial plaque at the site.
‘The final blows on a dramatic day’
Which of Van Gogh’s paintings was the last has long been debated.
In a letter, Theo van Gogh’s brother-in-law, Andries Bonger, described how the artist “had painted a forest scene, full of sun and life” on “the morning before his death.”
That letter has been used to support the claim that Tree Roots was Van Gogh’s last work of art.
Based on his postcard theory, Van der Veen believes that Van Gogh may have been working on the painting a few hours before his death.
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Van der Veen said: “The sunlight painted by Van Gogh indicates that the last brush strokes were painted towards the end of the afternoon, providing more information on the course of this dramatic day that ended in his suicide.”
On July 27, 1890, the troubled Dutch artist shot himself in the chest in Auvers-sur-Oise. He died of his injuries a few days later.
At the time of his death, Tree Roots had not been fully completed.
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