THE HAGUE: A rare early work by Vincent van Gogh has been sold for a reported several million euros at an art fair in the Netherlands, its previous owner and Dutch media said on Sunday.

Van Gogh’s “Tete de paysanne a la coiffe blanche”, also known as “Head of an Old Peasant Woman with a White Cap” was on sale at the annual European Art Fair in Maastricht for an asking price of 4.5 million euros ($4.9 million).

“It has been sold to a museum outside the European Union,” said Bill Rau, president of the M.S. Rau Gallery who had put the painting up for sale. “We cannot discuss the price,” Rau said in an email. Dutch national news agency ANP however said the asking price “was matched by the sales price”.

Although the name of the private museum was not given, “it will be accessible to the public,” ANP added.

Van Gogh painted the work around 1884 while living with his parents in the southern Dutch town of Nuenen, the year before he completed his other famous work from the period, “The Potato Eaters”.

Visitors to the fair, known as TEFAF, are able to marvel at a treasure trove of paintings, sculptures and jewellery — all up for sale until Thursday.

Among the many pieces up for grabs, which include names such as Manet, Rubens and Rodin, the undisputed stars of the show have been Van Gogh’s “Tete de paysanne a la coiffe blanche” and Wassily Kandinsky’s “Murnau mit Kirche II”.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2024