Of the works painted by Vincent van Gogh in the final years of his life, none have generated more public controversy for being forged works than his series of sunflower paintings, and more particularly, Sunflowers (pictured to the left). However, it was not the only piece that generated a forgery controversy. Pieces held in private collections and even in public museums are now being scrutinized for their authenticity, triggering some of the world’s leading museums to take down their van Gogh works until the authenticity of each work has been verified.
According to John Rewald, highly regarded as one of the greatest scholars of Post-Impressionism, van Gogh may well have been forged "more frequently than any other modern master" (qtd. Bailey, “Forty-Five Van Goghs”). And as such, there has resulted "more heated discussions and differences of opinion, more experts attacking other experts over the authenticity of Van Gogh's works than that of any other artist of the period" (qtd. Bailey, “Forty-Five Van Goghs”). It is also widely accepted that van Gogh was physically unable to have painted all his recognized works during his short time at Arles. "The number of paintings attributed to van Gogh far exceeds the amount of work he could have done in the seventy days he stayed there before his death," Jan Hulsker, the world’s leading authority on van Gogh’s artwork, declared (qtd. Bailey, “Forty-Five Van Goghs”). His recent catalogue, The New Complete Van Gogh, lists almost 100 works under suspicion of being forged or misattributed to the artist (“Van Gogh’s Sunflowers”).
So why are there so many alleged forgeries flooding the market? Simply put, money. During his lifetime, van Gogh failed to sell his artwork. But after his death, prices for his works skyrocketed to large sums, and by the 1920s, he was “one of the most expensive modern artists” (“Forty-Five Van Goghs”). A highly contentious piece that stirred international attention was the Portrait of Dr. Gachet. In the wake of the Yasuda purchase in 1987, art connoisseurs were quick to react: van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold in 1990 for US 82.5 million dollars, making it the record-highest price ever paid for a piece of artwork (Newsweek). However, two versions existed and are both pictured below. The specific version in question was the copy that is housed in Paris’s Museé d’Orsay, since the one purchased in 1990 was declared the original. The strongest case against the suspected fake’s authenticity rested on the fact that, like the Yasuda copy of Sunflowers, the portrait exhibits stylistic inconsistencies. The material medium was found to be a rough canvas, similar to that used for the Yasuda Sunflowers. Also, X-rays taken during a technical analysis concluded that the artist painted with “a rapidity of execution and a lack of hesitation” (“Forty-Five Van Goghs”). Furthermore, it was noted that the color of the flowers in front of Gachet appeared to be an unnatural blue hue. Moreover, the man illustrated in the portrait, Dr. Paul Gachet, was an amateur artist himself and painted under the pseudonym, “Paul van Ryssel” (“Forty-Five Van Goghs”). He was known to have diluted his own fake works with authentic pieces he had bought, and as a result, art historians have been skeptical of the authenticity of his owned pieces. Some even believed Gachet actually painted a self-portrait, since van Gogh’s letters to Theo never indicated that he painted a copy of his original portrait of Gachet (“Forty-Five Van Goghs”). However, curators at the Museé d’Orsay finally performed a complete technical analysis of the work and have now deemed it authentic – a real van Gogh.
Portrait of Doctor Gachet
Vincent van Gogh
Oil on canvas
68.0 x 57.0 cm.
June, 1890
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Another painting that garnered attention was Garden in Auvers. Believed to be a fake at the time it was auctioned, it ultimately failed to sell (“Forty-Five Van Goghs”). The event created ripples in the art community as it was a highly-regarded work that fell under the weight of forgery suspicion. The argument regarding the painting's authenticity was in effect, evidence of the attention paid to van Gogh's work, as well as a reminder of the large sums of money which are at stake should the piece be declared a fake. Ironically, “there is more public interest in van Gogh fakes than there is in the works he really painted,” as Hulsker propounds (Ryback).
Garden in Auvers
Vincent van Gogh
Oil on canvas
64.0 x 80.0 cm.
June-July, 1890
Private Collection: Pierre Vernes and Edith Vernes-Karaoglan, Paris