A painting by Vincent van Gogh depicting the portrait of Sien de Groot from Nuenen fetched €4,562,800 on Tuesday.
The oil painting “Kop van een Vrouw” (head of a woman) was auctioned in London on Tuesday. A crying shame Nuenen didn’t buy it, thinks the Van Gogh enthusiast and fellow villager Kees Rovers to Omroep Brabant. “Sien belongs here actually. It is a real Nuenen piece of heritage”.
Vincent van Gogh painted dozens of peasants in his hometown of Nuenen in the years 1884 and 1885. But Gordina de Groot or “Sien” as she was usually called, he portrayed most often. She can also be seen in the famous painting “De Aardappeleters” (the potato eaters). Of all the peasants Van Gogh painted, only her name is known. “I think that we should have brought her here. Not for myself, but for Nuenen”, reminisces Kees.
Although the village does have a museum about Van Gogh, a real work by the world-famous artist is still missing. But Kees found out too late that it was up for auction. “I don’t have the ability to buy such a painting and neither does the Vincentre (Van Gogh visiting centre in Nuenen). If we had had a little more time to go around with the collection box, it could have been in Nuenen by now”, Kees adds.
In the shed behind his house – which is the old workshop of Van Gogh’s carpenter – Kees talks endlessly about the painter. A few weeks ago, he snapped up a hat identical to what Sien is wearing in the portrait. “I could still afford this but unfortunately not the painting”, he sighs.
Kees looks sadly at the picture of the painting on the auction site. “It’s a missed opportunity for Nuenen. You can put up a poster, but that is still different from the real painting”, he says. “I would really regret it if it now ends up back in someone’s home, where it is not accessible to the public and no one can look at it”.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
