Van Gogh portrait could get $59m in auction

NEW YORK - Vincent Van Gogh's portrait of a cafe owner, based on a sketch by his friend and fellow artist Paul Gauguin, could fetch more than US$40 million ($59 million) when it is auctioned in New York later this year.

L'Arlesienne, Madame Ginoux was executed in February 1890, five months before the Dutch artist's suicide. It depicts the proprietress of a cafe in Arles, France, frequented by Gauguin and Van Gogh.

It is expected to be a highlight of Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art sale on May 2, Guy Bennett, a senior vice president of the auction house, said on Wednesday.

The painting was put up for sale by the Bakwin family collection and could bring between US$40 and US$60 million, he said.

"He is the magical name in our field, but they're incredibly rare," said Bennett. "The last major Van Gogh portrait to come to auction was in 1998 and prior to that in 1990."

Van Gogh's Portrait of Dr Gachet was sold for a record US$82.5 million in 1990. It was surpassed as the world's most expensive painting in May 2004 when Pablo Picasso's Garcon a la Pipe sold for US$104 million at Sotheby's in New York.

Van Gogh and Gauguin both sketched Marie Ginoux, who owned the Cafe de la Gare in Arles, in November 1888. Van Gogh painted the portrait following his return to Arles after being committed to the asylum in Saint-Remy.

In a letter to Gauguin about the painting on June 17, 1890, five weeks before his death, he wrote, "it gives me enormous pleasure when you say the Arlesienne's portrait, which was based strictly on your drawing, is to your liking. I tried to be respectfully faithful to your drawing, while nevertheless taking the liberty of interpreting through the medium of colour the sober character ... ."

Madame Ginoux, glancing to the side with a bemused smile, is shown against a floral yellow background, wearing a pink and white dress with green bodice and sitting at a dark-green table.

Copies of Charles Dickens' Christmas Stories and what is believed to be Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin are on the tabletop.

- REUTERS