The Zandmennik House Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art Adventures with Van Gogh is a weekly blog by Martin Bailey The Art Newspaper's long-standing correspondent and expert on the Dutch painter stories range from newsy items about this most intriguing artist to scholarly pieces based on meticulous investigations and discoveries Explore all of Martin’s adventures with Van Gogh here Two sketches which have been regarded as the first surviving ones done after Vincent van Gogh’s decision to become an artist are “probably” fakes The drawings of houses were discovered in 1958 in an attic in Cuesmes where Van Gogh served as a preacher among the miners They were sold at auction and later donated to the National Gallery of Art in Washington The Magros House Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art the two drawings on loan from Washington played a key role opening a display focussing on Van Gogh’s decision to become an artist Vincent—then aged 27—had written to Theo: “I’ll pick up my pencil… I’ll get back to drawing Vasseur set out to investigate the drawings which he had seen for the first time (as opposed to in reproductions) They had been discovered in 1958 in a trunk in the attic of the Cuesmes home of Samuel Delsaut (1900-78) Delsaut apparently described himself in 1958 as the grandson of Charles Decrucq (1822-84) who had been Van Gogh’s landlord from July to October 1880 The two drawings depict modest houses very close to that of the Decrucqs—the homes of the Zandmennik and Magros families It was assumed that Van Gogh had given them to Decrucq It was while living with Decrucq that Vincent made the most important decision of his life—“to pick up” his pencil sharing a little room with his landlord’s children: “It’s tiny as it is Delsaut’s heart “skipped a beat” when he noticed that the two drawings he discovered in the attic were both initialed “VG” who authenticated and published the drawings Vasseur’s investigations suggest that this was after only cursory study and largely based on the Decrucq provenance They were later published in the 1970 de la Faille catalogue raisonné of Van Gogh’s work but it remains unclear how thoroughly they were examined and they were probably accepted on the basis of Vincent Willem’s pronouncement Delsaut and his son Carlo decided to sell the sketches After this length of time it is impossible to know what examination the two major auction houses undertook Sotheby’s decided that they were not authentic—but Christie’s proved willing to proceed The drawings eventually sold for £4,200 each at Christie’s in 1970 Letter from Sotheby’s rejecting the drawings The two Cuesmes drawings were bought at Christie’s by Armand Hammer He donated them to the National Gallery of Art around the time of his death in 1990 Vasseur has now approached the drawings with fresh eyes since when the artist later signed his work the drawings are more accomplished than one might expect compared with his other rare surviving Borinage sketches such as Miners in the Snow (Kröller Müller Museum Vasseur was surprised to find that Delsaut apparently claimed in 1958 that he was the grandson of Van Gogh’s landlord had been in a folder marked with the name of Samuel Delsaut’s uncle Elie Delsaut (1869-1949) Vasseur believes that he is most likely the creator of the Washington drawings A photograph of a lost drawing of the Decrucq house thought to be by Elie survives It is certainly similar in style to the two attributed to Van Gogh The Zandmennik and Magros houses in the Washington drawings have long been demolished, but the taller part of the Decrucq house in Elie’s sketch survives. Now known as the Maison Van Gogh, it serves as a museum and visitor centre Cuesmes © Ville de Maison / Maison Van Gogh Cuesmes The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is regarded as the key authenticator of the artist’s works but it does not normally comment on items in other collections has written an enthusiastic foreword to Vasseur’s book saying that “I fully endorse” his approach which is “not taking passed-down ‘facts’ for granted” a former head of collections at the Van Gogh Museum and curator of the 2015 Mons exhibition has an open mind on the Washington drawings But in the introduction to Vasseur’s book he says the author’s discoveries “bring up serious questions and establish grounds for doubts surrounding their authenticity” A spokeswoman for the National Gallery of Art was unable to make a substantive comment its curators and conservators need to wait until they can “do their own research and gather together to study the drawings” The case of the Washington drawings demonstrates the importance of weeding out misattributions Art historians have long regarded the two Cuesmes sketches as evidence of a certain talent in Van Gogh’s work by 1880 then his other crude Borinage drawings suggest that his development as an artist was rather different just under a decade after his hesitant Borinage sketches Van Gogh would be using colour to produce his expressive canvasses The artist that today we admire and love achieved success even more quickly than we had thought 28 October 2020 (with Van Gogh’s Fleurs dans un Verre on the left) Courtesy of Sotheby’s • Van Gogh’s Fleurs dans un Verre (Flowers in a Glass Martin Bailey is a leading Van Gogh specialist and special correspondent for The Art Newspaper He has curated exhibitions at the Barbican Art Gallery Compton Verney/National Gallery of Scotland and Tate Britain To contact Martin Bailey, please email vangogh@theartnewspaper.com Please note that he does not undertake authentications Explore all of Martin’s adventures with Van Gogh here blog6 November 2020New book solves the mystery of Van Gogh's lost harmonium portraitVincent scrunched up a study for a second portrait of Marguerite Gachet This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page and the peculiar man who spent 18 months living in the area and failing at yet another chosen career This time his failure marked a turning point in the history of art: sacked as a preacher and evangelist working in the Borinage Vincent van Gogh decided that his future lay in art The exhibition will be the first to focus so strongly on this early period, explaining how Van Gogh chose themes and subjects that echoed throughout his career. Curator Sjraar van Heugten tracked The Mower the only survivor of many copies of the subject he made It will be part of an exhibition for the first time who has been researching this period of the artist’s life says his time in the Borinage was of huge importance bringing him for the first time into contact with true poverty and the hard lives of working-class people The restored house where Van Gogh lived at Cuesmes a small town near MonsAs the letters that will also be on display demonstrate The man who died miserable and unsuccessful but whose paintings would later become among the most coveted and expensive in the world was trying and failing at a new profession – as a preacher and evangelist who baffled the church leaders and local people he was supposed to inspire endlessly patient and kind to the sick and injured watching over them at night and giving away his clothes and even his bed linen – but he was incapable of eloquent speech “It is a fact that the absence of certain qualities may render the performance of the evangelist’s primary function totally deficient,” they said “Unfortunately that was the case with Mr Van Gogh.” The painter wrote bitterly to his brother and ever-loyal correspondent Theo: “You must know that it’s the same with evangelists as with artists a steel breastplate of prejudices and conventions.” The detestable old tyrants were able to organise appointments to suit their own proteges As a budding artist, his failure was equally shattering. He gave as gifts drawings of the family he lodged with (the house is being restored and will reopen to the public this spring) Some were later found torn up and discarded Van Heugten has also uncovered new facts about the period Vincent spent in Brussels and his brief time studying at the academy there “He followed a course where students had to copy plaster casts,” Van Heugten says and it didn’t help when a major sculptural installation – a labyrinth of timber poles by the artist Arne Quinze – collapsed and had to be removed However, things should liven up once the events and exhibition programme gets under way: Van Gogh in the Borinage is among 44 planned, with one show exploring another wild child of European culture, the poet Paul Verlaine and the 15 months he spent in the city’s prison – a few years before Van Gogh’s arrival – after shooting his lover Arthur Rimbaud twice and succeeding only in slightly wounding him barely lasted another 10 years after his unhappy months in and around Mons By then he had created a body of work that began in the Borinage