Discovered in a novel rare bookmark drawn by Van Gogh. Now it's on display

Inside a novel, researchers have discovered a bookmark designed by Vincent van Gogh. Remained hidden for more than 135 years, it is now on display for the first time.

The Dutch painter gave a book focusing on French peasants to a friend in 1883, and inside he also left the friend a hand-drawn bookmark with some sketches he made when Van Gogh was in his early 20s. The sketches probably depict peasants inspired by the gift book.

Now visitors to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam have a chance to admire it, as it is on display in the Here to Stay exhibition set up in the renowned museum until Sept. 12, 2021, along with the most significant acquisitions of the past decade. In addition to works and artifacts by van Gogh, masterpieces by Monet, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Munch, and Adolphe Appian have also joined the collection. All works that help to better understand the cultural and artistic context in which Van Gogh moved, among the artists who inspired him, contemporary artists, and those who were inspired by him.

According to museum researcher Teio Meedendorp, very few drawings from the painter’s early period have come down to us, although he executed many of them, and small informal sketches such as those made on the bookmark are even rarer. It is a personalized bookmark that the artist probably made in late 1881 when he was still living in Etten, in his parents’ village: so it is a rare testimony to his great ability to make quick sketches even on small media, as well as to his literary preferences. The novel inside which the precious bookmark was discovered is a copy of Histoire d’un paysan, an illustrated volume recounting the French Revolution from the point of view of a peasant.

A Van Gogh expert, Martin Bailey, commented that those drawings “underscore the painter’s interest in depicting the human figure and the life of peasants in the village where his parents lived.”

After the death of the friend who was the recipient of the gift, the novel remained with his wife and family for generations, until 2019, when it was sold to the Van Gogh Museum.

Pictured is the rediscovered bookmark. Ph.Credit Van Gogh Museum

Discovered in a novel rare bookmark drawn by Van Gogh. Now it's on display

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.