New Van Gogh drawing discovered: It is a rare event

A new drawing by Vincent van Gogh has been discovered: it is the preparatory study for Worn Out (literally “exhausted”), the famous drawing that the artist made in November 1882 and which depicts precisely a tired, hunched over old man sitting on a chair, covering his face with his hands. It is one of many works dedicated to the weak and the poor, in which the dramatic line is well emphasized. The old man depicted lived in the Dutch Reformed Hospice for Men and Women in The Hague.

Announcing the discovery was the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam: “As a center of knowledge for the work of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries, we are very pleased with this discovery, which once again does justice to our specialization. It is quite rare for a new work to be attributed to Van Gogh. We are proud to be able to share this first drawing and its story with visitors to our museum,” said Emilie Gordenker, director of the Van Gogh Museum.

Like the well-known 1882 drawing, the preparatory study shows an elderly man sitting and exhausted with his head in his hands. Van Gogh portrayed this figure more than forty times, testifying with these drawings to his great concern for the weaker members of society, whom he nevertheless did not consider inferior to the bourgeoisie.

The owner of the work, who wishes to remain anonymous, has asked the Van Gogh Museum to investigate whether the drawing was actually made by the famous Dutch artist.

“Stylistically it fits effortlessly among the many figure studies we know of Van Gogh made in The Hague,” said Teio Meedendorp, senior researcher at the Van Gogh Museum. “Van Gogh applied a grid to the paper to make a perspective frame. He did this to quickly outline a figure in the right proportions. The further elaboration was done in an expressive style characteristic to him: unrefined, but with energetic scratches and brushstrokes, and the outlines show a search toward chiaroscuro effects.” Relative to the materials used, Meedendorp adds, “one finds here everything you would expect from a Van Gogh drawing of this period: thick carpenter’s pencil, medium, rough watercolor paper as a support, and later fixed with a mixture of water and milk. The back of the drawing has damage at the corners, which can be related to the usual way Van Gogh attached a sheet of paper to his drawing board, overo with starch wads.”

The study for Worn Out will be on display from today, Sept. 17, until Jan. 2, 2022, along with other Van Gogh works from the same period, all belonging to the Van Gogh Museum’s collection.

Image: Vincent van Gogh, Study for Worn out (c. Nov. 24, 1882; pencil on watercolor paper, 48.8 x 30 cm; private collection).

New Van Gogh drawing discovered: It is a rare event

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