The "Study for 'Worn Out'" drawing will be exhibited at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam until January 2, 2022.
ADVERTISEMENTA recently discovered drawing by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh is to go on display for the first time on Friday in the museum that bears his name.
The "new work" is a study for "Worn Out", one of van Gogh's most famous works, which depicts an elderly man, sat hunched over in a chair with his head in his hands.
Emilie Gordenker, director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, said the institution is "delighted with this discovery".
"It’s quite rare for a new work to be attributed to Van Gogh. We’re proud to be able to share this early drawing and its story with visitors to our museum," she added.
The work resurfaced after its owner, who prefers to remain anonymous, asked the museum to determine whether it had indeed been drawn by the famous Dutch artist.
Teio Meedendorp, a senior researcher at the museum, said that "in stylistic terms, it slots perfectly into the many figure studies we know from Van Gogh’s time in The Hague and the connection with 'Worn Out' is obvious".
"In terms of the materials, too, you find everything you’d expect in a Van Gogh drawing from this period: a thick carpenter’s pencil as medium, coarse watercolour paper as support, and fixing with a solution of water and milk.
"There are traces of damage in the corners on the back of the drawing, which we can link to the way Van Gogh customarily attached sheets of paper to his drawing board using wads of starch," he explained.
The museum said that van Gogh described his approach to create "Worn Out" in great detail in letters to his brother Theo and to his friend Anthon van Rappard but that this study nonetheless provides "an exceptional insight into his working process".
The newly-resurfaced drawing will be exhibited until January 2, 2022.
