Sunset At Montmajour

Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum is celebrating after an extensive testing procedure identified Vincent Van Gogh as the creator of a 125-year-old painting discovered in a Norwegian attic.

Based on available records and literature that include two letters written by Van Gogh that directly refer to the painting, “Montmajour” is believed to have been painted near the Montmajour hill near Arles, France, on July 4 of 1888, a timespan that Van Gogh Museum Director Axel Rüger describes as “the most important period of his life.”

In 1888 and 1889, Van Gogh painted several of his greatest masterpieces, including “The Sunflowers,” “Starry Night,” and “The Bedroom.”

Van Gogh wrote a letter to his brother Theo the following day in which he seemed to refer to the painting’s landscape: “Yesterday, at sunset, I was on a stony heath where very small, twisted oaks grow, in the background a ruin on the hill, and wheat fields in the valley. It was romantic, it couldn’t be more so, à la Monticello, the sun was pouring its very yellow rays over the bushes and the ground, absolutely a shower of gold. And all the lines were beautiful; the whole scene had charming nobility.”