a painting by the artist banned from being exhibited in a French café

For more than thirty years, Dominique Janssens has been fighting to realize Van Gogh’s dream: to exhibit a painting in the inn where the artist spent his last ten weeks. This spring, he came very close to achieving the audacious goal. Garden in Auvers (June 1890) was pledged on short-term loan by the private owner, who would have been a Frenchman residing in Switzerland.

In June 1890, Vincent had written to his brother Théo: “One day or another, I believe that I will find a way to put on an exhibition of my own in a café. He then stayed at the Auberge Ravoux, in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise. Vincent lived in a small attic room above the cafe on the ground floor. His letter to Theo was probably written downstairs, a glass of wine close at hand.

In 1987, Janssens bought the building and its annexes, which until then had remained a café in the center of the village, just northwest of Paris. He painstakingly restored the historic interior, open it to visitors in tribute to the artist.

The highlight of the visit is entering the tiny attic room where Van Gogh died on July 29, 1890, two days after shoot oneself. It is left empty except for a simple chair.

“Visitors don’t come as tourists, but as pilgrims,” ​​says Janssens. After completing the renovation, he turned to making the artist’s dream come true, to exhibit a painting by Van Gogh. For security reasons, it would have been very difficult to hang it in the downstairs café, which opens onto the street. Instead, a high security glass cabinet was built upstairs in the much more secure bedroom. With its seven square meters, Janssens describes it as “the smallest museum in the world”.

His last plan was that Garden in Auvers will be exhibited for two months, until the end of April. Although security is already tight, earlier this year Janssens spent €400,000 on an upgrade, including a seven-ton armored door, a sophisticated surveillance system and the strictest fire precautions. When I visited the hostel a few weeks ago the security seemed to be what you would expect at a large museum. The insurance cover was negotiated through the leading Brussels art specialist Eeckman.

Just four days before Garden in Auvers was to be delivered Janssens received bad news: the owner’s agent questioned the provisions. Since then there have been intensive discussions, but so far the issues are still unresolved. Garden in Auvers is still hidden in a bank vault.

Garden in Auvers is unusual among Van Gogh’s late works because it is more decorative and abstract than most of his landscapes, consisting partly of patterned color blocks with dotted highlights. The perspective suggests a bird’s eye view. The composition may well have been inspired by a visit to the garden of late artist Charles-François Daubigny, whose widow lived a five-minute walk from the inn.

Painting has had a particularly turbulent history in recent decades. In 1992, it was bought by banker Jean-Marc Vernes for the equivalent of 10 million dollars. After his death four years later, the photo was put up for auction in Paris, but shortly before the sale the media claimed it was a fake.

It was understandable, because it was an atypical Van Gogh and at that time there was uncertainty as to his provenance. Potential buyers were wary of buying a painting whose authenticity had been so publicly questioned. It failed to sell.

Since then, further research has clearly established that questions about his status are entirely unfounded. Garden in Auvers has been authenticated by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the recognized authority on the artist’s work, as well as by the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

Although undeclared, five years ago the banker’s heirs, Pierre and Edith Vernes, sold Garden in Auvers by the Parisian auctioneer Marc-Arthur Kohn, in a private sale. It went to an anonymous buyer. He passed away a few months ago and ownership then apparently passed to his two daughters.

But there is another element that complicates Garden in Auvers history. In 1989, the French government registered the painting as a national treasure, meaning it cannot be exported from France, greatly reducing its financial value. Without this restriction, a Van Gogh landscape of this quality could well be worth over 150 million euros, but since it cannot leave France, it is now valued at around half that sum.

Garden in Auvers was not the first painting that Janssens tried to borrow or buy to fulfill Van Gogh’s dream.

In the 1990s, he almost obtained the loan of a work from the Pushkin Museum in Moscow: either The red vineyard (November 1888), the only painting Van Gogh ever sold, or landscape with train (June 1890). However, the international arrangement had to be supervised by the French authorities. They blocked a loan on the grounds that the hostel was not a recognized museum.

In the early 2000s, Janssens was optimistic about buying, rather than borrowing, a privately owned Auvers painting,The fields (July 1890). Although having obtained the support of an American bank, the price finally proved to be an insurmountable obstacle due to the financial crisis. In 2017, the private owner put the picture up for auction at Sotheby’s, with an estimate of $28-35 million, but it did not sell.

Despite these setbacks, the indefatigable Janssens did not give up: “I still hope that it will be possible to borrow Garden in Auvers or, if sold, to a new owner. And I have my eye on several other paintings from Auvers by Van Gogh that are in private collections. I am determined to make his dream come true.

In the meantime Garden in Auvers will soon be lent, but to two museums, partly thanks to Janssens’ contacts. The painting should be on display in the next few days Van Gogh in Auvers: his last months exposure to Van Gogh Museum (May 12-September 3) and Orsay Museum (October 3-February 4, 2024).