Van Gogh portrait of a prostitute coming up for sale

Posted date:- 08 Dec 2018

Christie’s is due to sell Van Gogh’s finest painting from his Antwerp period a portrait of a woman he encountered in a cabaret. The artist wryly commented that “she’d evidently had a few busy nights”. Although a dancer, she also likely worked as a prostitute. Christie’s, demurely, are entitling the picture “Portrait de femme: buste, profil gauche”.

The portrait by Van Gogh coming up for sale in London on 27 February 2019, as part of a collection assembled in the 1980s by an anonymous American. As the catalogue has not been published, the estimate is not yet known, although it is expected to be tens of millions of dollars.