Newly discovered Van Gogh sketchbook to be published

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William Haskins

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PARIS (AFP).- A sketchbook of drawings by Dutch post-Impressionist master Vincent Van Gogh has been discovered and will be published in November, the French publisher Seuil announced Thursday.

"This sketchbook was known only to the owners, myself and the publisher," Seuil official Bernard Comment told AFP, calling the discovery "stunning, dazzling".

The artwork will be released under the title "Vincent Van Gogh, Le Brouillard d'Arles" (The Fog of Arles), he said.

The prolific painter lived in the French town of Arles, in southern Provence, in 1888 and 1889.

It will be published first in France, the United States, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan, and in other countries at a later date, Seuil said in a statement.

The publisher did not give details of the sketchbook's provenance or the planned price of the publication.

http://artdaily.com/news/88160/Newly-discovered-Van-Gogh-sketchbook-to-be-published#.V3gQMNRHarU
 

frimble3

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Yeah, I'm with Mirandashell. Saying you've found a lost piece of art by a master, that can at least be provisionally matched to records, is one thing, but an entire previously-unknown sketchbook? And the previous owners never said a word about it until now? Yeah, I want provenance, authentication, names.

And I'd really like the sketchbook to be from one of his less popular, less obviously 'Picasso' periods, not a pastiche of sketches in the vein of his greatest hits.
 

Latina Bunny

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From the article:

"No further information will be divulged until the world press conference to be held in Paris in mid-November 2016 on the eve of the book's arrival in bookstores in the various countries," Seuil said in a statement.

Comment said he had known of the sketchbook for "a little over a year" and that it contained more than 10 drawings.

Experts have confirmed the authenticity of the drawings, he said.

Ooh, nice. :)

It looks like there will be more info at that Paris conference. Perhaps they will reveal more details and the provenance then?

I wonder if the sketches will be early drafts of some lesser known works or of his popular masterpieces? It would be very interesting to see his process. :)
 

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"No further information will be divulged until the world press conference to be held in Paris in mid-November 2016 on the eve of the book's arrival in bookstores in the various countries," Seuil said in a statement.

If they do that they're going to really limit the press coverage the book will get, and that will have a negative affect on the sales. The only reason I can think of for not releasing copies of some of the images concerned is that they have concerns about them. Hmm.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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Sketchbooks aren't like paintings. For many artists they are casual scratch-pads with all kinds of thoughts, jots, and nonsense randomly mixed up with some real inspirations. Even what survives of Leonardo da Vinci's journals (sliced to ribbons centuries ago by zealous fans) reveals pretty random thoughts of varying utility.

That this sketchbook and the art in it is not depicted and that it is described as having "more than 10" drawings suggests to me that it is probably more like a couple of fragments of Leonardo's work than what one thinks of when one hears talk of a sketchbook.

Still, if authentic, these will be interesting and useful to artists and scholars.
 
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