For several months now a campaign has been going on regarding the 2000 or so works produced by Van Gogh among which at least 100 are being challenged. This did nort prevent Christie's from retorting immediately that there was no reason to question the authenticity of the painting. Geraldine Norman , who has been an art specialist for many years working for such newspapers as the Independent or the Times, replied that Christie's and Sotheby's were being offered thousands of paintings for sale and that they were sometimes exposed to making errors.
"In 1987, Christie's had no information about Schuffenecker whose existence was revealed only recently," she added.
On this point Norman has it all wrong. In fact Schuffenecker, a close friend of Gauguin from the time when they both worked at the Paris Stock Exchange, played a certain role in the development of modern art and notably organised the first exhibition of the "Synthetist" movement in 1889. He then taught painting and was somewhat disappointed not to obtain some kind of recognition. His works appeared many times in auction sales as from the 1920's and his name went back to certain fame in the early 1980's. It is therefore surprising that a specialist such as Geraldine Norman knew so little about him.
All the more, she has been basing her claims on the works made by the above-mentioned researchers who are not recognised as experts for the works of Van Gogh. Still, the Sunflowers effectively belonged to de La Rochefoucauld collection and the painting was exhibited in 1892 and appear to be genuine according to most top experts. It is true that Daniel Wildenstein expressed doubts about the painting but his knowledge spanning from 18th century painters to Impressionist artists is less secure about Van Gogh. He himself has made mistakes in authenticating or refusing certain works by Manet or Lebourg in particular.
Once again, the opinion of established experts is being questioned. After all they are human beings liable to making mistakes but up to now on the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is the sole recognised authority and according to its specialists the Yasuda painting is OK. For the history the painting passed into the hands of Johanna Van Gogh who then sold it to Schuffenecker.
Finally, Geraldine Norman woke up a bit late in this respect since the Sunflowers painting has been the object of an intense debate for months. She brought nothing new to the dossier and instead put her reputation at stake with her rather stupid contribution to this campaign as no one has been able so far to challenge the verdict the Amsterdam Museum delivered on this work.
Because of his particular profile, his miserable existence, his enormous production over a 15-year period and the fact that he became one of the most expensive painters after his death, van Gogh is now the object of disputes like Rembrandt whose catalogue has been rehashed in recent years.
However, alongside this turmoil, a major issue is coming back to light regarding the capacities of most experts, the reliability of provenances and the circulation of many fakes in all fields. With modern scientific techniques experts should be more at ease to deliver opinions. The snag is that at the door of the 21st Century they still stick to 19th Century methods.
Adrian Darmon
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