Little-Seen Van Gogh Painting Could Go For $3 Million At Auction This Week

Art historians believe Van Gogh painted The “Laakmolen” Near The Hague around 1882, after he moved to The Hague from his family home in Brabant.

Sotheby’s estimates the watercolor will go for between $2 million and $3 million at auction, slightly lower than the roughly $3.1 million it fetched in 2015, the last time it switched hands.

The painting holds a special place in the artist’s portfolio as it features a real mill that ten years earlier Van Gogh visited while on a long walk with his brother Theo, a trip Van Gogh referenced in his letters as a happy and pivotal time in the artist’s life.

Van Gogh wrote in an 1882 letter to his brother that their walk “holds memories for me which are perhaps the most delightful I have,” according to auction house Sotheby’s.

It has also been suggested that it was during this walk that the brothers agreed to try to become painters, though only Vincent Van Gogh would go on to do so.

The painting has almost exclusively been locked up in private collections, having been on exhibit only once during a 1961 exhibit in Amsterdam, according to Sotheby’s.