Van Gogh’s Letter About His Brothel Visit Sells For $236,000 At Auction

Believed to be the most important document written by Van Gogh that remained in private hands, the four-page letter written in French was purchased by the Van Gogh Foundation Tuesday and will be displayed at the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam starting in October.

Written by Van Gogh and Gauguin to their friend and fellow post-impressionist artist Émile Bernard in early November 1888, it’s the only known correspondence Van Gogh had with another artist, according to the Van Gogh Museum.

In the letter, the two artists detail their first week living and working together in Arles, a city in southern France, as well as their visits to a local brothel in an attempt to entice Bernard into joining them in Arles, where Van Gogh hoped to start an artist’s colony.

Though the letter is addressed to Bernard, Van Gogh and Gauguin also took turns addressing each other—Van Gogh wrote in the letter that Gauguin is “an unspoiled creature with the instincts of a wild beast. With Gauguin, blood and sex have the edge over ambition,” while Gaugin in turn wrote to Bernard, “do not listen to Vincent, he is, as you know, easy to impress and ditto to be indulgent.”

The men’s relationship took a turn for the worst just weeks after they wrote the letter, when they had a falling out after Gauguin told Van Gogh he was planning to leave Arles, the same day Van Gogh famously cut his own ear off. 

The letter will be one of dozens of documents slated to be displayed at a Van Gogh Museum exhibit starting in October titled, “Your loving Vincent: Van Gogh’s Greatest Letters.”