HARVEST in Provence, a watercolour by Vincent van Gogh, is expected to become the most expensive modern picture sold in Europe for seven years when it is auctioned in London in June, according to Sotheby's the auctioneers.
They estimate it could fetch about £8 million sterling at the sale on June 24th. Van Gogh painted the panoramic landscape of a view just outside Arles, southern France, in June 1888.
It was his first response to the colours of the south of France in summer and is the original version of a famous oil painting of the same subject now in the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.
Van Gogh, who lived from 1853 to 1890, entered an asylum just months after finishing the oil painting. The painting is being sold by the family trust of a London collector who bought it in 1930.