At TEFAF Maastricht, the Van Gogh Museum acquired Virginie Demont-Breton』s L』homme est en mer, a painting from 1887–88 that now counts as only the third painting by a woman in the institution』s collection, according to Artnet News.
As reported by senior editor Kate Brown, the painting of a woman looking longingly while holding an infant—presumably pining for the titular man at sea—was purchased by the Amsterdam museum with public funds dedicated to acquisitions for a price between €500,000 and €1 million ($543,000 and $1.1 million). The sale on TEFAF』s opening day was brokered by Gallery 19C from Dallas-Forth Worth, where the work had been in a private collection for 20 years.
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「Van Gogh had seen Demont-Breton』s painting, which was made in between 1887 and 1889, reproduced in black and white in a magazine about French salon paintings and he was so inspired by it that he copied it,」 according to Artnet. 「It is one of the only paintings by a woman artist that he is known to have emulated.」
About the work, Lisa Smit, the Van Gogh Museum』s curator of paintings, said, 「Van Gogh was a big fan of the work of Demont-Breton』s father, Jules Breton. He would have seen a lot of sentiment in this work. It is heartfelt, it is truthful. You can immediately feel for the figure. It is a depiction of motherhood that is not idyllic.」
Demont-Breton』s L』homme est en mer previously sold at Christie』s in 2000 for a price of $99,500. In an essay accompanying the lot at the time, Christie』s wrote, 「While her subject matter ranged from religious compositions, genre scenes and landscapes, she had a particular penchant for her heartfelt depictions of family life.」