Study for Worn Out was held in a private collection for more than 100 years before going on display at the Van Gogh Museum

Tom Anstey | Planet Attractions | 20 Sep 2021

Study for Worn Out will go on display until January 2, 2022 Credit: VGM/Getty
A recently-discovered Vincent Van Gogh pencil sketch of an exhausted old man has gone on display to the public for the first time.
Held in the private collection of a Dutch family for more than a century, Study for Worn Out was drawn in 1882, early in Van Gogh’s career.
Now on display at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the public will be able to see the work of art until January 2, 2022, when it will be returned to the private collection.
According to the museum, the drawing appears to be the basis of Worn Out - a work already in the museum’s collection. Study for Worn Out is, according to experts, “an exceptional insight into Van Gogh’s working process at the time”.
“As a knowledge centre dedicated to the work of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries, we’re delighted with this discovery, with which we’ve again done justice to our specialist field,” said Emilie Gordenker, director of the Van Gogh Museum.
“It’s quite rare for a new work to be attributed to Van Gogh. We’re proud to be able to share this early drawing and its story with visitors to our museum.”
Visitors will be able to view the drawing in the context of other works by Van Gogh from the same period (all of them from the Van Gogh Museum collection), including the drawing Worn Out itself.
“Showing Study for ‘Worn Out’ in the context of these other works, offers us a special insight into Van Gogh’s working process,” said the museum’s senior researcher, Teio Meedendorp.
“What’s more, the study is a very fine, powerful drawing, which stands up entirely on its own.”
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