It is one of the best-known stories in art: a genius who died in 1890 with a single sale to his name.
The claim: one painting, one buyer
The legend says Van Gogh sold only one painting, The Red Vineyard, bought for 400 francs by the painter and collector Anna Boch. The sale was made in Brussels in early 1890.
Van Gogh died in 1890, aged 37, after producing about 2,100 artworks. Anna Boch's brother Eugène was also a friend of Van Gogh's.
The idea probably spread because The Red Vineyard is the only painting known by name that he sold in his lifetime.
The background: a painter with a dealer brother
Van Gogh painted The Red Vineyard in 1888, working from memory in the studio rather than outdoors. His brother Theo was an art dealer for Goupil et Cie.
Van Gogh was invited on 15 November 1889 to show at the Les XX exhibition in Brussels, which ran from 18 January to 23 February 1890. Ten of his paintings were then shown at the Artistes Indépendants exhibition in Paris, from 20 March to 27 April 1890.
In January 1890 the critic Albert Aurier praised Van Gogh in an article in Mercure de France.
What the evidence shows
Anna Boch bought The Red Vineyard at the Les XX exhibition's asking price of 400 francs. The Red Vineyard is the only painting Van Gogh is certainly known to have sold, and the only sale documented by name.
That is not the same as saying it was the only sale. He is also said to have sold at least two paintings and some drawings, and the scholar Marc Edo Tralbaut challenged the myth.
Not all of his pictures left his hands by sale, either. Van Gogh exchanged works with other artists, including Gauguin and Bernard.
Verdict: Partly true. One sale is firmly documented by name, but the claim that it was the only one goes further than the evidence.
What it means: he was known, and the money came later
The belief gets his reputation wrong. Van Gogh was exhibited and written about in his lifetime, in the 1890 Les XX and Indépendants shows and in Aurier's January 1890 article.
