It's a fake?

Vincent's work got some recognition in the Netherlands approx. ten years after he died, around 1900. At that time 'the Letters' weren't published yet.

Also most of his early work from the Netherlands was stored and forgotten in crates at the carpenter Mr. Schrauwen. It wasn't untill 1902/1903 that this work surfaced and was sold in the city of Breda as rubbish.
When a while later it became clear in Breda that the paintings were valuable a real hunt on Van Goghs began. It is said (assumed?) that these times also fakes were made, although I couldn't find any records of these.

Of course many fakes were made, but they were based on the (colorful) French paintings. In the book 'Les Faux Van Gogh' (The fakes of Van Gogh) by De la Faille, no paintings from the Drenthe period appear.
This book is published in 1930(!).

It would've been very hard for a faker to paint a Van Gogh from the Drenthe period.
The letters weren't published, there was no oeuvre catalog and especially about the Drenthe period practically nothing was known. In short there was practically nothing a faker could rely on. To paint a painting described in letter 389[324] as 'the first study', requires a great knowledge of the letters and other Drenthe paintings.

Also the painting is not signed, a weird thing to do for a faker.

But the most significant factor is the age of the painting, every expert who has seen the painting so far thinks it is from the end of the nineteenth century, which is when Vincent painted his 'first study'. This makes it impossible that the painting is a fake.



The option that the painting is painted as a fake later, say around the 1920's isn't likely either because:

The apparant age of the painting (even the curator of the Van Gogh Museum thinks it is from the end of the nineteenth century).

The painting is owned by a coachman. The prices of Van Goghs were already high those days, it is more than unlikely that a coachman could afford to spent this amount of money on a painting.
Also other factors in the provenance (which I can't publish fully yet) clearly illustrate that the owner didn't think the painting being of high value.




Conclusion:
The period in which the painting "Cottage with sticks" is painted (at the end of the nineteenth century which is somewhere around 1880-1890) makes it impossible that the painting is a fake.
Vincent painted his 'first study' in 1883.....

Cottage with sticks & Vincent van Gogh - by Carl & Ans 2003-2005.

In 1914 the letters were first published.
Johanna van Gogh-Bonger (Theo's wife, Vincent's sister-in-law) published them after many years of hard work.

dr. Jacob-Baart de la Faille (1886-1959) is one of the most renowned Van Gogh experts in the world.
He also published the first oeuvre catalog L'oeuvre de Vincent van Gogh - Catalogue raisonné in 1928.