Chronology / News

Wednesday, December 7th, 2005
Today I have put the new website "Lost work" online.
Unfortunately this website is only in dutch at the moment.
I am working on an english version.

Thursday, December 1st, 2005
Mattijs van de Wiel of the Dutch NOS Radio 1 Journaal (National Broadcast Foundation), has interviewed Ben Landais regarding "Les Laboureurs".
(The interview is primarily in dutch, while Landais speaks French)
To listen to the interview, please click the foto of Benoit Landais.

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I would like to thank Mattijs van de Wiel and the NOS for giving me permission to add this interview to my site.

Sunday, November 27th, 2005
Newspapers which publicise about the lawsuit against the Van Gogh Museum are:
- Sud Ouest
- Le Monde
- Daily Telegraph
I'm still searching for direct links to these articles.
A summary of the press reports can be found here.

Wednesday, November 23th, 2005
Perhaps you remember the painting of ploughmen "les laboureurs" which would be auctioned in France two years ago. (see messages below of November 26th 2003 and December 27th 2003). This painting is authenticated by the french-dutch Van Gogh-expert Benoit Landais.

From several press articles, the following can be distilled:

The Van Gogh Museum has, a few days before the auction would take place, announced worldwide that this painting was a fake according her believe. As a consequence the auctioneer withdrew the painting from auctioning.
By doing so the Van Gogh Museum established her monopoly position. Should the painting indeed be auctioned then in the future also other experts, like Benoit Landais, should be able to announce a Van Gogh fake or not.

Contrary almost all others this Frenchman doesn't give in to the tactics of the Van Gogh Museum. His queste is going on for about fourteen years now. He assigns the Van Gogh Museum to court as the value of his painting is reduced to zero.

Tuesday, September 13th, 2005
After months of absence I slowly want to start again. The investigation whether “Cottage with sticks” is painted by Vincent van Gogh or not, threatens to get stuck. (On the other hand one might consider whether or not at present enough data is gathered to draw a conclusion about the authenticity.)
The subjects still to be investigated more thoroughly are: “The paint used” and “the provenance”. Research into the paints is technically possible, but costs a lot of money, which I don’t have.
With respect to the provenance a lot is to be investigated yet, but for this it is necessary to spend a lot of time in the archives, time I don’t have at he moment. Despite the above I plan to expand and improve the website where possible.
Also I've started work on a new website about Vincent van Gogh's 'lost works', about which soon more.

Newly added to the website is the section "Style".

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005
Due being very busy lately, I'm building a boat, the research into the painting has faded.
During this time I've been able to oversee the facts "from a distance".
Despite the mental rest from this period, I can only conclude that "Cottage with sticks" is indeed painted by Vincent van Gogh.
From now on I will continu the research and, when the boat is finished, I will spend all my time to find the truth.

Monday, November 1st, 2004
After making the X-rays I've removed the painting from its frame. This brought so much new information that I had to rewrite the section "Support / Dimensions" entirely.

Thursday, October 21st, 2004
As promised the results of the X-rays. I've added a new section with the surprising name "X-ray".
From the X-rays information is gained which has its influence on other sections of the website too. I haven't updated these yet, I didn't want to have you wait any longer.

Sunday, October 10th, 2004
Some time ago the radiation physicist dr.ir. van 't Riet contacted me, who (very friendly) proposed to have X-ray pictures taken of the painting. Now the pictures are being analyzed and within a while I hope to have the results available on the website.
To reveal a tip of the veil; a canvas structure is visible, the painted sky is very hard to penetrate for the X-ray radiation and a second (first) composition seems to be visible.
Especially the discovery of the canvas structure can be of vital importance.
Unfortunately I'm not in the financial position to have the painting investigated by other techniques like a CT scan, infra-red photography, chemical analysis and others. If you posses specialist knowledge and/or facilities please don't hesitate to contact me!

Monday, September 27th, 2004
Because of being to busy with work the past months, I haven't been able to update the website.
In the near future I hope to find more time for research.
Soon I will have the painting X-rayed.

Thursday, March 4, 2004
The second part of the research into the provenance is added.
You can find it at the end of the "Provenance-section".

Thursday, Februari 5, 2004
I just added the first part of the research into the provenance. It isn't much yet but one has to start somewhere. Updates will be added regularly.
You can find it at the end of the "Provenance-section".

Tuesday, Februari 3, 2004
Recently I've been busy investigating the provenance/paper trail of the painting "Cottage with sticks".
I do this by working backwards in time, starting with the last known owners, Piet and Dina. The main question to be answered is: "How did the painting come into the possession of Piet and Dina?" Piet and Dina were 'regular' people with no background in art at all.
This question is partly answered already and in my investigation I've made many discoveries. It is too early though to fill in the entire picture.
Because this investigation might take several more months, maybe years, I've decided to add parts of this investigation to the website. By doing so the many visitors are able to follow the investigation.
Part I will be added soon.

Monday, Januari 5, 2004
We wish all returning visitors of this website, and also the newcomers of course, a prosperous 2004. In the past year only one of the two purposes of this website is fullfilled.

1. We didn't manage to find prove that the painting is not the lost painting which Vincent refers to in his second letter from Drenthe.

2. "Ter leringhe ende vermaeck".
According the many thousands of visitors of this website and the large amount of returning visitors I think we can say this goal is fullfilled.

Especially because we couldn't find prove during the past year that the painting is not "the first study" of Van Gogh, we continu our search.
During the past weeks I dug deeper into the provenance and slowly but steadily some progress is visible. Because this investigation contains personal data I can't publish this on the website. Only after everything is clear and under obtained permission from those involved the precise provenance will be published.

Of course I will continu improving and extending the current website.

Saturday, December 27, 2003
We’re back, the ADSL connection functions and I have MegaBytes to fill.

Undoubtly you’ve heard the news that the auction in France, by interference of the Van Gogh Museum, didn’t take place. Sad, but so be it.
I feel pity for the owner of the painting. How many years will it take for the Van Gogh Museum to come up with an expertise? And the outcome is already known: “In our opinion etc.…”. Yes but, you will say, they can authenticate it anyway? In theory yes, of course, but suppose they would do this, by doing so they admit that;
a) They’ve made a wrong expertise in the past and
b) They admit that Landais is a Van Gogh expert.
Peace on earth seems more probable to me.

Wednesday, December 10, 2003
I just found out that getting the ADSL connection might take a few weeks.
Untill then I can't put 'major' updates onto the website.
On the other hand this suits me well because Santa Claus brought me some books (Van Gogh Museum Journals), which I'm studying now extensively.

Sunday, November 30, 2003
No new pictures yet, but I have rewritten the section 'Science'.

Wednesday, November 26, 2003
Yesterday I wanted to add a new picture to the website but unfortunately, FULL!
Now I first have to change my contract and in the proces change to ADSL also.
So, the oncoming days there will be no new pictures added, I hope that some text (like this News-section), can be added though.
Because of these changes the website might not be available for a little while.

Today I received an e-mail from a Frenchman with a photo of a, to me unknown, work from Drenthe. This painting, authenticated by Ben Landais, is being auctioned soon in France.
The accompanying website is in French and unfortunately I can't read that, but you can have look for yourself at www.leblay.fr

Saturday, November 22, 2003
Yesterday Ans and I visited the opening of the exhibition "Lost and Found" in the Breda Museum.
It was nice to speak to the people in the same position as I in real, also to see all those involved together.
Now it's time to study the exhibition catalogue, with the results of the investigation of the past years, to see if there's anything in it which is applicable to "Cottage with sticks".

Tuesday, November 18, 2003
This evening there was a documentary on dutch TV about missing works of Van Gogh.
Those of you familiair with this website would understand the subject.

Rather shocking was the story of someone who owns a painting and is 100% convinced that it is an authentic Van Gogh. Yet he doesn't want to present it at the Van Gogh Museum.
An old letter of rejection was read. The text was exactly the same as mine. Is this the result of a signed agreement in twofold in which the Van Gogh Museum promises to be carefull in the investigation? A standard letter with for years the same text.

Last week the Van Gogh Museum bought a painting of an unknown French painter for over 2 million dollars. So lack of money can't be an argument to not investigate the oeuvre of Van Gogh.

I full comply with the proposal of the director of the Breda's Museum to have an independant group of experts investigate the suspicious works.
Let us hope this plan comes true.

Again, if the Van Gogh Museum, or whoever else, comes up with only one proper argument why "Cottage with sticks" is not by Van Gogh, I'm convinced.
Untill that time we go on.

Monday, November 17, 2003
Again, in the section "Technique 2" you will find a new item;
The capricious light areas.

Wednesday, November 12, 2003
In the section "Technique 2" you will find a new item;
The underpainting.

Monday, November 10, 2003
I've finished two other pictures.
You can view and print them from here .
Before making the other pictures, I would like to show some more macro photo's. I'm working on them.

Thursday, November 6, 2003
During analysis of the macro fotos, I constantly run into the problem of not having a simple overview of the early works. Many visitors shall have the same problem. That's why I want to solve this first.
The first overview, of the eventually three or four, is available and can be printed easily.
Click here to show the picture onscreen, after which you can print it.
(If the link doesn't work, then probably the free program 'Acrobat Reader' isn't installed on your system, send me a mail, and I will help you out).

Tuesday, November 4, 2003
Past Sunday we've visited the Kröller Müller Museum. Especially the paintings "Edge of a wood" and "Girl in the woods" drew my attention.
The past days I've had no time to update the website, at the end of the week I hope to find some time.

Monday, October 27, 2003
I've just added the first macro fotos to the website. For this I've added a second "Technique-section" to the site. I have many more macro foto's with interesting details, I hope to show them to you soon.

Thursday, October 23, 2003
The macro foto's are ready. They are not good, they are great!
I'm very content with their sharpness and also the colors are pretty realistic. The traces of the brushhairs are clearly visible.
Now it's time to get to work, to show you them as soon as possible.

Monday, October 20, 2003
Past weekend I took macro foto's, I'm very curious for the result.
I really hope it's possible to show via the foto's what can be seen through the magnifier.

Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Some time ago I bought a folding magnifier to investigate the painting for particles like sand, maybe a hair or whatever else that could be captured by the paint. A new world opened up for me. Beside the many particles, I found astonishing things regarding the brushstrokes and especially about the colors/pigments used.
Now I'm looking for a way to get these items photographed. The oncoming weeks I hope to show the results.

I have made some new fotos of the painting (it aren't the professional ones I need, I'm still saving for them) and did a little correction on them via the computer. These pictures are now on the site.
Also added is a new large picture of the painting, see section "The painting" and a large picture of the woman and child (click on the small picture in the section "Technique")

Thursday, September 25, 2003
Holiday is over, evenings get darker, so it's time to hit the road again. In the meantime this website is read by over a hundred people per month and this number is still increasing. Also I regularly receive e-mails from 'brothers in arms'.
It's my intention this coming winter to further develop this website and naturally to continue the research into the painting.
If you have suggestions for improvement I would be glad to hear them from you! mail@trimtrack.com

Wednesday, August 20, 2003
As promised, finally the report on the visit of the Van Gogh Museum.
Click here to read it.

Tuesday, August 10, 2003
Firstly apologies for the delay in updating of this website.
We were pretty astonished after visiting the Van Gogh Museum. We had expected to obtain some proper arguments why the painting could not be by Van Gogh. The opposite became true though. The curator appeared very uninterested and came up with very little arguments. As an example the reply on my question regarding the lettertexts; "The letters mean nothing".
The tough conservation, in combination with earlier newspaper articles and e-mails from people in the same situation, leave us nothing than to conclude that there is no need for 'new discoveries'.

The full report of the visit will be placed soon.

Tuesday, June 10, 2003
A small miracle has happened, an e-mail came from the Van Gogh Museum. Apologies for not being able to react sooner. Mr. van Tilborgh asks us whether we are willing to bring the painting to the Van Gogh Museum. He also wants to give us a further explanation of his verdict. (It isn't a second expertise).
Willing we are! Finally after half a year we will find out why the painting is not by Van Gogh.

Friday, May 23, 2003
Past sunday we visited Mr. Landais with the painting. This Van Gogh expert examined the painting and took foto's for further research.
We sleep a lot better now we know that an expert, who has the reputation of having reasonable arguments that can be controlled, is investigating the painting. We promise ourselves if all the arguments are breaking hope we would decide not to go on.

Thursday, May 22, 2003
The label at the back of the painting reads "artstore C.M. Schoonheim at Utrecht". A quick look in the telephonebook, and yes, it still exists. The friendly man at the phone tells me the firm is 128 years old, that's promising. He promises me to have a look at the label and inform me. See "The painting" for the result.

Thursday, May 15, 2003
We receive an e-mail from Benoit Landais, the french-dutch Van Gogh expert. He is tipped about the website and writes: "I work on the Vincent questions for years and would like to see your painting". An appointment is made quickly and Sunday May 18th we will visit him.

Friday, April 25, 2003
Today we receive a letter from the KNMI (the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute).
This letter contains the research results of the painted clouds and sky in combination with the date September 13-15, 1883.
See the section 'Subject matter' for details.

Wednesday, April 5, 2003
Ans calls the Museum to ask politely whether we could expect a reply on our letter.
The letter was received but had landed on the stack 'no priority'. Ans was told, by the always nice secretary, a reply always came.

Wednesday, March 19, 2003
I write a letter to the Museum asking what stylistic reasons mean. We as amateurs can only see similarities.
I needed a reason to tell my children and friends "look here and here, this is not van Gogh. That is why it is rejected."
I think this is reasonable, some may call it pushing.

Tuesday, March 18, 2003
The postman brings another letter from the Van Gogh Museum.
"We have examined the material as sent by you carefully, and are of the opinion that the work can not be attributed to the artist Vincent van Gogh. The stylistic differences between this work and the oeuvre of Van Gogh support our opinion."
That's it, no further arguments.

Monday, March 17, 2003
Ans calls the Museum again, the secretary is back.
She told Ans that she didn't have any overview yet but that there was a meeting of conservators planned next Tuesday where their findings were to be discussed. We should hear shortly afterwards, probably that same week.

Thursday, March 6, 2003
Ans calls the Museum to inform about the investigation. The secretary was not there unfortunately because of illness. Ans called every few days but the secretary still wasn't at work.

Tuesday, February 18, 2003
The contract came by post, countersigned by van Tilborgh on Saturday, Feb 15, the day after the opening of the exhibition.

Thursday, February 13, 2003
Ans calls the Museum because one of the contracts would be returned immediately and there still wasn't anything returned. Ans learned that they were busy with the exhibition "De keuze van Vincent" which was to be opened the next day.

Thursday, February 6, 2003
We return the contracts signed by us to the Van Gogh Museum.

Wednesday, February 5, 2003
We receive a letter from the Van Gogh Museum. It's two weeks after we should receive a letter from them so we thought this was the verdict. Well, it wasn't, it were two contracts. We had to return them signed, after which we would receive one countersigned immediately.
Hadn't they done anything the past two weeks? Ans called to ask, and also what to do with the needed insurance once the painting had to be brought to Amsterdam.
The answer was that "the experts had looked at the painting otherwise we would have received a 'no' already". After receipt of the contract there would be a meeting of experts and we would receive a invitation within two weeks.

Wednesday, January 22, 2003
An e-mail comes from the Kröller-Müller Museum stating they don't draw conclusions on fotos but also that they are pretty sure the painting is not by van Gogh.

Tuesday, January 21, 2003
An e-mail comes from the Van Gogh Museum stating that we will receive a letter from them within two weeks.

Monday, January 20, 2003
We become nervous and send an e-mail to the Van Gogh Museum asking if they can give us a clue about the time span as we have to rent a safe for the painting.

Wednesday, January 15, 2003
I took the day off from work to write a 'report' on my findings to be included with our written request. We take a lot of pictures of the painting and bring them to the 1 hour service.
At the end of the afternoon my 'report' is finished and we send our written request to the Van Gogh Museum. The photos turned out to be very different regarding colors.
Ans and I had a discussion about which photo gave the best resemblance of the painting itself. We both came up with two totally different photos, so we decided to send 19 of them.

Tuesday, January 14, 2003
We receive an e-mail from the Van Gogh Museum stating that they can't work from digital images.
If we want the painting examined we have to send a written request with good photos. As soon as they receive the above they will start an investigation, free of cost.

Ans calls the Museum to ask whether they're not interested in having the painting itself. We don't want to have it in our house anymore. The answer is negative, as they receive such requests daily and don't have room enough in the safe.

Monday, January 13, 2003
We decided to sent an e-mail with two pictures of the painting including some of our findings to both the Kröller-Müller Museum and the Van Gogh Museum.

Friday, January 10, 2003
Friday night on Dutch television there's a small documentary about Vincent van Gogh.
They showed several paintings from his early period and we were both astonished. The cottages we saw looked like ours! We had never seen any of his early work.
That very same evening I started my search on the Internet. The more I learned the more I became convinced about the authenticity of the painting. Over the weekend I started work on a (rather amateurish) report with my findings.

Thursday, January 9, 2003
My wife Ans hangs the painting on the wall which she got many years before from her mother. I came home from work and saw the painting, I wasn't enthusiastic about it.
But who am I, Ans is the interior architect and she has carte blanche in the house. I thought the painting to dark and dreary.
During the evening I couldn't keep my eyes away from the painting and told Ans that it started to look better the more you saw it.
We spoke about the painting and discovered there was a woman and a child painted, we didn't see that before!

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