Found at last: site of Vincent van Gogh’s final masterpiece, painted just before his mysterious death
- Old postcard points researcher to spot north of Paris where renowned Dutch artist worked on ‘Tree Roots’ before dying from gunshot wound
- Lighting in canvas could hold clue to painter’s last moments, and cast doubt on controversial theory that he was shot in fight with two local boys
A researcher claimed on Tuesday to have discovered the exact spot where Vincent van Gogh painted his last canvas before his mysterious death from a gunshot wound.
The tortured Dutch artist had been working on Tree Roots, a jumble of brightly-coloured tree trunks, roots and stumps near Auvers-sur-Oise, north of Paris, on a hot July day in 1890 when he staggered back wounded to the village inn.
Wouter van der Veen, of the Van Gogh Institute, which looks after the artist’s room at the Auberge Ravoux where he spent his final 70 days, said most of the tangle of roots is still there, a stone’s throw from the inn.
Experts at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam have backed the finding, saying it was “an interpretation, but it looks like indeed it is true”.
The museum’s director Emilie Gordenker and the great grandson of Van Gogh’s younger brother Theo travelled to the village on Tuesday to unveil a plaque at the spot.