"As this little-known photograph shows, the Van Gogh hung for a few years above the mantelpiece in the ante-room, which leads to the dining room. John Hay Whitney, the ambassador to the UK in 1957-61, had it in his personal collection. He died in 1982 and in 1998 his widow Betsy bequeathed the self-portrait to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC."
"When Van Gogh ran out of canvas he would sometimes use a fabric known in French as torchon, which is widely employed for tea towels. It often has red lines or patterns. On 26 November 1889 Vincent had complained to his brother Theo that he was "completely at the end of my canvas". A few days later he made on torchon. Some areas were thinly painted and red diamond shapes can just be made out among the stones in the foreground, to the left of centre."
Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers at the National Gallery ran from 14 September 2024 to 19 January 2025 and attracted a record 335,000 visitors. Ten surprising facts about loaned paintings were revealed. A self-portrait dated September 1889 once hung in the American ambassador's official residence in Regent's Park, positioned above an ante-room mantelpiece, and was later bequeathed to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Van Gogh painted The Large Plane Trees (Road Menders at Saint-Rémy) on torchon tea-towel fabric when he ran out of canvas, leaving thinly painted areas and faint red diamond marks. The Trinquetaille Bridge (June 1888) is owned by Wynn Fine Art after a $39m Christie's purchase in 2021.
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