Van Gogh’s First Painting Of The Outdoors Greets The Public Eye At The Met

Image via Minnesota Marine Art Museum / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has recently enriched its collection with a remarkable addition: Vincent van Gogh’s Beach at Scheveningen in Calm Weather (1882). This acquisition, part of a transformative holiday gift from Dick Wolf, the executive producer of Law & Order, holds a special place in art history as van Gogh’s earliest known outdoor scene.

Dick Wolf has donated over 200 works from his private collection. This vast assemblage, cultivated alongside Wolf’s passion for Renaissance and Baroque art, spans a broad spectrum of artistic marvels, including masterpieces by Artemisia Gentileschi, Botticelli, and van Gogh.

Wolf’s lifelong interest in art, sparked by his early visits to the Met, has culminated in this momentous gesture. The pieces are set to enhance the museum’s European Paintings, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, and Drawings and Prints departments.

Beach at Scheveningen in Calm Weather is a testament to van Gogh’s exploration of oil painting and his affinity for nature. Painted during his residency in The Hague, the work captures the tranquility of the Scheveningen beach resort.

Measuring 14 1/8 x 19 5/8 inches, this oil on paper mounted on board is a vivid representation of the landscape, marked by thick, expressive brushstrokes and vibrant color usage, indicative of van Gogh’s awareness of contemporary Impressionism.

Van Gogh, having used paint as a potent medium of expression, left this painting in a crate when his family relocated. The box, sold to a junk dealer in 1902 and subsequently to an art dealer, saw the painting change hands multiple times, its value appreciating with each transaction. In 2022, the work was sold for US$2.8 million at a Sotheby’s auction.

Adding to its storied past, the painting was stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 2002, only to be recovered by Italian police 14 years later and returned in 2017. It was recently acquired by Wolf and donated to The Met.

Two of the museum’s galleries—500 and 503— will be renamed the Dick Wolf Galleries. The integration of his collection with the Met’s existing displays promises to offer a richer narrative of European art history, spanning from the 15th through the 18th centuries, along with some modern selections. The museum is set to curate an installation of select drawings from Wolf’s gift, including pieces by Bronzino, Guercino, Giovanni Battista, and Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo.

The Beach at Scheveningen in Calm Weather work is just the beginning of a profound enrichment of its galleries, as the Met is poised to install more works from Wolf’s donation over the coming years.

[via Hyperallergic, The New York Times, Artnet News, cover image via Minnesota Marine Art Museum / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)]