1888 - A Letter from Vincent van Gogh to uncle Eugene
mentionning the project to paint the Red Vineyard



1888 October 2 Vincent van Gogh sends a letter to Eugene Boch
mentionning his project to paint the Red Vineyard ....


"Eh bien je dois aller travailler
dans la vigne près de Mont Major.
Elle est toute pourpré jaune vert sous le ciel bleu,
un beau motif de couleur."

"Ah well, I have to go to work
in the vineyard, near Mont Majour.
It’s all purplish yellow green under the blue sky,
a beautiful, colour motif."




read the full letter - lire toute la lettre

1889 - Vincent van Gogh is invited by Octave Maus
to present his paintings au salon de XX à Bruxelles




1889 November 15 Octave Maus sends a letter to Vincent van Gogh
to invite him expose his paintings

"The association requests you,
Sir, to kindly let us know as soon as possible if you accept its invitation,
as the number of these is strictly limited,
and to inform us before 15 December (1889) of the notes and comments
you wish to see featured in the catalogue."

read the full letter



1889 November 20 Vincent van Gogh responds:
Sir,
I accept with pleasure your invitation to exhibit with the Vingtistes.
Here is the list of canvases I intend for you

No 1 Sunflowers
2 Sunflowers
3 The ivy4
4 Orchard in blossom (Arles)
5 Wheatfield. Rising sun (St-Rémy)

Art print of the painting The Red Vineyard at Arles, c.1888 Vincent Van Gogh

6 The Red Vineyard (Montmajour)
7 (All these canvases are no. 30 canvases.)

I am perhaps exceeding the 4 metres of room
but as I believe that the 6 together, thus chosen,
will make a rather varied colour effect, perhaps you will find a way of placing them.

Please accept the expression of my entire fellow-feeling for the Vingtistes.
Vincent van Gogh

read the full letter



The presence of van Goghs paintings cause some turbulences.
There is a discussion wheather art should be considered what is "officiel or academic"
while "modern" paintings
did not correspond to the taste of the time of most people.

The journal "l'Art moderne" edited by Octave Maus
presents van Gogh as one of the artists who will be most discussed.

Henry de Groux who was also part of the XX mouvements
creates a scandal and wants the van Gogh paintings
to be withdrawn.

According to the legend Claude Monet
considered van Gogh's paintings the best one on the expo.

1890 January 18 opening of the expo Les XX
1890 February 23 closing of the expo Les XX

To show her public support
Anna Boch decides to buy the Red Vineyard.
The price was 400 Francs (about 2000 $ in todays values).

Prices of van Gogh paintings
sold at Auctions



Different reasons might have been at the origine of the purchase:
She must have liked the beauty of the painting.

She wanted to show public support to Van Gogh,
as his arrival at the Expo was very criticized.

She wanted to financially support him as she knew the artist was very poor


Last not least she might have wanted to please her
younger brother Eugene 
who was a friend,
more likely a secret boyfriend of Vincent van Gogh.


The purchase made Anna Boch
enter the history books
as the Red Vinyard painting
is believed to be
the one and only painting
Van Gogh sold during his lifetime.

It is possible that van Gogh sold other paintings,
but according to Dr Therèse Thomas
the Red Vineyard was the only "official" sale
which got recorded
and which was noticed by the Art World.



Anna Boch owned 2 van Gogh paintings,
.... her brother Eugene several.

1890 to 1906 - The Red Vineyard at the Villa Anna in Brussels



Anna Boch kept the painting in her beautiful house
in the rue de l´Abbaye in Brussels until 1906.

The painting was located in her "salon de musique" on the ground floor,
next to her most important Impressionist paintings like
the Gauguin, Seurat and Signac.

In the "salon de musique" she organised concerts, every monday,
with young musicians and singers she wanted to promote.
While listening to the music,
her guest were able to admire the beautiful van Gogh paintings.

1906 - Sale of the Red Vineyard at the Galerie Bernheim Jeune



1906 Anna Boch sold the Red Vineyard for 10,000 francs
at the Galerie Bernheim Jeune,
25 Boulevard de la Madeleine in Paris,
5 minutes from place de la Concorde.
1909 the Hotel Crillon located there only opened as a Grand Hotel 3 years later .



The reason for her sale was not the need of the money.
Her father Victor Boch had given her
significant amounts of shares in both Ceramics companies
Keramis Boch Frères in La Louvière directed by himself
and Villeroy & Boch in Mettlach, directed by his brother
Eugen von Boch.
The dividens received from both companies
enabled her to buy paintings whenever she wanted.


The money from the Red Vineyard sales
was reinvested in Signac paintings
later donated to the Royal Museeums of Fine Arts in Brussels.

The reason was that she was intimidated
by the extraordinary talent of van Gogh.
She was so impressed by the paintings
that she could no longer paint herself.


Prices of van Gogh paintings
sold at Auctions

1906 to 1941 - The Red Vineyard at the Trubetzkoy Palace in Moscow


The Red Vineyard was bought in the same year
by the Russian textile business man,
Sergei Shchukin,
an important Collector of Impressionist and Post Impressionist Art.
The paintings of his collection decorated the walls of his home in Moscow,
the Trubestkoy Palace.
The Sergei Shchukin's collection is comprised of
57 paintings by Picasso,
38 by Matisse, 16 Gauguins, 13 Monets, 8 Cezannes
as well as works by Renoir, Rousseau, Signac, and Toulouse-Lautrec.
As to van Gogh, Sergei Shchukin owned 4 paintings,
"the Red Vineyard", "the Night Cafe", "Portrait of Dr Rey" and XX.


From 1906 until 1917, the Red Vineyard
was in one of these halls of the Shchukin manison



pictures of the Shchukin mansion in Moscow

Art print photo Sergei Shchukins large dining room, c.1930s Anonymous

newleay added following a conversation with Natalia Brodskaya (see below)
1909 Sergei Shchukin writes his will following the death of his first wife
His collection should belong the the country of Russia.


Following the Russian Revolution
1918, November 18 Vladimir Lenin
signed a law to appropriate all of Shchukin´s paintings
.
Sergei Shchukin was able to leave to Paris,
where he lived for the rest of his life.

His house became the State Museum of Western Art.
know where the Red Vineyard was located Paris,
discover Sergei Shushkin's mansion

does anybody know where the Red Vineyard was displayed at Shushkin mansion ?
Please contact the Cremerie de Paris

since 1948 - The Red Vineyard at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow



Pushkin Museum in Moscow,
present home of the Red Vineyard



1948 Joseph Stalin closed the State Museum
as he considered the building to be too bourgeois.

The paintings were randomly divided between the Pushkin Museum in Moscow
and the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.


The Red Vineyard was given by the State of Russia to the Pushkin Museum
and it is located there still.
The Museum is walking distance from the Hotel Baltschug
and the National Hotel



1978 The Anna Boch expert
Dr Therèse Thomas had the opportunity to travel to Moscow
participating in an organised cultural program.
During this trip she "escaped" from the "official" program
and took a taxi to the Puskin Museum
where she saw the painting
... but at the time it was strictly forbidden to take pictures.

Until the fall of the iron gate
acces to the Shchukin Collection was very difficult
for people from the Western World.

Today 149 pictures from the Shchukin Collection
are in the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg,
84 are in the Pushkin Museum of Moscow,
2 are still in Baku, 1 in Odessa.


The person in Russia that knows the most
about the Shchukin Collection
is a certain Mrs Brodskaya,
a curator of the Hermitage Museum
and writer of many books on French Impressionist Painters.
2010 France has made her "chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et Lettres".

The World's most valuable paintings




If the "Red Vineyard" should ever be sold,
(which is not likely to happen)
it might be
the world´s most expensive painting
as besides
it´s exceptional "Beauty"
it has the "Legend"
of being
the only painting,
Vincent van Gogh
probably the World´s most famous artist,
sold during his lifetime.




The only other painting which,
if sold at the same auction (which is not likely to happen either)
might reach a higher price
is the also "legendary"
Mona Lisa by Leonardi da Vinci
today exhibited in the Louvre in Paris



Like the Red Vineyard, the Mona Lisa has a lot of magic connected to it.
The fact that is was stolen in 1911 has added massive value to the painting.

The Mona Lisa is located a few hundred metters from the Cremerie de Paris.
Once upon a time King Henry IV created a private tunnel
between the Louvre and the Hotel de Villeroy (Cremerie de Paris)




above BBC Documentary Video about valuable paintings
is interesting to watch,

... but the fascination for money of the reporter
has someting unhealthy
far from real art collectors
like Anna Boch or Sergei Shchukin.
Well the collectors presented in the Video
were not the ones that had direct acces
to Van Gogh, Picasso or Matisse.

2015 - Thanks to the Red Vineyard
meeting a fascinating Russian Lady
on a street of Meudon


2015 may 29 took place the "fête des voisins",
an event in France where you can meet people in the neighborhood.
There was an elderly Lady that spoke perfect French
with almost no accent. She did not seam to know many people ...
The editor of this article started talking ....

In fact the Lady was from Russia,
just visiting a friend,
the legendary Roseline Granet,
a sculptor that is always walking her dog ...

Mrs Granet was extremely interesting.
She is a little bit a "living legend" in Meudon,
not only as a spectecular sculptor ...
Before meeting her rhumors were in the air that
she was the daughter of Gustave Eiffel
... well if you look at the dates this is not possible
but there is a very close connection.

Anyways talking to her had inspired him to create a logo
for Whitepages he edits in different countries,
replacing the
letters "I"
      and "A"
by the Eiffel Tower.

The year before she had inspired him to create a logo
for White Pages including the Eiffel Tower


Apparently she was visiting Paris every year
and she was very interested by Impressionist paintings.
Apparently she was from a museum ...
Her name Nathalia Brodskaya


The conversation comes across Vincent van Gogh

"You know I once had a great uncle
that was an Impressionist painter.
I would have loved to meet him,
but he died a long time before I was born.
I only know about hi through stories
and one day my grandmother pushed me to make a website about him ...

He knew Vincent van Gogh.
He pushed his sister to buy a van Gogh painting,
apparently the only one the artist sold during his lifetime"

Nathalia Broddskaya "Do you mean The Red Vineyard ?
It is the crown jewel of Russia's art collection."

It is agreed to meet again the next day ...






The next day



This Video for the fashion house Nefer Couture was just finshed.

The editor of this article invites Nathalia Brodskaya and her friend
to have a café in the center of Paris
at his office the Cremerie de Paris.


Unfortunately Roseline Granet had to travel to Normandy
but she said
"you will be surprised by all what Natalia knows :-)"



Cremerie de Paris is a legendary milk store in Paris
which the editor reopened in the mid 1993
as a Sony Video store which became the first Internetcafe in France.

The legendary Natalia Brodskaya from the Hermitage Museum.
in the staircase which was a childhood place for Louis XIV
who played there with his friends Francois de Villeroy and his sister Catherine de Villeroy.

The visitors of the early Cybercafe were the most fascinating. Already connected Americans visiting Paris and desperately looking for internet access to use something nobody in France knew about: "email". We encountered many tech pioneers most of the time not even realizing who they were ... or who they were going to become. Some were already older, one had walked on the Moon, another one had, as a young woman, been a friend of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the phone. With the inspiration of these avant garde Cybercafe visitors we started a collection of iconic Internet Domains which were later transformed into different websites: Phonebook of the World, the above mentioned Whitepages Grand Hotels of the World and many many smaller cultural projects like Anna Boch.com or Eugene Boch.com sometimes we had the idea of some domains for friend that have made their own projects like Visit 5th Avenue.com Visit Madison Avenue.com 2011 Cremerie de Paris was converted into a Pop Up Expo space. Very creative people like Junichi Masuda of Yaniv Abittan come by to organise Pop Up Events for Very Beautiful Brands they work with or they have invented.

While talking the editor realises that Nathalia
is a curator of one of the World's most famous Museums
the iconic Hermitage
She has written many books about Impressionis artists.

Wahh, it's not every day you run into a Lady
with such a cultural background.



Unbeleivable
Nathalia is THE EXPERT on Sergei Shchukin
the man who was the next owner of the painting.

Shchukin was by far
the world's most significant collector of Modern Art.
A  Lady from Russia he meets on a little street near Paris.
Yes this Lady is the curator of one of the two museums
where the most of 's
his spectecular Shchukin collection is now.


After the visit of the Cremerie de Paris
and several coffees at the Bistro des Halles
the editor just did not want to let her go ...

instead of driving her back to Meudon
the afternoon continues
with a visit to the Bernheim Jeune  Art Gallerie,

first the former location at place de la Madeleine
and then the present one rue du Fbg St Honoré.

... followed by a couple of drinks at the Hotel le Bristol.
A truely fascinating day ...

Suddenly the editor gets
a completely different point of view
on Sergei Shchikin.

Hopefully we will meet again ...

2015 May 31 while writing this article the next day,
is registered the Sergei Shchukin.com domain name

probably the debut of another adventure ....

When he says good by to the
fascinating Natalia Brodskaya
she thanks him for having show her the Cremerie de Paris
and she asks him a question.
I loved this staircase at the Cremerie.
It must have so much history ...

Did your uncle ever show the Cremerie de Paris
to his friend Vincent van Gogh ??

Has Vincent van Gogh ever been to the Cremerie de Paris ?

Unfortunately uncle Eugène was very shy
and unlike his sister Anna,
he never kept a diary ...

Most the editor of this article knows about Eugène
comes from stories
Maria von Boch Brügman, his grandfather and Helen von Boch have
told him when he was a young / less young child.

Many things are unknown about his life ....
but the more he and his friend Dr Therèse Thomas continue to research
the more they find
and different pieces reconnect like a puzzle.

Has Vincent van Gogh ever been at the Cremerie de Paris ?? For the Moment the editor of this website does not know. If ever uncle Eugene (1855- 1941) knew that the old Villeroys lived there it's possible that he showed the place to Vincent van Gogh in the years 1888 to 1890. During those years they lived walking distance from each other in Paris Montmartre not very far from the center of Paris where is located the Cremerie de Paris (since 1870) at the Hotel de Villeroy (since 1640) . The direct uncle of Eugene and Anna Boch (older brother of their father Victor Boch) was Eugene von Boch (1808 - 1898) who was married to Octavie Villeroy (1823-1899) They were also the great great grandparents of the editor of this website who currently manages the Cremerie de Paris. Octavie Villeroy was the granddaughter of the ceramics entrepreneur Nicolas Villeroy (1759-1843) Eugen von Boch was the grandson of the ceramics entrepreneur Pierre Joseph Boch (1737-1818) Nobody knows if there is any link between Nicolas Villeroy and the old Nicolas de Villeroy During the French Revolution the roots were lost. Nicolas IV de Villeroy (secretary of state and advisor of 4 Kings of France) and his grandson Nicolas V de Villeroy (educator of King Louis XIV) The Villeroys lived at the Hotel de Villeroy until 1671 When the editor of this website arrived at the mansion in 1993 he had no idea about it's fascinating history and all these historic links ... It's only that he head heard via Coco Chanel that Vincent van Gogh had once been there ... Cremerie de Paris and it's historic staircase were a secret nightwalk destination for Chanel and her Brazilian friend Aimée de Heeren. Both Ladies lived nearby one at the Hotel Ritz the other at the Hotel Meurice how did Chanel know ? She was too young to have met van Gogh in person ... We have to continue to research .... Never having cared about the age of his friends and talking to all kinds of people sometimes met somewhere in the street the editor of this website had direct access to fascinating history. And when you start to research even more it's amazing all what you find ....

A year later - summer 2016

the unusual meeting with above
mentioned fascinating Lady from the Hermitage Museum
in St Petersburg
met on the street in 2015
continues ...


While adding this little paragraph
the editor discovers the book Post Impressionism
written by Nathalia Brodskaya



Last week (june 2016) she was back to Paris
where in the meantime
we have added a 3rd Cremerie de Paris
and the Pop Up Café Maison Rouge.




The Cremerie de Paris is the 3rd Pop Up Store location
and the Maison Rouge can be converted as a Pop Up Cafe
to match a new Pop Up Store.
Maison Rouge is one of the historic Brasseries
of the Halles foodmarket -
after having been closed for a long time it reopened in April 2006.


Yes we have heared that Picasso
liked to play Billiard ar the Maison Rouge
but no new discoveries concerning Vincent van Gogh.


Nathalia Brodskaya and the editor of this article
at the Pop Up Cafe Maison Rouge
located on 12 rue de la Ferronnerie,
next to the Pop Up Store Cremerie de Paris N°3


And while having a café
they talk about new discoveries
concerning the history of the Cremerie de Paris.

Last month we found out
that a long long time ago
saturday May 22 1717
the Russian Tsar
Pierre Le Grand / Peter the Great (1682-1725)
had a connection with our Cremerie de Paris.

While visitng Paris he went to see
Louis Leon Pajot
who owned the Cremerie at the time.
Pajot was running the Royal French Postal services
and he had a fascinating collection of
scientific instruments.

History of some van Gogh Paintings


The one and only painting sold during van Gogh´s life


1890 The Red Vineyard was the only Painting van Gogh sold during his lifetime
for 400 Francs (around 1600 $ today) to Anna Boch.
Due to it´s Legend
the painting (if ever sold ... which is unlikely to happen)
might be the most expensive painting of the World (after the Mona Lisa)


The biggest sales of van Gogh paintings

Dr Gachet	Joseph Roulin	Irises	Self Portrait	Wheat Field	Sunflowers
buyer: Mr Ryoei Saito	buyer: Moma	buyer: Mr Alan Bond followed by Getty Museum	buyer: Secret	buyer: Yasuda Life	buyer: Mr Steve Wynn
amount: 139 million $	amount: 101,3 million $ +	amount: 101,6 million $	amount: 94,9 million $	amount: 86 million $	amount: 77 million $
year of sale: 1990	year of sale: 1989	year of sale: 1987	year of sale: 1998	year of sale: 1993	year of sale: 1987

Van Gogh painting given as a present


1891 The Portrait of Eugene Boch was given by Anna van Gogh Bonger
to Eugene Boch as a present.
1941 Eugene Boch donated the painting to the Louvre / Musee d´Orsay.