VINCENT VAN GOGH is certainly having a moment. His museum in Amsterdam, which I have yet to revisit after its revamp, has been highly praised, and its current show ‘Van Gogh and Japan’ (until June 24) is equally well reviewed. He never actually visited the East, but, like many of his generation, he was fascinated by Japanese art as the country emerged from centuries of cultural isolation and the evidence is very clear in his work.
Then, last week, one of his final landscapes sold at Christie’s in New York for a low-estimate but still remarkable price, $39,687,500 (£29,332,946). It was the 17¾in by 23¾in Vue de l’asile et de la Chapelle St Paul de Mausole (Saint-Rémy) (Fig 1), showing the asylum where the artist was a self-admitted patient…