This Vincent van Gogh Painting Has Not Been Seen in Public for Over 60 Years. It Is Now Poised to Set a Record at an Upcoming Auction

The Dutch Post-Impressionist painted “Chestnut Trees in Blossom” during the highly productive yet tragic final months of his life. It is heading to auction as part of a “legendary” private collection which also includes works from Cézanne and Renoir

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

October 14, 2026 1:28 p.m.

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Excitement in the art world is building over a rare viewing and upcoming auction of a Vincent van Gogh painting that has not been on public display for more than 60 years.

Hundreds of people lined up in Hong Kong this week to catch a fleeting glimpse of Châtaigniers en fleurs, or Chestnut Trees in Blossom, in advance of its auction next month in New York, Reuters’ Joyce Zhou reports. It is expected to sell for around $180 million—a potential record for a van Gogh work at auction.

Painted in May 1890, the artwork is coveted not only for its aesthetic beauty but for the late chapter of van Gogh’s tumultuous life when it was created. After spending a year in a psychiatric asylum following a mental health crisis during which he cut off his ear, the painter traveled to the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris. There, van Gogh became inspired by what he described as “beautiful greenery in abundance” and felt that “the desire to work will devour me and make me insensible to everything else and in a good mood,” according to a statement from Sotheby’s, the auction house hosting the painting’s sale.

Van Gogh rented a small attic room above a café for three and a half francs per night and made daily trips into the countryside to paint. He also frequently visited Paul Gachet, a local doctor and art collector who encouraged him to continue painting. Van Gogh took heed of Gachet’s advice and painted prolifically again.

“This is a moment of extraordinary optimism, ​frenetic energy, enthusiasm, passion and color in the artist’s body of work,” Scott Niichel, a vice chairman at Sotheby’s, tells Reuters.

But just two months into van Gogh’s stay in Auvers-sur-Oise, the painter shot himself in the chest. He succumbed to his injury two days later on July 29, 1890, at 37 years old.

“Ah well, I risk my life for my own work and my reason has half foundered in it,” van Gogh wrote in an unfinished letter addressed to his brother, Theo, which he was carrying with him on the day of the shooting. “But what can you do?”

Chestnut Trees in Blossom, which features a row of blooming trees and a man who resembles van Gogh walking by a trio of women, passed into Theo’s hands following the painter’s death. It was later owned by Theo’s widow, then the couple’s son, before if left the family.

Its 20th-century provenance is storied. Chestnut Trees in Blossom was acquired by the famed literary magnate Samuel Fischer, whose publishing house was the first to publish Thomas Mann and Hermann Hesse. George Gard de Sylva, co-founder of Capitol Records, later owned the painting, as did the philanthropist and collector Harriet Harris-Jonas, whose private collection was so renowned that the Metropolitan Museum of Art led tours through her Manhattan apartment.

Since 1975, the painting has been owned by the late Carlos Pedro Blaquier and Nelly Arrieta de Blaquier, Argentine art collectors and patrons. Sotheby’s has titled the Blaquier-Arrieta Collection, simply, “Legendary.”

Joining Chestnut Trees in Blossom in the Blaquier-Arrieta sale are works by Impressionist masters Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Camille Pissarro. The entire auction, which opens on November 18, is expected to generate $450 million in sales.

“What strikes me most is that the Blaquier-Arrieta collection doesn’t feel like a private collection at all. It feels like a small museum—a miniature Musée d’Orsay, now opening its doors for the very first time,” Simon Shaw, a senior adviser at Sotheby’s, says in the statement.

Chestnut Trees in Blossom is one of just eight landscapes van Gogh created in Auvers-sur-Oise that remains in private hands. Its enthusiastic reception in Hong Kong lead Niichel to speculate that “Asia is certainly a possibility” for where the painting will wind up, per the Agence France-Presse.

“I’d never heard of this painting before, so I ​wanted to see it with my own eyes,” Li Shanshan, an art lover who traveled two and half hours ⁠from Shenzhen to view the piece in Hong Kong, tells the BBC. “I think it will create a huge sensation around the world.”

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.