The Red Vineyard", the only work that Vincent Van Gogh sold in life (in the midst of a great scandal)

“I can't change the fact that my paintings don't sell. But the time will come when people will recognize that they are worth more than the cost of the paints used in the painting.”

What Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo de he in a letter from October 1888 was prescient.

Although he had begun to earn the respect of his peers in the last couple of years of his life, he famously died before there were any signs that he would become what he is today: one of the greats of art history.

But four months before he committed suicide, something unusual happened: one of the roughly 900 paintings he completed during his 10-year career in art was sold.
Several investigators have found some references in letters that point to possibly more sales.

And if you take into account that he exchanged works with other artists and that, on occasion, he paid for food or materials to paint with his paintings, it could be said that he sold several of his creations during his life.

However, there is only one documented, registered and officially recognized sale that took place while he was still alive: that of "The Red Vineyard".

It was bought in 1890 at an exhibition in Brussels, after a scandal over Van Gogh's participation in the event.