Van Gogh sold for £4 is now valued at £13m

The 1885 painting by the Dutch artist was sold for £4 in 1967 by a British family unaware of its provenance. It is expected to fetch £13 million next month
The 1885 painting by the Dutch artist was sold for £4 in 1967 by a British family unaware of its provenance. It is expected to fetch £13 million next month
ALAMY

A painting once considered a dreary landscape which sold for £4 is being offered for £13 million after it was identified as a work by Vincent van Gogh.

Peasant Woman in Front of a Farmhouse (1885), which may have been the first work sold by the Dutch artist, is being offered by a British dealer at the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht in the Netherlands next month.

Although the painting is signed Vincent, it was not identified as a Van Gogh until an X-ray in the late 1960s revealed an underdrawing of a man ploughing with oxen that was related to another work by the artist.

Martin Bailey, a Van Gogh expert, traced the painting’s movements to 1929, when it was used as