Country Road in Provence by Night

The last piece of work the 19th century Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh painted while he was in an asylum was unveiled in Taipei Saturday in the final countdown to the special three-month exhibition scheduled to open here on Dec. 11.

The painting “Country Road in Provence by Night,” also known as “Road with Cypress and Star,” was unboxed Saturday in Taipei. It is the last piece van Gogh created during his stay at the asylum in Saint Remy, Provence. The Dutch master had said that the painting would be the last time he painted stars.

“The painting represents van Gogh's view on the universe. People can feel the energy in the painter's life when they appreciate the painting,” Evert van Straaten, director of the Netherlands-based Kroller-Muller Museum, said about the piece, which is the museum's crown jewel.

The museum, which has the second-largest van Gogh collection in the world, loaned most of 98 van Gogh paintings that will be on display, to the National Museum of History for the exhibition in Taipei.

Van Straaten is in Taiwan to attend an opening ceremony on Dec. 10, demonstrating the importance he attaches to the exhibition.

Van Straaten said the exhibition, which has one quarter of the Kroller-Muller Museum collection on van Gogh's oil paintings and some of his sketches in the early stage, will provide art enthusiasts a more comprehensive picture of the Dutch artist's creations.

According to van Straaten, it was very difficult for his museum to collect van Gogh's work, as the Dutch painter had requested his family not to let his paintings get in the hands of other people.

Museum founder Helene Kroller-Muller had traveled across Europe and used all kinds of means to collect van Gogh's paintings through exchanges or trading with other painters' works, Straaten said.

The exhibition, titled “Van Gogh: The Flaming Soul,” is scheduled to run from Dec. 11 to March 28 at the National Museum of History, featuring 98 of van Gogh's works — 77 drawings and 21 oil paintings.

One painting in the exhibit — Vase with Flower and Thistles — is on loan from Japan's Pola Museum of Art.

According to Huang Yung-chuan, director of the National Museum of History, the van Gogh exhibit has a record insurance amount of NT$25 billion (US$776 million).