The wrong Van Gogh

– For decades, the bright-eyed boy in the photograph was believed to be the legendary artist Vincent van Gogh at the age of 13.

But experts revealed on Thursday that the picture is most likely not the Dutch Sunflowers painter but his brother, Theo, who was 15 at the time.

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam announced the shock discovery about what was previously thought to be one of only two photos of Vincent, and which has appeared in dozens of books.

“With this discovery we are an illusion poorer and a portrait of Theo richer,” said museum director Axel Rutger.

“Of course, there was a slight twinge of disappointment also because we have so few photographs of Vincent van Gogh and now we have even one less,” he told AFP.

“But on the other hand, of course, I am always happy if you can discover more of the truth.”

The discovery leaves just one known picture of the artist, taken when he was 19.

While the painter is famed for his vividly coloured, emotionally turbulent self-portraits in oils, he showed a surprising reluctance to be captured on camera.

He committed suicide aged 37 in 1890 after an emotionally turbulent life, detailed in years of correspondence with Theo, an art dealer who supported his brother emotionally and financially.

“When I heard that this is most likely a picture of my great-grandfather Theo – and not of Vincent – I was surprised, but I am glad that the mystery has been solved,” Willem van Gogh, an advisor to the board of the Van Gogh Museum, said in a statement.

Uncovering the case of mistaken identity took years of artistic detective work.

The picture was taken by Brussels photographer Balduin Schwarz in the late 19th century, but did not emerge publicly until 1957 in an exhibition by Mark Edo Tralbaut, a Belgian researcher who identified it in a catalogue as “Portrait of Vincent Van Gogh (circa 1866)”.

After a Dutch TV programme raised questions about it in 2014, the Van Gogh Museum launched an investigation.

Confusing the issue was the fact that the brothers looked alike, with reddish-blond hair – but Theo had more delicate features and a “very light eye colour”, –