EST:£1.5M SOLD:£2.7M

THIS piece by Vincent van Gogh is signed, titled and dated ‘Vincent planteuse de betteraves — Juin’.

It was drawn with black chalk on paper in Nuenen in the southern Netherlands in 1885.

During this summer, van Gogh studied the human figure by drawing farm workers, before pursuing more ambitious figural studies.

In a letter to his brother, Theo, van Gogh called it his finest, most personally definitive work to date.

However, Theo was critical of its execution, content and effect.