Early Van Gogh bought

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has acquired an important drawing from Vincent van Gogh’s early period, an 1882 portrayal of a Hague street vendor called Portrait of Jozef Blok.

The work, in pencil and watercolour, was acquired from a private collector for an undisclosed sum.

Van Gogh mentioned the drawing in a letter to his brother Theo in November 1882: “Do you know who I drew this morning?

"Blok the Jewish bookseller.” He said he had bought a set of magazines from Blok and was “very well pleased” with him. The portrait shows a man with short hair, sideburns and a beard, apparently lost in thought.