Tate's 1926 Van Gogh loans: a centenary look back

In June 1926, Tate Gallery (then National Gallery, Millbank) opened its first modern foreign galleries with King George V and Queen Mary presiding. To fill the sparse international collection, a loan exhibition of over 250 works was mounted, including five Van Goghs from British collectors. The Van Goghs comprised four paintings and one drawing: Oleanders (then Les Lauriers rose, from Elizabeth Workman), Interior of a Restaurant (then Café at Arles, from Esther Sutro), Stairway at Auvers (then Village at Arles, from Herbert Coleman), The Hut (then Landscape near The Hague, from Frank Wilson), and a fake Still Life with Daisies and Poppies (from James Murray, later exposed as a Wacker Gallery forgery). Tate also displayed Peach Trees in Blossom (then Landscape: Arles), bought by Samuel Courtauld. The works have since been redated and retitled. The gallery that housed them is now Tate Britain room 4, showing British paintings 1760–1815. Tate's own Van Gogh holdings remain small, with only one painting (Farms near Auvers, bequeathed by Frank Stoop in 1933) and three works on paper.