Goldfinger's Van Gogh goes up for auction

A painting that made Vincent van Gogh's name will go on sale this month after almost half a century hidden away in private ownership, the Guardian reported.

Le Moulin de la Galette depicts a windmill against a sunny sky above Montmartre in Paris. It was first shown in public in Amsterdam, 15 years after Van Gogh's death. Later it was the proud possession of the powerful American industrialist who inspired Ian Fleming to create his arch-villain Auric Goldfinger, the quintessential enemy of James Bond, whose closest companion was a fluffy white cat.

Van Gogh painted the work in April 1887 at a key point in the development of his vibrant, colourful style. During a two-year period, just after he had moved to Paris to live with his brother, Theo, the impoverished painter moved away from his customary dark studies of Dutch landscapes and his paintings took on some of the mannerisms of the impressionist movement in the hope that they might sell. Encouraged by Theo, he set up his easel by the windmills near their apartment in the artistic quarter above the French capital.

When the painter died from self-inflicted wounds in 1890, his many unsold works passed to his brother. But when Theo died in January 1891, his wife, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, inherited them all.

The widow was determined to prove her late brother-in-law's talent to the world and set up a series of exhibitions showcasing his work. The most influential of these was a major exhibition staged at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1905. The label on the back of Le Moulin de Galettereveals that this work was included in that crucial show. Unusually, the painting is also clearly signed by Van Gogh.

"This is a painting that has everything," says James Roundell of Dickinson, the dealer that will handle the sale for an anonymous private collector. "It is rare to have such a prominent signature in a work of this date and it is one of only two of his series of paintings depicting windmills of Montmartre still in private hands."