The story behind the Van Gogh still life that looks destined to become his most expensive Paris painting

"The Van Gogh still life has been consigned by the estate of Cindy Pritzker, who died in March, aged 101. Her late husband, Jay Pritzker, built up the Hyatt Hotels chain and died in 1999. Cindy, who was president of the Chicago Public Library board, had a passion for literature. This added to her enthusiasm for Parisian Novels, which depicts 22 books casually strewn across a table, along with a glass with three pink roses."

"Sotheby's is to auction Parisian Novels along with 36 other Pritzker works on 20 November. The others, estimated at $120m, include paintings by Paul Gauguin and Henri Matisse. Parisian Novels (November-December 1887) was painted when Vincent was living with his brother Theo in the French capital. The striped wallpaper on the left of the composition, and the apparent chair-back and door on the right, suggests a room."

"Similar wallpaper appears in two other still lifes (one of a basket of lemons and the other of a pot of garlic chives), so the setting is most likely a particular room-presumably in Theo's apartment in Rue Lepic. Most of the books have yellow covers, suggesting that they are modern novels published by Charpentier in Paris (an 1888 exhibition review mentioned the painting, but with the title Volumes Charpentier). Van Gogh was a voracious reader, particularly enjoying the fiction of Emile Zola and the Goncourt brothers,"

Van Gogh's Parisian Novels is the leading lot in the Pritzker sale at Sotheby's New York on 20 November with a $40m estimate. The work may set the highest price for a painting from Van Gogh's Paris period, above the $33.2m record for Corner of a Garden with Butterflies. The painting, consigned by the estate of Cindy Pritzker, depicts 22 yellow-covered books and a glass with three pink roses and hung in the Pritzkers' Chicago apartment library. The lot will be offered with 36 other Pritzker works estimated at $120m, including paintings by Gauguin and Matisse. Painted November–December 1887, the scene likely represents a room in Theo's Rue Lepic apartment; the yellow covers suggest Charpentier editions and Van Gogh avidly read Zola and the Goncourts.

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