A postcard has helped to find the probable spot where Vincent van Gogh painted what may have been his final masterpiece, art experts say. The likely location for Tree Roots was found by Wouter van der Veen, the scientific director of the Institut Van Gogh.
He recognised similarities between the painting and a postcard dating from 1900 to 1910 showing trees on a bank near the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise. The site is 150m (492ft) from the Auberge Ravoux, where Van Gogh stayed for 70 days before taking his own life in 1890.
"The similarities were very clear to me," said Mr Van der Veen, who had the revelation at his home in Strasbourg, France, during lockdown.
He presented his findings to Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum, whose researchers conducted a comparative study of the painting, postcard and the hillside.
Experts and senior researchers at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum concluded that it was "highly plausible" that the correct location had been identified, saying: "In our opinion, the location identified by Van der Veen is highly likely to be the correct one and it is a remarkable discovery.
"On closer observation, the overgrowth on the postcard shows very clear similarities to the shape of the roots on Van Gogh's painting. That this is his last artwork renders it all the more exceptional, and even dramatic."
At the time of his death in July 1890, Tree Roots was not entirely completed.