A letter written by Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin about their time spent in French brothels is going up for auction as the only letter known to have been jointly written by the two artists.
The handwritten letter takes up four pages and is expected to sell, by the French auction house Drouot Estimations, for 180,000 to 250,000 euros next week in Paris.
The letter to fellow painter Émile Bernard starts with Van Gogh's impressions of Gauguin who is described as someone 'with the instincts of a wild beast' where 'blood and sex have the edge over ambition'.
It goes on to describe the pair's trips to brothels where they would work on their paintings, CNN reported.
Van Gogh writes: 'We've made some excursions in the brothels, and it's likely that we'll eventually go there often to work.
'At the moment Gauguin has a canvas in progress of the same night cafe that I also painted, but with figures seen in the brothels.
'It promises to become a beautiful thing.'
The painters were living in the French city of Arles at the time and wrote the letter in 1888.
This was not long after Van Gogh produced some of his most famous work including Bedroom in Arles, Van Gogh's Chair and some of his Sunflowers series.
Van Gogh had been living in Arles since that February and was recently joined by Gauguin who he had originally met in Paris two years before.
The Dutch painter was known to regularly frequent brothels throughout his life.
Historians claim that after he severed his own ear off in a fit of rage after a fight with Gauguin he delivered the remains of the ear to a prostitute in a brothel.
Van Gogh painted scenes from inside brothels and made portraits of different prostitutes including Sien Hoornik who he had his longest relationship with and even lived with at a time.
The Brothel was painted in October 1888 as a depiction of nightlife in Arles's brothels.
At the end of the letter Gauguin tells Bernard not to 'listen to Vincent' who is 'prone to admire and ditto to be indulgent'.
Van Gogh's letters have long been studied by art historians who have used the over 900 surviving letters, mostly between him and his brother Theo, to learn about the painter's troubled life.
Drouot Estimations wrote in the sale catalog that although the item is fragile it is 'exceptional for the extraordinary meeting of two immense painters but also for the lucidity and the certainty that their painting will revolutionise the art of future generations.'
Along with the joint letter the auction will also feature Gauguin's correspondence with his wife and an unknown lover.
One of Marc Chagall's illustrated notebooks is estimated to go for 100,000 euros with sketches and letters by the likes of Modigliani, Renoir, Cêzanne and Picasso also being sold.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
