Vincent van Gogh’s old home in Brixton has been sold above the asking price for £565,000.
Estate agent Savills put the terraced three-bedroom grade II listed house up for auction and set the guide price at £475,000.
The auctioneer said there were several bids for the property. It was finally purchased by an “admirer of the artist’s work”.
Van Gogh lodged at 87 Hackford Road aged 20 while working for as an apprentice for an art dealer from 1873 until 1874.
The ageing terraced house, nearer Stockwell than Brixton itself, needs serious work and still much as it would have been when van Gogh stayed in his room on the top floor. Details from open fires to the Victorian outside loo help one imagine what it may have been like, and the lucky buyer will need to spend a substantial amount renovating the home that hasn’t been sold for 65 years.
It was in this house that van Gogh was thought to have had the happiest year of his life. But it all came to an end after he fell unrequitedly in love with his lodger’s daughter, and he was forced to move out to new lodgings in Kennington.
