Marie Ginoux, a cafe owner in the French town of Arles, was apparently one of the few to befriend Vincent Van Gogh but had the troubled artist known the truth he might have portrayed her less flatteringly.
In 1890, just months before his suicide, Van Gogh painted L''''''''Arl��sienne, Madame Ginoux, which sold for £22 million at Christie''''''''s in New York on 5^th, May.

While Van Gogh, who sold only one picture during his lifetime, would be astonished at the prices that his paintings now fetch, he would be equally surprised to learn the truth about Madame Ginoux. Although she and her husband, Joseph, appeared to be among the painter''''''''s few friends in Arles, in reality they were supporters of a campaign to have him locked up.
He painted the picture, which sold at Christie''''''''s to an anonymous bidder, while in hospital and portrayed her as a sensitive, intelligent person with books, one of them Charles Dickens''''''''s Christmas Stories, in front of her.
The painting was one of a series planned by Van Gogh as a tribute to his friend and fellow painter Paul Gauguin. The two men collaborated in Arles until they quarrelled violently and Van Gogh attacked his friend with a razor before severing his own ear.
This picture was intended as a present for Gauguin, perhaps as an apology, but was never given to him and, for the past 77 years, has been owned by an American family who sold it on Tuesday. It fetched the highest price of the night at Christie''''''''s second ever biggest sale of Impressionist and modern art, which totalled £98.5 million.