Belgian impressionist Théo van Rysselberghe’s “Canal en Flandre” will be shown for the first time to the public after hanging for over 100 years in a family’s private collection.

“We have works that are good enough to be in a museum,” said Sotheby’s deputy director Virginie Devillez, standing in front of the summery landscape scene. “It is an opportunity to see, for free, beautiful work.”

The two-day exhibition, which opened on Thursday evening, is based around works of art that have historical ties to Belgium.

They will all later be sold at Sotheby’s auction houses in London, Paris, and New York.

The collection includes several sketches, which Devillez expects to do well at auction because of their lower cost and the limited availability of original paintings.

Among them are charcoal sketches of paintings by Belgian artist James Ensor, including “Les Quatre Tempéraments”, in which he has inserted himself. It has a price tag of 60,000 euros (RM290,000). Many of the other works are expected to fetch much more than that.