Vincent van Gogh lived during the Impressionist era. With the development of photography, painters and artists turned to conveying the feeling and ideas behind people, places, and things rather than trying to imitate their physical forms. Impressionist artists did this by emphasizing certain hues, using vigorous brushstrokes, and paying attention to highlighting. Vincent van Gogh implemented this ideology to pursue his goal of depicting his own feelings toward and involvement with his subjects. Van Gogh's portraiture focuses on color and brushstrokes to demonstrate their inner qualities and Van Gogh's own relationship with them.[citation needed]
Vincent van Gogh painted portraits throughout his career from 1881 through 1890.
The Netherlands and Brussels (1881–1886)
Van Gogh was fascinated with making portraits early in his artistic career. He wrote to his brother, Theo while studying in The Hague, "I want to do a drawing that not quite everybody will understand, the figure simplified to the essentials, with a deliberate disregard of those details that do not belong to the actual character and are merely accidental." As an example, he discussed having their parents pose for a painting, but that, in capturing the character of a "poor village clergyman" or "a couple who have grown old together in love and fidelity", they may not appreciate the work, because in doing so the painting would not be an exact likeness. Even so, he considered it a "serious matter" to focus on their character, one where his approach should be trusted.[1]
Joseph Blok
Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo in November 1882 that he had drawn a portrait of Jozef Blok (F993), a street bookseller who was sometimes called "Binnenhof's outdoor librarian". Unlike the character studies, the work was detailed in pencil with watercolor and chalk. At this time it was rare for Van Gogh to use color, as he found it difficult to work with (see early works of Vincent van Gogh).
Portrait of Jozef Blok (bookseller), watercolor, 1882, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F993)
In November 1882, Van Gogh began drawings of individuals to depict a range of character types from the working class.[2] The "peasant genre" that greatly influenced Van Gogh began in the 1840s with the works of Jean-François Millet, Jules Breton, and others. In 1885, Van Gogh described the painting of peasants as the most essential contribution to modern art.[3]
Van Gogh held laborers up to a high standard of how dedicatedly he should approach painting, "One must undertake with confidence, with a certain assurance that one is doing a reasonable thing, like the farmer who drives his plow... (one who) drags the harrow behind himself. If one hasn't a horse, one is one's own horse."[4]
To depicting the essence of the life of the peasant and their spirit, Van Gogh lived as they lived, he was in the fields as they were, enduring the weather or long hours as they were. To do so was not something taught in schools, he noted, and became frustrated by traditionalists who focused on technique more so than the nature of the people being captured.[5] So thoroughly engaged in living the peasant lifestyle, his appearance and manner of speech began to separate himself from others, but this was a cost he believed he needed to bear for his artistic development.[6]
Woman Sewing Watercolor, 1881–82, P. and N. de Boer Foundation, Amsterdam (F869)
Head of an Old Woman with White Cap (The Midwife), 1885, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F174)
Head of a Peasant Woman with Dark Cap, 1885, Private collection (F137)
Portrait of a Woman in Blue
Portrait of Woman in Blue 1885 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F207a)
Portrait of a Woman with Red Ribbon
Portrait of a Woman with Red Ribbon 1885 Private collection (F207)
Portrait of an Old Man with Beard
Van Gogh described his sitter for this painting a "wonderful old man." It was made in Antwerp where Van Gogh hoped to bring in money to support himself by painting portraits.[7]
Portrait of an Old Man with Beard 1885 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F205)
Sien
Van Gogh made a series of paintings of Sien Hoornik, a prostitute whom he met and took in when he lived at The Hague. Included in the series are works of Sien's daughter, Maria, her newborn son and her mother.[citation needed]
Van Gogh occasionally visited Café du Tambourin run by Agostina Segatori, the subject of this painting. Previously an artist's model[8] to Manet and Corot and others,[9] the Naples-born Agostina saved the money she earned working as a model and opened the Italian themed Café du Tambourin in 1885, which particularly catered to artists.[10]
The Italian Woman also called La Italienne is "without doubt" Agostina Segatori, per the Musée d'Orsay. Van Gogh introduced elements of Japanese woodcut prints in this portrait. Van Gogh creates his own style of brushstroke from Impressionism and Pointillism, in this case a "criss-cross of overlapping nervous hatching. He uses red and green in her face which he later described as a technique "to be able to express the terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green".[11]
Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin 1887 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F370)
Italian Woman (Agostina Segatori) 1887 Musée d'Orsay, Paris (F381)
Etienne-Lucien Martin
The Portrait of Etienne-Lucien Martin was made of the owner of a restaurant in Paris. He allowed artists to exhibit their work. In November 1887 Van Gogh and his friends showed their works; Van Gogh did not sell a painting. Van Gogh made the painting of Martin with care and precision.[12]
Portrait of Lucien Martin 1886–87 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F289)
Leonie Rose Davy-Charbuy
Art dealer Pierre Firmin-Martin, a friend of Van Gogh's brother Theo, displayed some of Van Gogh's paintings. Mother by a Cradle, Portrait of Leonie Rose Davy-Charbuy was made of Martin's niece who lived with her uncle. Reflective of the family's interest in art, paintings hang in the background. In the year the painting was made Theo commented that Van Gogh done a good job painting portraits but had never asked for payment.[13]
Mother by a Cradle, Portrait of Leonie Rose Davy-Charbuy 1887 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F369)
Nude study of a Little Girl
Nude Study of a Little Girl, Seated 1886 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F215)
Portrait of Père Tanguy, painted by Vincent van Gogh in 1887, is one of three paintings of Julien Tanguy. The three works demonstrate a progression in Van Gogh's artistic style since arriving in Paris. The first painting is somber and the composition is simple. In the second painting Van Gogh introduces his Japanese prints. The last and most advanced in style, skill and color reflects integration of Japanese, Impressionist, and other influences of the Parisian artist community. The painting conveys a sense of serenity that Van Gogh seeks for himself. This last painting of Tanguy is in the Musée Rodin, Paris.
Père Tanguy was a Breton who was exiled and pardoned after taking part in the Paris Commune. When Vincent van Gogh knew him, he owned a small artist's supply shop. The shop was an important to the painters of the era. Impressionist painters in Paris were commonly found in Père Tanguy's shop. Painters like Cézanne, Pissarro, and Gauguin, as well as their paintings, frequented the shop. Van Gogh painted a few portraits of Père Tanguy. This specific portrait was painted in the winter of 1887-88.[citation needed]
Portrait of Père Tanguy 1886–87 Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen (F263)
Portrait of Père Tanguy, The second painting of Père Tanguy 1887-88 Private collection of Philip Niarchos or Tate Gallery, London (F364)
Portrait of a Man
Portrait of a Man 1886 National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria (F209)
Portrait of a Man with a Moustache
Portrait of a Man with a Moustache 1886–87 Location unknown (F288)
Portrait of a Woman
Portrait of a Woman (Madame Tanguy?) 1886–87 Kunstmuseum, Basel (F357)
Portrait of a Woman, Facing Right
Portrait of a Woman, Facing Right 1886 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F215b)
The Smoker
The Smoker, 1887 Oil on canvas, 60 x 49cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia
Woman Sitting in the Grass
Woman Sitting in the Grass 1887 Private collection (F367)
According to Doiteau and Leroy, one day Van Gogh wanted to present a painting he had just finished to Dr. Rey. But the doctor refused the gift, so Van Gogh offered the painting to the pharmacist of the hospital just passing by, a Mr Rousseau. He, too, refused and so the next passer-by, the administrator of the hospital, was offered the painting – and he, a certain Mr Neuvière, is said to have accepted.[17]
Rey later reminisced: "When I saw that he outlined my head entirely in green (he had only two main colors, red and green), that he painted my hair and my mustache--I really did not have red hair--in a blazing red on a biting green background, I was simply horrified ..."[18]
Portrait of Doctor Félix Rey January 1889 Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia (F500)
Marie Ginoux, born Jullian (or Julien) in Arles (June 8, 1848 - August 2, 1911), and her husband Joseph (1835–1906) married February 2, 1866, and ran the Café de la Gare, at 30 Place Lamartine.[citation needed]
La Mousmé was painted by Vincent van Gogh in 1888 while living in Arles, which Van Gogh dubbed "the Japan of the south". Retreating from the city, he hoped that his time in Arles would evoke in his work the simple, yet dramatic expression of Japanese art. Inspired by Pierre Loti's novel Madame Chrysanthème and Japanese artwork, Vincent painted La Mousmé, a well-dressed Japanese girl.[citation needed]
Van Gogh, excited to have a model for a portrait, worked on the portraits of a Zouave in June 1888 in Arles. Van Gogh described him as a boy, with a small face, large neck and intense eyes. A half-length portrait was made of the tanned man with bright colors he called a "savage combination of incongruous tones". The Zouave's uniform was blue with red-orange braids, a red cap and two yellow stars on his chest, all placed against the background of a green door and orange bricks.[19][20] Unsatisfied with the painting, he called it "ugly and unsuccessful", but thought the challenge might expand his artistic skill. Van Gogh also made a drawing, of which he was not particularly pleased, and a painting of the Zouave against a white wall.[21]
Le Zouave June 1888 Oil on canvas, 82 x 65cm Private collection (F424)
Le Zouave (half-figure) June 1888 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F423)
This portrait, and The Zouave, was one of the two portraits by van Gogh in 1888 of anonymous subjects, that he sent to his Australian artist friend John Russell. Like The Zouave, Van Gogh compared his subject to an animal. He called the girl "a dirty mudlark".[22]
Head of a Girl, Late June 1888 Reed pen and ink on wove paper, 18 x 19.5cm Guggenheim Museum
The Lover: Paul-Eugène Milliet
Paul-Eugène Milliet was a 2nd Lieutenant at the 3rd Zouave Regiment which had quarters at the Caserne Calvin located on Boulevard des Lices in Arles. Vincent van Gogh gave him drawing lessons, and in return Milliet took a roll of paintings by Van Gogh to Paris, when in mid August he was passing the French capital on his way to the North, where Milliet spent his holidays. On his return to Arles, at the end of September 1888, Milliet handed over a batch of Ukiyo-e woodcuts and other prints selected by Vincent's brother Theo from their collection. In the days that followed Vincent executed this portrait of Milliet.[citation needed]
In the first version of Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles, executed in October 1888, Milliet's portrait is shown hanging to the right of the portrait of Eugène Boch.
Decades later, when Milliet had retired to the 7th arrondissement in Paris, his memories of Van Gogh were recorded by Pierre Weiller, at this time living on lease in a building owned by Milliet, and published in 1955, after Milliet's death.[23]
Paul-Eugène Milliet (The Lover), 1888 Oil on canvas, 60 x 49cm Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (F473)
Van Gogh's Old woman of Arles was made soon after he arrived in Arles. He wrote to his brother Theo, "I believe that there are real opportunities for portraiture here. While people here are enormously ignorant of painting in general, when it comes to their own appearance and their own lives, they are much more artistic than in the North."[25]
An Old Woman of Arles 1888 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (F390)
One-eyed Man
The One-eyed Man is a portrait of a patient at the Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy. Van Gogh used sweeping brushstrokes in the painting made with green in the background, the man's coat and touches in his face. In the hospital Van Gogh found that in the presence of other patients he became more calm about his mental state. In a letter to his mother he wrote, "At the moment I am working on a portrait of one of the patients here. It is odd that if one is with them for a time, and has grown used to them, one no longer thinks them mad."[26]
Since Van Gogh was not in Saint-Paul's until 1889, possibly the patient and artwork that Van Gogh referred to in the letter to his mother was about Portrait of a Patient.[citation needed]
Portrait of a One-Eyed Man 1888 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F532)
Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin (Man in a Red Beret) 1888 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F546)
The Poet: Eugène Boch
Eugène Boch (1855–1941) was a Belgian painter,[27] born in Saint-Vaast, Hainaut, who was the younger brother of Anna Boch, a founding member of Les XX. Born into a wealthy dynasty of manufacturers of fine china and ceramics, still active today under the firm of Villeroy & Boch, Eugène Boch enrolled in the private atelier of Léon Bonnat in Paris, in 1879. Since 1882, when Bonnat closed his atelier, he studied at the atelier of Fernand Cormon. Paintings of him were admitted to the Salon in 1882, 1883 and 1885. In June 1888, he was introduced by Dodge MacKnight to Vincent van Gogh.[citation needed]
The portrait was executed in the first days of September 1888, a few days before Boch's departure. In the first version of Van Gogh's Bedroom, executed in October 1888, this portrait is shown hanging to the left of the portrait of Paul-Eugène Milliet. Arranged this way, both portraits may have formed part of the Décoration for the Yellow House.[citation needed]
When Eugène Boch died in 1941, he bequeathed The Poet (that is Van Gogh's title for his portrait of Eugène Boch, which Boch received from Johanna van Gogh-Bonger as a present in July 1891) to the Louvre.[28]
Portrait of the Artist's Mother is a painting Vincent van Gogh made in 1888 of his mother, Anna Carbentus van Gogh, from a black-and-white photograph. In September 1888, Van Gogh, answering to a letter of his sister Wil who had told him of a recent photograph of their mother, asked for a print.[29] About a week later he received it, but "troubled by the black," sat down to paint a copy based on this likeness:[30] Van Gogh's initial introduction to art was through his mother, an amateur artist. After years of strained relationship with family members, Van Gogh excitedly shared some of his works his mother would cherish most, those of flowers and natural settings. In this painting of his mother, Van Gogh captures her dignified, proud nature.[31]
Van Gogh made the painting, Memory of the Garden at Etten, to depict an older woman who he envisioned as his mother and a younger woman in a plaid shawl to represent his sister Wil and the lovely gardens of the Netherlands. In a letter to his sister Wil, Van Gogh said he had "an impression of you like those in Dicken's novels."[32]
Portrait of Artist's Mother October 1888 The Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, California (F477)
Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) 1888 The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia (F496)
The Roulin Family is group of portrait paintings that Vincent van Gogh executed in Arles in 1888 and 1889 of Joseph, his wife Augustine and their three children: Armand, Camille and Marcelle. This series is unique in many ways. Although Van Gogh loved to paint portraits, it was difficult for financial and other reasons for him to find models. So, finding an entire family that agreed to sit for paintings, in fact for several sittings each was a bounty. Joseph Roulin became a particularly good, loyal and supporting friend to Van Gogh during his stay in Arles. To represent a man he truly admired was important to him. The family, with children ranging in age from four months to seventeen years, also gave him the opportunity to produces works of individuals in several different stages of life. Rather than making photographic-like works, Van Gogh used his imagination, colors and themes artistically and creatively to evoke desired emotions from the audience.[citation needed]
While Van Gogh was living in Arles, Joseph Roulin was working at the railway station, both places close to their lodgings: Roulin and his family in a dead-end street, and Van Gogh just around the corner, at 2 Place Lamartine - and both frequented the Café run by the Ginoux couple, some footsteps further; there Van Gogh had lodged, before he moved to the Yellow House. Roulin was married to Augustine. They had three children: Armand, Camille and Marcelle. Van Gogh painted each of Roulin's family members several times between 1888 and 1889.[citation needed]
While in Arles, Vincent van Gogh became friends with the postman. Van Gogh painted several portraits of Roulin and his family. Roulin's “silent gravity and tenderness,” and his “strangely pure and touching” voice inspired Van Gogh to paint him, commemorating their friendship.[citation needed]
Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin, April 1888, Barnes Foundation, Merion Station, PA (F435)
Augustine
Augustine Roulin was born on 9 October 1851 in Lambesc and died on 5 April 1930.[34] After her husband had posed for several works with Van Gogh, Augustine sat for Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin in the Yellow House the two men shared. During the sitting, she kept her gaze on Gauguin, possibly for reassurance because, according to her daughter, she was not comfortable in the presence of Van Gogh.[citation needed]
The Mother or Portrait of Madame Augustine Roulin, Nov-Dec 1888, Oskar Reinhart Collection "Am Römerholz", Winterthur (F503)
In addition to the mother-daughter works where Marcelle is visible, Van Gogh also created several La Berceuse works where Augustine rocked her unseen cradle by a string.[35]
Van Gogh labeled the group of work La Berceuse meaning "our lullaby or the woman rocking the cradle."[34]
Young Man with a Cap (Armand Roulin), 1888, Private Collection, Zürich, Switzerland (F536)
Camille
Camille Roulin, the middle child, was born in Lambesc in southern France, on 10 July 1877, and died on 4 June 1922.[34] When his portrait was painted, Camille was eleven years of age. The Van Gogh Museum painting[37] shows Camille's head and shoulders. Yellow brush strokes behind him are evocative of the sun.[38]
Marcelle Roulin, the youngest child, was born on 31 July 1888, and four months old, when Van Gogh made her portraits.[34] She was painted three times by herself and twice on her mother's lap.[39]
Madame Roulin's husband, the postman, was good friends with Vincent van Gogh while they were both in Arles. The portrait of Madame Roulin and her baby was painted through November and December 1888.[citation needed]
Portrait of Marcelle Roulin, 1888, Oil on Canvas, Fondation Socindec, Vaduz, Liechtenstein (F441a)
Vieux Paysan: Patience Escalier
Patience Escalier, second version, end August 1888, Oil on canvas, 69 x 56 cm, Private collection (F444)
Patience Escalier was a gardener and a shephard by trade, and his portrait the result of Van Gogh's desire to paint an older peasant who resembled his father in features.[40]
There are two versions of this portrait. One held by the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, and the other in the private collection of Philip Niarchos.[41]
Old Peasant (Patience Escalier), Drawing in pen and ink, September 1888, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA (F1460)
François Trabuc, who was the chief orderly at Saint-Paul, and his wife, Jeanne both sat for van Gogh. François Trabuc had a look of "contemplative calm" which van Gogh found interesting in spite of the misery he had witness at Saint-Paul and a Marseilles hospital during outbreaks of cholera. He wrote to Theo of Trabuc's character, a military presence and "small keen black eyes". If it were not for his intelligence and kindness, his eyes could seem like that of a bird of prey.[42]
François Trabuc
Jeanne Trabuc (b/w copy)
Portrait of a Patient
While in Saint-Paul, Van Gogh wrote of other patients and their support for one another, "Though here there are some patients very seriously ill, the fear and horror of madness that I used to have has already lessened a great deal. And though here you continually hear terrible cries and howls like beasts in a menagerie, in spite of that people get to know each other very well and help each other when their attacks come on."[43]
Portrait of Dr. Gachet is one of the most famous paintings by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh of Dr. Paul Gachet, who cared for the artist in his last months. In 1990, it fetched a record price at auction, selling for $82.5 million ($75 million, plus a 10 percent buyer's commission).[44]
Dr. Gachet was an amateur painter and engraver. Vincent van Gogh went to the doctor for medical care. Van Gogh saw himself in the doctor; like himself, he saw in Dr. Gachet “the heart-broken expression of our time.”[citation needed] Similar to many of van Gogh's portraits, the painting is a study not of the physical features of the man, but of the inner qualities of the doctor's personality.[citation needed]
Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, 1890 Oil on canvas, 68 x 57cm Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Marguerite Gachet, 1890 Oil on canvas, 102 x 50cm Kunstmuseum, Basel
Marguerite Gachet in the Garden 1890 Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France (F756)
Adeline Ravoux
Portrait of Adeline Ravoux (Half-Figure) 1890 Private Collection (F768)
The twelve-year-old Adeline Ravoux was the daughter of Arthur-Gustave Ravoux, whose inn is where Van Gogh lodged in Auvers-sur-Oise. She later wrote a memoir of Van Gogh's stay with them. She witnessed Van Gogh's return to the inn after the fatal incident where he shot himself: "Vincent walked bent, holding his stomach, again exaggerating his habit of holding one shoulder higher than the other. Mother asked him: " M. Vincent, we were anxious, we are happy to see you to return; have you had a problem?" He replied in a suffering voice: "No, but I have…" he did not finish, crossed the hall, took the staircase and climbed to his bedroom. I was witness to this scene. Vincent made on us such a strange impression that Father got up and went to the staircase to see if he could hear anything."[45] See also Paintings of Children (Van Gogh series).
A sheet of figure studies F1652r has at its upper left the profile of a young girl recognizably Adeline Ravoux. The young girl seen from behind to the left is assumed to be her as well. She is thought to appear in a number of other paintings, including especially F819Two Ladies Walking in a Landscape. The sheet fetched $480,000 at a Christie's sale in 2007.[46][47]
Portrait of Adeline Ravoux June 1890 Private collection (F769)
Girl in White also known as Young Girl Standing Against a Background of Wheat and Woman in a Cornfield was painted by Vincent van Gogh in 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, during the last months of his life. Girl in White has been part of the Chester Dale Collection in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. since 1963.[citation needed]
Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat is an 1890 painting by Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh went on to paint several versions of this painting. The painting has changed hands several times. In 1997, Stephen Wynn paid $47.5 million for the painting. On October 7, 2005, it was announced that Stephen Wynn had sold the painting along with Gauguin's Bathers to Steven A. Cohen for more than $100 million.[citation needed]
Young Peasant Woman with Straw Hat Sitting in the Wheat June 1890 Private Collection (F774)
Two Children
Two Young Girls, also called Two Children is owned by Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Another version of Two Children is part of a private collection (F784). See also Paintings of Children (Van Gogh series).
Two Young Girls or Two Children, 1890, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France (F783)
↑ "Portrait of Jozef Blok, 1882". Permanent Collection. Van Gogh Museum. 2005–2011. Retrieved 2011-05-10' See also "More information", "Exceptional Portrait" on the same page{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
↑ From van Gogh to Picasso, from Kandinsky to Pollock: masterpieces of modern art: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Thannhauser Collection: by Krens, Thomas; Celant, Germano; Dennison, Lisa. -- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Palazzo Grassi N6487.N4 S6385 1990 c.2
↑ Pierre Weiller: Nous avons retrouvé le zouave de van Gogh, in: Les Lettres françaises, 24 & 31 March 1955. See SB6,296-300
↑ Letters of Joseph Roulin to Vincent van Gogh, 22 May and 24 October 1889; see Van Crimpen, Han & Berends-Alberts, Monique: De brieven van Vincent van Gogh, SDU Uitgeverij, The Hague 1990, pp. 1878-79 (No. 779); 1957-58 (Nr. 816) - both letters, written in French, are hitherto only published in Dutch translation.
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. His oeuvre includes landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits, most of which are characterized by bold colors and dramatic brushwork that contributed to the rise of expressionism in modern art. Van Gogh's work was beginning to gain critical attention before he died from a self-inflicted gunshot at age 37. During his lifetime, only one of van Gogh's paintings, The Red Vineyard, was sold.
The Red Vineyards near Arles is an oil painting by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, executed on a privately primed Toile de 30 piece of burlap in early November 1888. It depicts workers in a vineyard, and it is the only painting known by name that Van Gogh sold in his lifetime.
The portraits of Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) include self-portraits, portraits of him by other artists, and photographs—one of which is dubious—of the Dutch artist. Van Gogh's dozens of self-portraits were an important part of his œuvre as a painter. Most probably, van Gogh's self-portraits are depicting the face as it appeared in the mirror he used to reproduce his face, i.e. his right side in the image is in reality the left side of his face.
Café Terrace at Night is an 1888 oil painting by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. It is also known as The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, and, when first exhibited in 1891, was entitled Coffeehouse, in the evening.
Les Alyscamps is a pair of paintings ("pendants") by Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in 1888 in Arles, France, it depicts autumnal scenes in the Alyscamps, an ancient Roman necropolis in Arles which is lined with poplars and stone sarcophagi.
Bedroom in Arles is the title given to three similar paintings by 19th-century Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh.
L'Arlésienne, L'Arlésienne : Madame Ginoux, or Portrait of Madame Ginoux is the title given to a group of six similar paintings by Vincent van Gogh, painted in Arles, November 1888, and in Saint-Rémy, February 1890. L'Arlésienne means literally "the woman from Arles".
The Roulin Family is a group of portrait paintings Vincent van Gogh executed in Arles in 1888 and 1889 of Joseph, his wife Augustine and their three children: Armand, Camille and Marcelle. This series is unique in many ways. Although Van Gogh loved to paint portraits, it was difficult for financial and other reasons for him to find models. So, finding an entire family that agreed to sit for paintings — in fact, for several sittings each — was a bounty.
Décoration for the Yellow House was the main project Vincent van Gogh focused on in Arles, from August 1888 until his breakdown the day before Christmas. This Décoration had no pre-defined form or size; the central idea of the Décoration grew step by step, with the progress of his work. Starting with the Sunflowers, portraits were included in the next step. Finally, mid-September 1888, the idea took shape: from this time on he concentrated on size 30 canvases, which were all meant to form part of this Décoration.
Flowering Orchards is a series of paintings which Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh executed in Arles, in southern France in the spring of 1888. Van Gogh arrived in Arles in February 1888 in a snowstorm; within two weeks the weather changed and the fruit trees were in blossom. Appreciating the symbolism of rebirth, Van Gogh worked with optimism and zeal on about fourteen paintings of flowering trees in the early spring. He also made paintings of flowering trees in Saint-Rémy the following year, in 1889.
Wheat Fields is a series of dozens of paintings by Dutch Post-Impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh, borne out of his religious studies and sermons, connection to nature, appreciation of manual laborers and desire to provide a means of offering comfort to others. The wheat field works demonstrate his progression as an artist from the drab Wheat Sheaves made in 1885 in the Netherlands to the colorful and dramatic 1888–1890 paintings from Arles, Saint-Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise in rural France.
Vincent van Gogh enjoyed making Paintings of Children. He once said that it's the only thing that "excites me to the depths of my soul, and which makes me feel the infinite more than anything else." Painting children, in particular represented rebirth and the infinite. Over his career Van Gogh did not make many paintings of children, but those he completed were special to him. During the ten years of Van Gogh's career as a painter, from 1881 to 1890, his work changed and grew richer, particularly in how he used color and techniques symbolically or evocatively.
Butterflies is a series of paintings made by Vincent van Gogh in 1889 and 1890. Van Gogh made at least four paintings of butterflies and one of a moth. The metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a butterfly was symbolic to Van Gogh of men and women's capability for transformation.
Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy is a collection of paintings that Vincent van Gogh made when he was a self-admitted patient at the Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, since renamed the Clinique Van Gogh, from May 1889 until May 1890. During much of his stay there he was confined to the grounds of the asylum, and he made paintings of the garden, the enclosed wheat field that he could see outside his room and a few portraits of individuals at the asylum. During his stay at Saint-Paul asylum, Van Gogh experienced periods of illness when he could not paint. When he was able to resume, painting provided solace and meaning for him. Nature seemed especially meaningful to him, trees, the landscape, even caterpillars as representative of the opportunity for transformation and budding flowers symbolizing the cycle of life. One of the more recognizable works of this period is The Irises. Works of the interior of the hospital convey the isolation and sadness that he felt. From the window of his cell he saw an enclosed wheat field, the subject of many paintings made from his room. He was able to make but a few portraits while at Saint-Paul.
Hospital at Arles is the subject of two paintings that Vincent van Gogh made of the hospital in which he stayed in December 1888 and again in January 1889. The hospital is located in Arles in southern France. One of the paintings is of the central garden between four buildings titled Garden of the Hospital in Arles ; the other painting is of a ward within the hospital titled Ward of the Hospital in Arles. Van Gogh also painted Portrait of Dr. Félix Rey, a portrait of his physician while in the hospital.
The Montmartre paintings are a group of works that Vincent van Gogh created in 1886 and 1887 of the Paris district of Montmartre while living there, at 54 Rue Lepic, with his brother Theo. Rather than capture urban settings in Paris, van Gogh preferred pastoral scenes, such as Montmartre and Asnières in the northwest suburbs. Of the two years in Paris, the work from 1886 often has the dark, somber tones of his early works from the Netherlands and Brussels. By the spring of 1887, van Gogh embraced use of color and light and created his own brushstroke techniques based upon Impressionism and Pointillism. The works in the series provide examples of his work during that period of time and the progression he made as an artist.
The Zouave is the subject of several sketches and paintings made by Vincent van Gogh in Arles, France in June 1888. The pieces range from close up oil painting portraits of the Zouave to full-body drawings. Van Gogh produced this collection of pieces during the period he spent in southern France, which many scholars regard as the zenith of his artistic career.Van Gogh nonetheless expressed frustration about his work during this time.
Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Paris) is the subject of many drawings, sketches and paintings by Vincent van Gogh in 1886 and 1887 after he moved to Montmartre in Paris from the Netherlands. While in Paris, Van Gogh transformed the subjects, color and techniques that he used in creating still life paintings.
The Letters of Vincent van Gogh is a collection of 903 surviving letters written (820) or received (83) by Vincent van Gogh. More than 650 of these were from Vincent to his brother Theo. The collection also includes letters van Gogh wrote to his sister Wil and other relatives, as well as between artists such as Paul Gauguin, Anthon van Rappard, and Émile Bernard.
References
Van Gogh Face to Face: The Portraits, with contributions by Roland Dorn, George S. Keyes, Joseph J. Rishel with Katherine Sachs, George T. M. Shackelford, Lauren Soth, Judy Sund, and a chronology by Katherine Sachs, Detroit Institute of Arts & Thames and Hudson, 2000 ISBN0-89558-153-1
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Portrait of Jozef Blok (bookseller), watercolor, 1882, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F993)
Woman Sewing Watercolor, 1881–82, P. and N. de Boer Foundation, Amsterdam (F869)
Fisherman on the Beach, 1882, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (F5)
Fisherman's Wife on the Beach, 1882, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (F6)
Peasant Woman, Half Figure, Seated with White Cap, 1884, Morohashi Museum of Modern Art, Fukushima, Japan (F143)
Peasant from Nuenen, 1885 Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels (F163)
Head of a Woman with her Hair Loose, 1885, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F206)
Head of a Man with a Pipe, 1885, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands (F169)
Head of an Old Woman with White Cap (The Midwife), 1885, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F174)
Head of a Peasant Woman with Dark Cap, 1885, Private collection (F137)
Portrait of Woman in Blue 1885 Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F207a)
Portrait of a Woman with Red Ribbon 1885 Private collection (F207)
