Van Gogh in

Restaurant du Chalet

Vincent took the initiative of organising an exhibition of art by Louis Anquetin, Émile Bernard, Arnold Hendrik Koning, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and of his own work at the Grand Bouillon-Restaurant du Chalet. The popular restaurant on Avenue de Clichy served simple, inexpensive meals, and Vincent often went there in 1887.

All the participants were what Vincent referred to as artists of the “petit boulevard”. In other words, they worked in the area of Montmartre around the Boulevard de Clichy and Boulevard de Rochechouart and showed their pieces in small venues such as cafés and restaurants. This was in contrast to the artists of the “grand boulevard”, like Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissarro, whose reputations were established and whose work was exhibited by major gallerists such as Boussod, Valadon & Cie, Durand-Ruel and Georges Petit on the chic boulevards around Place de L’Opéra.

The exhibition was a brief one, where Vincent soon fell out with the restaurant’s owner, Etienne-Lucien Martin. Martin told Vincent the paintings were distracting diners from ordering their food. Vincent responded by packing up all the art and taking it back to his flat on Rue Lepic. Vincent had painted a portrait of Martin before the row, probably intending to present it to him as a thank-you gift, but he never gave it to the restaurant owner.In some ways, however, the show was successful. Vincent wrote afterward that he did not regret his efforts:

“Bernard having sold his first painting there, Anquetin having sold a study there, and I having made the exchange with Gauguin, we all got something.” Read the complete letter

The restaurant went bankrupt on 30 June 1888.

Vincent drew four known sketches on the back of the Du Chalet’s menu; these include Nude Woman Squatting over a Basin.