After Vincent van Gogh died, his work got a new lease on life. During his lifetime, Vincent had sent paintings and drawings to his brother Theo in the hope that Theo would be able to sell them. The works would then serve to pay Theo back for all the help he had given Vincent in providing him with a monthly …
Olive trees, along with mountain landscapes and cypresses, usually served as subject matter for Vincent once he was able to paint outside the grounds of the asylum in early June 1889. He had been drawn to olive trees since Arles but had not yet ventured out to paint them: “…that’s to say the murmur of an olive grove has something …
During his first month in the asylum, Vincent was not permitted to work outdoors. When he finally did go outside in June, he decided to paint characteristic Provençal subjects, such as the Alpilles, the olive trees and the omnipresent cypress trees. In late June 1889, he wrote to his brother Theo that he was busy painting cypresses. He explained why …
Vincent’s bedroom in Saint-Paul de Mausole looked out over an enclosed wheat field with the Alpilles mountains beyond. In one of his first letters to his brother Theo from Saint-Rémy, he wrote: “Through the iron-barred window I can make out a square of wheat in an enclosure, a perspective in the manner of Van Goyen, above which in the morning …
Vincent painted Saint-Rémy’s main street twice. The Cours Est was renamed Boulevard Mirabeau in 1891. His compositions were a departure from the others he made in Saint-Rémy; he generally preferred to stay within the asylum’s walls or escape into the stillness of the breath-taking countryside. On his first trip to the village, in early June 1889, Vincent suddenly became unwell. …
Vincent made countless trips to Montmajour, a hill topped by an abbey a few kilometres northeast of the city centre of Arles. He discovered it two weeks after his arrival in Arles while exploring the surrounding countryside and he expressed the desire to go there to paint. Vincent considered the hill beautiful, with its abbey and its view over the …
Vincent admired the entrance of the St-Trophime church on Place de la République. He wrote to his brother Theo in March 1888: “There’s a Gothic porch here that I’m beginning to think is admirable, the porch of St Trophime, but it’s so cruel, so monstrous, like a Chinese nightmare, that even this beautiful monument in so grand a style seems …
In September 1888, Vincent painted the world-famous Café Terrace at Night. He made the work on location outside the Café du Forum on Place du Forum: “In the past they used to draw, and paint the picture from the drawing in the daytime. But I find that it suits me to paint the thing straightaway. It’s quite true that I …
On Sunday 27 January 1889, Vincent visited the Folies-Arlésiennes, a theatre and dance hall on Rue Victor Hugo. He went to see a company from Marseille perform the play La Pastorale. He found the performance “amazing” and was particularly impressed by one actress. Vincent enjoyed the outing and wrote to his brother that it had benefited his sleep: “It was …
Vincent went to see the bullfights that were held every Sunday in the Arles arena a few times. According to Vincent, although things sometimes went awry, it was not much of a problem for the spectators, since the amphitheatre had been designed so that the seats were high up. Vincent was impressed by the crowds that flocked to see the …
In the first week of June 1888, Vincent went to the fishing village of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, approximately 40 kilometres south of Arles on the Mediterranean Sea. He longed to see “a blue sea and a blue sky” and hoped to spend some time drawing figures. Thus, on 30 or 31 May, he took his drawing and painting materials and travelled by …
Vincent made four paintings of the Alyscamps, a Roman necropolis a few hundred metres from the centre of Arles. He painted the works in late October 1888, during the time Paul Gauguin was staying with him in the Yellow House. One pair, Les Alyscamps (‘Leaf Fall’), hung in Gauguin’s room. Vincent described one of the paintings in a letter to …
On the outskirts of town, the Pont de Réginelle (or Réginal), popularly known as Pont de Langlois, covered the Arles–Bouc canal. The spot attracted Vincent, with its combination of southern light, a Dutch-looking landscape and the oddly shaped bridge, which he thought looked Japanese. He felt compelled to paint it. On 16 March 1888, he first wrote to his brother …
On 23 December 1888, after cutting off part of his ear and giving it to a prostitute in a fit of madness, Vincent was admitted to hospital in Arles. He was treated by Dr Félix Rey (1865–1932).Vincent’s mental state worsened during his first days in hospital, and, according to Rey’s report he chased the duty nurse in his nightshirt, forbade …
While visiting Amsterdam with his friend Anton Kerssemakers to see the new Rijksmuseum in October 1885, Vincent quickly painted a small view of what he saw from the waiting room of the temporary railway station on the Westerdok (1878–1889). With the opening of the new, and permanent, Centraal Station the Westerdok station was torn down in 1889. Vincent sent the …
Vincent often went to the Gestel printing company in Eindhoven. Determined to make a series of lithographs of peasant life, he ordered a stone from Gestel in April of 1885: “I’m now getting use of the stone — graining, paper and printing of 50 copies for 3 guilders. I’m thinking of making a series of subjects from peasant life, in …
In November 1884, Vincent van Gogh painted a large study of the Gennep water mill: “These last few days, although it’s freezing quite hard here, I’ve been working outdoors on a rather large study (more than 1 metre) of an old water mill in Gennep, on the other side of Eindhoven. I want to finish the whole thing outdoors — …
Vincent often went to the countryside to paint. In May 1884, he visited the Opwetten water mill between Nuenen and Eindhoven with his friend Anthon van Rappard. He probably began painting Watermill at Opwetten on this trip or as a result of it. The work is part of a private collection. Vincent also painted the water mill at Kollen.
In May 1884, Vincent worked on several paintings of mills. One was of the water mill at Kollen, which he passed on his walks from Nuenen to Eindhoven. While painting the mill, he wrote to his friend Anthon van Rappard: “It’s the same sort of thing as the two other water mills that we visited together, but with two red …
Beside the old church tower at Nuenen was a graveyard that Vincent liked to draw and paint. Several of his studies were unsuccessful but he was satisfied with the painting The Old Church Tower at Nuenen. In June 1885, he sent the work to his brother Theo, who was living in Paris and showed Vincent’s work to art connoisseurs there: …
One of Vincent’s favourite places in Nuenen was the old church tower that stood just outside of the village. He painted and drew the fifteenth-century tower dozens of times, for instance in The Old Tower at Dusk, The Old Tower at Nuenen with a Ploughman, De oude kerktoren (“The Old Church Tower”), and The Old Church Tower at Nuenen. The …
Since August 1882, Vincent’s father had been parson of the Dutch Reformed church in Nuenen. Its congregation numbered circa one hundred worshipers. In February 1884, while living in Nuenen, Vincent painted the church for his mother, who was bedridden with a broken thigh bone. He probably worked on the painting again in the autumn of 1885, adding in the churchgoers. …
Vincent often worked at the De Groot family’s cottage, and it was there that he came up with the idea of painting The Potato Eaters. The family was comprised of mother Cornelia; her children, Hendrikus, Peter and Gordina (Sien) and Gordina’s son, Cornelis. Vincent often made portraits of Gordina (1855–1927). At least twenty studies of her are known and it …
Vincent was very fond of the Leurseweg (or the Leursestraatje, now Stationsstraat and Baai) and considered it beautiful. In October 1881, he wrote his friend Anthon van Rappard: “You know what’s absolutely beautiful these days, the road to the station and to Leur with the old pollard willows, you have a sepia of it yourself. I can’t tell you how …