Van Gogh - Sunset at Montmajour

When we think that there's no possibility, whatsoever, to find an unknown master piece from a world famous artist, sometimes the unthinkable happens.

Sunset at Montmajour, a large oil landscape of oak trees in the south of France, was painted in 1888 when Van Gogh was at the height of his powers in Arles. In 1908 was bought by a Norwegian industrialist, Christian Nicolai Mustad, but he was told that the painting was fate so it ended up forgotten in his attic until his dead.

When Mustad died, in 1970, his real estate was reunited and it was by then that speculations started around whom was the artist.

Technical expertise were made and sign of Van Gogh's signature were found as well a references to a landscape on one of Vincent's letters to Theo mentioning a similar landscape that he had painted on the previous day:

"Yesterday, at sunset, I was on a stony heath where very small, twisted oaks grow, in the background a ruin on the hill, and wheatfields in the valley. It was romantic, it couldn’t be more so, à la Monticelli, the sun was pouring its very yellow rays over the bushes and the ground, absolutely a shower of gold."

The painting comes from one of artist most prolific years. The time which Van Gogh spent in Arles, on the southern of France, when he created works such as The Yellow House and The Sunflowers.

Writing in the Burlington Magazine, three Dutch experts from the Van Gogh Museum, in Amsterdam, responsible for the studying said the work was "absolutely sensational". 

There is ample evidence of his hand, says the article, not least "the diversity of the brushstrokes and the creaminess of the paint, as well as in the rapidity and liveliness with which it was applied". 

The newly attributed painting is in the hands of a no doubt thrilled, but anonymous, owner but has been on display in AmsterdamVan Gogh Museum, since September 2013. from here

Vincent Van Gogh - The Bedroom in Arles - 3 versions

Bedroom in Arles - First Version - 1888
Van Gogh Museum - Amsterdam - Netherlands

When Vincent Van Gogh (1853-90) lived in Arles, he decorated most of the rooms of the house with yellow paintings. It was buy that time that the famous 7 sunflowers paintings were depited. Vincent also painted his room in 3 versions.

The first version of this painting in the Autumm of 1888, during one of the happiest interludes in his life. He belived that his move to Arles would mark a new chapter in his art. He asked his brother, Theo to persuade Paul Gaugain to come and join him and rapidly painted a series of pictures to hang on the walls and create a welcoming atmosphere for his new guest. To a large extent, these paintings were designed simply as decorations for the house, but Van Gogh also wanted to show that his own works could bear comparison with those of Gaugain’s, whose talent he was in awe of.

Recently this first version was thoroughly restored before being sent to an exhibition in Japan. Already returned to Amsterdam, conservationists from the Van Gogh Museum designed a 2D and 3D room in order to have a perspective of how it was. It can be seen here.

Following what Vincent had written to his brother Theo, conservationists tried to achieve the equivalent tones originally used by Vincent. "Calm" or "Repose" is suggested, in a way to avoid contrasts. This means using colors that are equally light or dark – in other words, equivalent tones.

If we look at The bedroom this way, we immediately see what is wrong with it: namely, the walls and the blanket. The walls are too light in tone, and the blanket too dark. The digital impression restores the lavender color of the walls (by removing the white) and brightens the red of the blanket, bringing the tonal values into balance and restoring the sense of repose.

Vincent writes that the only white he wanted in the painting was the reflection in the mirror. As he puts it, the fourth pair of complementary colors, white and black, is represented by the mirror and its frame. At present, this effect is cancelled out by the abundance of white in the walls.

Bedroom in Arles - Second Version - 1889

Museum Fine Arts - Chicago -U.S.A.

In the Bedroom at Arles, many of the items are shown in pairs – two chairs, two pillows, two pairs of pictures – signaling his expectation of companionship. Yet his friendship with Gaugain turned sour just two months after his arrival and Van Gogh had a mental breakdown.

Recuperating in a lunatic asylum in St. Rémy, he painted the third version of the painting, for his mother. Although structurally very similar to the first two, certain details are significantly different. In the first version, Van Gogh painted the floor a rosy pink; on the third he used a brownish-gray color, reflecting his more depressed mood. The two top right-hand paintings are different in each version as well. In the first two versions, the portraits are indistinct and cut off. In this third version, though, they are very much discernible – the one on the left is Van Gogh himself and the one on the right is of his sister, Wil. Ten months after he painted this picture, Van Gogh died in mistery. Today we aren't sure if he killed himself or was killed by a group of children by accident. Will we ever find out the truth?

Bedroom in Arles - Third Version - 1889

 Musée D'Orsay - Paris - France

Vincent Van Gogh - The Yellow House

The Yellow House - 1888

Van Gogh Museum - Amsterdam - Holland

"The subject is frightfully difficul, but that is just why I want to conquer it. It's terrific, these houses, yellow in the sun, and the incomparable freshness of the blue. And everywhere the ground is yellow too."

- Vincent on a letter to his brother Theo.

When Vincent van Gogh arrived at Arles it was snowing. So much for the warm and sunny south as described by Toulouse-Letrec. Arles was a small city with no more than 200.000 inhabitants. It had once been much grander. Julius Caesar brought it under Roman rule about 46 BC, and  it developed into one of the greatest centres of the Western Roman Empire, as is still evident from the amphitheatre (part ruined but still usable) and the remains of other Roman buildings, including the palace of Constantine. Arles never regained its ancien eminence, but in Vincent's time it was not just a sleepy little market town. The railway had reached it comparatively early, and many italien immigrants setled on nearby villages. When Vincent lived in Arles there was no tourists and the city had few amusements. Vincent found lodging in almost the first place he came to from the station, in an attic room of the Hotel-Restaurant Carrel. He soon started painting, founding on a small shop nearby all the paints and canvas he needed although pigments quality supplied in town were not as good as he wanted. Soon Vincent asked Theo to send him a large quantity of paints directly from Paris.

From his first week in Arles, Vincent had mentioned the desirability of having his own establishment. In May, of that year 1888, he rented the famous Yellow House, It was a two-up, two-down dwelling, one of an adjoining pair, whose twin pedimented facades, on the corner of the "Place Lamartine" just outside the city walls, faced one of the medieval gates. Van Gogh rented four rooms. Two large ones on the ground-floor to serve as atelier and kitchen, and, on the first floor, two smaller ones facing Place Lamartine. The window on the first floor near the corner with both shutters open is that Van Gogh's guest room, where Paul Gauguin lived for nine weeks from late October, 1888. Behind the next window, with one shutter closed, is Van Gogh's bedroom. The two small rooms at the rear were rented by Van Gogh at a later time. In a letter to his sister he described the house:

"My house here is painted in yellow colour of fresh butter on the outside with glanringly green shutters; it stands in the full sunlight in a square which has a green garden with plane trees, oleanders and acacias. And it is completely whitewashed inside, and the floor is made of red bricks. And over it there is the intensively blue sky. In this I can live and breath, meditate and paint".

Vincent intended to use the house as a studio and store, while making one room fit to sleep in. He spoke already of showing his friends'paintings there and later of persuading them to come and stay. Although his dream of an artists' community was one motive, Vincent's move was expedited by his dissatisfaction with his present circunstances in the Carrel Hotel. Not only did he have no proper studio, he believed that, in addition to the grudging service of which he complained, he was being overcharged. The rent for the Yellow House was 15 francs a month, a lot less than the 4 francs a day he paid to the Carrel.

On the building  painted pink, close to the left edge,Van Gogh used to have his meals It was run by Widow Venissac, who was also Van Gogh landlady, and who owned several of the other buildings depicted. 

Later, the building suffered various rebuilding, before it was severely damaged in a bombing raid, by the Allies, on June 25th, 1944. Later, it turn out to be demolished.

The "Yellow House" painting never left the artist's estate. Since 1962, it is in the possession of the Vincent Van Gogh Foundation, established by Vincent Willem van Gogh, the artist's nephew, and on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum, in Amsterdam.

Source: net, Van Gogh Museum, Wikipedia

Vincent Van Gogh - Midday Rest after Millet

Midday Rest after Millet - 1890

Museé D'Orsay - Paris

After staying only 3 days in Paris, in May 1890, Vincent left the bustling, restless city for the rural quiet of Auvers-sur-Oise. One of the residents of this village, thirty kilometres northwest of Paris, was doctor Paul Gachet. A physician and amateur painter Gachet had been a friend of Montecelli and had assembled an art collection that included works by Paul Cézanne, Renoir and Pissaro. It was Pisarro who had suggested to Vincent's brother Theo to contact Gachet and ask him if he could take Vincent under his wing. Gachet did take an eye on Vincent encouraging him in his work. Three weeks after arriving in Auvers, Vincent wrote that he had found a true friend in Gachet. The artist liked Auvers, where he felt a tranquility à la Puvis de Chavannes. This gave him the sense of calm which he needed to produce many works in a a short time,  such as landscapes. Vincent wrote to his brother Theo:

"Auvers is very beautiful. There were many old thatched roofs, something that is becoming rare (...) It is entirely rural, distinct and picturesque. (...) I am almost sure that on these canvas I have articulated what I cannot express in words, namely how healthy and heartening I find the countryside".

The fields and countryside around Auvers became the subject of many of his paintings. He discribed them in his studies, in many of his letters to his brother Theo,  which can be explored here , in a fabulous site where you will be able to read many of the artist's thoughts, fears, anxieties and states of mind. You can read more about Van Gogh's letters on my blog Manifesto and about his life here.