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Documentation
Catalogue of acquisitions: paintings, drawings and sculpture
January 1997-July 1998
This catalogue contains all paintings and drawings acquired by the Van Gogh Museum from January 1997 to July 1998. Each work has an inventory number made up as follows: the first letter stands for the technique (s = painting, d = drawing, v = sculpture); this is followed by a reference number and then by a capital letter (B = loan, N = State of the Netherlands, S = Van Gogh Museum [after 1 July 1994], V = Vincent van Gogh Foundation) and the year of acquisition.
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Paintings
Bilders, Gerard
Dutch, 1838-1865
Edge of the wood
Oil on panel, 35 × 46 cm
s 462 S/1997
Gerard Bilders was one of the first Dutch artists who, under the influence of the painters of the School of Barbizon, strove for greater realism and sobriety in their depictions of nature. Thanks partly to the views expressed in his letters, which were published posthumously, he is now regarded as a pioneer of the Hague School. Most of the artists belonging to this group focused on the Dutch landscape. The greater part of the collection in the Museum Mesdag in The Hague, which is managed by the Van Gogh Museum, is devoted to the work of these French and Dutch landscapists.
The Mesdag collection houses two paintings by Gerard's father, Johannes Bilders (1811-1890), and his second wife, Maria Bilders-van Bosse (1837-1900). Gerard, who died of tuberculosis at an early age, sold few paintings in his lifetime, and left only a modest oeuvre. Nonetheless, his studio pieces and studies in oil all bear particularly effective witness to his ideas.
Edge of the wood cannot be dated with any certainty, but was probably painted at the end of the 1850s, when Bilders depicted a number of similar landscape motifs. Executed without embellishment, the work gives a realistic impression of a sunny day. Due to the loose brushstroke, the emphasis lies not so much on detail as on the nuances of colour and the illusion of sparkling sunlight, an effect that can be clearly observed in the rendering of the fence.
Provenance Christie's (Amsterdam), 19 February 1997, lot 224; purchased by the Van Gogh Museum for the Museum Mesdag (1997).
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Breitner, George Hendrik
Dutch, 1857-1923
Portrait of a young girl c. 1907
Oil on panel, 28 × 20.9 cm
s 485 S/1997
Portrait of a young girl c. 1907
Oil on panel, 27.7 × 20 cm
s 486 S/1997
These two portraits by G.H. Breitner were donated to the Van Gogh Museum. Thanks to this double gift, in addition to two watercolours by Breitner, the museum now possesses two of his oils. The portraits show Breitner's younger nieces: A.M.S. van Baerle and her sister. Both were painted in around 1907, when the sisters were roughly 8 and 12 years old. We see Breitner's characteristically loose brushstroke, a broad touch which often gives little scope to detail. The sisters are shown from the chest upwards. The sitting took place in the Van Baerle family home in Rotterdam rather than in the artist's studio; this displeased Breitner greatly, as the lighting in the house was poor. It is also notable that the subjects have been endowed with almost no sense of personality - quite uncharacteristic for Breitner's work; perhaps this has something to do with the girls' youth. Both figures are somewhat static: rather than being absorbed in some game or activity, they look towards the spectator. One of the girls is seated on a chair of indistinct shape; she wears a black hat with a frivolous red ribbon, which gives her an elegant air. The other portrait shows only the sitter's head and shoulders; here it is even more difficult to distinguish between background, clothing and hair. This accentuates the face and the girl's slight blush.
Provenance On loan from the subject, the niece of G.H. Breitner since 1992; donated to the Van Gogh Museum (1997).
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Gogh, Vincent van
Dutch, 1853-1890
‘La berceuse’ (Portrait of Madame Roulin) 1889
Oil on canvas, 92 × 72.5
s 168 B/1997
The Van Gogh Museum has received Van Gogh's La berceuse on loan from the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. This canvas is inextricably linked with Vincent's Sunflowers, and has been given a place next to that undisputed masterpiece. The loan is part of an exchange: La berceuse - donated by V.W. van Gogh to the Stedelijk in 1945 as thanks for its good care of the family collection during the Second World War - will be replaced by Van Gogh's Entrance to a quarry, also painted in 1889.
From the beginning of his career Vincent had a pronounced predilection for figure painting. In Aries, however, where models were even harder to
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Vincent van Gogh
‘La berceuse’ (Portrait of Madame Roulin) 1889
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come by than before, there was little opportunity for portraiture. His greatest supplier of models eventually proved to be the family of the forty-seven-year-old Joseph Roulin, who looked after the mails as an entre-poseur des postes at the local railway station. As the many portraits of her testify, Vincent's favourite sitter was Roulin's wife, Augustine-Alix Pellicot (1851-1930). The couple had married on 31 August 1868; she was ten years her husband's junior.
Madame Roulin, who had given birth to a daughter in the summer of 1888, was also the sitter for the painting now known as La berceuse - ‘our lullaby, or the woman cradling,’ as Van Gogh himself put it [745/57 1a]. The artist eventually made five versions of this work; according to his biographer, Jan Hulsker, the canvas from the Stedelijk Museum is the second to last. The first version was painted in December 1888, and its four successors were probably created in January and February of the following year. Van Gogh wanted the portrait of Augustine Roulin holding the cords of the cradle to constitute a general depiction of motherhood, a desire probably influenced by the views of the French historian Jules Michelet expressed in his La femme (1858). To use Michelet's words, we see her here as the epitome of the ‘true wife and mother; she shines a radiance over everything, a harmonious force which, from the small circle of the family, may cause greater circles to spread over society! She is a religion of benevolence, of civilisation.’
Mother Roulin, ‘diese Paraphrase von Rundlichkeiten,’ as the art historian Hans Tietze once aptly put it, also assumed great personal significance for Van Gogh after his discharge from hospital in early January. When ill, he had seen the living room in the house where he was born in Zundert in his dreams; and, as he informed Theo in a letter at the end of that month, he was still being haunted by ‘the oldest memories,’ and was always recalling the time when there had been nothing more than ‘Mother and me’ [744/573]. Little knowledge of psychology is needed to link these dreams with the newest versions of La berceuse. For a sick man hankering so strongly after security, the image of a maternal figure at the cradle was comforting indeed.
This interpretation is further reinforced by Van Gogh's wish, expressed later, that La berceuse be flanked by two of his still lifes with sunflowers. He even drew a sketch of this unrealised triptych for his brother, remarking somewhat strikingly that he envisaged it for ‘the rear bulkhead of the cabin of a boat,’ where it would provide the comfort of a Stella
Maris for poor fishermen at sea. This idea was inspired by Pierre Loti's Pêcheur d'Islande, which describes statues of the Madonna on board fishing vessels. Posies of artificial flowers were laid at their feet, Loti wrote, and these bouquets gave Van Gogh the idea of positioning his sunflowers as wings to La berceuse. This explains Van Gogh's later written reference to his still lifes as symbols of ‘thanksgiving’ - a significance gained only when seen in juxtaposition with La berceuse. By presenting this work from the Stedelijk Museum next to Sunflowers in the Van Gogh Museum, another of Van Gogh's original intentions can now be realised.
Provenance Johanna van Gogh-Bonger; Ir. V.W. van Gogh; on loan to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (1927-30); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, gift of Ir. V.W. van Gogh (1945); on loan to the Van Gogh Museum (1997).
Literature W. Scherjion and J. de Gruyter, Vincent van Gogh's great period: Arles, St.-Rémy and Auvers-sur-Oise, Amsterdam 1937, pp. 169-72; Jan Hulsker, ‘Van Gogh, Roulin and the two Arlésiennes. Part I,’ Burlington Magazine 134 (September 1992), pp. 570-77; idem, ‘Van Gogh, Roulin and the two Arlésiennes: a re-examination. Part II,’ Burlington Magazine 134 (November 1992), pp. 707-15; Jan Hulsker, Van Gogh in close-up, Amsterdam 1993, pp. 211-38; Kermit S. Champa, ‘Masterpiece’ studies: Manet, Zola, Van Gogh, Monet, University Park 1994, pp. 91-118; Judy Sund, ‘Van Gogh's Berceuse and the sanctity of the secular,’ in Joseph D. Masheck (ed.), Van Gogh 100, Westport, Ct. & London 1996, pp. 205-26; Louis van Tilborgh, ‘La berceuse,’ Van Gogh Museum Bulletin (1997), no. 2, pp. 10-11.
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Mancini, Antonio
Italian, 1852-1930
Woman with a green vase c. 1895
Oil on canvas, 88 ×63 cm
Signed in black at top left: A Mancini
s 488 S/1998
After nearly a century, this painting by Antonio Mancini has now returned to the collection of Hendrik Willem Mesdag. The Museum Mesdag in
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The Hague already contained twelve paintings and three pastels by Mancini. In total, however, Mesdag must have owned about a hundred and fifty works by this artist; from 1885 he had acted as the latter's patron, and continued to do so until the early years of the following century.
While a number of these works eventually came into the possession of the heirs of Mesdag and his wife, the painter also sold Mancini's work - as this painting of a Woman with a green vase clearly testifies. In 1899 it was exhibited at a relatively minor showing of seventeen works by Mancini in Dordrecht; its stated owner was ‘de heer H.W. Mesdag.’ But by the time of the later and far larger Mancini exhibition - which was held in The Hague at Pulchri Studio in 1902, and where 47 of the artist's works were shown - the owner had become the gallery Maison Artz. After this, the painting passed into private hands once again.
Woman with a green vase was probably painted in the 1890s, when Mancini had gained a certain reputation and painted portraits on commission. In periods when no work was at hand, he worked from female models, whom he usually set in compositions that included flowers and other objects. Here, however, we see only a large vase with a few flowers. The green of the vase predominates, and complements the red of the shawl the Italian woman wears round her shoulders. The background is plain, and only partly finished; the painter may have intended to add other objects to the figure's left.
In his earliest works, Mancini's painting technique was sparing and smooth; later, as we see here, the paint was applied more thickly and the brushwork became sketchier. It was precisely this sketchiness and the glimpse it afforded of the artist's hand that appealed to Mesdag, himself a painter. The strong chiaroscuro effects, particularly in the woman's face, betray the influence of Caravaggio and Rembrandt, painters Mancini studied and whose work he much admired.
The surface of the canvas displays traces of a grid, a method Mancini himself reported he had used since 1883, and which involved placing two identical frames in front of his model and against his canvas, each strung with horizontal, vertical and diagonal cords. With this aid he was able to reproduce il vero: reality. That the device left marks in the paint plainly did not trouble him.
Provenance H.W. Mesdag, The Hague; Maison Artz, The Hague; Mrs Bussemaker-Schreuder, The Hague; Prof A. Kleijn, Oosterbeek; donated anonymously to the Museum Mesdag (1998).
Literature Exhib. cat. Tentoonstelling van schilderijen door Antonio Mancini, Dordrecht (Teekengenootschap Pictura) n.d. [1899], no. 13; Anon., ‘Tentoonstelling-Antonio Mancini,’ Dordrechtsche Courant (13 January 1899); exhib. cat. Tentoonstelling van schilderijen en pastels door Antonio Mancini, The Hague (Pulchri Studio) 1902, no. 35; exhib. cat. In het licht van Mancini, Dordrecht (Dordrechts Museum) 1987, no. 45; H. Pennock, Antonio Mancini en Nederland, Haarlem 1987, pp. 54 and 85.
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Rappard, Anthon van
Dutch, 1858-1892
Weaver 1884
Oil on canvas, 26.3 × 35.3 cm
s 487 V/1997
Anthon van Rappard visited his friend and colleague Vincent van Gogh twice during the latter's stay in Nuenen. Each short visit - the first of which took place in May 1884, and the second five months later - made a welcome change for Van Gogh, whose life in the village was isolated, both artistically and otherwise. Each time, Van Rappard stayed for over a week, and from Vincent's letters to his brother we can deduce that the two artists got out and about quite a lot, seeking motifs such as ‘weavers and all kinds of lovely things outside’ [450/369]. The precise number of paintings Van Rappard made in Nuenen is uncertain. Two, in any case, are known from his first visit: a Old woman at the spinning wheel and this Weaver.
In many respects, both the former picture - now in the Centraal Museum in Utrecht - and this painting bear a resemblance to the work of Van Gogh. The composition, colours and dramatic contrast of light and dark in Van Rappard's Weaver are strongly reminiscent of Van Gogh's own Weaver with a view of the Nuenen tower through a window (Munich, Neue Pinakothek). The only really obvious difference between the two lies in the man himself: as a rule, Vincent's weavers seem tired and sombre, while the figure in Van Rappard's painting appears peaceful and contented.
Van Gogh told Theo he thought Van Rappard's weaver ‘very good’ [450/369]. This pronouncement was probably due to the dark palette used in the painting, which was unusual in Van Rappard's oeuvre at this time. Vincent disapproved of his friend's customary use of light colours, but noted that ‘the weaver [...] was an exception’ [451/R50].
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Provenance Wilhelmina Elisabeth van Rappard, Hilversum (1931); P. Leffelaar, Laren; Kunsthandel Van Lier, Blaricum (c. 1963); P. Ter Berg, Laren, (c. 1965-97); Sotheby's (Amsterdam), 1 December 1997, lot 508; purchased by the Vincent van Gogh Foundation (1997).
Literature Exhib. cat. A.G.A. van Rappard: Tentoonstelling van zijn werken, Utrecht (Voor de Kunst) 1931, no. 40; Jaap Brouwer, et al., exhib. cat. Anthon van Rappard, companion and correspondent of Vincent van Gogh: his life and all his works, Amsterdam (Van Gogh Museum) 1974, p. 87; Richard Bionda, et al., exhib. cat. The age of Van Gogh: Dutch painting 1880-1895, Glasgow (The Burrell Collection) 1990-91, no. 69; Richard Bionda, et al., exhib. cat. De schilders van Tachtig: Nederlandse schilderkunst 1880-1895, Amsterdam (Van Gogh Museum) 1991, no. 106.
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Ribot, Théodule
French, 1823-1891
Still life with eggs
Oil on canvas, 52.8 × 92.5 cm
Signed at lower left: t. Ribot
s 463 S/1997
Ribot's career is poorly documented. He rarely dated his pictures, and since he left few papers or letters, it is difficult to reconstruct his artistic progress. His importance among realist painters in Paris is, however, suggested by his contacts with numerous artists including Fantin-Latour, Bonvin and Vollon. Nonetheless, as Gabriel Weisberg writes in his essay on Ribot in this volume of the Van Gogh Museum Journal (pp. 76-87), he was jealous of his independence and remained aloof from any particular artistic grouping.
Ribot seems to have taken up still-life painting in the 1860s. Although these works are now widely admired, they attracted little attention during the artist's lifetime and seem only to have been known to a relatively small circle of his family and friends. It is not clear how many still lifes he produced or whether any pattern of development can be traced in his paintings in this genre. As Weisberg indicates, the situation is further complicated by the fact that Ribot's son Germain (1845-1893) and daughter Louise (1857-1916) were also competent still-life painters, and some of their works may have become confused with those of their father.
Like many of Ribot's works, Still life with eggs is undated. It may have been painted during the 1860s, but a later date is also possible. The provenance is also difficult to establish as it is clouded by the existence of several, very similar versions of this subject by the same artist. The first seemingly certain reference to the present picture is in the catalogue of the sale of works belonging to Ribot's widow in 1896. Although the dimensions given for the work entitled Les oeufs sur le plat differ slightly from the Amsterdam picture, the reproduction in the catalogue confirms that this was indeed the work acquired by the Van Gogh Museum. It is not clear whether a work of the same title shown at the 1892 retrospective of Ribot's work was also the same painting or another version.
The austerity of this newly-acquired painting is typical of Ribot's work. A cabbage, some cherries, a plate of eggs, a jug and a large earthenware vessel are grouped together as if to suggest the ingredients of a simple, peasant meal. Detail is honed away by the harsh light, which instead draws our attention to the differing textures and shapes within the composition. The soft, wilting leaves of the vegetable are set against the dry, unglazed surfaces of the ceramic, which in turn contrast with the glistening, oil-covered eggs.
Working with only a narrow range of colours Ribot depicts these objects with unrelenting realism. Yet, for all its directness, the painting has a quiet monumentality which, enhanced by the stark contrasts of light and shade, lifts it above the mere recording of external appearances. The still, contemplative mood and the humble subject perhaps stem from Ribot's interest in the Spanish masters of the 17th century. His devotion to the work of artists such as Ribera and Velázquez was commented upon by contemporary critics, and he here evokes the still life in one of the latter's most famous early works, Old woman cooking eggs (Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland).
Provenance Arcade Gallery, London (1965); private collection, USA; Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London; purchased by the Van Gogh Museum (1997).
Literature Vente aux enchères de tableaux, études, aquarelles et dessins par Théodule Ribot, Paris (Hôtel Drouot), 30 May 1896, no. 23; Gabriel P. Weisberg (with William S. Talbot), exhib. cat. Chardin and the still-life tradition in France, Cleveland (Cleveland Museum of Art) 1979, no. 25, pp. 74-76; exhib. cat. The Realist tradition: French painting and drawing, 1830-1900, Cleveland (Cleveland Museum of Art), Brooklyn, NY (The Brooklyn Museum), St Louis (St Louis Art Museum) & Glasgow (Glasgow Art Gallery), 1980-82, p. 153 (for a discussion of a similar composition now in the Musée de Senlis).
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Seurat, Georges
French, 1859-1891
The Seine at Courbevoie
Oil on panel, 15.5 × 24.5 cm
s 489 S/1998
The Seine at Courbevoie probably dates from 1883 or 1884. The view seems to have been taken from the island of La Grande Jatte, looking southwest across the Seine to the suburb of Courbevoie. In the background, the gently sloping diagonal of the far river bank leads to an iron bridge, cut off at the extreme left of the composition. A block of tall villas is silhouetted against the sky, while in the foreground a few strokes of paint indicate the form of a figure in a boat. Although this study does not relate directly to a finished painting, a similar view from a slightly different angle reappears in Seurat's well-known Bridge at Courbevoie, 1886-87 (London, Courtauld Institute Galleries).
At first glance The Seine at Courbevoie seems like a spontaneous, almost casual study. However, in spite of its freedom, there is ample evidence of the artist's rigorous scrutiny of his subject as he captures the glare of the evening light, the dappled reflections on the river, and the different textures in the embankment and the foliage beyond. There are signs, too, of the systematic brushwork which, refined and developed in his larger canvases, would eventually become be known as neo-impressionism. The severe, insistent geometry of the composition is also one of the artists's trademarks, but it is the carefully studied combinations of colour which are the most striking feature of this work. Writing about this picture in the catalogue of the 1991-92 Seurat retrospective, Robert Herbert noted how the colours ‘tell a surprising amount about the site [...] If we examine just the two inches occupied by the bridge and its immediate surroundings, we will appreciate the numerous decisions that entered into such an apparently elemental study. The top edge of the huge building is made of horizontal strokes of grayish blue, but its walls are vertical streaks, mostly blended, of purplish blue and yellowish green. Crossing through the brightly colored wedge to the right, the horizontal stitching of light yellow above center and along the top of the embankment picks out walls or roadways’(Herbert, 1991-92, p. 143).
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Théodule Ribot
Still life with eggs
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Georges Seurat
The Seine at Courbevoie
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Seurat painted directly on to the panel, exploiting the grain for its textural effects and using the warm brown of the wood as an active part of the colour scheme. Throughout his career he frequently painted on such small panels. In the Seurat literature they are sometimes referred to as cigar-box lids, but in fact they were probably good quality artists' panels that were intended to fit inside the lid of an outdoor painting box. Seurat himself referred to these studies as croquetons, an invented term which perhaps derives from croquis, the academic term for a small, rapid sketch. He often used these panels for working out of doors, painting wet-into-wet to capture a motif in a single session.
With its vigorous touch and bold colour The Seine at Courbevoie suggests that Seurat was familiar with the work of Monet and the impressionists; he later said that he admired the ‘intuition’ of Monet and Renoir, and he had certainly had the opportunity to study their paintings in exhibitions in Paris. Yet although he may have borrowed elements of his style from impressionism, there is a degree of artifice in the technique and design of this and other studies which reveals his allegiance to an older, idealising tradition in French art. The careful control of the colour, the rhythmic brushwork and the taut sense of design are all signs of Seurat's determination to impose unity on the diversity of nature.
After Seurat's death The Seine at Courbevoie passed to the artist's brother and has subsequently been in several private collections in France. The picture was shown in a number of early exhibitions, including the homage to Seurat organised after his premature death by his artist friends at the Indépendents (1892), and at the Revue Blanche (1900). Seurat also painted a quick sketch on the other side of the panel; in 1932 the panel was divided into two and the study formerly on the reverse, entitled Paysage rose, is now in the Musée d'Orsay.
The acquisition of this small but intense work not only broadens the range of the Van Gogh Museum's collection but also adds an important new point of reference for the understanding of Van Gogh's art. His Paris period (1886-88) coincided with Seurat's emergence as one of the leading figures of the avant garde. Vincent recognised this role, later describing Seurat as ‘undoubtedly’ the leader of the artists of the ‘Petit Boulevard,’ his own term for the new wave of younger artists who were testing the boundaries of naturalism [623/500]. They met for the first time in November 1887, at a restaurant in the Avenue de Clichy where Van Gogh was showing some of his works. Shortly afterwards, Seurat, Van Gogh and Signac exhibited their works together in the rehearsal rooms of the Théâtre Libre d'Antoine in the rue Blanche.
According to Seurat, his acquaintance with Van Gogh did not develop into a close friendship. Yet Seurat's influence, either direct or indirect, is easily traced in Vincent's work from these years. On his painting excursions to the northwest suburbs of Paris he painted the same stretches of river that Seurat had earlier made his own in and around Asnières and the Ile de la Grande Jatte. The Seine at Courbevoie, depicts the kind of site Van Gogh painted on several occasions; a similar motif of tall villas beside a bridge appears in one of his paintings of 1887, The Seine with the Pont de Clichy f 303 jh 1323). The colour combinations of blues, yellows and greens in the Seurat study and the vigorous pointillist touch are also interesting to compare with several of Van Gogh's Paris period pictures in the Van Gogh Museum.
Van Gogh's last act before leaving Paris for Arles in February 1888 was to spend some hours with Theo in Seurat's studio, where he experienced ‘a fresh revelation of colour.’ The visit and the works he saw seem to have impressed Van Gogh deeply. He referred to Seurat on numerous occasions in his letters to Theo from Arles, and more than once he expressed his wish to acquire a work by Seurat by exchange: ‘It would be a good thing to have a painted study of his. Well, I'm working hard, hoping that we can do something with things of this kind’ [596/474]. Ultimately, the rigour of the neo-impressionist method was incompatible with Van Gogh's artistic personality. Nonetheless, he retained a particular admiration for Seurat's colour: ‘I often think of his method, though I do not follow it at all; but he is an original colorist, and Signac, too, though to a different degree; their stippling is a new discovery, and at all events I like them very much’ [687/539].
Provenance After Seurat's death in 1891 an inventory was made of the contents of his studio and the wooden panels were given a number on the reverse (no. 86); this inventory number is still visible on the study, which was originally on the reverse (see above); inherited by Seurat's brother, Emile Seurat, and in his possession until at least 1892; Alexandre Natanson, Paris (1929); Hôtel Drouot (Paris), 16 May 1929, lot 105; Georges Lévy, Paris (1932); Hôtel Drouot (Paris), 17 November 1932, lot 106; Victor Bossuat, Paris; private collection; Galerie Hopkins Thomas, Paris; purchased by the Van Gogh Musem, with the support of the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and the Vereniging Rembrandt (1998).
Literature D.C. Rich, Seurat and the evolution of ‘La Grande Jatte,’ Chicago 1935, p. 58; C.M. de Hauke, Seurat et son oeuvre, 2 vols., New York 1961, vol. 1, no. 96 (Paysage à la tourelle); H. Dorra and J. Rewald, Seurat: L'oeuvre peint, biographie et catalogue critique, Paris 1959, no. 106; exhib. cat., Robert Herbert, Neo-Impressionism, New York (Guggenheim Museum) 1968, p. 109, no. 73; exhib. cat., Robert Herbert, et al., Georges Seurat 1859-1891, Paris (Grand Palais) & New York (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) 1991-92, p. 143.
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Drawings
Dupré, Jules
French, 1811-1889
Cattle watering c. 1846
Watercolour, 25.5 × 36.5 cm
Signed at lower left: Jules Dupré
d 1086 S/1997
In 1845, after having worked in Barbizon during 1843, Jules Dupré and Théodore Rousseau established themselves in L'Isle-Adam. In 1847 the so-called Groupe de L'Isle-Adam came into being; it included Daumier, Daubigny, Corot, Lavieille and Flers. This watercolour dates from this period. Dupré produced many similar scenes of watering cows. The combination of cattle and a country pool gave him the opportunity to exhibit his various talents: his virtuosity is particularly visible in the rendering of water, the vegetation and the hides of the animals.
Also notable is the intimate character of this fine watercolour. In contrast to other, comparable works, the composition is enclosed, with trees screening the horizon from view. The dominant green tints of the landscape and pool create the impression of early-morning.
According to Pierre Miquel, this watercolour was included in the wedding album presented to Marie-Louise Fernande de Bourbon on the occasion of her marriage to the Duc de Montpensier. This album contained works by a variety of artists. Dupré is supposed to have been introduced to the Duchesse de Monpensier in Vincennes on 22 February 1847 in the company of these artists, among them his friend Théodore Rousseau.
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Jules Dupré
Cattle watering c. 1846
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Provenance Wedding album for the Duc de Montpensier and Marie-Louise Fernande de Bourbon, given by the Orléans family on 10 October 1846; Antoine, duc de Montpensier; Isabelle d'Orléans, daughter of the above; Amélie, queen of Portugal; Comte and Comtesse de Paris; private collection, Europe; Sotheby's (London), 11 June 1997, lot 39; Stoppenbach & Delestre Ltd, London; purchased by the Van Gogh Museum (1997).
Literature Croix de Berny, ‘Le Feuilleton de la Presse,’ La Presse (31 January 1847), p. 2; Pierre Miquel, Le paysage français au XIXe siècle 1824-1874. L'école de la nature, 5 vols., Maurs-La-Jolie 1975, vol. 2, pp. 374-76.
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Dupuis, Georges
French, 1875-?
At the country tavern c. 1904
Black chalk and watercolour, 31.8 × 48.0 cm
Signed at bottom right with monogram: GD (entwined)
d 1085 S/1997
Georges Dupuis was a much sought-after book illustrator at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th in France. This drawing, depicting a scene in a dance-hall, was the basis for an illustration, engraved by Lemoine, for Camille Lemonnier's Un mâle (1904). The drawing perfectly captures the atmosphere of fin-de-siècle France and is reminiscent of the work of such artists as Toulouse-Lautrec and Steinlen.
Provenance Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London; purchased by the Van Gogh Museum with the support of Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, in honour of the Museum's 25th anniversary (1997).
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Hartrick, Archibald Standish
Scottish, 1864-1950
Portrait of Vincent van Gogh 1886-87
Pen brown ink and watercolour, 22.3 × 16.7 cm
Signed at lower right: Hartrick; annotation at the bottom: in memory of Vincent van Gogh / looking over his shoulder & hissing through his teeth ‘bleu-orange’
d 1076 V/1997
Vincent van Gogh got to know Archibald Standish Hartrick during his stay in Paris in 1886-88. They met at the studio of Fernand Cormon, where both were students. Hartrick reminisced about this period in his memoirs, A painter's pilgrimage through life (Cambridge 1939), mentioning all his Paris acquaintances, and describing both Vincent's work and personality in detail. This drawing was the frontispiece for the book. Aside from the self-portraits, this sheet represents one of the few known likenesses of the artist.
Provenance Private collection; Agnew and Son, London; purchased by the Vincent van Gogh Foundation (1997).
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Ibels, Henri-Gabriel
French, 1867-1936
‘Le devoir’ 1892
Gouache on card, 24 × 32 cm; 28 × 34 cm
Signed at bottom centre: H.C. Ibels verso: Street scene
15 × 14.5 cm
d 1077 S/1997
Although Ibels was also a painter and writer, he is best known for his work as an engraver. The lithograph was a much celebrated medium at the end of the 19th century, due in part to the flourishing art of the theatre poster, which so enlivened the city streets. Ibels's caricatural style was enormously popular. He also provided illustrations for a variety of books, including Emile Zola's La terre.
This gouache, one of eight designs made by Ibels for programmes at the Théâtre Libre, was intended for Le devoir, a play in four acts by Louis Bruyerre which was performed in the 1892-93 season.
The verso shows a sketch of a street scene. A man in a top hat is seen from the rear. A female figure passes a street lamp.
Provenance Christopher Drake, London; purchased by the Van Gogh Museum (1997).
Literature Geneviève Aitken, exhib. cat. Artistes et théâtre d'avant garde. Programmes de théatre illustrés, Paris, 1890-1900, Pully (Musée de Pully), Paris (Musée Marmottan), Mannheim (Städtische Kunsthalle), Pont-Aven (Musée de Pont-Aven), Amsterdam (Van Gogh Museum) & Jerusalem (Israel Museum) 1991, p. 26, no. 17.
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Lebourg, Charles-Albert
French, 1849-1928
Woman reading by candlelight 1880
Black chalk, heightened with white, 47 × 31.2 cm
Signed and dated at lower left: A Lebourg 1880
d 1067 S/1997
Charles-Albert Lebourg usually painted appealing landscapes and river views. He exhibited his work at the fourth and fifth impressionist exhibitions, in 1879 and 1880 respectively. While he was by no means unsuccessful during his lifetime, he is no longer as celebrated as many of his colleagues who showed at the same events.
As we see in this drawing, dated 1880, Lebourg was very adept at the depiction of refined candlelight effects. The woman is rendered in an exquisitely subtle chiaroscuro, while the actual light-source - the flame of the candle standing before her - is hidden by the letter she reads. This method of modelling with light from a source that is seen only partially, if at all, goes back to the 17th century, and was much used by painters like Gerard van Honthorst.
Lebourg has executed his work in black chalk, making only sparing use of the white heightening. Although difficult, drawing almost exclusively in black media was a very popular technique in the second half of the 19th century. Millet, Seurat and Redon were consummate masters of the art, and Lebourg was himself highly proficient. His manner of capitalising on the coarse relief of the laid paper is extremely adroit.
A somewhat more elaborate sheet, depicting the artist's wife and mother reading by candlelight, is in the British Museum. The young woman in the drawing in the Van Gogh Museum has not been identified.
Provenance Monsieur Hoffmann, Paris; Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London; purchased by the Van Gogh Museum (1997).
Literature Exhib. cat. Albert Lebourg, Paris (Galerie George Petit) 1927, no. 53; exhib. cat. Nineteenth century drawings, London (Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox) 1978, no. 79.
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Lhermitte, Léon-Augustin
French, 1844-1925
The shoemakers
Black chalk on laid paper, 46.5 × 63.2 cm
signed at lower left: L Lhermitte
d 1084 S/1997
In addition to his large naturalistic paintings of the 1880-90 period, Lhermitte also made a considerable number of drawings in black chalk. These works are considerably less monumental than his paintings; in them, the artist sought primarily to capture the natural effects of light and to render authentic detail effectively. The greater number show night-time scenes and interiors.
The shoemakers is no exception: here, too, it is the details and the gradations of light that are the most striking. The light falling through the window is drawn in fine tones of grey, thus creating a rich chiaroscuro effect, which in turn evokes an intimate atmosphere. The interior with a single window as its source of light is reminiscent of those found in 17th-century Dutch painting.
From Lhermitte's own inscription on the back of a photographic reproduction of the work, we learn that this drawing was executed in Mont-Saint-Père (near Fery) in April 1880 (Exécuté à Mont-Saint-Père en avril 1880. Vendu à Manchester la même année). This is confirmed by the costume of the woman, which is characteristic of this French village. The sheet is a preliminary study for a painting of the same title, which is now in a private collection. The painting, however, is less detailed.
Provenance Sold Manchester (1880); studio of the artist; private collection, Pyla; private collection, Paris (1982); Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London; purchased by the Van Gogh Museum (1997).
Literature Exhib. cat. Third autumn exhibition, Glasgow (Institute of Fine Arts) 1882, no. 81; M. Hamel, A French artist: Léon Lhermitte (1844-1925) (diss., Washington University, St Louis, 1974), pp. 53-55; Monique Le Pelley Fonteny, Léon Augustin Lhermitte (1844-1925). Catalogue raisonné, Paris 1991, p. 369, no. 265 (for the painting see p. 94, no. 25); exhib. cat. Nineteenth-century French drawings, London (Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox) 1990, no. 37.
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Charles-Albert Lebourg
Woman reading by candlelight 1880
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Jean-François Raffaëlli
Self-portrait
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Raffaëlli, Jean-François
French, 1850-1824
Self-portrait
Pastel, crayon and chalk on board, original exhibition frame, 54 × 38 cm
Signed centre right: JF Raffaëlli 1879
d 1034 V/1992
This self-portrait of Jean-François Raffaëlli (1850-1824) was shown by the artist at the sixth group exhibition of the impressionists in 1881.
Raffaëlli demonstrated his attachment to this drawing by including it in an exhibition he mounted of his own work in 1884. It is made after a photograph that is still known today, and is executed in his own characteristic technique, which he even went to the trouble of patenting. He worked with a kind of greasy pastel that was somewhat more robust than the usual powdery types of pastel.
Van Gogh much respected Raffaëlli's work and artistic ideas, which he knew from a pamphlet the artist published for his 1884 exhibition. The collection in the Van Gogh Museum now contains one painting by Raffaëlli, as well as two pastels and a number of other works on paper. The drawing still has its original, wide grey frame, which features a gold-coloured in lay.
Provenance Family of the artist; private collection; Agnew and son, London; purchased by the Vincent van Gogh Foundation (1992).
Literature Exhib. cat. Exposition des oeuvres de Jean-François Raffaëlli, Paris 1884, no. 93; Charles S. Moffet, et al. exhib. cat. The new painting: impressionism, 1874-1886, San Francisco (The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) & Washington (National Gallery of Art) 1986, p. 355; Gabriel P. Weisberg, Beyond impressionism: the naturalist impulse, New York 1992, p. 48; R. de Leeuw, ‘Jean-François Raffaëlli,’ Van Gogh Bulletin (1994), no. 1, pp. 10-13; R. de Leeuw, The Van Gogh Museum: paintings and pastels, Zwolle 1994, p. 102.
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Renouard, Charles Paul
French, 1845-1924
Portrait of the sculptor Carriès 1892
Black chalk on paper, 32,5 × 24,2 cm
Signed at upper right: le sculpteur François Carriès PR
d 1083 S/1997
Charles Paul Renouard, a pupil of Isidore Pils (1813-1875), was a painter and draughtsman. His drawings, often sharply-observed portraits or striking representations of common folk, are characterised by the same great accuracy and clarity of line that made his images so suitable for magazine illustrations. Vincent van Gogh had a considerable admiration for his work, which he knew mainly from such periodicals.
Powerfully executed with a swift line, this portrait of the French sculptor Jean-Joseph Carriès (1855-1894) busily kneading one of his symbolist works is a good example of Renouard's talent for portraiture. A wood engraving by Florian after the drawing was published in La Revue Illustrée (1 August 1892); the drawing was thus probably also executed that same year. Three sculptures by Carriès feature in this sheet, all of which have been identified: the artist is shown modelling the ceramic Tête de faune; in front of it stands Le grenouillard (Paris, Musée d'Orsay); and the child's head in the foreground is the Bébé pensif.
Provenance Kunsthandel Van Duyvendijk & Brouwer, Amsterdam; purchased by the Van Gogh Musem (1997).
Literature Philippe Thiébaut, ‘A propos d'un groupe céramique de Jean Carriès: Le grenouillard,’ La Revue du Louvre, 31 (1982), pp. 121-28.
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Sculpture
Carriès, Jean-Joseph
French, 1855-1894
Charles I of England 1887
plaster relief, patinated beige, 33 × 61 × 56 cm signed on the front of the cushion: Carriès JH/ août 1887; at the back, on the banderole: Fondu par l'ami Bingen l'an 87; and thereunder: Je dédie cette oeuvre / au bon docteur / Duborgia / son ami Carriès / fait à la Ferme du / Camp Forest / de Louveciennes / près Paris en 87; and, on the base: Bingen fondeur
v 116 S/1997
Born in Lyon in 1885 to a poor family of shoemakers, Jean-Joseph Carriès learnt moulding and die-cutting from the sculptor Pierre Vermare. Encouraged by his master and supported by the success of a number of busts, he enrolled at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1874.
In 1881 the 26-year-old Carriès presented his sculpture of Charles I at the Paris Salon, together with L'aveugle, Le déshérité and Tête désespérée. These four works, each one an expressive character piece, were received enthusiastically in the press: the art critic Judith Gauthier, for example, wrote in Le Rappel: ‘These busts [...] are so poignant that one would think at first sight that they were made directly from life [...] One might say that this was painted art, especially with respect to the head of the deceased Charles I, which is well nigh a Van Dyck! [...].’ This exhibition at the Salon heralded the start of a multitude of sculptural activities - including not only portraiture and mask-making in widely diverging techniques, but also ceramics, a medium in which Carriès experimented with special patinas, enamels and matt glazes.
Recalling the severed head of John the Baptist, the head of the English king Charles I (1600-1649) has been laid on a cushion, making this a symbolic image of death rather than a realistic portrait. This melancholy symbolism is reinforced by the face's mysterious expression, by the closed eyes, and by the fact that the head appears to loom up out of nothingness. Carriès's approach represented a complete break with the academic tradition of modeled busts set on a pedestal. Charles I - who was beheaded on Cromwell's oders in 1649 after a turbulent civil war - is here depicted as a tragic figure, much as he is
described in the dramatic poems of Shelley (1827) and A.G. Butler (1874).
The piece in the Van Gogh Museum is a fine patinated variant of the only known bronze example, which is in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Carriès, a master of patination, imparts a painterly quality to this striking bust that is very different from the more severe contrast of light and dark seen in the bronze version. In the respect, it comes much closer to a delicate wax version now in a private collection.
Provenance Armand Gouzien, Paris (?); Hôtel Drouot (Paris), 18 May 1893, lot 208 (?); Hôtel Drouot (Paris), 4 December 1986 (?); Galerie Patrice Bellanger; purchased by the Van Gogh Museum (1997).
Literature Judith Gautier, ‘Le Salon,’ Le Rappel (30 May 1881); Buisson, ‘Le Salon,’ Gazette des Beaux-Arts 24 (September 1881), p. 227; Arsène Alexandre, Jean Carriès, imagier et potier: étude d'une oeuvre et d'une vie, Paris 1895, pp. 101 and 205; Stanislas Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'Ecole française au XIXème siècle, 2 vols, Paris 1914, vol. 1, p. 289; Anne Pingeot, Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, and Laure de Margerie, Musée d'Orsay: Catalogue sommaire illustré des sculptures, Paris 1986, p. 93.
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