Thank you for your report!
We have received your report and it is currently under investigation by a forum moderator.
Van Gogh in Arles
Welcome to the forum.
Here you can discuss all things art with like-minded artists, join regular painting challenges, ask questions, buy and sell art materials and much more.
Make sure you sign in or register to join the discussions.
Hang on Studio Wall
This is a Studio member-only feature!
Join our Studio membership and save your favourite Painters Online content, from gallery artwork to step-by-step guides, to your own online mood boards. Create your go-to place for inspiration and learning. Plus, members can also enjoy a range of exciting features including monthly art videos and a digital magazine library.
If you are already a Studio member, simply login to your account.
Not a Studio member? Why not try our free 30-day trial - no commitment, no credit card required
Showing page 1 of 2
- 1
- 2
Message
Posted
I've just been reading - for the fourth of fifth time - 'Van Gogh's ear, the true story' by Bernadette Murphy. It's a brilliant book, but never having been to Arles I was having difficulty visualising the places being described, especially the Yellow House. There are the famous paintings of it of course, inside and out, and the fact that it was not rectangular is generally accepted.
I decided to do a bit of digging to find out a bit more; as I write books on French railways the research came naturally to me and didn't take long. Here's what I've found.
Arles in 1919.
This remarkable photo must have been taken by a chap hanging out of the cockpit of a biplane! The famous amphitheatre is in the foreground and the yellow house is arrowed with the gardens of the Place Lamartine below it. Hardly anything had changed since Van Gogh lived there.
This is the famous painting, with the road being dug up for laying a gas main.
The corner of the Place Lamartine is on the left. Van Gogh lived in the part on the right, on the left was a shop.
We even have photographs:
Not far off the same angle and showing what an accurate portrayal the painting is.
This is the building around 1930:
Considerably altered and a bit run down but very much still the yellow House.
Following the USAF bombing raid of 1944 sadly it looked like this:
The building behind it survived and is still there today.
This aerial photo from 1936 shows the position of the house with the park below it surrounded by trees.
The odd shape of the building is made clear on this enlargement:
No wonder Van Gogh had trouble fitting in his furniture!
Finding these pictures has enabled me to form a much better picture of what the area looked like in the 1880's. There may be others but if so they are keeping well hidden!
This remarkable photo must have been taken by a chap hanging out of the cockpit of a biplane! The famous amphitheatre is in the foreground and the yellow house is arrowed with the gardens of the Place Lamartine below it. Hardly anything had changed since Van Gogh lived there.
This is the famous painting, with the road being dug up for laying a gas main.
The corner of the Place Lamartine is on the left. Van Gogh lived in the part on the right, on the left was a shop.
We even have photographs:
Not far off the same angle and showing what an accurate portrayal the painting is.
This is the building around 1930:
Considerably altered and a bit run down but very much still the yellow House.
Following the USAF bombing raid of 1944 sadly it looked like this:
The building behind it survived and is still there today.
This aerial photo from 1936 shows the position of the house with the park below it surrounded by trees.
The odd shape of the building is made clear on this enlargement:
No wonder Van Gogh had trouble fitting in his furniture!
Finding these pictures has enabled me to form a much better picture of what the area looked like in the 1880's. There may be others but if so they are keeping well hidden!
Edited
by Peter Smith
This map is of a similar date with the Place Lamartine clearly marked.
Posted
Interesting Peter, seeing the photographs and geography of the place, seems to give a sense of greater feeling and understanding to the painting. You know, here is Van Gogh, just painting the changes going on in his surroundings, wanting to capture the present and progress in one. I keep looking at the painting and thinking how fond he must have been, of it.
Posted
What strikes me most is how tiny the house was - just two bedrooms upstairs with access to one through the other, and two rooms downstairs with a narrow passage to the stairs. One was a kitchen and the other was where everything else had to be fitted in, the room lower right looking at the pictures. No wonder Van Gogh and Gaugin got on each other's nerves cooped up like that in the bad weather that December.
The house was converted into a Cafe at some point after 1922. Even if it had survived unaltered it would have made a very small museum!
Edited
by Peter Smith
Posted
I thought it would be fun to do my own version of the scene based on the later photo.
I was going to include Van Gogh walking across the Avenue de Montmajour but then realised that the trees alongside the buildings weren't there in 1888 - they must have been planted soon after and by the time the photo was taken in about 1910 had grown considerably. Van Gogh sat under the trees on the right to paint his picture, the gas lamp is right on the left hand edge.
Sadly the post card publishers pretty much ignored this part of Arles.
I was going to include Van Gogh walking across the Avenue de Montmajour but then realised that the trees alongside the buildings weren't there in 1888 - they must have been planted soon after and by the time the photo was taken in about 1910 had grown considerably. Van Gogh sat under the trees on the right to paint his picture, the gas lamp is right on the left hand edge.
Sadly the post card publishers pretty much ignored this part of Arles.
Posted
I've had another thought - that gas lamp was brand new in 1888 because the works on the road for laying the gas main are clearly seen in Van Gogh's painting. That paint would barely have been dry - I wonder if he was inspired to sit and paint the scene because of this intrusion of the modern age?
Posted
In passing - interesting thread by the way, Peter: thanks - my grandfather was born in a cottage in Norton Green, Freshwater, in 1895. The census records about 7 people living there at any one time, in a tiny cottage smaller than a bed-sit: how people didn't rip each others' throats out as a result of such proximity, I shall never know: it might explain quite a bit about van Gogh's mental state; but that's how the poor lived, in Arles, or on the Isle of Wight.
As for painting there - well, it does make you snigger when people complain about not being able to afford their own studio, with good North light. No wonder some of them took to plein aire like ducks to water: anything to get out of the house...
Posted
Really enjoyed reading this thread!
Peter (or anyone) - if you have not read it already there is a fantastic book called The Yellow House by Martyin Gayford, which focuses on the turbulent relationship between van Gogh and Gaughin in the 9 weeks they spent living in the same house. I read it when it first came out - 2007 which I can hardly believe, so it's a while ago but I remember lots of descriptions of the house and area. It's still available online too!
Posted
The 'relationship' between the two artists is just that, when I read the letters between Vincent and his brother, Theo, and some from the rest of his family, I too was shocked, that a so called 'friend' could be have behaved in such a parasitic manner towards another. By todays standards, Gauguin would have be a person of dubious character, especially when on his trips abroad.
Showing page 1 of 2
- 1
- 2