MASP

Vincent van Gogh

The Arlesienne, 1890

  • Author:
    Vincent van Gogh
  • Bio:
    Groot Zundert, 1853-Auvers-sur-Oise, França ,1890
  • Title:
    The Arlesienne
  • Date:
    1890
  • Medium:
    Óleo sobre tela
  • Dimensions:
    65 x 54 cm
  • Credit line:
    Doação Evaristo Fernandes, Alfredo Ferreira, Walther Moreira Salles, Fúlvio Morganti, Ricardo Jafet, Carlos Rocha Faria, J. Silvério de Souza Guise, Assis Chateaubriand, Angelina Boeris Audrá, Louis La Saigne, Rui de Almeida, Henryk Spitzman Jordan, Mário Audra, Centro do Comércio do Café do Rio de Janeiro, Um espanhol, Moinho Fluminense S.A., Moinho Inglês S.A., Companhia América Fabril S.A.., 1954
  • Object type:
    Pintura
  • Inventory number:
    MASP.00114
  • Photography credits:
    João Musa

TEXTS



Van Gogh acquired an interest in painting while working for the art dealer Goupi, in the Netherlands and in London. He later dedicated himself to a religious career among the poor miners of Belgium, until being sent away for supporting the struggles of the workers. There, he began to paint and produced his first notable work, The Potato Eaters (1885). The following year, in Paris, he began to study impressionist technique and Japanese prints. He then moved to Arles, in the south of France, where he began a series of works with splendid lighting and vibrant colors. In this period, he suffered psychic disturbances and compulsory internments in asylums, which culminated in his suicide in 1890. His letters are fundamental documents for the understanding of his work, especially those addressed to his brother, Theo van Gogh (1857-1891). The work The Arlesienne (1890) was mentioned by Van Gogh in two letters written in June 1890. The first reports to his friend Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) that the work was made based on one of Gauguin’s drawings, and that Van Gogh therefore considered it a joint effort. The second, written to his sister, describes the painting as the ideal image of the character of the women of Arles. The model is Marie Julien Ginoux (1848-1911), owner of the Café de la Gare, who rented a room to the artist in 1888. There are another three versions of the work, in Rome, in New York and in Otterlo, the Netherlands.

— MASP Curatorial Team, 2017




By Luciano Migliaccio
The painting The Woman of Arles was dated February 1890 by Walther and Metzger while other authors have suggested between January and February of the same year. The model for this picture was Mme. Marie Julien Ginoux (1848-1911) who owned, together with her husband Joseph-Michel, the Café de la Gare in Arles, where Van Gogh rented a room from May to September 1888, before he moved to the famous “yellow house” that the painter immortalized in October 1888 (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum). In November of that year, Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo: “At last I have an Arlesian figure which I sketched in one hour on a lemon-yellow background, with gray face and black, black, black clothes, plus the perfect Prussian blue. She is leaning on a green table, sitting on an orange wooden chair.” This letter refers either to the version of the painting featuring a pair of light green gloves and an umbrella on the table (Paris, Musée d’Orsay), or to that where books are depicted in place of the gloves. (New York, Metropolitan Museum). During Gauguin’s visit to Arles, he also painted a portrait of Mme. Ginoux, possibly while she sat for one of the above-mentioned paintings by Van Gogh. Gauguin’s portrait is in the collection of the Pushkin Museum, Moscow. In November, Mme. Ginoux sat again for the two artists. Gauguin depicted her in Woman in the Garden at Hospital de Arles, (Art Institute of Chicago) and Van Gogh adapted the composition of this canvas for a painting known as Memories of a Garden at Etten (St. Petersburg, Hermitage). Gauguin’s portrait was preceded by a pencil and charcoal drawing (San Francisco, Fine Arts Museum) that Van Gogh kept after the violent break between the two artists on December 23rd, 1888. While interned at the Saint-Rémy asylum, between January and February 1890, Van Gogh copied his friend’s drawing in three pictures. The first, with a red background, is found in Rome (Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna); the second, with purplish blue background, is in Otterlo (Kröller-Müller Museum) and the third is the Masp work. A fourth version, produced in April 1890, is presently in New York (Bakwin Collection). Van Gogh mentioned these paintings in letters he wrote to his brother Theo and in one letter he sent addressed to Gauguin that remained unfinished and unsent. In these letters the artist reveals the emotional and artistic reasons that led him to revisit the composition by his old friend. In letter 638 he asked Theo: “What did Gauguin have to say about my last portrait, Arlésienne, taken from one of his drawings? In the future you will see that the picture is far from being one of the worst things I have done.” In letter 643, to Gauguin himself, he wrote: “You cannot imagine how happy it makes me to hear that you like the Arlésienne portrait, which was strictly taken from one of your drawings. I sought to be faithful as much as possible to your drawing, while taking the liberty to give it my personal interpretation through colors, but within the drawing’s sober character and style. Therefore, my picture may be seen as a synthesis of the Arlésienne and, given that one rarely comes upon syntheses of Arlésiennes, you should regard this work as being a joint project, yours and mine: a summary of our months of joint work... after a few moments, hesitation, Dr. Gachet arrived at a conclusion and stated: ‘Oh, how hard it is to be simple’”. This will for synthesis and for the fusion of form and color that characterizes Van Gogh’s reading of Gauguin’s also brings this painting close to The Schoolboy (n. 112), while their identical measurements suggest a sort of diptych. This possibility strengthens the hypotheses that the latter was produced in early 1890, when the artist was at Saint-Rémy.

— Luciano Migliaccio, 1998

Source: Luiz Marques (org.), Catalogue of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo: MASP, 1998. (new edition, 2008).



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