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Born in the Netherlands, Vincent
van Gogh pursued a number of careers and relocated frequently
before moving to France to devote himself to painting. Struggling financially
and battling depression, van Gogh left Paris
in 1888 for the southern French town of Arles.
There, he hoped to create an artists’ colony called the "Studio
of the South" and tried repeatedly to convince fellow artists Paul
Gauguin and Emile Bernard
to join him. Although his artists’ community never developed, Gauguin
stayed in Arles for a time in 1888. In anticipation of Gauguin’s
arrival, van Gogh created paintings to decorate his home and studio,
including depictions of flowers, views of Arles, and renderings of his
bedroom. The Art Institute’s canvas is the second of three paintings
van Gogh made of this subject. The first is in Amsterdam’s Van
Gogh Museum and the third is in Paris’s Musée
d’Orsay.
In a letter to his brother, van Gogh described the
scene as a symbol of relaxation and peace. Although the room appears
to be bathed in sunshine, the very intense color palette,
receding perspective,
and inclusion of pictures tilting off the wall undermine the restful
mood. Van Gogh’s dynamic, visible, and directional brush strokes
make the objects in the room seem solid and almost sculptural.
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| Self-Portrait, 1886/87 |
| Oil on artist’s board, mounted on panel |
| 41 x 32.5 cm |
| Joseph Winterbotham Collection, 1954.326 |
View
enlargement
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In the early years of his career, van Gogh assimilated
several avant-garde
painting styles
into his artwork. In this self-portrait, he used a vibrating assembly
of dots and dashes in complementary colors to demonstrate his
awareness of Pointillism,
the painting method used by Georges
Seurat in A Sunday on La Grande
Jatte—1884.
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