Bedroom in Arles

Bedroom in Arles (French: La Chambre à Arles; Dutch: Slaapkamer te Arles) is the title given to each of three similar paintings by 19th-century Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh.

This article is about the Vincent van Gogh painting series. For the Roy Lichtenstein painting derived from this, see Bedroom at Arles.
Bedroom in Arles (first version)
ArtistVincent van Gogh
Year1888
Catalogue
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions72 cm × 90 cm (28.3 in × 35.4 in)
LocationVan Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Van Gogh's own title for this composition was simply The Bedroom (French: La Chambre à coucher). There are three authentic versions described in his letters, easily distinguishable from one another by the pictures on the wall to the right.

The painting depicts van Gogh's bedroom at 2, Place Lamartine in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, France, known as the Yellow House. The door to the right opened on to the upper floor and the staircase; the door to the left was that of the guest room he held prepared for Gauguin; the window in the front wall looked on to Place Lamartine and its public gardens. This room was not rectangular but trapezoid with an obtuse angle in the left hand corner of the front wall and an acute angle at the right.[1]

First version
Sketch from a letter to Gauguin
Sketch from a letter to Theo

Van Gogh started the first version during mid October 1888 while staying in Arles, and explained his aims and means to his brother Theo:

"This time it simply reproduces my bedroom; but colour must be abundant in this part, its simplification adding a rank of grandee to the style applied to the objects, getting to suggest a certain rest or dream. Well, I have thought that on watching the composition we stop thinking and imagining. I have painted the walls pale violet. The ground with checked material. The wooden bed and the chairs, yellow like fresh butter; the sheet and the pillows, lemon light green. The bedspread, scarlet coloured. The window, green. The washbasin, orangey; the tank, blue. The doors, lilac. And, that is all. There is not anything else in this room with closed shutters. The square pieces of furniture must express unswerving rest; also the portraits on the wall, the mirror, the bottle, and some costumes. The white colour has not been applied to the picture, so its frame will be white, aimed to get me even with the compulsory rest recommended for me. I have depicted no type of shade or shadow; I have only applied simple plain colours, like those in crêpes."[2]

Van Gogh included sketches of the composition in this letter as well as in a letter to Gauguin, written slightly later.[3] In the letter, van Gogh explained that the painting had come out of a sickness that left him bedridden for days.[4] This version has on the wall to the right miniatures of van Gogh's portraits of his friends Eugène Boch and Paul-Eugène Milliet. The portrait of Eugène Boch is called The Poet and the portrait of Paul Eugène Milliet is called The Lover.[5][6]

Second version

In April 1889, van Gogh sent the initial version to his brother regretting that it had been damaged by the flood of the Rhône while he was interned at the Old Hospital in Arles. Theo proposed to have it relined and sent back to him in order to copy it. This "repetition" in original scale (Van Gogh's term was "répetition") was executed in September 1889. Both paintings were then sent back to Theo.[7][8][9]

Second version, September 1889. Oil on canvas, 72 x 90 cm, Art Institute of Chicago

Third version

In summer, 1889, Van Gogh finally decided to redo some of his "best" compositions in a smaller size (the term he used was réductions) for his mother and his sister Wil, The Bedroom was among the subjects he chose.[10] These réductions, finished late in September 1889, are not exact copies.

In The Bedroom, the miniature portrait to the left recalls van Gogh's Peasant of Zundert self-portrait. The one to the right cannot be linked convincingly to any existing painting by van Gogh.

Third version, end September 1889. Oil on canvas, 57.5 x 74 cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Provenance
  • The first version never left the artist's estate. Since 1962, it has been 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, Amsterdam.
  • The second version has, since 1926, been the possession of the Art Institute of Chicago as part of the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection.
  • The third version, formerly in the possession of Van Gogh's sister Wil and later acquired by Prince Matsukata, entered the French national collections in 1959, following the French-Japanese peace settlement, and is on permanent display in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
  • All three versions of the Bedroom were brought together for an exhibition entitled Van Gogh's Bedrooms at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016. The exhibition featured related works as well as a digital reconstruction of his bedroom.[11][12]

References
  1. Though the building was damaged in an air-raid, June 25, 1944, and laid down afterwards, floor plans by Lèon Ramser, an Arlesian architect, dating from the 1920s have survived and supply most of the essential information, see: Roland Dorn, "Décoration": Vincent van Goghs Werkreihe für das Gelbe Haus in Arles, Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, Zürich & New York, 1990, plate XIX/XX
  2. "Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh : 16 October 1888". webexhibits.org.
  3. "Vincent van Gogh to Paul Gauguin : 17 October 1888". webexhibits.org.
  4. "706". vangoghletters.org. Archived from the original on 2016-09-29. Retrieved 2014-04-16.
  5. "De minnaar (portret van luitenant Milliet) - Kröller-Müller Museum". kmm.nl. Archived from the original on 2012-04-18.
  6. "Eugene Boch.com - Impressionist and friend of Vincent van Gogh". eugeneboch.com.
  7. "Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh : 22 May 1889". webexhibits.org.
  8. "Theo van Gogh to Vincent van Gogh : 16 June 1889". webexhibits.org.
  9. "Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh : 5 or 6 September 1889". webexhibits.org.
  10. "Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh : 28 September 1889". webexhibits.org.
  11. "Van Gogh's Bedrooms". The Art Institute of Chicago.
  12. "The Bedroom". The Art Institute of Chicago.
External video
van Gogh's The Bedroom (4:44), Smarthistory
Discoloration of Van Gogh's Bedroom (10:20), Van Gogh Museum
Petites phrases, grandes histoires: Van Gogh (5:28), in French, Musée d'Orsay
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