"Bedroom in Arles" - a picture painted in front of an insane asylum, as a mirror of the state of mind of Van Gogh

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

"Bedroom in Arles" by Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most famous and beloved series of paintings by the artist, which are recognized as the most specific. Van Gogh wrote this episode shortly before he was admitted to a mental hospital. But the most interesting thing: how did the artist manage to convey the “great state of peace” through furniture, color and contrasts?

The first painting from this series (1888) is now in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and was the first of three oil paintings produced by Van Gogh and, according to art critics, the highest quality. Since "Vincent's Bedroom in Arles" is one of his favorite and most popular, the artist described it in detail in personal letters to his relatives (today there are more than 30 letters containing words about this painting).

Writing history

In the winter of 1888, Van Gogh traveled to a commune city in southern France called Arles. Upon arrival in the city, Van Gogh realized that local hotels are too expensive, so he decided to rent a house where he could live freely and comfortably in conditions convenient for him. In addition, he hoped to create an inspirational workshop where artists could live and work together, creating art in a region with excellent weather and scenic conditions (Arles has incredible direct sunlight). He eventually found what became known as the Yellow House. It was a modest two-story building with a front studio, a back kitchen, and several rooms upstairs. The angular position of the house gave it a curved layout. For the first time, Van Gogh had his own house, after which he immediately and with enthusiasm began to decorate and fill it with his canvases. After completing his tasks, the artist was inspired to create a painting of his bedroom.

Artist's color idea

The main meaning of the picture is the transfer of peace. For Van Gogh, this painting was an expression of "perfect rest" or "sleep". As he wrote to his brother Theo: “The walls are lavender, the floor is battered and faded red, the chairs and bed are chrome yellow, the pillows and sheet are pale lemon green, the bedspread is blood red, the dressing table is orange, the washbasin is blue, the window is green. … I wanted to express complete peace in all these very different tones. " It is believed that such contrasting colors and shades are the result of years of discoloration and wear. For example, walls and doors were originally purple, not blue. On the other hand, there is a psychological aspect: the feeling of peace in pictures full of movement is the result of a kind of cathartic process. By projecting movement onto nature, the artist himself frees himself from tension and finds peace.

In color, Van Gogh played with competing centers of sharp contrast: - mixing light yellow with bright red is the strongest color note in the painting, - a mirror in a black frame with intense light is the brightest tone in the whole work. Inside this system there are interesting alternation of tones - yellow and orange colors of furniture, green and yellow colors of windows.

Through these various colors, Van Gogh refers to his beloved country of Japan, its crepe paper and its prints. He explained: "The Japanese lived in very simple interiors, great artists lived in this country."And although, according to the Japanese, the bedroom, decorated with paintings and furniture, is actually not so simple, for Vincent it was "An empty bedroom with a wooden bed and two chairs." The composition is almost entirely composed of straight lines.

Intentional perspective and Japanese motives

The rules of perspective were not accurately applied to the entire canvas, but it was his deliberate choice. The unusual angle of the back wall is not a mistake in Van Gogh's depiction - the angle was indeed skewed. In the letter, Vincent told his brother Theo that he deliberately "flattened" the inside and left out the shadows so that his image resembled a Japanese drawing (the artist had a great love for Japanese art). The lack of shadows along with distorted perspective makes some objects fall off or unstable. There is a bed on the right when entering the room. Against the wall to the right is a chair, a table with a jug on it and a window overlooking the street. On the wall to the left there is another chair and a door to the second bedroom. The perspective view of the walls and bed is as breathtaking as one of its deep landscapes with the horizon. Oddly enough, it was in such a non-standard representation that Van Gogh found his "great peace". Van Gogh was very pleased with the picture: “When I saw my canvases again after an illness, it seemed to me that the best of them was“Sleeping in Arles”.

Picture in picture

The bedroom in Arles is the only painting in the picture-in-picture format (when the artist includes miniatures of his other works in the picture). As a result, he hung many of his recently painted works on the walls of the Yellow House on the walls of the bedroom (for example, in the next bedroom of Paul Gauguin, several famous paintings of Van Gogh with sunflowers are exhibited).

Different versions of the painting

Unfortunately, the sad circumstances associated with the artist's health led to the fact that in the process of writing "The Bedroom", Van Gogh ended up in a psychiatric hospital (on May 8, 1889, he was admitted to a hospital in Saint-Remy). Van Gogh remained there for just over a year until May 16, 1890. During this time, he was involved in the creation of numerous drawings and paintings, including two more versions of "Bedroom in Arles": the first is in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the second belongs to the Art Institute of Chicago (written a year later), and the third canvas is now owned collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris (he wrote it as a gift to his mother and sister). In all three paintings, the composition is identical with minor changes in detail and color.

Conclusion

Van Gogh's work is the absolute embodiment of his life and state of mind. Viewers can trace the mood of the artist through the color and methods of applying paints. So in "The Bedroom in Arles" it is a mirror of the author's state at the end of 1888: the main object depicted in the picture is Van Gogh's bed - solid, simple, creating a feeling of comfort and security. Paired objects - chairs, paintings, pillows - enhance the feeling of peace, silence and privacy. The crisp contours evoke a sense of stability. Although the work was not recognized during the artist's lifetime, it had a great influence on the next generation of artists.