09/03/2022
https://www.facebook.com/MiaFeigelson Mia Feigelson Gallery
"Field with Irises near Arles" (Arles, May 1888) [F409]
See the preparatory study for the present canvas [F1416r] http://bit.ly/2sAf7mQ
Arles, 22 May 1888
"My dear Bernard,.. new studies on the go (...) a view of Arles — of the town you see only a few red roofs and a tower, the rest’s hidden by the foliage of fig-trees, etc
All that far off in the background and a narrow strip of blue sky above. The town is surrounded by vast meadows decked with innumerable buttercups — a yellow sea. These meadows are intersected in the foreground by a ditch full of purple irises.
They cut the grass while I was painting, so it’s only a study and not a finished painting, which I intended to make of it. But what a subject — eh — that sea of yellow flowers with a line of purple irises, and in the background the neat little town of pretty women.
I’ve just read a book — not beautiful and not well written, by the way — on the Marquesas Islands, but very heart-rending in its description of the extermination of an entire tribe of natives — cannibals in the sense that let’s say an individual was eaten once a month, and what of that?
The whites, very Christian, etc., to put an end to this barbarity? really not very savage...., could think of nothing better than to exterminate both the tribe of cannibal natives and the tribe with which the former was at war (in order to obtain the requisite edible prisoners of war on both sides).
Then the two islands were annexed, and did they become dismal!!! Those tattooed races, those negroes, those Indians, everything, everything, everything disappears or is corrupted.
And the frightful white man, with his bottle of alcohol, his wallet and his pox, when will we have seen enough of him! The frightful white man, with his hypocrisy, his greed and his sterility! And those savages were so gentle and so loving." - http://bit.ly/26whhDl
Arles, 12 May 1888
"Dear Theo, .. Now I have two new studies like this: you already have a drawing of it, a farmhouse beside the wide road in the wheatfields. A meadow full of very yellow buttercups, a ditch with iris plants with green leaves, with purple flowers, the town in the background, some grey willow trees — a strip of blue sky.
If they don’t mow the meadow I’d like to do this study again, because the subject matter was really beautiful and I had trouble finding the composition. A little town surrounded by countryside entirely covered in yellow and purple flowers. That would really be a Japanese dream, you know." - http://bit.ly/2kIuSEc
"In February 1888 Van Gogh left Paris for the town of Arles in Provence. The French capital had exhausted him, both mentally and physically, and he yearned for the quiet life of the countryside. In Provence he hoped to find something of the light and atmosphere that so fascinated him in Japanese prints. Moreover, he thought of establishing an artists’ colony in the south, where he and his friends could live and work.
Dreams of Japan
Van Gogh found the 'Japanese atmosphere' he had been seeking in the blooming orchards and sun-drenched landscapes of Arles, and captured it in works like the Field with Flowers near Arles. On May 12th, he sent his brother Theo a colorful description of this new painting: “[…] a vast field of bright yellow buttercups, a ditch full of irises with green leaves and purple flowers, in the background a town, a few greyish willows, a strip of blue sky. […]
A little town surrounded by a field of yellow and purple flowers – you know, it’s just like a Japanese dream. The irises of his dream were to become the subject of two paintings executed in Saint-Rémy." - See more at http://bit.ly/2aBKa8W
"Field with Irises near Arles" (Arles, May 1888) [F409] - See the preparatory study for the present canvas [F1416r] http://bit.ly/2sAf7mQ
By Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)
oil on canvas; 54 x 65 cm
© Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation) http://bit.ly/2aBKa8W
https://www.facebook.com/VanGoghMuseum
