For several months at the beginning of 1888, Claude Monet in Antibes and Vincent Van Gogh in Arles settled in the South of France in pursuit of the light, away from Giverny and Paris. If leaving his lover Alice Hoschedé and children to spend the winter months away is not a novelty for Monet who came to the South of France four years before, it is however the first time that Van Gogh is travelling south. At the time, Claude Monet is a 48 year old established painter on the verge of immense success with an unusual family set-up for the era, on the other hand, Vincent Van Gogh is the archetype of the struggling artist, a beautiful loner desperate for human connections and recognition. United in their quest to paint the light, the sun and the vivid colours1 of the South of France, Monet and Van Gogh are also connected through Theo Van Gogh, Vincent’s unflinching supporter and brother but also an associate of the gallery Boussod, Valadon & Cie in Paris where he will present 10 paintings of Antibes by Claude Monet in June 1888; a show that Vincent will champion tirelessely in his letters to his friends and acquaintances, without having a chance of seeing it.
It wasn’t just Van Gogh who would write letters while in Arles. Throughout their stay, both Monet and Van Gogh would produce and receive numerous letters shedding a fascinating light not only about their daily life, their practice – its difficulties and rewards but also their constant interest and involvement in the art and more broadly, the cultural world of their time.
This article is an attempt to bring together two of the most famous and influential Impressionist painters in the history of Modern art by engaging a remote conversation between them through their pictures and their letters covering a period of six months until the Monet show in Paris at the initiative of Theo Van Gogh in June 1888.
JANUARY – FEBRUARY 1888
Alone in the south of France
Monet arrives in Antibes on the 14th of January and following Maupassant’s advice he settles in a guesthouse on Cap d’Antibes “admirably located” where he enjoys “an immense bedroom with views over pretty gardens and the sea” but that does not suffice to lift his spirit up and he complains that “the place is terrible, it’s full of painters…,moreover it’s expensive” and the next day “it’s raining cats and dogs, and it’s impossible to see anything and get an idea of the landscape”.
His grumpiness doesn’t last long and with the return of the sunshine he writes a few days later : “I have five or six superb motifs to do, and very quickly, if the weather remains as resplendent as it is; it’s enchanting […] I’m painting the town of Antibes, a small fortified town all gilded by the sun, set against beautiful blue and pink mountains and the chain of the Alps mountains eternally covered in snow”.
Antibes (1888), Claude Monet. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
On February 1st, he has “fourteen canvases started. […] I’m struggling and wrestling with the sun. And what a sun it is here! You’d have to paint here with gold and jewels. It’s admirable” (letter from Monet to Rodin).
Antibes, vue de la Salis (1888), Claude Monet. Collection privée, vente Sotheby’s Londres 03/02/2015.
In the days that followed, he wrote: “I’m not dissatisfied and I have six canvases that will be good things. […] My studies are going well; I’m happy. […] As soon as I go to bed, I sleep, even though I have work fever and the longing of the next day so the struggle can resume – for it is a real struggle – with the sun and the light. What I’ll bring back from here will be softness itself, white, pink, blue, all enveloped in this fairytale air”.
The painter-wrestler or “hunter”, to use Maupassant’s description of Monet in the act of creation in the magazine Gil Blas in 18862 , seemed to be on the right track, but very quickly, as he wrestles on, doubt invades a disoriented Monet who no longer knows where he is going; one day he believes in masterpieces, “then it is nothing”, courageously, he struggles on without any success in his search of the impossible.
After doubt, discouragement ensues: “What a curse this bloody painting is, and I’m worrying myself sick, without making any progress, without being able to achieve what I’d like […].
Despite an encouraging letter from Theo van Gogh, asking him to be the first to see what he brings back from Antibes, which pleases him, he is afraid of “being finished, emptied”. The beauty of Cap d’Antibes – “It’s so beautiful here, so clear, so bright! we’re swimming in blue air, it’s frightening” – and the enthusiastic reactions of the other resident painters at La Pinède to his studies3, do nothing to change this. Monet digs deep, goes to all kinds of trouble, worries and becomes disgusted by his work. He complains that everything is against him, feels sorry for himself and finally falls into a feverish, bad-tempered state that makes him ill.
Antibes, vue du plateau Notre-Dame (1888), Claude Monet. Collection privée, vente Sotheby’s Londres, 23/06/2014.
On February 29, he stops working on the Views of Antibes, leaving them “as they are” and destroys a couple of paintings.
Van Gogh heads down to the south of France on the 19th of February and arrives in Arles on the 20th while Monet is going though his severe creative meltdown. The town is covered in snow and it still snowing but he already enthuses about the landscape and the colours of Provence evocating the Japanese prints he so much loved:
Before reaching Tarascon I noticed some magnificent scenery — huge yellow rocks, oddly jumbled together, with the most imposing shapes. In the small valleys between these rocks there were rows of little round trees with olive-green or grey-green foliage, which could well be lemon trees.
But here in Arles the land seems flat. I noticed some magnificent plots of red earth planted with vines, with mountains in the background of the most delicate lilac. And the landscape under the snow with the white peaks against a sky as bright as the snow was just like the winter landscapes the Japanese did. (letter to Theo Van Gogh 21/02/1888)4
Unlike Monet, he has a modest accommodation at the Hotel-Restaurant Carrel, where he will stay until the beginning of May. Wasting no time, Van Gogh has three studies finished by the 24th with “colour contrasts and highly intense and variegated colours in paintings rather than a subdued grey colour […] “5 : “The studies I have are an old woman of Arles, a landscape with snow, a view of a stretch of pavement with a butcher’s shop.“6“So I thought for one reason and another that I wouldn’t do anyone any harm if I just went to what attracted me.5
Snowy Landscape with Arles in the background. Vincent Van Gogh February 1888 Private collection(F 391, JH 1358)
MARCH 1888
All about work (at least for Van Gogh) and that bloody Mistral!
By the beginning of March, an uplifted Monet returns to painting with a renewed vigor, working tirelessely. He’s happy to be able to say he’s a little more content, but doesn’t dare say yet if he’s satisfied. “Because it’s so difficult, so tender and so delicate, and I’m so inclined to brutality! The truth is, I’m trying very hard,” he complains to Berthe Morisot, who, knowing him well, replies: “Your sunshine is a subject of envy, and so are many other things… even your brutality! You’re making excuses out of vanity, but I can feel that you’re full of inspiration, that you’re doing delightful things.”
But the doubt persists: “I don’t know any more if what I’m going to bring back is good or bad by dint of fighting with the admirable sun; […] it’s going to be tender; it’s only blue, pink and gold here, but what a challenge, for God’s sake!”
For much of March, weather changes and constantly shifting winds – “which have a great influence on the state of the atmosphere and especially on the sea, and I don’t have a single canvas without more or less sea” – slow down Monet’s work, as he laments : “I got off to a good start, but I couldn’t keep up; canvases overturned, palette covered with sand. […] I’ve only been able to work on four canvases today, and unfortunately never on the same ones, especially my favorites. […] Some I haven’t been able to work on for 10 days because of the wind. What a perpetual struggle! […] Alas! I’ve just gone through too many of the canvases I’ve started, and it’s heartbreaking to see these things that could have been good, but out of more than thirty canvases, it’s barely possible to exhibit six or seven. […] Alas! Here it is, the third day without being able to paint! […] So many ruined canvases!“8
La Méditerranée par vent de Mistral (1888), Claude Monet. Private collection.
La Mer et les Alpes (1888), Claude Monet. Private Collection.
In Arles, despite the snow and the frost, Van Gogh keeps himself busy indoors :“I have a study of a whitened landscape with the town in the background. And then 2 little studies of a branch of an almond tree that’s already in flower despite everything.”
Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass, Vincent Van Gogh 1888 Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Vincent van Gogh Foundation(F 392, JH 1361)
Finally on the 9th : “Now at long last, this morning the weather has changed and has turned milder — and I’ve already had an opportunity to find out what this mistral’s like too. I’ve been out on several hikes round about here, but that wind always made it impossible to do anything. The sky was a hard blue with a great bright sun that melted just about all the snow. […]Now I’ve just finished a study like the one of mine Lucien Pissaro has, but this time it’s of oranges. That makes eight studies I have up to now. But that doesn’t count, as I haven’t yet been able to work in comfort and in the warm.”
Still Life with Basket and Six Oranges, 1888. Vincent Van Gogh Private collection(F 395, JH 1363)
The following days he keeps making good progress, work is going well : “I have two more studies of landscapes, I hope the work will continue steadily and that in a month I’ll get a first consignment to you — I say in a month because I want to send you nothing but the best, and because I want it to be dry, and because I want to send at least a dozen or so all at once because of the cost of transport.”9
Avenue of Plane Trees near Arles Station, 1888, Vincent Van Gogh, Paris, Musée Rodin(F 398, JH 1366)
The Gleize Bridge over the Vigueirat Canal, 1888, Vincent Van Gogh Hakone, Pola Museum of Art(F 396, JH 1367)
Relentlessly working Van Gogh has produced study number 15 by the 16th of March :“I brought home a no.15 canvas today, it’s a drawbridge, with a little carriage going across it, outlined against a blue sky — the river blue as well, the banks orange with greenery, a group of washerwomen wearing blouses and multicoloured bonnets. And another landscape with a little rustic bridge and washerwomen as well. Lastly an avenue of plane trees near the station. 12 studies altogether since I’ve been here.”10“The weather’s changeable, often windy and cloudy skies — but the almond trees are starting to blossom everywhere. All in all I’m very pleased that the paintings are at the Indépendants.”11
The Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh, Otterlo, Kroller-Muller Museum(F 397 / JH 1368)
Willows at Sunset, 1888, Vincent Van Gogh, Otterlo, Kroller-Muller Museum(F 572, JH 1597)
Not a month has passed and Van Gogh is waxing lyrical about the place comparing it to his beloved Japan : “I want to begin by telling you that this part of the world seems to me as beautiful as Japan for the clearness of the atmosphere and the gay colour effects. The stretches of water make patches of a beautiful emerald and a rich blue in the landscapes, as we see it in the Japanese prints. Pale orange sunsets making the fields look blue — glorious yellow suns12.“ However the cost of living and his lack of money weighs on his morale.
Rain and wind keep Van Gogh at home the following days and he is in a reflective mood hinting at his loneliness and his feeling of being out of place : “Must I tell the truth and add that the Zouaves, the brothels, the adorable little Arlésiennes going off to make their first communion, the priest in his surplice who looks like a dangerous rhinoceros, the absinthe drinkers, also seem to me like creatures from another world? This doesn’t mean I’d feel at home in an artistic world, but it means I prefer to make fun of myself than to feel lonely. And I think I’d feel sad if I didn’t see the funny side of everything”13.
Near the end of the month, despite the changing weather he’s still very productive :“I’ve just done a clump of apricot trees in a little fresh green orchard. Had some trouble with the sunset with figures and a bridge that I was talking to Bernard about. As the bad weather prevented me from working on the spot, I completely worked this study to death trying to finish it at home. However, I started the same subject again immediately afterwards on another canvas, but as the weather was quite different, in a grey palette and without figures.”
Orchard in Blossom, 1888. Vincent Van Gogh Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum Vincent van Gogh Foundation(F 511, JH 1386)
The Langlois Bridge at Arles with Road Alongside the Canal, 1888. Vincent Van Gogh Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum Vincent van Gogh Foundation. (F 400, JH 1371)
With March nearing its end and as his stay dragged on, due to bad weather and the vagaries of the climate, Monet has other worries than work itself. He tries to reassure a suspicious Alice: “I have to fight here at all costs until the end, I’m giving myself until the 15th (April) as my last deadline […] you’re strangely mistaken in always believing that I’m so much looked after and chased after. […] Rest assured once and for all, and fear not that the arrival of the Mirbeau family (Octave Mirbeau and his wife) will delay my return. If I still persist in staying, it’s in the hope of good weather to save a few paintings.” But he gets carried away and he adds foolishly : “Yesterday (March 29), I went to Maupassant’s rendezvous (with whom he had already spent the day of the 25th) […] There were two other ladies, and we had an excellent and very cheerful lunch. Then we took another walk along the seafront and drove back for dinner. On the way, we stopped at the Vallauris pottery, where I bought a few things. […] Maupassant again insisted that I make the trip to Saint-Tropez with him [on his sailboat the Bel Ami], saying it was a unique opportunity and the most beautiful thing to see.” Not the best way to put at ease the worries of his live-in mistress.
Vue du cap d’Antibes (1888), Claude Monet. The Hill-Stead Museum, Farrington, Ct.
On the other hand for Van Gogh, it’s still all about work but a work that still leaves him longing for happiness. He writes to his sister Willemien on the 30th : “The work has me in its grip now, I think for all time, and although this isn’t unhappy, I nonetheless imagine happiness as something very different.[…]Now here, for instance, at this moment, I have 6 paintings of blossoming fruit trees. And the one I brought home today would possibly appeal to you — it’s a dug-over patch of ground in an orchard, a wicker fence and two peach trees in full bloom, pink against a sparkling blue sky with white clouds and in sunshine. You may well see it, since I’ve decided to send this one to Jet Mauve. I’ve written on it
Souvenir de Mauve
Now I know very well that I could also have found such a subject elsewhere, but when I think that many painters will do the same I reckon it by no means immaterial to work in nature which, although it’s the same as at home in subject and fact, is undoubtedly much richer and more colourful.[…] You understand that the countryside of the south can’t exactly be painted with the palette of Mauve14, say, who belongs in the north and is and always will be the master of grey. But today’s palette is definitely colourful — sky blue, pink, orange, vermilion, brilliant yellow, bright green, bright wine red, violet. But by intensifying all the colours one again achieves calm and harmony. And something happens like with the Wagner music which, performed by a large orchestra, is no less intimate for that. Only people prefer sunny and colourful effects, and nothing stops me from thinking sometimes that later on many painters will go and work in tropical countries. You can get an idea of the change in painting if you think, say, of the colourful Japanese pictures that one sees everywhere, landscapes and figures.”
Realising that carried away by his passion for his work, Van Gogh admits at the end of his letter: “You see I’m writing to you only about the work today,[…]”, and concludes on a more personal note: “For my part I must also wish you a happy birthday — since I’d like to give you something of my work that you’ll like I’ll set aside a little study of a book and a flower for you — in a large format with a whole mass of books with pink, yellow, green covers and fiery red — my painting Parisian novels was the same subject. Theo will bring this for you.[…]”
Pink Peach Tree in Blossom (Souvenir de Mauve), 1888 Vincent Van Gogh. Otterlo, Kröller-Müller Museum(F 394 / JH 1379)
Apricot Trees in Blossom, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh Private Collection(F 556, JH 1383)
Orchard in Blossom (Plum Trees), 1888 Vincent Van Gogh Edinburgh: National Gallery of Scotland. (F 553, JH 1387)
Almond Tree in Blossom, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum Vincent van Gogh Foundation(F 557, JH 1397)
Orchard in Blossom, Bordered by Cypresses, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh New Haven (Conn.): Yale University Art Gallery (F 554 / JH 1388)
No picture available for free upload.
Apricot Trees in Blossom, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh Private Collection on loan to the Kunsthaus Zurich.
APRIL 1888
A “Fury of work”
With the return of fine weather, Monet, wearing his emblematic straw hat, regains his confidence “[…] a splendid day: I had to wear the straw hat; I worked hard and well, I think”.
April is a productive month, and Monet prepares his return to Paris to show his work: ““I have also told the father [Durand-Ruel, one of Monet’s historic dealers] that I had promised others to see my paintings first. I will therefore inform him and van Gogh of the day of my arrival, and it will be the first to arrive who will have the choice.” Octave Mirbeau, a loyal friend, cajoled him: “It must be superb. As long as you’re not absolutely dissatisfied, I can foresee some admirable masterpieces.”
Montagnes de l’Estérel (1888), Claude Monet. Courtauld Gallery.
Pins, cap d’Antibes (1888), Claude Monet. Collection privée, vente Christie’s New-York 06/11/2007.
Monet gets up at the crack of dawn; gripped by “a fever for work and for a good one”, he works to excess and what he produces satisfies him: “Well! I’m very happy! […] I have a few canvases that are going to be very good and, I think, very much an improvement, if I’m not mistaken. […] I’m at the end of my tether, my head is bursting, and yet I’m working better and better.“
On 30 April, a few days before returning to Giverny, in his last letter from Antibes to Alice, Monet concludes hyperbolically and true to form: “I can’t leave these canvases in this state, I absolutely must add what they lack. I think they’ll be very good, or else I am completely wrong and I go mad”.15
Plage de Juan-Les-Pins (1888), Claude Monet. Collection privée, vente Christie’s Londres 22/06/2014
Sous les pins, fin du jour (1888), Claude Monet. Philadelphia Museum of Art.
While it is not surprising to reads hyperbolic comments, good or bad, by Monet about his work, it is much more uncommon to see Van Gogh apraising himself in such fashion : “I’d worked on a no. 20 canvas in the open air in an orchard — ploughed lilac field, a reed fence — two pink peach trees against a glorious blue and white sky. Probably the best landscape I’ve done.“ (Pink Peach Tree in Blossom (Souvenir de Mauve)16
Van Gogh works flat out with the blossom season in full swing: “I’m in a fury of work as the trees are in blossom and I wanted to do a Provence orchard of tremendous gaiety.”17 “The season of orchards in blossom is so short, and you know these subjects are among the ones that cheer everyone up.” 18Despite his weak health and an stomach ailment he keeps crackin on, worried that he’s spending too much of Theo’s money : “Am hard at work again, still orchards in blossom.[…]I’ve got a new orchard that’s as good as the pink peach trees -– some very pale pink apricot trees. At present I’m working on some yellow-white plum trees with thousands of black branches.I’m using vast quantities of canvases and colours but all the same I hope not to waste money.[…]Anyway, I’m working hard,[…]The month will be hard for you and me, but nevertheless, if you can manage it, it’s to our advantage to do as many orchards in blossom as we can. I’m now well under way and I need 10 more, I think, same subject. You know I’m changeable in my work, and this rage to paint orchards won’t last for ever. After that it may be bullrings. And I have an ENORMOUS amount of drawing to do, because I’d like to do drawings in the style of Japanese prints. I can’t do anything but strike while the iron’s hot. Will be worn out after the orchards, because they’re no. 25 and 30 and 20 canvases.We wouldn’t have too many if I could knock off twice the number.[…] I also need a starry night with Cypresses or — perhaps above a field of ripe wheat, there are some really beautiful nights here. I have a constant fever for work.We must reach the point where my paintings are worth what I spend and even exceed that, seeing that so much has been spent already. Ah well, we’ll get there. Not everything I do is a success, of course, but the work’s getting along. Up to now you haven’t complained about what I spend here, but let me warn you that if I continue my work at the same rate I’ll find it hard to manage. But the work’s excessive. If a month or a fortnight comes when you feel hard up let me know — then I’ll turn my hand to doing drawings and that will cost us less. This is to tell you that you shouldn’t force yourself for no reason — there’s so much to do here, all sorts of studies,…”19
Orchard with Blossoming Apricot Trees, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum Vincent van Gogh Foundation (F 555, JH 1380
The White Orchard, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh. Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum Vincent van Gogh Foundation(F 403, JH 1378)
Day after day Van Gogh is working dependant of the fleetingness of blossoms and the changes of nature with little distraction apart from the visits of fellow artists Macknight and Mourier-Petersen and his “venture” to a brothel : “Today has been a good day too. This morning I worked on an orchard of plum trees in blossom — suddenly a tremendous wind began to blow, an effect I’d only ever seen here — and came back again at intervals. In the intervals, sunshine that made all the little white flowers sparkle. It was so beautiful! […], and at risk and peril every moment of seeing the whole lot of it on the ground I carried on painting — in this white effect there’s a lot of yellow with blue and lilac, the sky is white and blue. But as for the execution of what we do out of doors like this, what will they say? Well, let’s wait and see”.20
The Langlois Bridge at Arles, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh Private Collection (F 571 / JH 1392)
The Langlois Bridge with Washerwomen, Watercolour, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh, Private Collection (F 1480 / JH 1382)
The Pink Peach Tree, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh. Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum Vincent van Gogh Foundation (F 404 / JH 1391)
“At present I’m busy with the fruit trees in blossom: pink peach trees, yellow-white pear trees. I follow no system of brushwork at all; I hit the canvas with irregular strokes which I leave as they are, impastos, uncovered spots of canvas — corners here and there left inevitably unfinished — reworkings, roughnesses; well, I’m inclined to think that the result is sufficiently worrying and annoying not to please people with preconceived ideas about technique.”21
Orchard in Blossom, Bordered by Cypresses, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh, Otterlo, Kröller-Müller Museum (F 513 / JH 1389)
Orchard with Peach Trees in Blossom, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh Private Collection(F 551 / JH 1396)
Orchard in Blossom, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (F 552, JH 1381)
Blossoming Pear Tree, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum Vincent van Gogh Foundation (F 405, JH 1394)
“Now I’ll tell you that I’m working on the 2 paintings of which I wanted to make repetitions.[…] That will make 6 canvases of orchards in blossom. At the moment I’m trying to finish them a little every day, and to make them go together. I dare hope for 3 more, also going together,[…]the last 3 canvases exist only in a provisional state, and are supposed to represent a very large orchard with a border of cypresses and large pear trees and apple trees. The ‘Pont de Langlois’ for you is going well, and will be better than the study, I think. Am in a real hurry to get back to work.”22
“Here’s a new orchard, quite simple in composition; a white tree, a small green tree, a square corner of greenery — a lilac field, an orange roof, a big blue sky. Have nine orchards on the go; one white, one pink, one almost red pink, one white and blue, one pink and grey, one green and pink. I worked one to death yesterday, of a cherry tree against blue sky, the young shoots of the leaves were orange and gold, the clusters of flowers white. That, against the blue green of the sky, was darned glorious. Unfortunately there’s rain today, which prevents me from going back on the attack.”23
Orchard in Blossom, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh, Private Collection (F 406, JH 1399)
With the end of the blossom season , Van Gogh realises that he will need a change of subjects.
By the end of the month, to save money for his brother Theo who has been financing his stay in Arles, Van Gogh decides to stop painting and to stick to drawings: “As for me, I immediately stopped doing paintings and I’ve carried on with a series of pen drawings,[…] Not being, fortunately for me, one of those people whose only love in this world is paintings. On the contrary, believing that an artistic thing can be made at less cost than a painting requires — I’ve started a series of pen drawings.”24
May – 1888
Theo van Gogh, the go-between
On his return from Antibes at the end of the first week of May, and following a disastrous meeting at Durand-Ruel’s in Paris, Monet decides not to take part in the Impressionist exhibition at Durand-Ruel’s, leaving Theo van Gogh to take the initiative by inviting him to Giverny. Theo van Gogh is not about to let this opportunity slip through his fingers. He mentions it to Vincent, who is a great admirer of Monet : “What Claude Monet represents in landscape, who will it be in figure painting?”25 […] You’ll see beautiful things at Claude Monet’s. 26
Meanwhile in Arles, after battling with the mistral and despite a splendid weather, van Gogh doesn’t spend as much time painting or drawing, busy as he is with dealing with his financial woes and disputes with his landlords, moving into his new lodgings the “Yellow House”and sending his first consignment of at least 26 paintings to Theo: “I’m sending you now in the crate all the studies I have, apart from a few I destroyed, […]There’s a small landscape with a tumbledown house in white, red, green and a cypress beside it — you have the drawing of it and I painted it entirely at home”27 […]Thanks for your letter containing 100 francs. I’m very glad to have left those people’s place, and my health is much better since.[…]I have two new studies, a bridge and the verge of a wide road.”28 “This week I’ve done two still lifes. A blue enamelled tin coffee-pot, a royal blue and gold cup (on the left), a pale blue and white chequered milk jug, a cup — on the right — white, with blue and orange designs, on a yellow grey earthenware plate, a blue barbotine or majolica jug with red, green, brown designs, and lastly 2 oranges and 3 lemons; the table is covered with a blue cloth, the background is yellow green, making 6 different blues and 4 or 5 yellows and oranges. The other still life is the majolica jug with wild flowers.”29 […]”Then I have another still life, some lemons in a basket against a yellow background. Then 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, &c.“30[31…] “I sent you some more drawings today, and I’m adding two more.“
The month is nearing to a close and van Gogh is about to leave Arles for the Saintes-Maries a nearby port. Without mentionning the upcoming show of 10 pictures of Antibes by Claude Monet that Theo is organising in June in Paris, he gives us a hint that they have been exchanging about it : “I plan to make an excursion to Saintes-Maries, to see the Mediterranean at last.[…]It’s funny that one evening recently at Montmajour I saw a red sunset that sent its rays into the trunks and foliage of pines rooted in a mass of rocks, colouring the trunks and foliage a fiery orange while other pines in the further distance stood out in Prussian blue against a soft blue-green sky — cerulean. So it’s the effect of that Claude Monet.[…]”32
Landscape with Snow, 1888 Vincent van Gogh New York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Justin K. Thannhauser Collection (F 290, JH 1360)
Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass with a Book, 1888 Vincent van Gogh. Private Collection(F 393, JH 1362)
Path Through a Field with Willows, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh. Private Collection (F 407 / JH 1402)
Landscape with a path and pollard willows, 1888 Vincent van Gogh – Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum Vincent van Gogh Foundation (F 1499 / JH 1372)
A Lane near Arles,1888 Vincent van Gogh – Greifswald: Pommersches Landesmuseum (F 567, JH 1419)
The Langlois Bridge at Arles, 1888 Vincent van Gogh – Cologne: Wallraf-Richartz-Museum (F 570, JH 1421)
Still Life: Blue Enamel Coffeepot, Earthenware and Fruit, 1888 Vincent van Gogh – Athens: Basil and Elise Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art F 410, JH 1426
Still Life: Majolica Jug with Wildflowers, 1888 Vincent van Gogh – Philadelphia, The Barnes Foundation (F 600, JH 1424)
Under the Pine Trees, Evening, 1888 Claude Monet – Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Otto F. Haas
JUNE 1888
10 paintings of Antibes by Claude Monet at the gallery Boussod – Valadon et Cie, the show organised by his brother Theo that Van Gogh so wished he could see
In June 1888, following his visit to Claude Monet’s studio in Giverny, Theo van Gogh presents at the Boussod, Valadon et cie the 10 paintings, out of the 38 that were produced in Antibes, that he bought for this show. They are as per their order of entry in the gallery’s books:
Vue du cap d’Antibes
Antibes
Antibes vue du plateau Notre-Dame
Antibes vue de la Salis
La mer et les Alpes
La Méditerranée par vent de mistral
Montagne de l’Estrel (sic)
Plage de Juan-les-Pins
Pins, cap d’Antibes
Sous les pins, fin du jour
Digital facsimile of the entries for the ten paintings of Antibes bought by Theo van Gogh in the Boussod, Valadon et cie (ex Goupil) sale-purchase book, in which, in addition to the titles of the paintings, their dimensions and the conditions of purchase and sale are included : “Boulevard à artiste avec partage des bénéfices” Source getty.edu
Digital facsimile of Letter of invitation to the Claude Monet exhibition, (Boussod, Valadon & Cie Paris)courtesy of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
East to West Panorama of the exhibition of “10 pictures of Antibes” by Claude Monet at Boussod, Valadon et cie, June 1888.
“The exhibition organised by Mr Van Gogh, in the mezzanine of the boulevard Montmartre […] is entirely private. […]The two rooms in which the ten paintings were shown are small, lit with no artificial lighting, the walls are not draped in plush and the cornices are not gleaming with gold. […]” informs us the critic Gustave Geffroy who continues “So those who want to give a few minutes of their time to works that have a chance of lasting will find satisfaction for their eyes and rest for their minds in front of the ten canvases that the great landscape painter Claude Monet has just brought back from Antibes, and which will be exhibited for a few days to console us from amateur exhibitions and the tedious Salon.[…] It was in and around Antibes that Claude Monet carried out his last campaign, from February to May, when the light was beautiful and clear. […]” He goes on with the description of a painting which we believe to be in all likelihood Sous les pins, fin du jour 33:“A group of black-green pines, on the edge of a swollen, misty sea, sprawl their tall trunks in the blood-red earth. The underside of the foliage is also glowing, streaked with reverberations from the ground and projections (sic) from the setting sun. In the sky, the green and pink swirls of pre-dusk mingle and separate.”34
Vincent wastes no time in supporting his brother “Congratulations on having the Monet exhibition and I’m very sorry not to be able to see it.” and promoting the show to his friends, first to John Peter Russell on the 17th: “My brother has an exhibition of 10 new pictures by Claude Monet, his latest works. for instance a landscape with red sun set and a group of dark firtrees by the seaside. The red sun casts an orange or blood red reflection on the blue green trees and the ground. I wished I could see them.”[…]It seems that Claude Monet has painted some beautiful things, my brother writes to tell me that he currently has an exhibition of 10 new paintings. One of them is of pine trees by the sea, where the trunks, branches and foliage of the trees, as well as the ground, are bathed in the glow of the setting sun – a marvel, I hear.”35
Then on the the 19th, it is the turn of Émile Bernard: “My brother currently has an exhibition of Claude Monet, and I would like to see them. Among others, Guy de Maupassant had been there and said that from now on he would often return to Boulevard Montmartre”.36
Two days later in reply to his brother, Vincent aware of the critic of the show by Geffroy in La Justice reiterates his sadness at the idea of missing the Monet exhibition and reassures brother of his support: “My dear Theo, I’ve just read Geffroy’s article on Claude Monet. What he says is really very good. How I would like to see this exhibition. If I console myself with not seeing it, it’s because when I look around me there are many things in nature that hardly leave me time to think about anything else. […] I wish you every success with your exhibition.”37
On the 23rd, in a letter to Theo, he marvels: “It’s pretty beautiful what Claude Monet has managed to do from February to May these ten paintings.”38 and three days later, he reminds Émile Bernard, just in case : “My brother currently has an exhibition of Claude Monet – 10 paintings done from February to May in Antibes. They say it’s very beautiful.“39
A few days before the end of the exhibition, the report Van Gogh receives from John Peter Russell: “Saw ten of M. Monets pictures done at Antibes. Very fine in color & light & a certain richness of envelop. But like nearly all the so called impressionist work the form is not enough studied. The big mass of form I mean. The trees too much wood in Branches for the size of Trunk & so against fundamental law of nature. A lack of construction everywhere.– He is undoubtedly a remarkable colorist. & full of courage in attacking difficult problems. We should all do the same.– ’Tis the only way to get strong.“40 is immediately relayed to Theo : “I have a letter from Russell. […] He says that he has received from Rodin a beautiful bust of his wife and that he had lunch on this occasion with Claude Monet and that he then saw the 10 paintings of Antibes. I send him Geffroy’s article. He criticises the Monets very well, first of all liking them a lot, the difficulty attacked, the envelope of coloured air, the colour. Now afterwards, he says, the problem is that there is a lack of construction everywhere, for example, a tree in his work will have far too much foliage for the size of the trunk, and so always and everywhere, from the point of view of the reality of things, from the point of view of a lot of the laws of nature, he is quite hopeless. He ends up saying that this quality of attacking difficulty is what everyone should have.”41
EPILOGUE
By 1888, the admiration for Monet by van Gogh is clear and well documented, the reciprocal less so, even though Monet saw the van Gogh’s submissions for the salon des Indépendants in 1889 and 1890.
In 1889, Léon “Daudet records the story of when Monet saw Van Gogh’s Allée d’Iris, presumably in 1889 at the Independants Exhibition, Monet asked Mirbeau ‘ how could a man who has so loved flowers and light and has rendered them so well, how could he have managed to be so unhappy?’“42
Irises, 1889 Vincent van Gogh – Los Angeles: Getty Center (F 608, JH 1691)43
A year later, after the visit of Monet at the 1890’s edition of the salon des Indépendants where Van Gogh was exhibiting 10 pictures44, Theo writes to Vincent on the 23rd of April: ” Your paintings at the exhibition are very successful. […]Monet said that your paintings were the best in the exhibition.”45 and the rest is history.
Extract from the catalogue Salon des Indépendants 1890 source gallica.bnf.fr/Bibliotheque nationale de France.
10 pictures exhibited by Vincent van Gogh at the salon des Indépendants in 1890 as per their listing order in the catalogue.46 (for illustration and not historic veracity)
832 Cypresses, 1889 Vincent van Gogh – New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (F 613, JH 1746)
833 Mountainous Landscape Behind Saint-Paul Hospital, 1889 Vincent van Gogh – Copenhagen: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (F 611, JH 1723)
834 The Road Menders, 1889 Vincent van Gogh – Washington: The Phillips Collection (F 658, JH 1861)there is another version of the Boulevard Mirabeau (F657, JH 1860). We made an arbitrary choice in the absence of relevant source material.
835 “Les Alpilles”, mountain-landscape at Saint-Rémy, 1889 Vincent van Gogh – Kröller-Müller Museum (F724, JH 1745)
836 Memory of the Garden at Etten, 1888 Vincent van Gogh – St. Petersburg: Hermitage (F 496, JH 1630)
837 The Mulberry Tree, 1889 Vincent van Gogh – Pasadena, California: The Norton Simon Museum of Art (F 637, JH 1796)
838 Undergrowth with Ivy, 1889 Vincent van Gogh – Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Vincent van Gogh Foundation(F 745, JH 1764)
839 Field of Spring Wheat at Sunrise, 1889 Vincent van Gogh – Kröller-Müller Museum (F720, JH 1728)
840 Three Sunflowers in a Vase, 1888 Vincent van Gogh – Private Collection (F 453, JH 1559) There are 6 Sunflowers pictures by Van Gogh if we do not include a disputed attribution. We made an arbitrary choice again without any relevant source material.
841 Olive Grove, 1889 Vincent van Gogh – Kansas City, Mo.: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Fine Art(F 715, JH 1759). Another version exists (F 585, JH 1758)(Kröller-Müller Museum). We made an arbitrary choice again in the absence of relevant source material.
- Monet, who said that the light and vivid colours of North Africa where he did his military duties between 1861-1862 “contained the gem of my future researches” (Jeffrey Meyers, “Monet in Algeria”, pp 19–24 “History Today” April 2015) was perhaps after the same light and vivid colours when he was heading south. For Van Gogh we have the letter Theo wrote to their sister Willemien dated 24th and 26th of February: “Vincent left for the south last Sunday, first to Arles to get his bearings and then probably on to Marseille.
The new school of painters tries above all to get light and sun into paintings, and you can well understand that the grey days lately have supplied little material for subjects“ ↩︎ - “Last year, […] I often followed Claude Monet in pursuit of impressions. He was no longer a painter, in truth, but a hunter. […] He took them (his canvases) and left them in turn, following all the changes in the sky. And the painter, in front of the subject, would wait, watching for the sun and the shadows, picking out in a few brushstrokes the falling ray or the passing cloud, and, disdainful of the false and the conventional, would place them on his canvas with speed. I’ve seen him seize a sparkling fall of light on a white cliff and fix it in a stream of yellow tones that strangely rendered the surprising, fleeting effect of this elusive, blinding dazzle. On another occasion, he took a downpour of rain from the sea and threw it onto his canvas.” Gil Blas, September 28, 1886, La Vie d’un paysagiste by Guy de Maupassant ↩︎
- “I had to resign myself to showing my studies, which I had always refused to do; and, although these people don’t understand much about it, they were blown away by the light and the feeling of the landscape […]” Letter from Monet to Alice, February 12 1888. ↩︎
- letter 577 To Theo van Gogh. Arles, Tuesday, 21 February 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let577/letter.html ↩︎
- letter to his sister Willemien https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let579/letter.html ↩︎
- letter to Theo https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let578/letter.html ↩︎
- letter to his sister Willemien https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let579/letter.html ↩︎
- We have reproduced at the end of this articles another picture painted “with Mistral” by Monet during the month of March 1988> The painting was acquired privately at a Sotheby’s auction in 2018. ↩︎
- Letter to Theo Van Gogh 10/03/1888 https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let584/letter.html ↩︎
- Among these twelve studies, aside from the three works just mentioned, were the eight studies referred to in letter 583: An old woman of Arles (F 390 / JH 1357 ), Landscape with snow (F 290 / JH 1360 ), View of a butcher’s shop (F 389 / JH 1359 ), Landscape with snow (F 391 / JH 1358 ), Sprig of almond blossom in a glass (F 392 / JH 1361 ), Sprig of almond blossom in a glass with a book (F 393 / JH 1362 ), Basket of oranges (F 395 / JH 1363 ) and an unidentified study (see letter 580). The twelfth work was Pollard willows with setting sun (F 572 / JH 1597 ) (see letter 584, n. 7). ↩︎
- The Salon des Indépendants is an art fair created in Paris in 1884 by painters and for painters in reaction to the art establishment of the day and its perceived academism. Theo Van Gogh selected the pictures of his brother to be exhibited in April 1888, Montmartre: behind the Moulin de la Galette, 1887; Vegetable gardens in Montmartre, 1887; Piles of French novels and roses in a glass (‘Romans parisiens’), 1887. ↩︎
- Letter to Emile Bernard. Arles, Sunday, 18 March 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let587/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Wednesday, 21 or Thursday, 22 March 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let588/letter.html ↩︎
- Anton Mauve was a Dutch realist painter and master colourist who had as a significant early influence on Van Gogh. He was married to “Jet” Carbentus, a cousin of Van Gogh. He died in February 1888 shortly before Van Gogh’s departure to Arles. ↩︎
- Source Correspondance de et à Claude Monet, catalogue raisonné Monet/Wildenstein CM/DW et catalogue vente Artcurial du 13 décembre 2006 Archives Claude Monet ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, on or about Sunday, 1 April 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let591/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 3 April 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let592/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, on or about Thursday, 5 April 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let593/letter.html ↩︎ ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Monday, 9 April 1888.https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let594/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, on or about Wednesday, 11 April 1888 https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let595/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Thursday, 12 April 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let596/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter Theo van Gogh. Arles, on or about Friday, 13 April 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let597/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, on or about Friday, 20 April 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let599/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, on or about Wednesday, 25 April 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let601/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Friday, 4 May 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let604/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Monday, 7 May 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let605/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Monday, 7 May 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let606/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, on or about Monday, 14 May 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let610/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, on or about Sunday, 20 May 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let611/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 22 May 1888. In this letter it is worth noting van Gogh’s blunt criticism of the colonialist “white man” which still sounds completely current https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let612/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Saturday, 26 May 1888. the drawings are https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let613/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Monday, 28 May 1888. Van Gogh seems to be refering to the picture Under the pine trees at the end of the day, 1888 Claude Monet (Philadelphia Museum of Art, Gift of Otto F. Haas) which has been selected along 9 others by Theo for the upcoming show in Paris https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let615/letter.html ↩︎
- The same picture that it is admitted Vincent commented upon in his letter to Theo of the 28/05/1888 (note 32) ↩︎
- Dix Tableaux de Claude Monet par Gustave Geffroy, La Justice, numéro 3077 du 17 juin 1888 Source article original digitalisé Gallica ↩︎
- Letter to John Peter Russell. Arles, on or about Sunday, 17 June 1888. Letter in which van Gogh gives twice a description of a picture, most probably, Under the pine trees at the end of the day. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let627/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Tuesday, 19 June 1888.https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let628/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Thursday, 21 June 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let629/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Saturday, 23 June 1888.https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let630/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Emile Bernard. Arles, Tuesday, 26 June 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let632/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter from John Peter Russell to Vincent van Gogh. Belle-Île-en-Mer, Sunday, 22 July 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let647/letter.html ↩︎
- Letter to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Sunday, 29 July 1888. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let650/letter.html ↩︎
- The reference is from Leon Daudet 1927 Ecrivains et Artistes Claude Monet pp 147, 151-2, in the comments of this article https://givernews.com/2023/11/29/monet-ebloui-par-van-gogh/ 154.Dugald Stark
I looked for the reference for this story and I found it!!!
It’s quoted in John House Monet Nature into Art p 225.
The reference is from Leon Daudet 1927 Ecrivains et Artistes Claude Monet pp 147, 151-2, 154.
Daudet records the story of when Monet saw Van Gogh’s Allee d’iris, presumably in 1889 at the Independants Exhibition, Monet asked Mirbeau ‘ how could a man who has so loved flowers and light and has rendered them so well, how could he have managed to be so unhappy?’
So, Monet admired this particular Irises painting…. Interestingly, Mirbeau bought the painting from Pere Tanguy in 1892 for 300 francs. It sold at auction in 1987 for a then world record price for any painting $53.9 million. Now in the Getty Museum in California. ↩︎ - Exhibited for the first time
Paris, France, Salles de la Sté d’Horticulture, Salon des artistes indépendants du 3 Septembre 1889 au 4 October 1889, ref number 273 http://www.vggallery.com/painting/p_0608.htm#exhibitions ↩︎ - 10 pictures, that is also the number of paintings by Monet that Theo showcased 2 years before ↩︎
- Letter from Theo van Gogh to Vincent van Gogh. Paris, Wednesday, 23 April 1890. https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let862/letter.html ↩︎
- For illustration and not historic exactitude. There are three picture titles that could refer to more than one painting. ↩︎
An Old Woman of Arles, 1888 – Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum, The van Gogh Foundation (F 390 / JH 1357)
A Pork-Butcher Shop seen from a Window, 1888 – Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum, The van Gogh Foundation (F 389/ JH 1359)
La Méditerranée par vent de mistral, Claude Monet 1888, – Private collection
Two Lovers (Fragment), 1888. Vincent Van Gogh – Private Collection
Orchard with Arles in the Background, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh – Glen Falls(NY) The Hyde Collection. (F 1516 / JH 1376)
The White Orchard, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh – Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum, Vincent Van Gogh Foundation (F 1414 / JH 1385)
Field with Farmhouses, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh – Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum, Vincent Van Gogh Foundation (F 1474 / JH 1407)
Farmhouse in a Wheatfield, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh – Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum, Vincent Van Gogh Foundation (F 1415 / JH 1408)
Digital facsimile of Theo van Gogh business card courtesy of the Van Gogh Museum, Vincent Van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam
culturisme 