Boats du Rhône

Series of artworks by Vincent van Gogh

Quay with Sand Barges

Artist| Vincent van Gogh
Year| 1888
Catalogue| F449 JH1558
Medium| Oil on canvas
Dimensions| 55.0 cm × 66.0 cm (21.7 in × 26.0 in)
Location| Museum Folkwang, Essen
Quay with Sand Barges, Sketch

Artist| Vincent van Gogh
Year| 1888
Catalogue| F1462 JH1559
Type| Pen with reed pen
Dimensions| 48.0 cm × 62.5 cm (18.9 in × 24.6 in)
Location| The Smithsonian, New York City
Coal Barges

Artist| Vincent van Gogh
Year| 1888
Catalogue| F437 JH1570
Medium| Oil on canvas
Dimensions| 71.0 cm × 95.0 cm (28.0 in × 37.4 in)
Location| Private Collection, Maryland
Men Unloading Coal Barges

Artist| Vincent van Gogh
Year| 1888
Catalogue| F438 JH1571
Medium| Oil on canvas
Dimensions| 54.0 cm × 64.0 cm (21.3 in × 25.2 in)
Location| Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

Boats du Rhône is a series of two sketches (a small one in a letter,[1] the other very large and detailed with a reed pen) and three oil paintings, listed below, created by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh while living in Arles, France, during August, 1888.

## Genesis

[edit]

Van Gogh described his intention in a letter written August 13, 1888:

> At the moment I’m working on a study [...] boats seen from a quay, from above; the two boats are a purplish pink, the water is very green, no sky, a tricolor flag on the mast. A workman with a wheelbarrow is unloading sand. I have a drawing of it too.[1]

Painted a few hundred metres behind his Yellow House, where the railway yard abuts the Rhône river, he had written his brother Theo two weeks earlier:

> I saw a magnificent and very strange effect this evening. A very large boat laden with coal on the Rhône, moored at the quay. Seen from above it was all glistening and wet from a shower; the water was a white yellow and clouded pearl-grey, the sky lilac and an orange strip in the west, the town violet. On the boat, small workmen, blue and dirty white, were coming and going, carrying the cargo ashore. It was pure Hokusai. It was too late to do it, but one day, when this coal-boat comes back, it’ll have to be tackled.[2]

A series was created, as argued by the Van Gogh Museum's curators Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten and Nienke Bakker, because van Gogh "split the subject he describes here into two, perhaps because he realised that a high vantage point and a sunset are very hard to reconcile in a single composition." They conclude, "We do not know exactly when the latter two studies were made; there may be a connection with a letter 697, in which Van Gogh says he has painted a sunset."[3]

A leading 20th century van Gogh scholar, Jan Hulsker explained:

> The very detailed large drawing,[4] referred to here must have been made first. In fact, Vincent had already sent off the drawing even while he was still working on the study and it is interesting to note how far he went in trying to simplify it in comparison with the drawing. He left out the small sailing boats in the background and the Rhône bridge [...] In the painting he was particularly concerned with the forceful contrasts of the colours.[5]

This argument has been expanded to:

> Since the vantage point in Quay with Sand Barges is completely different from those with a sunset, it should be considered on its own, in particular as a Symbolist or sacred realism[6] homage to Eugène Delacroix's Christ asleep during the tempest. When we consider van Gogh has replicated not only the colour of the sea and the likeness of the boat (with a tricolor flag), but also, as evidenced in his earlier sketch, he has transformed Arles’ cityscape into a mountain, there is little doubt the Delacroix heavily inspired this composition, especially when we read this admonition to his artist friend Émile Bernard, whom he dedicated the painting to, “If the study I’m sending you in exchange doesn’t suit you, just look at it a little longer”[7] repeating this sentiment again in the next paragraph.[8]

## See also

[edit]

* List of works by Vincent van Gogh

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "660 (665, 524): To Theo van Gogh. Arles, on or about Monday, 13 August 1888. - Vincent van Gogh Letters". Vangoghletters.org. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
2. ^ "Letter 652". Vangoghletters.org.
3. ^ "Letter 652, n. 13". Vangoghletters.org.
4. ^ "1556". Vangoghgallery.com.
5. ^ Hulsker, Jan, The Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Sketches, Harry N. Abrams, 1996
6. ^ See Silverman, Debora, Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Search for Sacred Art, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000
7. ^ "698 (702, B19): To Emile Bernard. Arles, on or about Friday, 5 October 1888. - Vincent van Gogh Letters". Vangoghletters.org. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
8. ^ "See Art History Supplement, Vol. 4, Issue 1, January, 2014". Archived from the original on 2014-01-06. Retrieved 2014-01-09.

## Bibliography

[edit]

* de la Faille, Jacob-Baart. The Works of Vincent van Gogh: His Paintings and Drawings. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1970. ISBN 978-1556608117
* Hulsker, Jan. The Complete Van Gogh. Oxford: Phaidon, 1980. ISBN 0-7148-2028-8
* Jansen, Leo, Luijten, Hans, and Bakker, Nienke Vincent van Gogh – The Letters: The Complete Illustrated and Annotated Edition, (Vol. 1-6), Thames & Hudson, 2009, ISBN 0821226304
* Naifeh, Steven; Smith, Gregory White. Van Gogh: The Life. Profile Books, 2011. ISBN 978-1846680106
* Tralbaut, Marc Edo. Vincent van Gogh, Macmillan, London 1969, ISBN 0-333-10910-4

* v
* t
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Vincent van Gogh

General|

* Biography
* List of works
* List of drawings
* Chronology
* The Letters of Vincent van Gogh
* Health
* Auberge Ravoux
* Death
* Nazi looting of artworks by Vincent van Gogh
* Posthumous fame
* Cultural depictions
* Lost Arles sketchbook

Groups of
works|

* Early works (1881–82)
* Portraits (1881–1890)
* Peasant Character Studies (1881–1885)
* Van Gogh's family in his art (1881–1888)
* Sien (1882–83)
* Cottages (1883–1885)
* Water Mill at Gennep (1884)
* Still life paintings, Netherlands (1884–85)
* Old Church Tower at Nuenen (1884–85)
* Amsterdam (1885)
* Wheat Fields (1885–1890)
* Le Moulin de la Galette (1886)
* Still life paintings, Paris (1886–87)
* Montmartre (1886–87)
* Self portraits (1886–1889)
* Outskirts of Paris (1887)
* Asnières (1887)
* Seine (1887)
* Japonaiserie (1887)
* Sunflowers (1887–1889)
* Trees and Undergrowth (1887–1890)
* Copies by Vincent van Gogh (1887–1890)
* Langlois Bridge at Arles (1888)
* Saintes-Maries (1888)
* Boats du Rhône (1888)
* Décoration for the Yellow House (1888)
* The Roulin Family (1888–89)
* Hospital in Arles (1888–89)
* Flowering Orchards (1888–89)
* Almond Blossoms (1888–1890)
* Paintings of Children (1888–1890)
* The Wheat Field (1889)
* Reaper (1889)
* Olive Trees (1889)
* Wheat Fields (1889)
* Butterflies (1889–90)
* Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy (1889–90)
* Auvers Double-squares and Squares (1890)
* Lost works by Vincent van Gogh
* Display at Les XX, 1890

Oil paintings|

| 1882|

* Beach at Scheveningen in Stormy Weather
* Girl in White in the Woods
* Lying Cow
* A Girl in the Street, Two Coaches in the Background

|

1883|

* Cows in the Meadow
* Farmhouses Among Trees
* Bulb Fields
* Landscape with a Church at Twilight
* Landscape with Dunes
* Footbridge across a Ditch
* Marshy Landscape
* A Wind-Beaten Tree
* Farm with Stacks of Peat
* Farmhouses in Loosduinen near The Hague at Twilight
* Three Figures near a Canal with Windmill

1884|

* Two Rats
* Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen
* The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen
* Landscape with Pollard Willows
* Cart with Black Ox
* Cart with Red and White Ox
* Lane in Autumn
* Water Mill at Opwetten
* Water Mill at Kollen
* Village at Sunset
* Avenue of Poplars in Autumn
* Avenue of Poplars at Sunset
* Head of an Old Farmer's Wife in a White Hat

1885|

* Still Life with Straw Hat
* The Potato Eaters
* Peasant Woman Digging
* Peasant Woman Digging Up Potatoes
* Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette

1886|

* Vase with Red Poppies
* Vase with White and Red Carnations
* The Kingfisher

1887|

* Poppy Flowers
* Wheat Field with a Lark
* View of Paris from Vincent's Room in the Rue Lepic
* Portrait of Père Tanguy
* A Woman Walking in a Garden
* Imperial Fritillaries in a Copper Vase
* Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin
* Red Cabbages and Garlic

1888|

* Madame Roulin and Her Baby
* Landscape with Snow
* La Mousmé
* The Zouave
* Still Life: Vase with Oleanders
* The Night Café
* The Yellow House
* Van Gogh's Chair
* Café Terrace at Night
* Starry Night Over the Rhône
* Portrait of the Artist's Mother
* Bedroom in Arles
* The Painter on the Road to Tarascon
* Les Alyscamps
* A Lane in the Public Garden at Arles
* Falling Autumn Leaves
* L'Arlésienne
* The Red Vineyard
* Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles)
* Les Arènes
* Interior of a Restaurant in Arles
* A Lane near Arles
* Arles: View from the Wheat Fields
* Sunset at Montmajour
* Farmhouse in Provence
* Orchard with Cypresses

1889|

* Valley with Ploughman Seen from Above
* View of Arles, Flowering Orchards
* Portrait of Doctor Rey
* Crab on its Back
* Two Crabs
* Irises
* Lilac Bush
* The Starry Night
* The Gardener
* Self-portrait (1889)
* Self-portrait without beard
* Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear
* A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul
* A Road at Saint-Remy with Female Figure
* Enclosed Field with Peasant
* Rain
* Cypresses
* Wheat Field with Cypresses
* Green Wheat Field with Cypress
* The Diggers
* The Ravine of the Peyroulets
* Ivy
* View of the Asylum and Chapel of Saint-Rémy
* The Large Plane Trees
* The Mulberry Tree

1890|

* The Siesta
* Road with Cypress and Star
* At Eternity's Gate
* Thatched Cottages and Houses
* Portrait of Dr. Gachet
* Doctor Gachet's Garden in Auvers
* Houses at Auvers
* White House at Night
* Landscape with a Carriage and a Train
* Girl in White
* The Church at Auvers
* Daubigny's Garden
* Farms near Auvers
* The Cows
* The Town Hall at Auvers
* Blossoming Chestnut Branches
* Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat
* Still Life: Vase with Pink Roses
* Portrait of Adeline Ravoux
* Plain near Auvers
* Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds
* Wheatfield with Crows
* Prisoners' Round (after Gustave Doré)
* Tree Roots
* Landscape at Auvers in the Rain
* Poppy Field

Watercolours|

* Boy Cutting Grass with a Sickle (1881)
* Meadows near Rijswijk and the Schenkweg (1882)
* The 'Laakmolen' near The Hague (1882)
* Church Pew with Worshippers (1882)
* Woman on Her Deathbed (1883)
* Landscape with Trees (1883)
* Peatery in Drenthe (1883)
* Landscape with Wheelbarrow (1883)
* Drawbridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam (1883)
* Breton Women (1888)
* Old Vineyard with Peasant Woman (1890)

Drawings|

* 87 Hackford Road (1873 or 1874)
* Marsh with Water Lilies (1881)
* Sorrow (1882)
* Portrait of a Man in a Top Hat (1882)
* Torso of Venus and a Landscape (1887)
* Head of a Girl (1888)

Museums|

* Van Gogh Museum
* Van Gogh House (Drenthe)
* Maison Van Gogh
* Kröller-Müller Museum
* Monastery of Saint-Paul de Mausole
* Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles

Portrayals|

* Vincent van Gogh (1886 painting)
* Portrait of Vincent van Gogh (1887)
* The Painter of Sunflowers (1888 painting)
* Lust for Life (1934 novel)
* Van Gogh (1948 film)
* Lust for Life (1956 film)
* Van Gogh (1956 opera)
* Vincent and Theo van Gogh (1963 statue)
* "Vincent" (1971 song)
* Vincent (1987 film)
* Vincent & Theo (1990 film)
* Vincent and Me (1990 film)
* Dreams (1990 film)
* Vincent (1990 opera)
* Van Gogh (1991 film)
* Vincent in Brixton (2003 play)
* The Yellow House (2007 film)
* "Vincent and the Doctor" (2010 TV episode)
* Loving Vincent (2017 film)
* At Eternity's Gate (2018 film)

Family|

* Theo van Gogh (brother)
* Wil van Gogh (sister)
* Cor van Gogh (brother)
* Johanna van Gogh-Bonger
* Andries Bonger
* Theo van Gogh (film director)
* Anton Mauve
* Johannes Stricker

Cataloguers|

* Jacob Baart de la Faille (1928 and 1970; "F")
* Jan Hulsker (1978, revised 1989; "JH")

Related|

* The Vincent Award
* Van Gogh immersive experience

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