Lena Rivera
Vincent van Gogh's painting 'The Bedroom' was executed in October 1888, with two further versions following in September 1889. The painting depicts van Gogh's bedroom in the Yellow House in Arles, France. The room is not rectangular but trapezoid, with an obtuse angle in the left-hand corner of the front wall and an acute angle on the right. Van Gogh's use of contrasting colours was intended to evoke the rest or sleep that he experienced in his bedroom. The painting remained in the artist's family until his death in 1890 and is now a highlight of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Date of painting | October 1888 |
| Location | Arles, France |
| Address | 2, Place Lamartine |
| Building | The Yellow House |
| Room | Trapezoid-shaped bedroom |
| Wall colour | Pale violet |
| Floor | Checked material |
| Furniture | Wooden bed, two chairs, small table, and a washbowl |
| Bedding | Yellow bedspread, lemon light green sheets and pillows |
| Window | Green |
| Doors | Lilac |
| Wall art | Portraits, mirror, and costumes |
| Owner | Vincent van Gogh Foundation |
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What You'll Learn
- Van Gogh painted the first version of 'The Bedroom' in October 1888
- He made two copies in September 1889
- The paintings depict his bedroom in the Yellow House, Arles
- Van Gogh was inspired by Japanese aesthetics and Neo-Impressionist painter Georges Seurat
- The paintings are now exhibited in Amsterdam, Chicago and Paris
Van Gogh painted the first version of 'The Bedroom' in October 1888
Vincent van Gogh's painting "The Bedroom" is among his most famous works. Van Gogh painted the first version of "The Bedroom" in October 1888, just after moving into his beloved "Yellow House" in Arles, France. This was the first place that truly felt like home to him. He was very pleased with the painting, and delighted that artist Paul Gauguin, who moved in a week later, admired it as well.
The painting is a calm but highly stylized study of his empty bedroom, with its single bed, two chairs, small table, and washing bowl. Van Gogh was inspired to create this painting after spending two and a half days in bed, exhausted from the effort of decorating his new home and painting a suite of canvases to fill the walls. He wrote to his brother Theo, "It amused me enormously doing this bare interior".
In the painting, Van Gogh used strongly contrasting colours to express a sense of "repose" or "sleep". The walls and doors, for example, were originally painted in shades of purple rather than blue, and the furniture and bedding were bright yellow and green. The artist explained his aims and means to Theo in a letter, stating that he wanted to suggest a certain rest or dream through the use of abundant colour.
The first version of "The Bedroom" remained in Van Gogh's estate after his death and was damaged by flooding in the Yellow House later in 1888. It was inherited by his widow and son, and in 1962 it was transferred to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation in Amsterdam, where it is now on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum.
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He made two copies in September 1889
Vincent van Gogh created three versions of his painting 'The Bedroom'. The first was executed in October 1888, and the artist was very pleased with it. However, it was damaged in a flood while van Gogh was in hospital in Arles.
In April 1889, van Gogh sent the initial version to his brother, Theo, who proposed relining the painting to repair the flood damage and sending it back to van Gogh to copy. In September 1889, van Gogh made two copies of the original. The first copy was identical in scale to the original, but distinct in its details. This second version is now one of the icons of the Art Institute's permanent collection in Chicago.
The third version, created three weeks after the second, was made on a slightly reduced scale as a gift for his mother and sister, Willemien. This smaller canvas is now in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Van Gogh had decided to make small copies of some of his best works for his family to decorate their homes. These were intended as gifts, but also as visual testaments to his progress as an artist.
The three paintings appear almost identical at first glance, but upon closer inspection, each reveals distinct and unique details.
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The paintings depict his bedroom in the Yellow House, Arles
Vincent van Gogh's "The Bedroom" depicts his bedroom in the Yellow House in Arles, France. The painting is a faithful representation of his bedroom at the time, including the portraits on the wall. Van Gogh created three distinct versions of this painting, all produced between October 1888 and September 1889. The first version was painted in mid-October 1888, a month after he moved into the Yellow House, which was the first place that truly felt like home to him.
The Yellow House was located at 2, Place Lamartine in Arles, and it was here that Van Gogh painted an interior that he had decorated and furnished himself. The bedroom was simple, with wooden furniture and Van Gogh's artwork adorning the walls. The colours were intended to evoke a sense of repose or sleep, with the walls painted pale violet and the furniture a bright yellow. The strongly contrasting colours were also meant to symbolise the tranquillity and simplicity of the space. The odd angle of the rear wall was not a mistake but an accurate depiction of the trapezoid-shaped room. Van Gogh deliberately 'flattened' the interior and left out shadows to make the composition resemble a Japanese print.
The first version of "The Bedroom" was damaged by flooding in the Yellow House later in 1889. While in an asylum in Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh asked his brother Theo to have the painting reinforced with a lining. Theo suggested that Van Gogh paint a copy first, and so in September 1889, Van Gogh produced a second version, identical in scale but distinct in its details. Three weeks later, he created a third version on a slightly reduced scale as a gift for his mother and sister.
All three versions of "The Bedroom" were brought together for an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016. The first version is now in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the second version is owned by the Art Institute of Chicago, and the third version is on permanent display at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
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Van Gogh was inspired by Japanese aesthetics and Neo-Impressionist painter Georges Seurat
Vincent van Gogh started the first version of his painting "The Bedroom" in mid-October 1888 while staying in Arles, France. He had just moved into his "Yellow House", marking the first time the artist had a home of his own. Van Gogh was inspired by Japanese aesthetics and the Neo-Impressionist painter Georges Seurat.
Seurat was a French Post-Impressionist artist known for devising the painting techniques of chromoluminarism and pointillism. He created huge compositions with tiny, detached strokes of pure colour, too small to be distinguished when viewing the entire work, but creating a brilliant, shimmering effect. This technique, known as Pointillism, was a way of portraying the play of light using contrasting colours. Seurat's passion for logical abstraction and almost mathematical precision of mind set him apart from his contemporaries. He was inspired by the writings of Humbert de Superville, a Genevan painter-engraver, and David Sutter, a Genevan musicologist. Seurat's interest in the interplay of colours led him to make extensive use of complementary colours in his paintings. He was influenced by Eugène Delacroix, Ogden Rood's book "Modern Chromatics", and Charles Blanc's "Grammaire des arts du dessin", which cites Chevreul's work on colour contrast.
Van Gogh, inspired by Japanese prints, deliberately flattened the interior of "The Bedroom" and left out the shadows to make the painting resemble a Japanese print. He was also influenced by Neo-Impressionist painter Georges Seurat, who was a master of pointillism and logical science and optical manipulation in his work. Van Gogh's use of colour in "The Bedroom" was intended to express 'repose' or 'sleep'. He wrote to his brother Theo about his aims for the painting:
> 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.
Van Gogh was very pleased with "The Bedroom", writing to his brother that it was "the best" of his canvases. He created three distinct versions of the painting, with the first now in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the second belonging to the Art Institute of Chicago, and the third, a smaller canvas, in the collection of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
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The paintings are now exhibited in Amsterdam, Chicago and Paris
Vincent van Gogh's "The Bedroom" is one of his most famous paintings, with three similar versions existing. The first version was painted in October 1888 in Arles, France, in what was the artist's first home—a Yellow House. This version is now exhibited in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The painting was damaged in a flood in 1889 and was reinforced with a lining at Van Gogh's request.
The second version, painted in September 1889, is identical in scale to the first but features distinct details. This version is exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago and has been in their possession since 1926. The third version, also painted in September 1889, is smaller in scale and was a gift for his mother and sister. This version is exhibited at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and entered the French national collection in 1959 following the French-Japanese peace settlement.
All three versions were brought together for an exhibition entitled "Van Gogh's Bedrooms" at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2016. The paintings depict Van Gogh's bedroom in the Yellow House in Arles, with its simple wooden furniture and the artist's own work on the walls. Van Gogh deliberately 'flattened' the interior and left out the shadows to make the picture resemble a Japanese print.
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Frequently asked questions
Vincent van Gogh painted the first version of 'The Bedroom' in October 1888.
Vincent van Gogh painted three versions of 'The Bedroom'.
Van Gogh painted the first version of 'The Bedroom' in Arles, France.
The first version of 'The Bedroom' is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The second is in the Art Institute of Chicago, and the third is in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
