Van Gogh and the avant-garde: the modern landscape (May 14-September 4) opens at Chicago Art Institute. Then it goes to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (October 13-January 14, 2024), where it will be presented under another title, Van Gogh along the Seine.
by Van Gogh At the edge of the Seine (May–July 1887)
Credit: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Van Gogh is the star of the show, but he will be exhibited alongside four of his avant-garde colleagues: Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Emile Bernard and Charles Angrand. Although they essentially worked individually, and not as a cohesive group, the five artists chose to paint in the same area of the northwestern suburbs of Paris, around the suburb of Asnières (and near Courbevoie and Clichy) on the Seine.
What unifies them is their pursuit of new, modern painting styles. While working differently, all were determined to break with tradition.
The exhibition, curated by Bregje Gerritse (Van Gogh Museum) and Jacquelyn Coutré (Art Institute of Chicago), includes 24 paintings and five drawings by Van Gogh, as well as more than 50 works by other artists.
Research for the exhibition reveals that Van Gogh began painting around Asnières in early May (or possibly late April) 1887, a few weeks earlier than expected. By the end of July, when he ended his campaign, he had completed about 40 paintings, or nearly one every two days.
by Van Gogh The Courbevoie bridge (May-July 1887) / Courbevoie – the Bineau bridge (postcard) (circa 1910)
Painting: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
In traveling to this suburban area on the Seine, Van Gogh was consciously following in the footsteps of his colleagues, Seurat, Signac, Bernard and Angrand, who had worked there previously. Vincent was then living with his brother Théo in Montmartre, and Asnières was about five kilometers away. A fast walker, he would get there in an hour, loaded with his equipment.
Signac would later remember: “We painted on the banks of the river, had lunch at the guinguette [an outdoor café], and return to Paris on foot, by the avenues of Saint-Ouen and Clichy. Van Gogh wore a blue zinc worker’s coat and painted colored dots on the sleeves.
Around Asnières, Van Gogh focused on its shores: bridges, factories with smoking chimneys, sailboats, reflections in the water, islands, wide open spaces where Parisians flocked to stroll, and popular restaurants. On weekends, the area would become crowded with Parisians looking for a relaxing day out of town.
Photograph of Emile Bernard and Van Gogh (from the back) in front of the wine merchant Huybert Tericeux at 6 quai de Seine, Courbevoie (1886-87)
Credit: private collection
The only surviving photograph of Van Gogh, other than one taken when he was 19, shows him from behind, chatting with his artist friend Emile Bernard in a cafe by the river. Its location has just been identified: it was in front of the premises of wine merchant Huybert Tericeux, at 6 quai de Seine, in Courbevoie, slightly upstream of Asnières.
Bernard, who was Van Gogh’s closest friend, lived with his parents in Asnières. However, during Van Gogh’s painting campaign in May–July 1887, Bernard was absent in Brittany. So although Van Gogh would later sometimes work in his friend’s Asnières studio, surprisingly they do not seem to have actually painted together by the river.
The pinnacle of Van Gogh’s success with his Seine motifs were three triptychs, sets of landscape paintings that were designed to hang together. These can be identified by red painted borders that the artist has included. The latest research suggests that the three separate triptychs depict scenes on the island of La Grand Jatte and around Asnières and Clichy.
From top to bottom: Fishing in Spring, the Pont de Clichy (Asnières), A woman walking in a garden And River Bank in Spring (all of May–July 1887)
Credits: Art Institute of Chicago (gift of Charles Deering McCormick, Brooks McCormick and Estate of Roger McCormick), Private Collection and Dallas Museum of Art (gift of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene McDermott in memory of Arthur Berger)
The nine individual paintings in the triptychs are now scattered in different collections around the world. Seven are borrowed for Chicago and eight for Amsterdam, a terrific move. Frustrating, View of the Seine with rowboats (May-July 1887), now in a private collection, was not available for loan.
The exhibition emphasizes that it was around Asnières that Van Gogh took decisive steps towards the exuberant style with powerful colors that he would develop the following year in Provence. As Bernard later commented on his friend’s Seine paintings: “It was Van Gogh’s prelude to the symphonies of his future palette, he was trying out his instruments.”
Other Van Gogh short stories:
by Van Gogh Red cabbage and garlic (October-November 1887)
Credit: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
The Van Gogh Museum renamed one of his still lifes (October-November 1887), henceforth calling it Red cabbage and garlic (previously the second vegetable was described as onions). As Sarah Cascone recorded for Artnet Newsthe change came after a Dutch chef (and artist), Ernst de Witte, contacted the museum to explain that Van Gogh had depicted cloves of garlic.
