Rare early photographs reveal lost sites featured in Van Gogh’s paintings – The Art Newspaper

Two early photographic albums reveal most of the websites in France the place Van Gogh painted, capturing locations that have been destroyed throughout the Second World Conflict or by later modernisation. The pictures have been acquired by the lately established Van Gogh Academy, based mostly in Auvers-sur-Oise, the place they’ve simply gone on show.

The images have been taken by artwork critic Gustave Coquiot (1865-1926), who wrote one of many early biographies of the Dutchman, merely entitled Vincent van Gogh (1923). They’re in albums interspersed with household pictures, primarily of Gustave’s spouse Mauricia, a circus performer and feminist politician. Coquiot was famously painted by Pablo Picasso, who portrayed him with a troupe of scantily dressed dancers behind his head.

The albums have simply been acquired for the Van Gogh Academy by its founder, Wouter van der Veen. In March 2023, a Paris auctioneer offered some Coquiot materials, and Van der Veen later succeeded in contacting the seller, who finally agreed to promote additional objects, together with the albums.

It’s intriguing to match Coquiot’s 1922 pictures of Arles with Van Gogh’s work 34 years earlier. They reveal how the artist was impressed by a panorama or topic, however would interpret them in a extremely private manner.

Coquiot’s view of the Yellow Home, the place Van Gogh lived for a lot of his time in Arles in 1888-89, means that it had turn into a shabby constructing by the early Nineteen Twenties. Barely seen within the {photograph} is a discover studying “Chambres meublées à louer” (Furnished rooms to lease), simply to the proper of the entrance door.

It had been a few years earlier that Van Gogh organized for its exterior to be painted a cheery yellow. The artist then had his studio on the entrance of the bottom ground, with the kitchen behind. Van Gogh’s bed room was on the left facet of the higher ground and fellow painter Paul Gauguin’s room was on the proper. The Yellow Home was severely broken by Allied bombs in 1944 after which demolished. Coquiot’s pictures due to this fact present worthwhile proof about its unique exterior.

Just some minutes’ stroll away, throughout Place Lamartine, lies the River Rhône. It was from its financial institution that Van Gogh drew View of Arles on the River Rhône (Could 1888), dealing with south, wanting in the direction of the centre of city. The view right now stays comparatively unchanged, with primarily low-rise buildings.

Certainly one of Van Gogh’s favorite panorama motifs on the outskirts of Arles was the Langlois Bridge over the canal which runs to the Mediterranean. This drawbridge might nicely have reminded him of his native Netherlands. The Langlois Bridge was rebuilt round 1930; this alternative was blown up by retreating German forces in 1944.

The pharmacist and grocer Jules Armand, who offered artists’ provides to Van Gogh, had his store at 30 Rue du 4 Septembre, within the centre of Arles. In March 1888, per week after Vincent’s arrival in Arles, he advised his brother Theo that he had been visited by “two beginner painters, considered one of whom is a grocer — and likewise sells portray supplies”. Armand’s Seated Arlesienne (1889), which can have been painted whereas Van Gogh was nonetheless on the town, means that he was significantly extra proficient than a mere beginner. Armand typically displayed work in his store window, so one wonders whether or not he ever confirmed Van Gogh’s work.

Coquiot’s {photograph} of the store was taken nicely after Armand’s loss of life in 1909, however the window nonetheless bore the wording “peinture artistique” (artists’ supplies). Coquiot met Armand’s widow Joséphine, who advised him that Van Gogh had been “a really unique man” however suspicious, and had not needed to point out his work to her husband. The constructing which had housed the Armand store was additionally bombed in 1944.

Van Gogh had painted a stagecoach, which served the city of Tarascon, 20km to the north of Arles. Though such horse-drawn carriages have been a lot much less frequent by the Nineteen Twenties, Coquiot got here throughout one throughout his go to to Arles.

Within the first week of June 1888, Van Gogh visited the Mediterranean for the primary time, going to the fishing village of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. He made the 40km journey by stagecoach. There he painted a seascape with vibrant boats on the seaside. Coquiot photographed the same scene.

Within the night of 23 December 1888, Van Gogh suffered a psychological disaster and lower off most of his left ear. The next morning he was taken to the hospital of Arles, the place he stayed for a lot of the time till his departure for the asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in Could 1889.

On the Arles hospital he loved the courtyard backyard beneath the male ward, and as soon as painted the scene. The courtyard was a lot the identical by the point of Coquiot’s go to. In 1986, the hospital was closed and transformed right into a médiathèque. The courtyard was then replanted to make it seem as in Van Gogh’s portray.

The physician who handled Van Gogh was the younger intern Félix Rey, who could be immortalised in a portrait. When Coquiot met him over three many years later, Dr Rey had risen to run the medical providers of Arles. The physician confirmed him across the hospital and the courtyard backyard. Coquiot recalled: “Of all these I noticed in Arles who had recognized Vincent, it was Physician Rey who had essentially the most vivid recollections.”

The show of Coquiot’s pictures is introduced on the Van Gogh Academy, at 1 Rue François Mitterrand, Auvers-sur-Oise (open Fridays and Saturdays, 2pm-6pm, till 20 June).

Martin Bailey is a number one Van Gogh specialist and particular correspondent for The Artwork Newspaper. He has curated exhibitions on the Barbican Artwork Gallery, Compton Verney/Nationwide Gallery of Scotland and Tate Britain.

Martin has written a lot of bestselling books on Van Gogh’s years in France: The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh’s Masterpiece (Frances Lincoln 2013, UK and US), Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence (Frances Lincoln 2016, UK and US), Starry Evening: Van Gogh on the Asylum (White Lion Publishing 2018, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale: Auvers and the Artist’s Rise to Fame (Frances Lincoln 2021, UK and US). The Sunflowers are Mine (2024, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale (2024, UK and US) are additionally now out there in a extra compact paperback format.

His different latest books embody Dwelling with Vincent van Gogh: The Houses & Landscapes that formed the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, UK and US), which supplies an summary of the artist’s life. The Illustrated Provence Letters of Van Gogh has been reissued (Batsford 2021, UK and US). My Buddy Van Gogh/Emile Bernard supplies the primary English translation of Bernard’s writings on Van Gogh (David Zwirner Books 2023, UKand US).

To contact Martin Bailey, please e mail vangogh@theartnewspaper.com

Please word that he doesn’t undertake authentications.

Discover all of Martin’s adventures with Van Gogh right here