Vincent van Gogh

Farms near Auvers

1890

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On loan

Fondation Vincent Van Gogh (Arles, France): Laura Owens

Artist: Vincent van Gogh 1853–1890
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 502 × 1003 mm
frame: 644 × 1167 × 73 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Bequeathed by C. Frank Stoop 1933
Reference: N04713

Display caption

A view at Auvers-sur-Oise, a small town just north of Paris. Van Gogh spent the last few months of his life there, from mid-May 1890, when he left an asylum, to his death on 29 July. At the beginning of June, Van Gogh wrote to his sister: 'there are some roofs of mossy thatch here which are superb and of which I shall certainly make something'. This picture, which is unfinished, was probably begun soon afterwards. Painted direct from the motif, it shows how Van Gogh transformed what he saw into something entirely personal, using a vigorous brushwork and curving outlines to express an unsettling vitality and energy.

Gallery label, March 1996

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Catalogue entry

Vincent van Gogh 1853-1890

N04713 Farms near Auvers 1890

Not inscribed
Oil on canvas, 19 3/4 x 39 1/2 (50 x 100)
Bequeathed by C. Frank Stoop 1933
Prov: Mrs J. van Gogh-Bonger, Amsterdam; with Paul Cassirer, Berlin; C. Frank Stoop, London, 1910
Exh: Vincent van Gogh, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, July-August 1905 (220) as 'Hutten'; Dutch Art, 1450-1900, RA, London, January-March 1929 (467); Vincent van Gogh en zijn Tijdgenooten, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, September-November 1930 (110, repr.); Vincent Van Gogh 1853-90, Tate Gallery, December 1947-January 1948 (97); Birmingham City Art Gallery, January-February 1948 (97); Glasgow City Art Gallery, February-March 1948 (97); Les Sources du XXe Siècle, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, November 1960-January 1961 (205)
Lit: J.-B. de la Faille, L'Oeuvre de Vincent van Gogh (Paris-Brussels 1928), No.793, Vol.1, p.225, repr. Vol.2, pl.221 as 'Vue à Auvers'; J.H. Johnstone, 'La Collection Stoop' in L'Amour de l'Art, 1932, p.201, repr. p.197; W. Scherjon and Jos. de Gruyter, Vincent van Gogh's Great Period (Amsterdam 1937), Auvers s. Oise No.223, p.376 repr.; J.-B. de la Faille, Vincent van Gogh (London and Toronto 1939), No.781, p.535 repr.; J.-B. de la Faille, The Works of Vincent van Gogh (Amsterdam 1970), No.F793, p.303 repr. as 'Farms near Auvers'; Paolo Lecaldano, L'Opera Pittorica Completa di Van Gogh e i suoi Nessi Grafici (Milan 1971), No.870, Vol.2, p.233, repr. p.232
Repr: Apollo, X, 1929, p.132

Writing to his sister W.J. van Gogh at the beginning of June 1890, soon after his arrival at Auvers (W21), van Gogh remarked: 'There are some roofs of mossy thatch here which are superb and of which I shall certainly make something'. The present work is probably one of the earliest paintings of this theme executed at Auvers and can be compared with F.750, the first picture painted after his arrival. It appears to be unfinished. Van Gogh had also made a number of paintings and drawings of thatched roofs during his Dutch period, including [N04715].

The Paul Cassirer records show that Frank Stoop bought this picture on 5 January 1910 for DM8000.

Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.294-5, reproduced p.294