Décoration for the Yellow House

Vincent van Gogh, The Yellow House, 1888, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F464)

Décoration for the Yellow House was the main project Vincent van Gogh focused on in Arles, from August 1888 until his breakdown the day before Christmas. This Décoration had no pre-defined form or size; the central idea of the Décoration grew step by step, with the progress of his work. Starting with the Sunflowers, portraits were included in the next step. Finally, mid-September 1888, the idea took shape: from this time on he concentrated on size 30 canvases (Toiles de 30), which were all meant to form part of this Décoration.^[1]

First idea: The Sunflowers, August 1888

• 
  Vase with three sunflowers
  (Arles, August 1888)
  Private collection
• 
  Vase with five sunflowers
  (Arles, August 1888)
  Private collection, Japan, destroyed by fire in World War II on 6 August 1945
• 
  Vase with Twelve Sunflowers
  (Arles, August 1888)
  Neue Pinakothek, Munich
• 
  Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers
  (Arles, August 1888)
  National Gallery, London

Second step: The Portraits, September - October 1888

• 
  Joseph Roulin
  (The Postmaster)
  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• 
  Patience Escalier
  (The Old Peasant)
  Private collection
• 
  Eugène Boch
  (The Poet)
  Musée d'Orsay, Paris
• 
  Paul-Eugène Milliet
  (The Lover)
  Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

Third step and definite solution: The Toiles de 30-Décoration, October - December 1888

• 
  The Night Café
  (September 1888)
  Yale University Art Gallery
• 
  The Yellow House
  (September 1888)
  Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
• 
  Starry Night Over the Rhone
  (September 1888)
  Musée d'Orsay, Paris
• 
  Public Garden
  Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
• 
  Public garden
  Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.
• 
  Garden of the Poet III
  (October 1888)
  Private collection
• 
  Railway Bridge
  (October 1888)
  Private collection
• 
  Trinquetaille Bridge
  (October 1888)
  Private collection
• 
  Bedroom in Arles
  (October 1888)
  Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
• 
  Les Alyscamps
  (October 1888)
  Private collection
• 
  The Red Vineyard
  (November 1888) sold to Anna Boch ^[2]
  Moscow
• 
  Van Gogh's Chair
  (November 1888)
  National Gallery, London
• 
  Gauguin's Armchair
  (November 1888)
  Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
• 
  In the Library
  (November 1888)
  Private collection
• 
  Souvenir du jardin
  (November 1888)
  Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
• 
  Les Arènes
  (December 1888)
  Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
• 
  L'Arlésienne
  (November 1888)
  Musée d'Orsay, Paris
• 
  La Berceuse
  (December 1888)
  Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

• For a related project by Van Gogh executed at the same time, in November/December 1888, see The Roulin Family (Van Gogh series)

Epilogue: The Toiles de 30, January - April 1889

Repetitions

• 
  Vase with twelve flowers
  (Arles, January 1889)
  Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
• 
  Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers
  (Arles, January, 1889)
  Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
• 
  Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers
  (Arles, January 1889)
  Sompo Japan Museum of Art, Tokyo
• 
  La Berceuse
  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• 
  L'Arlésienne
  Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Spring Subjects

• 
  View of Arles, Flowering Orchards, spring 1889
  Neue Pinakothek, Munich

Continuation

Later, in Saint-Rémy as well as in Auvers, size 30 canvases form the body of Van Gogh's work, and he continued conceiving series and groups of work based on this size. See The Wheat Field, the Copies by Vincent van Gogh and the Display at Les XX 1890, all from Saint-Rèmy, and the Auvers size 30 canvases.

Resources

Notes

1. This fact, widely neglected for decades, recently seems to have become common knowledge; see Zemel, Schneede.
2. The Red Vineyard, the only painting van Gogh sold during his lifetime

References

• Roland Dorn (1990). Décoration: Vincent van Goghs Werkreihe für das Gelbe Haus in Arles. Georg Olms Verlag. ISBN 978-3-487-09098-6.