"Still Life with Oranges and Lemons, with Blue Gloves," Vincent van Gogh, 1889.

Vincent painted this not long after his release from hospital, after the incident where his ear was mutilated. In a letter to his brother, he mentions working on this and a need to make money, so this was probably a more commercial work for him, meant for quick sale.

Still, this is terribly van Gogh...the use of color, the application of paint, and the love of the ordinary.

From the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

#Art #VanGogh #StillLife #PostImpressionsim

"Arlésiennes (Mistral)," Paul Gauguin, 1888.

In 1888, Gauguin was visiting his friend Van Gogh in Arles, and painted this scene of a public park across from the house they were in. You can see a fountain and a bench, and the cones are bushes wrapped against frost.

The mistral is a cold northwesterly wind that blows through Provence in winter, and the figures here are probably huddled against it, but the lead woman's expression suggests a mistral of the soul, perhaps? This is one of Gauguin's more enigmatic pieces.

Posting this today in honor of the cold and wind that descended on Baltimore today!

From the Art Institute of Chicago.

#Art #Gauguin #Cold #Wind #Mistral #Enigma #PostImpressionsim

"Falling Leaves," Vincent van Gogh, 1888

Van Gogh takes us to Les Alyscamps, a popular "lover's lane" near Arles, where sarcophagi from a Roman cemetery sit beside a path down a tree-lined lane. The scene is saturated in autumnal color. A man and woman converse; it's suggested this was van Gogh's view of himself and a dream woman. Off to the side, a woman in red walks alone. She especially resembles something from a Japanese print. She may be a single woman, hoping to meet a lover, or perhaps even be a prostitute.

The Alyscamps still stand today, if you're ever in Arles...

From the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands.

#Art #VanGogh #Autumn #LoversLane #PostImpressionsim