The Yellow House, Vincent Van Gogh

    I have never made a list of my favorite Van Gogh paintings, but this is certainly one of them. 
  The Yellow House is an oil painting by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890).  It measures 28" x 91" and is located at Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.  It was painted in September, 1888.
  The composition is pretty straightforward.  The painting is divided almost in half, sky to land with the house sitting in the exact middle, on a corner of the street.
The colors are typical Van Gogh, yellow/orange and blue, a complementary color harmony. 
   The scene is alive with people at the outdoor cafe and walking the streets.  In 2018 I was able to be one of those people on this street in Arles, France.  Sadly, the house no longer exists as it was destroyed in a bombing raid during WWII, but a plaque is there designating the spot for history.  To the left of the image, behind the street lamp, is a small park and there is still a restaurant to the left of the house, under that canopy. 
  Van Gogh's brother, Theo, died shortly after Vincent so all of Vincent's paintings were left to Theo's wife Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger.   Happily for history, she loved his paintings and spent the next few years arranging exhibits.   It was perfect timing for new "modern" works and photography were gaining acceptance.  The Yellow House was first exhibited in Berlin in 1910, and the name, Vincent Van Gogh became famous, and the family was able to reap the rewards of Johanna's efforts. 
   Make Art a part of your day, it's a beautiful thing to do.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wayne Thiebaud, Sunset Streets

Image
   In giving title to this landscape, California artist, Wayne Thiebaud not only provides the location, but also the time of day.  Knowing that Thiebaud is a California artist provides the last clue to guessing the probably location.  Smartly, The San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art purchased this painting for its permanent collection in 1986, a year after it was completed.  Sunset Streets is an oil on canvas measuring 48" x 35".      Wayne Thiebaud was born in 1920 and resides in California. He is one of several artists creating a distinct California aesthetic using heavy pigment and exaggerated color.   He is best known for his commonplace objects, figures, and landscapes. of which this is a perfect example.    The composition of this work is amazing.  Right down the center, at a slight tilt is this blue-black stripe, K shape, beginning with a heavy base and capped with a large triangle of sorts.  The painting is a geometry lover's dream, completely dedicated to ever
Read more

Nature Abhors A Vacuum, Helen Frankenthraller

Image
  Today let us look at an acrylic painting on canvas by American artist Helen Frankenthraller (1928-2011).    Nature Abhors a Vacuum is a huge work of art measuring 103" high, 112" wide.  This is over 8 feet high and 9 feet long!  You can stand next to it at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.; and to do so would completely immerse yourself in this huge spread of color.   Nature Abhors a Vacuum was painted in 1973 and is a perfect example of a school of painting Frankenthraller helped develop called color field painting.  Here she stretched raw unprimed canvas on the floor and poured thinned acrylic paint on it.  In doing so she created floating fields of translucent color.  Being that the canvas was raw, the paint stuck to the fabric more like it was dyed, than brushed on. It was an exciting and new process!    Our title, Nature Abhors a Vacuum  immediately indicates a landscape, however I think it a disservice to confine our reaction to so simple an understan
Read more

Childe Hassam "The Avenue in Rain"

Image
    I probably should have saved this for the 4th of July, but that is a little far off and this work is among Childe Hassam's finest.      I have known of Childe Hassam (1859 - 1935) for a very long time, but only recently did Wikimedia straighten me out about the correct way to pronounce his first name.  It seems the "e" is silent; and his last name is pronounced as written, with two syllables.        From what I have read, Hassam was a pretty sharp guy, and possibly a little  arrogant.  He created 3,000 some works of art in his career and lived his entire adult life on the proceeds of their sale.  This is quite remarkable.  Most artists, (at least before 1930) had to supplement their income by teaching, commissioned portraits or careers outside the art field.  But Hassam figured out not only how to market his work, but also what subjects would be popular.  Timing is always a big issue, and he was at the forefront of marketing impressionist paintings to Americans.      
Read more