VAN GOGH lacquered wood box - Cafe Terrace

Main works

The Irises, The Sunflowers, The Café Terrace at Night on the Place du Forum in Arles, Self-portrait, Vincent's Bedroom in Arles, The Starry Night.

Artistic movements

Post-Impressionism tends toward Naturalism in its subjects. It foreshadows Fauvism.

Inspiration, influence

Millet and Delacroix, for composition and naturalism. Anton Mauve who was his master for technique, and Hiroshige for the painter's approach to nature...

His contemporaries

He shared the Post-Impressionism period with Cézanne or Gauguin, then the Pre-Expressionism period with Munch or Ensor. Each of these artists in their own way bridged the transition between visual impressions (Monet or Renoir) and the expressions of feelings (Schiele or Kokoschka).

To keep in mind

Van Gogh is the quintessential cursed artist... He is one of the essential links in the evolution of art, but it will take historians to establish this fact. His contemporaries almost completely missed the Van Gogh Revolution!

To go further

If the role of Theo Van Gogh, Vincent's brother, is well known, the role of his widow Johanna Bonger (Theo died one year after Vincent) is much less known. Yet, it was she who succeeded in recognizing the work of her brother-in-law, organizing the first exhibitions as early as 1898 in the Netherlands, having Vincent's correspondence published... She greatly contributed to the legend of Vincent!