Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • The Collection
  • Projects & Publications
  • Past Exhibitions

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Image

Previous 1 2 3 / 3 Next

Vincent van Gogh

View of Auvers-sur-Oise, 1890

Now On View

Description

Maker

  • Vincent van Gogh, 1853-1890, Dutch

Title

View of Auvers-sur-Oise

Year

1890

Medium

Oil on canvas

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • oil paint

Supports

  • canvas

Dimensions

34 x 42.1 cm (13 3/8 x 16 9/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Rubber stamp on stretcher: Bundesdenkmalamt Wien; De Hauke and Co., Inc./8 East 51st St., NY

Place

France

Type

  • Paintings

Credit

Given in memory of Miss Dorothy Sturges by a Friend

Object Number

35.770

About

The 12th-century church of Notre Dame d’Auvers dominates this view of the village north of Paris where Vincent van Gogh settled in May of 1890. Set high above the river, the church and its bell tower were recurrent motifs in van Gogh’s late landscapes, as were clusters of rooftops and sweeping fields in a region he found “full of well-being.” In this instance he presented a close-up view of the church quarter on an unusually small canvas, emphasizing the shapes of the houses with thick outlines while flattening the foreground with irregular brushstrokes to create a sensation of movement. Dark, leafy clusters soften the hillside. A few curling clouds cast the rooftops in blue, in dramatic contrast to the brilliant expanse of yellow wheat. Bare patches of canvas, which have darkened over time, and broken peaks of pigment suggest that van Gogh was experimenting with texture as a means of representing his physical perceptions of nature.

Rubber stamp on stretcher: Bundesdenkmalamt Wien; De Hauke and Co., Inc./8 East 51st St., NY

France
[]

Projects & Publications

Publications

Manual / Issue 4

Blue
Read Online

European Paintings and Sculpture, ca. 1770 - 1937

Exchange Exhibition, Exhibition Exchange

From the Collection of Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University; From the Collection of The Museum of Art, Rhode

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Inventing Impressionism

October 21, 2016 - June 11, 2017

Like the bell tower and clustered rooftops, the sweeping grain fields around Auvers-sur-Oise were recurrent motifs in the late landscapes of Vincent van Gogh. Areas of bare, darkened canvas are visible in this small painting, which he may have executed directly on the site. He marks the wheat with irregular patterns of brushstrokes, roughly manipulating the pigment to match his perception of the dry, golden stalks. Looking up at the church quarter, he bathes the stone houses in blue light, outlining them to emphasize their solidity. Above the curved horizon, aggressive curls of dark green foliage animate the townscape, reaching up toward muscular clouds that tumble across a pale green sky.

Exchange Exhibition of Paintings from Rose Museum, Brandeis University

February 16 - April 2, 1967

European Galleries

The grain fields, bell tower, and clustered rooftops seen here were recurrent motifs in the late landscapes of Vincent van Gogh. Areas of darkened canvas were left visible in this small painting, which he may have executed directly on site near the village of Auvers-sur-Oise. He marked the wheat with irregular brushstrokes, roughly manipulating the pigment to match his perception of the dry stalks, and bathed the church and stone houses in blue light, outlining them to emphasize their solidity. Aggressive curls of dark green foliage animate the townscape, reaching toward muscular clouds that tumble across a pale green sky.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is View of Auvers-sur-Oise with the accession number of 35.770. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use