NARRATOR:
Vincent van Gogh based this portrait of his aging mother on a black and white photograph. In a letter from October 1888, he wrote to his brother Theo:
VAN GOGH [ACTOR]:
"I am doing a portrait of mother for myself. I cannot stand the colorless photograph, and I am trying to do one in harmony of color, as I see her in my memory. Ah, what portraits could be made from nature with photography and painting! I always hope that we are still to have a great revolution in portraiture."
NARRATOR:
Though van Gogh transcribed his mother's features faithfully, he rendered them with expressive brushwork and unsettling color. Hair and skin are full of greens and yellows, and lips are accentuated in red to echo the tones of hat and dress. The vibrant background highlights the green in her eyes and the intensity of her gaze, creating a timeless portrait. Van Gogh said:
VAN GOGH [ACTOR]:
"I want to paint men and women with that something of the eternal which the halo used to symbolize, and which we now seek to give by the actual radiance and vibrancy of our coloring."
Portrait of the Artist's Mother
October 1888
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)
On View
In September 1888, Van Gogh, living in the south of France, received from his sister Wilhelmina, still in the Netherlands, a photograph of their mother. He set out to make a painting after it, explaining, “I’m working on a portrait of Mother for myself, because the black-and-white photograph annoys me so.” Although he had hoped to enliven the sitter’s face with color, the resulting portrait is somewhat pale and sickly in tone. This has partly to do with the specific pigments Van Gogh used (his reds have faded with time), but the artist also confessed his dissatisfaction with the work, writing to his sister, “I don’t like Mother’s picture enormously.”
Details
- Artist Name: Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)
- Title: Portrait of the Artist's Mother
- Date: October 1888
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 16 x 12-3/4 in. (40.6 x 32.4 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.1968.32.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
[Ambroise Vollard, Paris].
Ann Rosenberg, Paris.
E. Druet, Paris, sold October 1904 to;
[Paul Cassirer, Berlin, sold May 1905 to];
Carl Moll (1861-1945), Vienna, until at least 1914.
[Paul Rosenberg, Paris, by 1928, still in 1937].
Reverend Theodore Pitcairn, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, by 1938 (sale, London, Christie’s, 28 June 1968, lot 112, to);
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Ann Rosenberg, Paris.
E. Druet, Paris, sold October 1904 to;
[Paul Cassirer, Berlin, sold May 1905 to];
Carl Moll (1861-1945), Vienna, until at least 1914.
[Paul Rosenberg, Paris, by 1928, still in 1937].
Reverend Theodore Pitcairn, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, by 1938 (sale, London, Christie’s, 28 June 1968, lot 112, to);
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
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