The Back Garden of Sien’s Mother’s House, The Hague, was one of six drawings commissioned to present picturesque scenes of the city by Vincent van Gogh’s art dealer-uncle, C.M. van Gogh. Far more than just a randomly selected view, the subject held great personal meaning for the artist. Indeed, the house and garden depicted in this meticulously rendered drawing belonged to the mother of van Gogh’s mistress and frequent model, Clasina (Sien) Hoornik. The personal connection with the location, however, seems lost beneath the artist’s precisely ruled pencil and ink strokes, where the extraordinary web of planes, lines and angles are punctuated only by the curve of the foliage, the potted plants, and the dabs of white paint. The rigidity was deliberate; at the time, van Gogh was experimenting with a gridded frame to help him practice perspective.
Details
- Artist Name: Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)
- Title: Back Garden of Sien's Mother's House, the Hague
- Date: 1882
- Medium: Sepia ink, gouache, and graphite on paper, laid on Bristol board
- Dimensions: 18-1/4 x 23-7/8 in. (46.4 x 60.6 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.1980.05.D
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
C. Mouwen, Jr., Breda.
Roell, Utrecht
[W. C. A. Huinck, Utrecht]
Henricus Petrus Bremmer (1871-1956), The Hague, 1928-1950.
[Jon N. Streep, New York; sold 1955 to]
David Daniels, New York
(sale, New York, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 14 May 1980, lot 212)
[R.M. Light & Co., Inc., Santa Barbara; sold 4 February 1980 to]
Norton Simon; consigned 30 April 1982 to
[E. V. Thaw & Co., New York; returned after 29 March 1983 to]
Norton Simon
Schilderijen door Vincent van Gogh, J. B. Jongkind, Floris Vester
- Kunsthandel Huinck en Scherjon, 1932 to
Verzameling H. P. Bremmer
- The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, 1950-03-09 to 1950-04-23
Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture from Three Private Collections: A Loan Exhibition of Selected Works from the Collections of David Daniels, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel H. Maslon and Mr. and Mrs. Donald Winston
- Minneapolis, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1960-06-13 to 1960-08-14
Nineteenth Century Master Drawings
- Newark, Newark Museum, 1961-03-16 to 1961-04-30
The Nineteenth Century: 125 Master Drawings
- Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Gallery, 1962-03-26 to 1962-04-23
Loan Exhibition of Selections from the Drawing Collection of David Daniels
- Minneapolis, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1968-02-22 to 1968-04-21
[on loan]
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, to
Lecture Series: Van Gogh in L.A.
- Hammer Museum, 2019-10-20 to 2019-11-03
Vincent van Gogh: Painter, Printmaker, Collector
- Norton Simon Museum, 1990-04-19 to 1992-01-12
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, p. 163
- Faille, J. B. de la, L'Oeuvre de Vincent van Gogh, catalogue raisonné, no. 942
- The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, no. 184, 220, 202, 205, 210
- de la Faille, J. B., The Works of Vincent van Gogh: His Paintings and Drawings, no. F942 pp. 351, 647
- Hulsker, Jan, The Complete van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Sketches, no. 147 p. 41
- Letters to an Artist from Vincent van Gogh to Anton Ridder van Rappard, 1936, p. 37
- Vanbeselaere, W., De Hollandische Periode (1880-1885) in Het Werk van Vincent van Gogh, 1937, pp. 130-131
- Dye, Sean, The Mixed-Media Sourcebook, 2004, p. 37
- Brettell, Richard R. and Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth-Century Art in the Norton Simon Museum, volume 1, 2006,
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 1644 p. 430
- Sjraar van Heugten, Van Gogh and the Seasons, 2017, p. 12 ; p. 13 (ill.)
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