A Crab on its Back
Currently on view
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Paris, August-September 1887
oil on canvas, 38 cm x 46.8 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Van Gogh took the idea of painting a crab from Japanese prints. He had found the same subject there. Vincent and his brother Theo collected colourful Japanese woodcuts.
Here, Van Gogh painted the crab in bright shades of red against a green background. He was experimenting with what he called 'the laws of colour' described by the French painter Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863). According to this theory, colours like red and green form a pair. They are known as complementary because, when placed side by side, they both have a stronger effect. Van Gogh was a great admirer of Delacroix and had learned about his colour theory from books by Charles Blanc.
- F-number
- F0605
- JH-number
- JH1663
- Object number
- s0124V1962
- Dimensions
- 38 cm x 46.8 cm, 55.5 cm x 63.6 cm, 8 cm
- Provenance
- With his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris, after September 1887; after his death on 25 January 1891, inherited by his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Paris; administered until her death on 2 September 1925 by Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Bussum/Amsterdam/Laren; given on loan by Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren to the Mesdag Museum, The Hague, 1926; given on loan by Vincent Willem van Gogh to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, from 1927 to 1930; given on loan by Vincent Willem van Gogh to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, since 22 October 1931; transferred by Vincent Willem van Gogh, on 10 July 1962 to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam; agreement concluded between the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and the State of the Netherlands, in which the preservation and management of the collection, and its placing in the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, to be realized in Amsterdam, is entrusted to the State, 21 July 1962; given on loan until the opening of the museum on 2 June 1973 to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from 2 June 1973 and at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, since 1 July 1994.
- artist
- Vincent van Gogh
- Credits (obliged to state)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
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