Torso of Venus
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Paris, June 1886
oil on cardboard, 35.3 cm x 27.2 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
This painting is one of a series of studies of plaster models. Van Gogh owned around eleven such models of sculptures from classical antiquity or the Renaissance. Among them was this standing torso of Venus, which he painted a number of times.
Among other things, Van Gogh was experimenting with the effect of different kinds of background. Here, he has placed his brushstrokes at right-angles to each other, so that they look rather like wickerwork. He would use this technique more than once in his later work.
- F-number
- F0216j
- JH-number
- JH1059
- Object number
- s0201V1962
- Dimensions
- 35.3 cm x 27.2 cm, 44.0 cm x 36.0 cm, 4.4 cm
- Provenance
- Left by the artist at the apartment of his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris, mid June 1886; 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; transferred by Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam, 10 July 1962; 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)
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Van Gogh te gast in het Rijksmuseum. Meesterwerken van het Van Gogh Museum, 19 September 1998-2 May 1999
Paris, Musée de l'Orangerie, Vincent van Gogh. Collection du Musée National Vincent van Gogh à Amsterdam, 21 December 1971-10 April 1972, no. 15
New York, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Vincent van Gogh. Paintings and Drawings, 14 February-4 April 1971, no. 11
San Francisco, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Vincent van Gogh. Paintings and Drawings, 11 December 1970-31 January 1971, no. 11
Baltimore, Baltimore Museum of Art, Vincent van Gogh. Paintings and Drawings, 11 October-29 November 1970, no. 11
Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Vincent van Gogh. Paintings and Drawings, 28 February-5 April 1970, no. 11
Saint Louis, City Art Museum of Saint Louis, Vincent van Gogh. Paintings and Drawings, 20 December 1969-1 February 1970, no. 11
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Vincent van Gogh. Paintings and Drawings, 14 October-1 December 1969, no. 11
The Hague, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Vincent van Gogh. Collectie ir. V.W. van Gogh, 12 October 1948-10 January 1949, no. 49
Kendall, Richard, 'I kept on thinking about Degas': Vincent van Gogh and the 'little lawyer', p. 33
