Landscape on Martinique
Currently on view
Charles Laval (1861 - 1894), Martinique, 1887-1888
oil on canvas, 59.7 cm x 73.1 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
A woman enters the scene from stage left, as it were. The long, slender trunks of the trees on each side of the foreground function like the side-pieces of a theatre set. This is an old trick for creating an illusion of depth. In this case, however, the extreme symmetry makes the effect slightly disconcerting.
Charles Laval painted this landscape on the Caribbean island of Martinique. He travelled there with his friend Paul Gauguin in 1887. Their style was then so similar that for a long time this painting was attributed to Gauguin.
- Object number
- s0378V1982
- Dimensions
- 59.7 cm x 73.1 cm, 77.5 cm x 91.5 cm, 9 cm
- Provenance
- Purchased by Andries Bonger, Amsterdam, probably through Theo van Gogh, before 1904; after his death on 20 January 1936 inherited by his widow, Françoise W.M. Bonger-van der Borch van Verwolde, Amsterdam; sold by Françoise W.M. Bonger-van der Borch van Verwolde to the Theo van Gogh Stichting, Laren, 1974; given on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, 1974; transferred by the Theo van Gogh Foundation to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam, 15 October 1982; given on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from 15 October 1982, and at the Van Gogh Museum since 1 July 1994.
- artist
- Charles Laval
- Credits (obliged to state)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
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