Van Gogh · Gauguin · Arles
L'Arlésienne: Madame Ginoux between Van Gogh and Gauguin
The Arlesienne not just a portrait of a woman from Arles. It is an image born from a burning moment: the fall of 1888, the Café de la Gare, Van Gogh, Gauguin, the Yellow House and the fragile dream of a collective workshop.
The model is Marie Ginoux, owner of the Café de la Gare with her husband Joseph. Gauguin drew it, Van Gogh painted it, then Van Gogh took up the motif in 1890 in Saint-Rémy. The same woman thus becomes a crossroads between portrait, memory, rivalry and invention.
Quick response
Why is Madame Ginoux between Van Gogh and Gauguin?
Because the work is born from a shared session. Gauguin draws a drawing by Marie Ginoux; Van Gogh painted a very frontal version in 1888, then took up the subject later in Saint-Rémy based on this drawing. The portrait therefore has two perspectives: that of Gauguin, more synthetic, and that of Van Gogh, more vibrant, more colorful, more emotional.
A model from Arles
Marie Ginoux runs the Café de la Gare, a place that Van Gogh knows well. She belongs to her Arlesian daily life, not to a worldly world.
A session with Gauguin
Gauguin's drawing serves as a fulcrum. Van Gogh transforms this base into a painting constructed by color and intensity.
A pattern taken up
In 1890, Van Gogh returned to Madame Ginoux from Saint-Rémy: the portrait became memory, variation and reconstruction.
The model
Marie Ginoux, from Café de la Gare to the myth of the Arlésienne
The title “The Arlesian” may make one believe in an anonymous regional guy. However, the model is precise: Marie Julien Ginoux, wife of Joseph-Michel Ginoux. With her husband, she runs the Café de la Gare in Arles, a place frequented by Van Gogh and linked to the world of Night cafe.
A portrait born in a living space
The Café de la Gare is not a neutral setting. It is a point of passage, of sociability, but also of tension: Van Gogh paints the famous one there Night cafe, then finds in Madame Ginoux a local model capable of embodying Arles.
The strength of the portrait comes from this ambivalence. Madame Ginoux is identifiable, but she also becomes an image: headdress, dark dress, table, books, gaze, hands. Van Gogh does not seek a smooth psychological portrait; he concentrates a presence.
- Model
- Marie Julien Ginoux
- Location
- Arles, Café de la Gare
- Artists
- Van Gogh and Gauguin
- First date
- November 1888
- Resumptions
- 1890, Saint-Rémy
- Subject
- Portrait, Arles, memory
Visual reading
Six details to understand L'Arlésienne
The portrait seems simple: a woman, a table, a few books. In reality, each element stabilizes or dramatizes the figure.
Frontality
Madame Ginoux is posed in front of us. This frontality gives the portrait an iconic force.
The costume
The headdress and clothing anchor the figure in Arles, but without excessive decorative folklore.
The table
She blocks the space in the foreground and makes the portrait a mental scene, almost closed.
Books
In the 1890 versions, they reinforce the idea of meditation, remembrance or interiority.
The color
Van Gogh pushes the contrasts: frank backgrounds, yellow, green, red, dense blacks.
Memory
The covers of Saint-Rémy transform the real model into a remotely reconstructed image.
All versions
Seven Arlesians: two portraits of Arles, four preserved covers, one lost version
Van Gogh painted two portraits of Madame Ginoux in Arles in 1888 -1889. In February 1890, in Saint-Rémy, he took the motif from Gauguin's drawing: four versions were preserved and an additional version was documented as lost. The images below show the versions available for free and stable reproduction.
Gloves and parasol
The first version, painted in Arles at the beginning of November 1888: more direct, rapid, linked to the living session.
With books
The large New York version replaces accessories with books and gives the portrait a more meditative density.
Galleria Nazionale
A cover from February 1890: the pose comes from Gauguin, but Van Gogh pushes the color and the rhythm.
Kroeller-Mueller
A tighter version, where the hand, face and books concentrate melancholy.
MASP
The Brazilian version accentuates the relationship between table, books and colored background.
Private collection
This version has a well-documented provenance story and extends the series of Saint-Rémy covers.
Real photos
Arles today: real places around Van Gogh and the Ginoux
The Café de la Gare des Ginoux no longer exists as it did back then. I therefore add free photos of Arlesian places linked to Van Gogh's stay, clearly specifying what they show: Place Lamartine, Café Van Gogh and current urban decor.
Place Lamartine
The Yellow House sector, around the daily world of Van Gogh in Arles.
Van Gogh Cafe
This café on Place du Forum refers to the imagination of Van Gogh in Arles, but it is not the Café de la Gare des Ginoux.
Forum Square
A current tourist spot which helps to locate Van Gogh's Arles, without confusing it with the Café de la Gare.
Analysis table
Van Gogh and Gauguin: two logics around Madame Ginoux
The subject allows us to understand the difference between the two artists at the time of their cohabitation in Arles.
| Element | Gauguin | Van Gogh | What that changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting point | Drawing, synthesis, outline, structured installation. | Painting, color, material, eye tension. | The same model becomes two artistic problems. |
| Madame Ginoux | Stylized figure of Arles, almost regional type. | Individual presence, but charged with affect and memory. | Van Gogh makes the figure more interior. |
| The bottom | More decorative and synthetic organization. | Colorful background, sometimes very frontal, which intensifies the face. | Space gets emotional. |
| Objects | The pose dominates. | Table, books, hands, eyes become signs. | The portrait tells without a narrative scene. |
| 1888 vs 1890 | Gauguin belongs at the time of the session. | Van Gogh takes up the motive after the crisis and hospitalization. | The subject slides from the living portrait towards the reconstructed memory. |
| Final effect | Formal synthesis. | Affective, intense, almost haunting image. | The Arlesian becomes a knot between model, friend and memory. |
In the store
Works and collections linked to L'Arlésienne
The links below point to existing products and collections: versions of L'Arlésienne, Gauguin in Arles, Van Gogh in Arles and portraits.
L'Arlésienne /Madame Ginoux
The portrait at the heart of the article, between Arles and memory.
The Arlesienne
Compare covers and composition differences.
The Arlesienne
Another entry produced around the model and late versions.
Arlesiennes (Mistral)
Gauguin's view of the women of Arles.
Van Gogh Arles
Yellow house, cafes, portraits and landscapes of the South.
Arles by Paul Gauguin
The works of the common living room and its suites.
Portrait Van Gogh
Self-portraits, models, friends and meeting figures.
Women of Gauguin
Portraits, figures and models in Gauguin's work.
Sources
Reliable benchmarks to check L'Arlésienne
Museum notices make it possible to distinguish the versions, dates, the role of Gauguin and the identity of Madame Ginoux.
The Arlesienne
Official notice: Marie Ginoux, drawing by Gauguin, version from 1888 and context of Arles.
Metropolitan MuseumMadame Ginoux
Version from 1890: taken from Saint-Rémy, based on Gauguin's drawing.
WikimediaFree images
Files of the different versions of L'Arlésienne by Van Gogh.
Van Gogh GalleryCatalog sheets
Fault/Hulsker benchmarks for versions and locations.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions about L'Arlésienne
Some quick answers to situate Madame Ginoux, Gauguin, Van Gogh and the different versions.
Who is Van Gogh's L'Arlésienne?
The model is Marie Julien Ginoux, wife of Joseph-Michel Ginoux, owner of the Café de la Gare in Arles.
What role does Gauguin play?
Gauguin created a drawing of Madame Ginoux during the joint stay in Arles. Van Gogh then relied on this drawing, notably for his covers of 1890.
How many versions are there?
Van Gogh painted a version in Arles in 1888, then several times in 1890. The versions are today divided between several museums and collections.
Why do books appear in certain versions?
Books reinforce the meditative dimension of portraiture. They transform Madame Ginoux into a figure of reading, remembrance and interiority.
Is L'Arlésienne linked to Café de nuit?
Yes, by the place and the people: the Ginoux run the Café de la Gare, associated with the Arlesian universe of Van Gogh and the famous Night cafe.
Conclusion
Madame Ginoux is a portrait, but also a memory of Arles.
With The Arlesienne, Van Gogh paints a real woman and a moment gone: the café, Gauguin, the Yellow House, the ambition of a workshop in the South. Each version shifts the meaning a little, as if the model became the very face of a memory impossible to fix.
Explore Van Gogh in Arles
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