The masters he looked at
Van Gogh didn't invent anything out of nowhere. Throughout his career, he returned to the museum to admire Delacroix, Rembrandt, Millet, Monticelli - and, when winter came, the copy. In doing so, he does not pastiche: he translates the old masters into his own language, that of color and impasto. A distant, intense, almost intimate dialogue.
Copy to understand, translate to appropriate
Van Gogh never claimed to be a solitary genius. He admires Delacroix for his mastery of color, Rembrandt for his light and psychological depth, Monticelli for his generous paste. In winter, at the asylum, he "copies" them - not to reproduce, but for translate their compositions in his own burning language.
More than thirty copies in total, including around twenty after Millet, the others after Delacroix (Pietà, Bon Samaritain), Rembrandt (Lazare), Daumier (Les Buveurs), Doré (La Ronde des prisoners). Théo will see in this series "some of his best paintings".
"He makes us feel the life of things"
Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) is, for Vincent, the absolute painter. Not a painting, not a letter to which his name does not return. What he admires? There color. Delacroix paints in pairs of complements - blue and orange, red and green - and makes the entire canvas vibrate.
"What I admire so much about Delacroix", he wrote to Théo, "is that he makes us feel the life of things, and the expression of movement, that he absolutely dominates its colors. "It is from Delacroix that Vincent learned the theory of colors which would make possible Sunflowers, there Starry night, the Night cafe.
When Vincent copies it Pietà and the Good Samaritan, he does not reproduce the model: he illuminates it with his own palette. Delacroix's blue becomes cobalt, red becomes cinnabar. Copying is an act of understanding - almost devotion.
"He absolutely dominates his colors."Vincent to Théo, about Delacroix
See on the motive, even for the story
Vincent also admires her method from Delacroix. The romantic master, even when painting historical or biblical scenes, first went to see reality: "Delacroix, when he painted a Gethsemane, first went to see on site what an olive wood looked like, and the same for the sea raised by a strong mistral."
This lesson - anchoring the sacred in the visible - is the same one that Vincent puts into practice in Arles and Saint-Rémy: his olive trees, his cypresses and his wheat carry the weight of a spirituality that Delacroix taught him not to not detach from the real world.
Rembrandt: light in the night
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) is the other giant in Vincent's imaginary museum. From him, he admires the impasto - this thick, golden, almost sculpted paste - the chiaroscuro which gives mystery to the faces, and the psychological depth of the portraits. When he copies The Resurrection of Lazarus,it's a tribute to the master of Amsterdam.
The Van Gogh Museum suggests that Vincent is identified to the red Christ of Pietà and to the Lazarus of this copy - "he too had suffered and been misunderstood". The copy then becomes a masked self-portrait: resurrecting oneself through painting.
The "noble savage" of thick color
Adolphe Monticelli (1824-1886), a painter from Marseille who died two years before Vincent's arrival in Provence, is a revelation. His thick, joyful painting, studded with impasto, anticipates what Vincent will do in Arles. Vincent sees himself as his heir, his successor in the South.
"I am in the path of Monticell", he wrote. The generous dough, the saturated colors, the embossed bouquets - all this also comes from this little-known master, whom Vincent fiercely defended in his letters, against the opinion which considered him an amateur.
Admiration for Monticelli is also a tribute to the South: in Arles, Vincent feels in continuity with a Provençal tradition of free and thick color.
Copies as an act of love
Copies of Saint-Rémy are not a school exercise. Vincent begins them "without thinking about it", then discovers that they bring him "a sort of consolation". "My brush", he writes, "slides between my fingers like a bow on the strings of a violin - entirely for my pleasure."
Copy Delacroix, Rembrandt, Millet, Daumier, Doré: it is a remote dialogue with the masters he loves, a way to learn by redoing, and even a comfort in the ordeal of asylum. Théo will judge these paintings among his brother's best.
La Pietà, The Good Samaritan - color and drama.
The Resurrection of Lazarus - light, impasto, identification with Christ.
~21 paintings of Fieldwork - the peasant and the land.
The Drinkers, The Prisoners' Round - suffering humanity.
Five paintings where dialogue is visible
Related articles on Van Gogh
Van Gogh after Millet
Copy to translate into colors.
Read ArticleTrue or false Van Gogh?
Attributions, forgeries and authentication methods.
Read ArticleVan Gogh's touch
Direction, rhythm and impasto under the magnifying glass.
Read ArticlePeasants and workers
Weavers, sowers and eaters.
Read ArticleExplore the Van Goghs
Van Gogh after Millet
Sowers, diggers and Meridian after Millet.
See the collectionVan Gogh self-portrait
Self-portraits from all periods.
See the collectionStarry Nights by Van Gogh
Starry skies, night on the Rhône, night roads.
See the collectionVan Gogh Cafes
Night café, terrace, café interiors.
See the collectionVan Gogh's wheat fields
Sowers, harvests, sheaves: working the land.
See the collectionVan Gogh Cypress
Cypress of the Alpilles and Saint-Rémy.
See the collectionVan Gogh in Arles
Sunflowers, Room, coffee at night, orchards from 1888.
See the collectionVan Gogh in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
Starry night, cypresses, olive trees, irises from 1889.
See the collectionVan Gogh in Paris
Montmartre, Asnières, Parisian experiments.
See the collectionVan Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise
Church, fields, crows of the last months.
See the collectionVan Gogh and his masters
Which masters did Van Gogh admire the most?
Delacroix (for color), Rembrandt (for light and impasto), Millet (for the peasant), Monticelli (for the thick paste of the South), and also Daumier, Doré, Japanese prints.
Why was he copying other artists?
First out of necessity (winter in the asylum, without model or outdoors), then because he found "a sort of consolation". It was a form of dialogue and learning for him.
What is Pietà after Delacroix?
A copy that Vincent painted in Saint-Rémy in 1889, after a Pietà by Delacroix. He translates it into his own palette, and the red Christ strangely resembles Vincent himself.
What is the Resurrection of Lazarus?
A copy after Rembrandt, painted in Saint-Rémy. As with the Pietà, the central character has the red features of Vincent - perhaps a disguised self-portrait.
Who was Monticelli?
A painter from Marseille (1824-1886) whose thick and joyful paste fascinated Vincent in Arles. He sees himself as his heir in the South.
What did Van Gogh say about Delacroix?
"What I admire so much about Delacroix is that he makes us feel the life of things, and the expression of movement, that he absolutely dominates its colors."
Go to texts
- Wikipedia (en) - Copies by Vincent van Gogh, Delacroix and Rembrandt sections.
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam - collection (copies after the masters).
- The Letters of Vincent van Gogh - Van Gogh Museum scholarly edition /Huygens ING.
- Wikipedia (en) - Eugène Delacroix.
- Wikipedia (en) - Rembrandt van Rijn.
- Wikipedia (en) - Adolphe Monticelli.
- Wikimedia Commons - Pietà (after Delacroix), public domain.
The works of Van Gogh, Delacroix and Rembrandt are in the public domain. The quotes are taken from Vincent's letters (Van Gogh Museum edition). Reproductions come from Wikimedia Commons.
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