This week Van Gogh’s painting of the week is: Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer.
In June 1888, when Van Gogh lived in Arles, he visited the village of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer at The Mediterranean. Vincent loved it there, it was a great source of inspiration for him. Especially the changing colors in the sea landscape.
On June 4 1888 he described these colors in a letter to Theo:
"I am at last writing to you from Stes-Maries on the shore of the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean has the colours of mackerel, changeable I mean. You don't always know if it is green or violet, you can't even say it's blue, because the next moment the changing light has taken on a tinge of pink or gray."
The seaside landscape inspired Vincent so much that in a matter of days, he painted two seascapes, a view of the village and nine drawings.
He continued in his letter:
"One night I went for a walk by the sea along the empty shore. It was not gay, but neither was it sad - it was - beautiful. The deep blue sky was flecked with clouds of a blue deeper than the fundamental blue of intense cobalt, and others of a clearer blue, like the blue whiteness of the Milky Way. In the blue depth the stars were sparkling, greenish, yellow, white, pink, more brilliant, more emeralds, lapis lazuli, rubies, sapphires. The sea was very deep ultramarine - the shore a sort of violet and faint russet as I saw it, and on the dunes (they are about seventeen feet high) some bushes Prussian blue."
Vincent’s Facination
In Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer Vincent always got up early to paint the fishing boats while it was still quit and peacefull. In a letter to his brother, Theo he wrote:
"I made the drawings of the boats when I left very early in the morning, and I am now working on a painting based on it, a size 30 canvas with more sea and sky on the right. It was before the boats hastened out; I had watched them every morning, but as they leave very early I didn’t have time to paint them."
Painting on show in Vienna
Currently this specific painting is on show in the Albertina Museum in Vienna. The Albertina Museum will be hosting 150 works by Vincent van Gogh from 5 September until 8 December 2008.
It's the largest presentation of the artist’s oeuvre ever since the jubilee exhibition in Amsterdam in 1990. The exhibition will also be the first Van Gogh show in Austria in more than half a century.
Because of the great interest the opening hours of the museum have been extended. The exhibition is now open daily from 9 am to 9 pm (*except November 18th and 25th - until 7 pm).
Other articles you might like:
Van Gogh’s paintings
Van Gogh’s Biography
Quotes of Van Gogh
Places where Van Gogh has lived and painted
