A memory of the garden at Etten

1888 Find this painting on the map

In 1888, Paul Gauguin moved in with Vincent in the Yellow House. Gauguin encouraged Vincent to paint from memory, which resulted in this painting, Memory of the garden at Etten. In this painting, Vincent recollected his family's Dutch garden, but he didn't just paint northern plants such as cabbages. He combined the northern plants with a cypress, the cypress is a typical southern European tree. Vincent painted the cypress in several paintins, for example the Wheat Field with Cypresses and Starry night.

The two figures in the front of the painting reflect Vincent's memory of his sister and mother. He wrote to his sister that it was his intention to "render the poetic character and the style of the garden through a choice of color and bizarre lines that evoked for him his mother's and sister's personalities. He explained that the motifs and the colors carried specific meanings. The "somber violet violently stained by the citron yellow of the dahlias" suggested their mother's personality, whereas the red and green presented Wil as a character out of a Dickens novel.

Current Location: Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia