| Artist | Vincent van Gogh |
|---|---|
| Year | 1888 |
| Type | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 72 cm × 90 cm (28.3 in × 35.4 in) |
| Location | Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam |
Bedroom in Arles (French: La Chambre à Arles; Dutch: Slaapkamer te Arles) is the title given to each of three similar paintings by 19th-century Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh.
Van Gogh's own title for this composition was simply The Bedroom (French: La Chambre à coucher). There are three authentic versions described in his letters, easily discernible from one another by the pictures on the wall to the right.
The painting depicts Van Gogh's bedroom at 2, Place Lamartine in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, France, known as his Yellow House. The door to the right was opening to the upper floor and the staircase, the door to the left served the guest room he held prepared for Gauguin. The window in the front wall was looking to Place Lamartine and its public gardens. This room was not rectangular, but trapezoid, with an obtuse angle in the left hand corner of the front wall and an acute angle at the right.[1] Van Gogh evidently did not spend much time on this problem, he simply indicated that there was a corner, somehow.
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Van Gogh started the first version during mid October 1888 while staying in Arles, and explained his aims and means to his brother Theo:
Van Gogh included sketches of the composition in this letter as well as in a letter to Gauguin, written slightly later.[3] This version has on the wall to the right miniatures of Van Gogh's portraits of his friends Eugène Boch and Paul-Eugène Milliet. The portrait of Eugène Boch is called The Poet and the portrait of Paul Eugène Millet is called The Lover. [4] [5]
In April 1889, Van Gogh sent the initial version to his brother regretting that it was damaged by the flood of the Rhône, while he was interned at the Old Hospital in Arles. Theo proposed to have it relined and sent back to him in order to copy it. This "repetition" in original scale (Van Gogh's term was "répetition") was executed in September 1889. Both paintings were then sent back to Theo.[6]
When Van Gogh finally, in summer 1889, decided to redo some of his "best" compositions in smaller size (the term he used was réductions) for his mother and sister Wil, The Bedroom was amongst the subjects he chose.[7] These réductions, finished late in September 1889, are not exact copies.
In The Bedroom the miniature portrait to the left recalls Van Gogh's "Peasant of Zundert"-Selfportrait. The one to the right cannot be linked convincingly to any existing painting by Van Gogh.