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Lot Essay
The present sheet is the most articulate and complex of a series of drawings executed by Van Gogh in July 1890 in Auvers, a month before his death. This work is also the only one from this group (De La Faille, nos. 1589a, 1616, 1636, 1650) still in private hands, the others being housed today in the Rijksmuseum, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and two sheets in the Louvre.
The strength of the present work in its powerful, almost obsessive overcrowding of the sheet with incisive observations, independent vignettes, and studies for paintings or details of paintings that Van Gogh, overwhelmed by yet another violent crisis, could never begin. Each figure is traced with a greasy, heavy stroke of charcoal; the silhouettes are defined by a consistently sharp line, with even more trenchant passages in the girl's striped frock and the woman's dress. The artist fills every corner available, subdividing the space in small paintings - clearly singled-out by lightly traced frames, as in the upper centre of the sheet. The staccato definition of some figures' clothing is almost a rendition, through pencil, of Vincent's nervous linear brushstrokes typical of the Auvers paintings.
Although neither De La Faille (op. cit.) nor Hulsker (op. cit) relate any sketch of this sheet to a precise painting, it is possible to connect the profile of the girl in the upper left of the recto to the portraits of Adeline Ravoux, the innkeeper's daughter (F., no. 768 and 769) - whose long, curly hair is caught here bundled in a loose braid over her back. The various groupings of women and men seen from behind appear in many oils of June 1890, but the composition closest to these sketches is Femmes dans les champs (F., no. 819), where the artist indulged in the curve lines defining the womens' dresses, exactly as in the present drawing.
The provenance of this sheet is also significant. As most of the works executed in the final moths of his life, this sheet entered the collection of the infamous Doctor Gachet, Van Gogh's friend and mentor in the tragic months preceding his death.
The strength of the present work in its powerful, almost obsessive overcrowding of the sheet with incisive observations, independent vignettes, and studies for paintings or details of paintings that Van Gogh, overwhelmed by yet another violent crisis, could never begin. Each figure is traced with a greasy, heavy stroke of charcoal; the silhouettes are defined by a consistently sharp line, with even more trenchant passages in the girl's striped frock and the woman's dress. The artist fills every corner available, subdividing the space in small paintings - clearly singled-out by lightly traced frames, as in the upper centre of the sheet. The staccato definition of some figures' clothing is almost a rendition, through pencil, of Vincent's nervous linear brushstrokes typical of the Auvers paintings.
Although neither De La Faille (op. cit.) nor Hulsker (op. cit) relate any sketch of this sheet to a precise painting, it is possible to connect the profile of the girl in the upper left of the recto to the portraits of Adeline Ravoux, the innkeeper's daughter (F., no. 768 and 769) - whose long, curly hair is caught here bundled in a loose braid over her back. The various groupings of women and men seen from behind appear in many oils of June 1890, but the composition closest to these sketches is Femmes dans les champs (F., no. 819), where the artist indulged in the curve lines defining the womens' dresses, exactly as in the present drawing.
The provenance of this sheet is also significant. As most of the works executed in the final moths of his life, this sheet entered the collection of the infamous Doctor Gachet, Van Gogh's friend and mentor in the tragic months preceding his death.