Vincent van Gogh, “The Red Vineyard,” 1888. (Public domain)

In 2024, an 1887 painting by Vincent van Gogh snagged one of the year’s highest prices at auction, clocking in at $33.19 million. At Christie’s New York, in 2022, Orchard with Cypresses sold for an astounding $117 million, making it one of the 15 most expensive artworks ever sold at auction. Throughout the past century, the post-Impressionist master has achieved a meteoric rise to fame as a blue-chip artist, but when he was alive, he wasn’t nearly as lucky.

By the time he died in 1890, at the age of 37, van Gogh had produced about 2,100 artworks, and yet he’s known to have sold only one of them during his lifetime: The Red Vineyard. As its title suggests, the painting depicts a vineyard doused in a dramatic color palette, with reds, oranges, and yellows exploding across the canvas. He’d discovered the scene in Arles during an afternoon walk with fellow artist Paul Gauguin on October 28, 1888, describing what he saw in a letter to his brother, Theo, as “completely red like red wine.”

“In the distance it became yellow, and then a green sky with a sun, fields violet and sparkling yellow here and there after the rain in which the setting sun was reflected,” van Gogh added in his note.

Rather than painting en plein air, van Gogh returned to his studio and recreated the vineyard from memory, layering the landscape with his thick brushstrokes and expressive forms. In the sky is an enormous sun, its rays beaming down upon the fiery earth, and the turquoise river snaking through the composition’s right side. With his confident hand, the painting radiates the essence of fall, serving as one of his more saturated canvases.

Once The Red Vineyard was completed, the artist sent it to Theo in Paris, who described it as “very beautiful” and hung it up in his apartment. After a few months, van Gogh received an invitation to participate in the 1890 Les XX exhibition in Brussels, where he decided to showcase the 1888 painting and subsequently asked his brother to send it back for the occasion. There, he sold it for 400 francs to Belgian painter and collector Anna Boch, the wife of Eugène Boch, another Impressionist painter and friend of van Gogh. In a letter to Theo, van Gogh later confessed that he felt embarrassed about having sold Boch the painting at sticker price, when she should’ve received a friend’s discount.

The story of The Red Vineyard doesn’t end with the Boch family. In 1909, the painting was bought by Ivan Morosov, a Moscow collector and textile factory owner, at the price of 30,000 francs. A year after the Russian Revolution, in 1918, Morosov’s collection was nationalized by the Bolsheviks and eventually transferred to Moscow’s Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in 1948. Since then, The Red Vineyard has been exhibited globally, including in 2022 at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.

Although van Gogh began receiving critical attention during the last year of his life, he didn’t live to witness the intensity of his eventual commercial success. Still, Anna Boch—and van Gogh’s sister-in-law—must’ve had a hunch about his genius, even before his death.

Despite being commercially successful today, Vincent van Gogh wasn’t as lucky during his lifetime: he is known to have only officially sold one painting, titled The Red Vineyard, from 1888.

Self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh, 1887. (Public domain)

The painting was sold to Anna Boch during the 1890 Les XX exhibition in Brussels for 400 francs.

Portrait of Anna Boch by Théo van Rysselberghe, ca. 1889. (Public domain)

Sources: How did the only painting sold by Van Gogh in his lifetime end up in Russia?; Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890); Discover the Only Painting Van Gogh Ever Sold During His Lifetime

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Left: Jo van Gogh-Bonger in 1889 (Photo: Woodbury & Page via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain) | Right: “Self-Portrait, Summer 1887” by Vincent Van Gogh (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Post-Impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh has long captivated the public's imagination, but did you know that his success isn't only due to his artistic prowess? In reality, it was thanks to the hard work of one woman that Van Gogh rose to fame and stayed a household name long after his death.

Johanna “Jo” van Gogh-Bonger, the wife of the painter's brother Theo, is the unsung hero of Vincent's success. Born in Amsterdam, her brother introduced her to Theo, who was instantly enamored. The couple married in 1889, and she uprooted her life in the Netherlands to move to Paris with him. Sadly, less than two years later, she became a widow.

Jo was only 28 years old when Theo died just a few months after Vincent. Knowing how much supporting his brother's art meant to him, Jo decided to carry on this legacy. Not only did it bring her closer to her deceased husband, but it was also a means for supporting herself and their child, Vincent Willem, who was only a year old when Theo died.

Jo packed up the Paris apartment, which was filled with Vincent's canvases, and left to head back to the Netherlands. She also took numerous sketches and the hundreds of letters that Theo and Vincent exchanged. At the time, the paintings were of little value, but Jo had been witness to the vibrant art scene that Theo surrounded himself with and knew that she shouldn't leave them behind.

Jo van Gogh-Bonger with son Vincent Willem in 1890 (Photo: Raoul Saisset via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

To start, she opened a guest house in Bussum, a village outside of Amsterdam that attracted writers and artists. There, she was able to build her own contacts in the art world and began organizing sales exhibitions of Vincent's work. This created buzz and interest around the late painter, with Jo being strategic in selling his artwork to public collections to get as many eyes on it as possible.

At the same time, she also recognized the value in the letters between the brothers. Convinced that they would demonstrate the genius behind Vincent's work, she began translating them. Before her marriage to Theo, she had worked as an English teacher, which was a great boon to the project, and by the time she died in 1925, she'd translated two-thirds of them.

Though the art world dismissed her at first, she eventually won them over and scored a major victory in 1905. That year, the Stedelijk Museum held the largest ever retrospective of Vincent's work, with over 480 paintings on display. Following the success of the exhibition, the value of Vincent's art skyrocketed.

The Stedelijk exhibition, where she worked on everything from the display to the ticketing prices, also revealed Jo's exceptional organizational skills.  These skills came in handy as she continued to not only translate the letters, but categorize and edit them. The letters were published in English just four years after her death and became a critical source for understanding Vincent and his work.

By the time Jo died, she had sold 200 of Vincent's paintings, sacrificing some of her favorites so that they would go into public collections and be seen by millions. Without her dedication to the cause, the world may have never seen Vincent Van Gogh's genius.

Source: The Woman Who Made Vincent Famous; Johanna van Gogh-Bonger

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READ: Meet the Woman Who Made Vincent van Gogh Famous

 

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The year leading up to Vincent van Gogh’s death in 1890 was one of profound turbulence. In 1889, the artist committed himself to a psychiatric asylum in Southern France, where he created some 150 paintings, including Starry Night and Irises. An extensive new study reveals there could be yet another work to add to that list.

For years, the art research firm LMI Group International has investigated a painting originally bought by an antiques collector at a Minnesota garage sale for under $50. The painting depicts a white-bearded fisherman by the sea, a pipe dangling from his lips as he repairs a fishing net. His face is marred by ruddiness and deep smile lines, his gaze pensive and almost downtrodden. In the painting’s bottom-right corner is the name Elimar.

The collector was originally intrigued by the painting’s impasto, a stylistic technique characterized by thickly laid paint. In 2019, the work was sold to LMI Group for an undisclosed sum, leading to a multi-year research project in collaboration with LMI Group and some of the world’s most distinguished art historians and scientists. The result? A 450-page report concluding that the painting is, in fact, attributable to Van Gogh.

While residing in the asylum, Van Gogh experimented with what he called “translation,” a process in which he reinterpreted paintings by other artists through his signature color palettes and brushstrokes. He was “not copying pure and simple,” he wrote to his brother Theo, but rather “translating into another language, the one of colors, the impressions of chiaroscuro and white and black.”

According to LMI Group’s report, Elimar serves as a captivating example of a Van Gogh translation, appearing to be inspired by Danish artist Michael Ancher’s portrait of fisherman Niels Gaihede.

“Elimar is based on a painting by Michael Ancher, a popular Danish artist from the Skagen artist’s colony, a group to which Van Gogh was linked by Mette Sophie Gauguin, the Danish wife of Van Gogh’s friend and artist Paul Gauguin,” LMI Group writes in a statement. The group adds that the hard-working fisherman was a “subject to which both Gauguin and Van Gogh were drawn.”

“As soon as we saw the Ancher, I knew we were right,” William Havlicek, an art historian and LMI Group researcher, tells The Wall Street Journal.

The Ancher painting isn’t the only piece of evidence tying Elimar to Van Gogh. A hair embedded in the artwork was recovered and tested, revealing through genetic analysis that it belonged to someone with red or red-brown hair. Van Gogh’s numerous self-portraits depict the artist with ginger locks.

Researchers also found that the letters in the work’s Elimar inscription matched those in an 1885 work featuring a Bible and a book by Émile Zola, especially the Es, Ms, and As. Though Van Gogh rarely signed his paintings, the name “Elimar” nevertheless proved significant in absence of a traditional signature. LMI Group notes that Elimar is one of the characters in the 1848 novel The Two Baronesses by Hans Christian Andersen, one of Van Gogh’s favorite authors.

“Andersen was one of Van Gogh’s favorite authors, and the reference connects the painting to themes of life at sea and underscores Van Gogh’s voracious appetite for reading throughout his life,” LMI Group writes.

The materials used within the painting are all compatible with a 19th-century attribution as well, including an egg-white temporary finish that Van Gogh often used to protect his canvases as he rolled them. Evidence of Elimar having been rolled was ultimately confirmed.

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has seen the painting before: the anonymous buyer submitted it in 2019, but experts determined it wasn’t an authentic Van Gogh. The museum has yet to respond to LMI Group’s new findings.

“At the end of the day, the most important thing is what the experts in Van Gogh think of the artwork,” Robert Snell, co-owner and fine arts specialist at Revere Auctions in St. Paul, tells KARE.

LMI Group plans to showcase the painting to various Van Gogh scholars and experts in the coming months. They’ve estimated the painting to be worth $15 million, which is 300,000 times that of its original garage sale price tag.

To learn more about these incredible findings, read the full LMI Group report.

New research shows that a painting originally bought at a garage sale for under $50 is actually a Van Gogh work worth $15 million.

 

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Van Gogh's Elimar was most likely a “translation” of Danish artist Michael Ancher’s portrait of fisherman Niels Gaihede.

Michael Ancher, “Fisherman Niels Gaihede reparing a fishing net.” (Photo: Bruun Rasmussen via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

LMI Group International: Website | Instagram

Sources: Lost Vincent Van Gogh Painting Discovered; Someone Bought This Painting at a Garage Sale for $50. Experts Say It’s a Lost van Gogh Worth $15 Million; A $50 painting at a Minnesota garage sale could be a $15 million Van Gogh

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“Irises,” 1889, Vincent van Gogh. Oil on canvas Photo: Vincent Van Gogh via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)

The painting Irises is one of Vincent van Gogh's most well-known works of art. The deceptively simple piece has captivated academics and the general public for centuries, particularly for the way the blue flowers evoke a calming, reflective feeling. However, it turns out that these flowers weren't always blue. New research at the Getty Museum has revealed that these world-famous blooms were actually purple when they were conceived and painted by the Dutch artist.

The Getty Museum has been home to Irises since it acquired the painting in 1990. As one of the crown jewels of the collection, the artwork is always on view—something that prevented the museum authorities from taking a better look at it. “The Museum’s closure during the COVID pandemic provided an opportunity to bring the painting into the studio for extensive research and analysis,” says Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum.

The findings from these studies are at the heart of a new exhibition titled Ultra-Violet: New Light on Van Gogh’s Irises. Looking at the painting through modern conservation science, the exhibition explores the way Van Gogh's understanding of light and color informed his paintings, as well as the scientific processes used by contemporary researchers to unravel the artist’s techniques and preferred materials.

The biggest discovery is that the light has irrevocably changed some of the colors in Irises. Particularly, the flowers were originally purple, something hinted at in a letter the artist wrote to his brother Theo, where he wrote that he was working on a painting of “violet irises.” Another key finding is that the painting was indeed created en plein air, as scientists spotted a pollen cone that became embedded in the wet paint.

“Van Gogh created violet paint by mixing blue and red paints,” writes the museum. “Using non-invasive analytical techniques like X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, Getty researchers discovered markers for the highly light-sensitive red pigment called geranium lake. This pigment has since faded dramatically due to light exposure early in the painting’s history. Van Gogh, along with other 19th-century European artists, understood that some pigments they used, including geranium lake, were susceptible to alteration yet chose to employ them regardless.”

To show the public how the painting might have looked when it was first painted, Getty researchers prepared a digital reconstruction of the painting that will be part of the exhibition, alongside some other pieces surrounding the creation of Irises, such as replica of a red lacquered box with balls of yarn he used to explore relationships between colors, and the original letter Van Gogh wrote to Theo soon after he began painting Irises. Both items are a loan from the Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands.

Ultimately, the exhibition sends a broader message beyond a single painting—one about how technology and art history can come together to tell a more complete story about centuries-old, world-famous works of art. “Art conservation is a prime example of how science intersects with art, bringing together art history with scientific research,” states Potts. “This exhibition showcases the revelatory results of those studies.”

New research at the Getty Museum has revealed that the blooms in Van Gogh's world-famous Irises were actually purple when they were conceived and painted.

XRF of “Irises” (detail), 1889, Vincent van Gogh. Oil on canvas. Photo: Getty Museum

Source: Getty Investigates Color Change of Van Gogh’s Irises

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Photo: Aix-en-Provence

When Paul Cézanne was a young man, his father purchased a mansion in the French town of Aix-en-Provence. And, as any artist is apt to do, Cézanne took it upon himself to decorate the walls with his art. While it was thought that all of his oil paintings, watercolors, and murals in the home, known as Bastide du Jas de Bouffan, had been documented, we now know that this is not true.

During a renovation of the “Grand Salon” in August 2023, the remains of a previously unknown mural were discovered. Prior to the discovery, art historians had recorded nine Cézanne pieces in the home, which was sold by the artist and his sister in 1899. Those murals were transferred to canvas and dispersed to different museums. Now, this newly recovered work was recently presented at a press conference attended by Cézanne's great-grandson, as well as the mayor of Aix-en-Provence, and experts from Société Paul Cézanne and the Musée Granet.

Found under layers of plaster and wallpaper, the remains of the mural appear to show a maritime scene. The borders contain ship masts and banners flying in the breeze, though unfortunately, the central and lower sections have been ripped away, not allowing us to see what else the Post-Impressionist painter had in mind. “A sky, banners atop a ship’s mast? A port entrance? With this unexpected discovery, Cézanne has not finished moving us, either,” the mayor and French senator Sophie Joissains shared on Facebook.

Visitors will be able to enjoy the fragments of this new work once renovations are complete in time for the 2025 celebration that Aix-en-Provence is planning for Cézanne. Joissans added, “The public will then be able to discover this place, enriched by the updating of its first paintings produced from 1859, as well as by the arrival in Aix of the most famous of Cézanne’s paintings, The Card Players.”

And while you may be wondering if Cézanne left any more surprises, researchers shared that the rest of the home has been checked thoroughly, so they don't expect anything else to be discovered.

A mural by Paul Cézanne was discovered under wallpaper in plaster in his family home.

“House and Farm at Jas de Bouffan” by Paul Cézanne. 1887. (Photo: WikiArt, Public domain)

The remains of the mural appear to show a seascape, with ship masts and banners still visible.

Photo: Sophie Joissains

h/t: [Smithsonian Magazine]

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“Self-Portrait” (1887) (Photo: The Art Institute of Chicago via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

The work of Vincent van Gogh is among the most recognizable art in the world. Completed in the second half of the 19th century, the Post-Impressionist‘s collection of drawings and paintings illustrates his artistic interests and the evolution of his practice.

While Van Gogh found a significant amount of fame posthumously, his life was not as untroubled as his characteristically colorful canvases would suggest. From financial struggles to his failing mental health, Van Gogh faced many personal challenges during his career. Eventually, the weight of these problems would lead the artist to take his own life, making his now-beloved body of work particularly poignant.

Today, Van Gogh is known for the distinctive style of his popular paintings. Defined by thick, painterly brushstrokes and a bright color palette, these luminous landscapes, expressive portraits, and lively still lifes have come to represent the artist. However, Van Gogh's work did not always feature this familiar aesthetic. Instead, it was shaped over time, evolving with each phase of his short life.

Left: “The Cottage” (1885) (Photo: Google Arts & Culture via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Right: “Thatched Cottages at Cordeville” (1890) (Photo via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Van Gogh's Evolution

Early Life

A later letter from Vincent Van Gogh to John Peter Russell showing a figure inspired by Realist artist Millet (1888) (Photo: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in Zundert, the Netherlands. While he would occasionally draw as a child, his artistic talent remained largely undiscovered until he decided to pursue painting at 27 years old.

Prior to becoming an artist, Van Gogh explored a number of possible career paths. Having quit school just three years prior, his uncle secured him a job as a clerk at Goupil & Cie, an international art dealer, when he was just 16 years old. A few years later, he was transferred from offices in the Hague to London, where he visited museums regularly and became a lifelong fan of Realist artists like Jean-François Millet.

Young Adulthood

“The Potato Eaters” (1885) (Photo: Google Arts & Culture via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Van Gogh left his job at the firm in 1876. He worked in a school and a bookshop before unsuccessfully studying theology in Amsterdam and working as a lay preacher in Belgium. Following these stints, Van Gogh's brother, Theo van Gogh, offered to financially support him so that he could pursue art.

After relocating to the Netherlands, Van Gogh began taking art lessons from artist Anton Mauve. Inspired by Realism, he became a “peasant painter,” producing gritty depictions of life in the countryside. While Theo—now an art dealer in Paris—tried to sell these “peasant paintings,” their dark hues and unpleasant subject matter did not appeal to the French.

To remedy this, Van Gogh decided to join Theo in Paris, where he would work with artist Fernand Cormon and brighten up his palette.

“Utterly Numbed” in Paris

“View of Paris from Montmartre” (1886) (Photo via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Exposed to the airy art of Impressionist artists like Claude Monet and introduced to fellow Paris-based painters like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh soon adopted a lighter and more colorful approach to painting. It is here that he also developed his signature brushwork.

“Café Terrace at Night” (1888) (Photo via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Still, even with this new and modern approach, Van Gogh did not find success in the French capital. “It seems to me almost impossible to be able to work in Paris, unless you have a refuge in which to recover and regain your peace of mind and self-composure,” he wrote to Theo in 1888. “Without that, you’d be bound to get utterly numbed.”

He decided to relocate once again—this time to Arles, an idyllic city in the south of France.

The Yellow House

“The Yellow House” (1888) (Photo: Google Arts & Culture via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

In Arles, Van Gogh's paintings became even more colorful and expressive. Surrounded by beautiful scenery and bathed in the sun, Arles seemed like an artist's paradise to Van Gogh. It was during this time that he began making some of his most famous sunflower paintings, and began demonstrating the influence of Japanese prints in his own art.

While he was there, Van Gogh also dreamt up the idea of a shared studio where he and his contemporaries could paint and rented several rooms in the “Yellow House” to serve this purpose.

“Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear” (1889) (Photo: WebMuseum via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

In October 1888, fellow Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin joined Van Gogh in the Yellow House, intending to collaborate. However, their working relationship was short-lived. After a string of quarrels and the contrasting intensity of their two personalities, Gauguin decided to move out. This prompted the increasingly mentally unstable Van Gogh to cut off part of his own ear with a knife.

Hospitalization

“The Starry Night” (1889) (Photo: Google Arts & Culture via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Van Gogh was admitted to a hospital in Arles the next morning. While he was discharged just a few days later, he recognized the state of his mental health and eventually checked himself into a mental health facility in the nearby Saint-Rémy-de-Provence commune.

While committed, he resumed his artistic practice, acquiring an extra room as an artist's studio and producing 150 paintings. Eventually, these pieces would be compiled into the Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy series, which features important works like Self-Portrait with a Bandaged Ear and The Starry Night, a nocturnal landscape painted through his “iron-barred window.”

Ironically, it was during Van Gogh's hospitalization that his work began receiving some recognition: six of his paintings were exhibited in Belgium, and 10 in Paris. “Your paintings are well placed and look very well,” Theo told Vincent about his work in Paris. “Many people came up to ask me to give you their compliments. Gauguin said that your paintings are the key to the exhibition.”

Shortly after this success, Van Gogh left the hospital and moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, a suburb of Paris.

Final Days

“Wheatfield with Crows” (1890) (Photo: Google Arts & Culture via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

During the last two months of his life, Van Gogh stayed at the Auberge Ravoux, an inn in Auvers-sur-Oise, where he produced over 80 paintings and 60 sketches. Though he seemed to be making strides as a painter, he remained plagued with financial woes, which undoubtedly contributed to his unsteady mental state.

On July 27, 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in a wheat field—the setting of his haunting final painting. He died two days later.

Legacy

A few decades after Van Gogh's death, his 850 paintings and 1,300 drawings reached international acclaim. Theo's wife Johanna helped achieve this recognition by collecting and preserving Van Gogh's numerous letters, paintings, and belongings. Today, he remains one of the most important figures in the entire history of art, celebrated for both his artistic practice and his admirable approach to life.

“If only we try to live sincerely,” he told Theo in 1878, “it will go well with us, even though we are certain to experience real sorrow, and great disappointments, and also will probably commit great faults and do wrong things, but it certainly is true, that it is better to be high-spirited, even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent. It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love, is well done.”

This article has been edited and updated.

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Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most famous artists of all time. The Post-Impressionist master continues to be a favorite of art lovers more than 100 years after his death, and his paintings continue to inspire creatives today. While most know The Starry Night, his other works might be harder to name. How many other Van Gogh paintings can you identify? Take this quick, fun quiz to find out.

In our Guess the Van Gogh quiz, you'll be presented with two paintings. One is by Van Gogh, and one is most definitely not. Learn a bit more about Van Gogh and these other artists as you make your way through 13 pairs of paintings. And, in the end, discover how much you really know about the iconic Dutch painter.

If you decide to enter your email address, you can also receive your results via email, along with some information about Van Gogh's life and career. The quiz only takes three minutes, so get started and then share your results with your friends.

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The late 19th century was a time of significant artistic exploration. After the Impressionists shook up the status quo by rejecting the rules of the beaux-arts (“fine arts”) with their fleeting depictions of everyday life, other painters followed in their footsteps by exploring more aesthetics driven by an interest in color, symbolism, and brushstrokes. Called the Post-Impressionists, this movement was not as unified as its predecessors. Instead, it pioneered a variety of styles.

One of the most well-known aesthetics to emerge from this period was Pointillism, which was spearheaded by two artists in particular: Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. While the former is best known for his world-renowned masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Grande Jatte, his friend and fellow painter is less familiar. Signac was influential in helping Seurat develop the Pointillist method, which involved arranging colors individually on the canvas. Not only that, but he also had close relationships with other famous artists, including Vincent van Gogh, whom he visited in Arles and praised his artistic talent.

Scroll down to learn more about Signac and his creative career.

Who was Paul Signac?

Photo of Paul Signac, 1923 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Paul Signac (1863–1935) was a French Post-Impressionist painter best known for helping Georges Seurat pioneer the Pointillist style. Originally from Paris, he began his creative career inspired by the Impressionist works of Claude Monet. Later, when he met Seurat, Signac became deeply invested in color theory and adopted the systematic approach of arranging individual colors on the canvas to create unique compositions. He worked in this style for the rest of his life, carrying on the aesthetic after Seurat's early death at the age of 31.

What is Pointillism?

Paul Signac, “Woman with a Parasol,” 1893 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Part of the Post-Impressionist movement, Pointillism is the technique of painting with distinct dots of color, which are meticulously applied in patterns to compose a cohesive image.

While Impressionists, such as Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh, often used small dabs and strokes of paint as part of their technique, Pointillism artists took this idea a step further by painting tightly packed, individual dots of pure color. When viewed from afar, the viewer’s mind and eye blur the dots together to create detailed images, comprising a fuller range of tones than the dots provide alone. The term “Pointillism” was, in fact, coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works of these artists. Little did they know that the term would be used today as a positive association for some of the world’s most renowned master painters.

Characteristics of Paul Signac's Art

Bold Color Palette

Paul Signac, “Place des Lices,” 1893 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

One of the most noticeable aspects of Signac's art is his bold use of hues. Not bound by realism, he opted for an expressive color palette that conveys certain emotional qualities within the work.

Interest in Nature

Paul Signac, “Entrée du port de la Rochelle,” 1921 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Post-Impressionists, like Impressionists, were deeply inspired by their surroundings, especially landscapes. Signac was particularly drawn to the views in the South of France and created numerous paintings of the Mediterranean sea.

A Sense of Stillness

Paul Signac, “In the Time of Harmony. The Golden Age is not in the Past, it is in the Future,” 1893–1895 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

As a result of using the Pointillist style, Signac's art possesses a tapestry-like quality. His human figures, though carefully modeled, resemble dolls. In addition, this approach gives the paintings a sense of stillness, like the scene is frozen in time.

Friendships with Other Artists

Paul Signac, “Capo di Noli,” 1898 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Although Signac's art was significant in its own right, he also had an influence on other artists of the time. Together with Post-Impressionists Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat, and Albert Dubois-Pillet, he helped form the Société des Artistes Indépendants in 1884, whose motto was “Neither jury nor awards.” This meant that, unlike other major exhibitions of the era, the Société allowed artists to submit their art without having to pass a jury. Some of the artists who took part include Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Cézanne. Signac even served as president of the group from 1908 until his death in 1935.

Vincent van Gogh

Paul Signac, “Van Gogh’s Yellow House (Arles, Lamartine Square),” 1932 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Post-Impressionist Vincent van Gogh is well known for being underappreciated during his lifetime, and even being ridiculed for his unique artistic vision. Signac, however, was among the few who supported Van Gogh's career. After meeting in Paris and painting together, Signac traveled to Arles to visit Van Gogh at the Yellow House.

Legacy

Paul Signac, “Portrait of Félix Fénéon,” 1890 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Due to Seurat's early death, Signac was instrumental in carrying on the principles of the Pointillist style. His oeuvre of diverse and interesting works had a large impact on other Post-Impressionist styles, most noticeably Fauvism, which embraced the expressive potential of color.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was Paul Signac famous for?

French artist Paul Signac is famous for helping develop the Pointillist style alongside Georges Seurat.

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Vincent van Gogh, “The Starry Night,” 1889 (Photo: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons )
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With a well-known and universally adored body of work, Vincent van Gogh is arguably one of the most iconic artists of all time. As a pioneering Post-Impressionist figure, Van Gogh paved the way for other avant-garde artists and played a key role in the evolution of modern art. Among his many world-famous paintings, The Starry Night (1889), a piece produced late in the artist's exceptionally short career, has a particularly important place in art history.

With swirling brushstrokes, Van Gogh created a revolutionary oil painting of the night sky. Pops of vibrant yellow stars pierce through the deep blue sky, which is shown blanketing a village. The village itself is important because it alludes to where this troubled genius was located when he painted the masterpiece. The painter's well-known mental health issues have a large role in his creative output and The Starry Night is no different. In fact, the village is based on the view from his window in a mental asylum in Southern France.

To understand the profound impact of The Starry Night, one must explore the context, content, and influence of this magical masterpiece that has an estimated worth of over $107 million.

Pictorial Analysis of Starry Night

Detail of sky. (Photo: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons )

Van Gogh, Composition, and Color

Rendered in the artist's characteristic, Post-Impressionist style, The Starry Night features short, painterly brushstrokes, an artificial color palette, and a focus on luminescence. This artistic approach is particularly evident in the sky, which is composed of a thickly applied tonal collection of blue and gold hues. It's this treatment that helps to explain why it became so famous.

The ethereal painting's balanced composition is composed of celestial swirls, stylized stars, a radiating moon, an idyllic village, and a sky-high cypress tree. While the depiction is based on his real-life view of the village, Van Gogh took some liberties when painting it—a notable fact, as the Dutch artist was known for faithfully painting what he saw before him.

The sky of The Starry Night is the most dream-like element of the composition. There, Van Gogh seems to convey turbulent emotion, particularly in the curves and swirls that move across the canvas. The hamlet, including the prominent church spire (which is thought to be inspired by the architecture of his home in the Netherlands) is also entirely imagined.

Detail of village. (Photo: (Photo: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons )

Additionally, as Van Gogh painted this piece from his room in the asylum, he opted to remove the prison-like bars from his window, illustrating his idealized approach to the painting and, perhaps, his longing to be free

What is the Meaning of The Starry Night?

According to the letters he wrote to his beloved brother Theo, Van Gogh largely regarded The Starry Night as a “failure”—alluding in particular to the imagined portions of it, which were such a departure from his usual way of painting.

Even so, the painting is often seen as having great emotional depth. For example, unlike many of the paintings Van Gogh was producing at the time, the color palette of The Starry Night is significantly darker, even recalling some of his first pictorial attempts. Art historians commonly attribute this to his depressive state. Yet, despite the nighttime blues, Van Gogh includes bright yellow-white stars and a crescent moon in his night sky.

Although at this point Van Gogh had largely given up his religious beliefs, he carried a deep love for the natural world, wherein he found solace. “Hope is in the stars,” the artist wrote to his brother. For this reason, The Starry Night painting is often interpreted as having a hopeful message.

What Caused Van Gogh to Enter the Asylum?

Van Gogh's room at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole (Photo: Original uploader (WT-fr) Saint Rémy de Provence Tourisme at French Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 3.0)

On top of his revolutionary oeuvre, Van Gogh is known for his profound struggles with mental illness. Born in 1853, the artist was only 37 years old when he died of a possibly self-inflicted gunshot wound. This occurred just a few months after he left the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole mental asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. This is the asylum that he voluntarily checked himself into in May 1889 and where he painted The Starry Night.

How did Van Gogh end up in the asylum? To understand, we must turn back the clock to 1888. At the time, Van Gogh was living in Arles and had invited Paul Gauguin to say with him. Van Gogh greatly admired Gauguin—whose work was also collected by his brother Theo—and with whom he hoped to start an artist collective. Gauguin arrived on October 23 and the two pushed each other creatively. However, Gauguin would later say that their relationship was quite complicated. After two months of living together in The Yellow House, things came to a head.

Though it's not quite clear what occurred, Van Gogh went back to his room after a fight with Gauguin on December 23. This is where he severed his ear, wrapped it in a bandage, and delivered it to a woman at a brothel that the artists frequented. The following day, a police officer found him passed out, after far too much time had passed to attach his ear.

While at the hospital, he was diagnosed with “acute mania with generalized delirium.” Theo came to visit him at the hospital, but Gauguin stayed away. Though Van Gogh asked repeatedly to see him, Gauguin—afraid that a visit would push him over the edge—left Arles for Paris and never saw him again. After several months of repeated mental health episodes that saw him in and out of hospitals, Van Gogh left Arles for good and checked himself into Saint-Paul-de-Mausole.

Van Gogh's First Starry Night

Vincent van Gogh “Starry Night Over the Rhone,” 1888 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

During his time at the asylum, Van Gogh not only had a private room but was also given a small studio on the ground floor. Though he was permitted to sketch in his room, he was only allowed to paint in his studio. While committed, he completed an unprecedented amount of artwork. Eventually, the 150 pieces produced during this time would be compiled into the Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy series, which includes important canvases like his Self-Portrait with a Bandaged Ear, The Irises, Wheat Field with Crows (his last painting), and Starry Night Over the Rhône—a piece that undoubtedly inspired The Starry Night.

Van Gogh painted Starry Night Over the Rhône in 1888—just one year before he completed The Starry Night. During this time, he was living in Arles, an idyllic French commune. Though rendered in vibrant brushstrokes and expressive color, the scene is calm; “two colorful figurines of lovers in the foreground” are the only people present in the painting, and the star-filled sky evokes a feeling of serenity.

Both Starry Night Over the Rhône and The Starry Night feature similar subject matter and are rendered in Van Gogh's signature style. However, they drastically differ in context. Starry Night Over the Rhône was painted near Van Gogh's charming home in Arles; the sweeping view featured in The Starry Night was captured from his window in the asylum.

While committed, Van Gogh painted this panorama on several occasions. The Starry Night, however, is the only nocturnal study of the view. Thus, in addition to descriptions evident in the myriad of letters he wrote to his brother, Theo, it offers a rare nighttime glimpse into what the artist saw while in isolation. “Through the iron-barred window I can make out a square of wheat in an enclosure,” he wrote in May of 1889, “above which in the morning I see the sun rise in its glory.”

Frequently Asked Questions

Who painted The Starry Night?

The Starry Night was painted by Post-Impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh.

When was The Starry Night painted?

Van Gogh painted The Starry Night in 1889.

Where is The Starry Night located?

Since 1941, The Starry Night has been located at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

How much is The Starry Night worth?

This priceless masterpiece is valued at over $109 million.

Books About The Starry Night

Want to expand your knowledge about Vincent van Gogh and The Starry Night? Check out some of these books. (Making a purchase via Bookshop helps support independent bookstores.)

The Starry Night continues to resurface in new ways in the modern world.

With each passing year, it seems as though The Starry Night is reaching more and more fans and inspiring new generations of artists. Today, the renowned work of art is a must-have visual for art lovers, whether that's in the form of a beautiful wall hanging, an inspiring decal, or a quirky toy.

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Ultimately, given its fascinating context, poignant history, and original aesthetic, it's no wonder that The Starry Night has had such a transcendent impact on the world of art and, equally, on the world as a whole.

This article has been edited and updated.

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Over the course of art history, certain pieces have come to symbolize entire artistic genres. Leonardo's Mona Lisa and Michelangelo's David, for example, define the Italian Renaissance; The Scream by Edvard Munch epitomizes Expressionism; and Pointillism is typified by Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon the Island of La Grande Jatte.

Seurat completed this monumental masterpiece in the 1880s. In order to craft the larger-than-life scene, the artist meticulously applied millions of hand-painted dots to the canvas. Seurat pioneered this technique when painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, sparking the start of the Pointillist movement.

What is Pointillism?

Paul Signac, “The Pine Tree at Saint-Tropez,” 1909 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Introduced by Georges Seurat and fellow French artist Paul Signac in 1886, Pointillism is a painting technique in which small, discrete dots work together to create a cohesive composition. Although this aesthetic approach was primarily inspired by the dappled brushstrokes of Impressionism, the genre is in fact a branch of Post-Impressionism, a major movement that emerged in the 1890s.

While the styles explored by Post-Impressionist artists are diverse, most featured flatness, formality, and exaggerated color in their work—characteristics that are evident in A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

The Painting Process

Georges Seurat, Study for “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” 1884 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Georges Seurat began painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte in the spring of 1884. During this time, the artist lived and worked alongside the Impressionists in Paris. Like these artists, Seurat often painted scenery found outside the French capital, including La Grande Jatte, a Seine River island situated to the west of Paris.

In order to perfect his painting of the popular park, Seurat completed a collection of preliminary sketches and drawings. Taking a cue from the Impressionists, he created these studies away from his studio and en plein air. This approach enabled Seurat to capture the color, light, and movement of the scene before him, which he revisited several times before finishing the final large-scale painting in 1886.

Why did he dedicate so much time to these preparatory sketches? As Pointillists, Seurat and Signac were particularly interested in playing with perception and experimenting with optics, resulting in a comprehensive and meticulous painting process.

“Confronting his subject,” Signac explained, “Seurat, before touching his little panel with paint, scrutinizes, compares, looks with half shut eyes at the play of light and shadow, observes contrasts, isolates reflections, plays for a long time with the cover of the box which serves as his palette, then . . . he slices from his little heap of colors arranged in the order of the spectrum the various colored elements which form the tint destined best to convey the mystery he has glimpsed. Execution follows on observation, stroke by stroke the panel is covered.”

Composition

Georges Seurat, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” 1884-1886 (Photo: The Art Institute of Chicago, Public domain)

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte depicts a typical outing for Parisians living in the 1880s. Facing the shimmering river and relying on umbrellas and trees for shade, they appear to enjoy a brief escape from city life, whether they're lounging on the grass, fishing in the river, or even admiring the ambiance in the company of a pet monkey.

Unrealistic Style

Georges Seurat, Details of “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” 1884-1886 (Photo: The Art Institute of Chicago, Public domain)

Though the subjects of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte are rendered in an unrealistic and almost minimalist style, Seurat opted to place them in a range of positions (“of some we see the backs, some we see full-face, some in profile, some are seated at right angles, some are stretched out horizontally, some are standing up straight,” art critic Félix Fénéon remarked in 1886).

This decision adds a sense of realism to the otherwise stylized depiction and helps draws the viewer into the receding scenery.

Hidden Meaning

While at first glance, Seurat's painting appears to be a stunning and colorful depiction of Parisians leisurely enjoying their day, there may be a hidden meaning. Some art historians speculate that the painting's static ambiance and doll-like figures are intended to criticize modern life in Paris, which Seurat viewed as performative.

Painted Frame

Georges Seurat, Details of “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” 1884-1886 (Photo: The Art Institute of Chicago, Public domain)

Another optical trick evident in this painting is Seurat's inclusion of an innovative painted “frame.” According to the Art Institute of Chicago, this Pointillist border is supposed to “make the experience of the painting even more intense” by adding even more colors, tones, and textures to the composition.

Reception

After completing the painting in 1886, Seurat opted to exhibit it in the eighth and final Impressionist exhibition. While it was met with mixed reviews, it remained the artist's most famous painting until (and after) his untimely death in 1891.

Lasting Significance

Until the turn of the century, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte remained in the possession of the Seurat family. It was then passed around different dealers until 1925 when it found a permanent home at the Art Institute of Chicago. Today, it remains a highlight of the museum's collection and, arguably, the most celebrated work of Pointillism in the world.

Want to delve deeper into art history? Then check out our list of the most famous paintings.

This article has been edited and updated.

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