IDENTITY

Letter 653 — Colour relationships and Gauguin’s Martinique paintings

Arles, 1888

Content Summary

Van Gogh describes Gauguin’s Martinique paintings through vivid colour relationships and connects their exotic character with the literary world of Pierre Loti.

CONTEXT

Topics

Colour, Colour Relationships, Artistic Influence, Literature, Gauguin, Arles Practice

Materials & Pigments

Related People

Vincent van Gogh, Willemien van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Pierre Loti

Paintings

RESEARCH

Quotation

the impression of all those colours against one another is nonetheless there in the painting as it is in nature

Research Focus

The passage shows Van Gogh responding to another artist through relationships of colour while also using literature as an imaginative frame for interpreting the paintings.

Related Work / Relevance

SOURCES & EVIDENCE

Source Type

Letter

Source

Letter 653

Source Edition

Vincent van Gogh — The Letters, scholarly online edition (Van Gogh Museum / Huygens ING; website version December 2024)

Source URL

https://vangoghletters.org/en/let653

Evidence Type

Primary Source, Scholarly Annotation