Early paintings (Antwerp, 1885)
by Vincent van GOGH

Conscious of his failure in the field of rural genre, van Gogh decided to return to the city. He planned to go to Paris in the hope that the new movements in Parisian painting, of which he had heard from his brother, might provide him with new directions for his work. To prepare himself for this encounter with Paris and its urban population and motifs van Gogh went to the Belgian port of Antwerp.

He spent three months in Antwerp where he visited the museums and carefully studied the portraiture and colourist palette of Frans Hals and Rubens. He created a series of experimental portraits in which he tried to apply what he learned from them.

From the very start, van Gogh saw his time in Antwerp as an intermezzo before he moved on to Paris, capital of the nineteenth century.

Preview Picture Data Info
Portrait of a Woman with Red Ribbon
December 1885, Antwerp
Oil on canvas, 60 x 50 cm
Private collection


Head of a Woman with Her Hair Loose
December 1885, Antwerp
Oil on canvas, 35 x 24 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam


Head of an Old Woman with White Cap (The Midwife)
December 1885, Antwerp
Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam


Portrait of an Old Man with Beard
December 1885, Antwerp
Oil on canvas, 45 x 34 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam


Backyards of Old Houses in Antwerp in the Snow
December 1885, Antwerp
Oil on canvas, 44 x 34 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam


Skull with Burning Cigarette
Winter 1885/86, Antwerp
Oil on canvas, 32 x 25 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam



Summary of works by Vincent van Gogh
Early paintings (1881-85)
Etten, The Hague | Nuenen | The Potato Eaters | Antwerp
Paris (1886-87)
Flower and other still-lifes | Various
Arles (1888-89)
Orchards in Blossom | Portraits
January-August 1888 | September 1888-April 1889
Asylum in Saint-Rémy (1889-90)
Environs | Cypresses and olive groves
Copies after other artists | Miscellaneous
Auvers-sur-Oise (1890)
Last paintings (May-July 1890)
Self-portraits (1886-89)
Self-portraits in chronological order
Graphics
Lithographs | Watercolours | Drawings | 1 | 2 | 3



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