The Dance Hall In Arles

Title

The Dance Hall In Arles

Artist

Eric Glaser

Medium

Painting - Oil On Canvas

Description

"The Dance Hall in Arles"

Artist: Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)

Title: The Dance Hall in Arles

La Salle de danse à Arles

Genre: Genre art

Date: 1888

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Dimensions: Height: 650 mm (25.59 in); Width: 810 mm (31.88 in)

Collection: Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

Painting History: Gift of M. and Mme André Meyer, 1951

On 23 October 1888, Paul Gauguin met up again with Vincent Van Gogh in Arles. The two men dreamt of founding a "studio of the Midi" together, in the South of France. But their enthusiasm rapidly waned. Van Gogh's overbearing presence came up against Gauguin's fierce independence. However, towards mid-December, they started working together again during a temporary improvement in their relationship.

The two great works created during these few days of renewed collaboration are The Arlésiennes (Mistral) (Chicago, The Art Institute), by Gauguin, and The Dance Hall in Arles by Van Gogh. This painting seems to show an evening at the Folies-Arlésiennes, a dance hall on Boulevard des Lices. Gauguin's influence is clear as Van Gogh scrupulously applies the principles of synthesism and cloisonnism developed by his friend at Pont-Aven. The reference to Japanese art is also evident, with the unusual elevation of the horizon, and in the strange, decorative foreground where the curves and counter curves of the hair are dominant.

The multitude of characters, the variety of their style of clothes and the way they overlap, skilfully portray a feeling of crowdedness and saturation. The portrait of Madame Roulin on the right, who alone turns to look at the spectator, seems to express a claustrophobic terror. In Gauguin's Arlésiennes, two female characters also express anxiety and anguish.

To escape this latent anxiety, the two men went to Montpellier on 16th or 17th December to visit the Musée Fabre. The arguments that followed highlighted their aesthetic disagreements more than ever. As a result of this day out, their separation became inevitable, and Gauguin prepared to leave.

Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. He was not commercially successful, and his suicide at 37 came after years of mental illness, depression and poverty.

Born into an upper-middle-class family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was serious, quiet, and thoughtful. As a young man he worked as an art dealer, often travelling, but became depressed after he was transferred to London. He turned to religion and spent time as a Protestant missionary in southern Belgium. He drifted in ill health and solitude before taking up painting in 1881, having moved back home with his parents. His younger brother Theo supported him financially, and the two kept a long correspondence by letter.

Text Credit: Google Arts & Culture

This is a Google Art Project image, thank you Google!

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Additional image editing by Eric Glaser

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October 13th, 2020

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