For other uses, see Yellow House (disambiguation).

The Yellow House is the title generally given to an oil painting by the 19th-century Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 Post-Impressionist painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...

.

This title refers to the right wing of the building, 2, Place Lamartine, Arles

Arles

Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence....

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, the house where, on May 1, 1888, Van Gogh rented four rooms, two large ones on the ground floor to serve as atelier and kitchen, and, on the first floor, two smaller ones facing Place Lamartine. The window on the first floor near the corner with both shutters open is that of Van Gogh's guest room, where Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...

 lived for nine weeks from late October, 1888. Behind the next window, with one shutter closed, is Van Gogh's Bedroom

Bedroom in Arles

Bedroom in Arles is the title given to each of three similar paintings by 19th-century Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh.Van Gogh's own title for this composition was simply The Bedroom...

. The two small rooms at the rear were rented by Van Gogh at a later time.

The left wing housed a grocery (French: Comestibles, inscribed on the signbord over the marque).

The building suffered various rebuilding, before it was severely damaged in a bombing raid by the Allies

Allies of World War II

The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...

 on June 25, 1944 and was later demolished.

Van Gogh indicated that the restaurant, where he used to have his meals, was in the building painted pink close to the left edge of the painting (28, Place Lamartine). It was run by Widow Venissac, who was also Van Gogh's landlady, and who owned several of the other buildings depicted.

To the right side of the Yellow House, the Avenue Montmajour runs down to the two railway bridges. The first line, with a train just passing, served the local connection to Lunel, which is on the opposite (that is, right) bank of river Rhône. The other line was owned by the P.-L.-M. Railway Company (Paris Lyon Méditerranée)

In the foreground to the left, there is an indication of the corner of the pedestrian walk, which surrounded one of the public gardens on Place Lamartine. The ditch running up Avenue Montmajour from the left towards the bridges served the gas pipe, which allowed Van Gogh a little later to have gas light installed in his atelier.

Genesis

The painting was executed in September 1888, at which time Van Gogh sent a sketch of the composition to his brother Theo:
Initially, Van Gogh titled the painting as The House and its environment (French: La Maison et son entourage). Later he opted for a more meaningful title and called it The Street (French: La Rue), paying homage to a suite of sketches showing streets in Paris, by Jean-François Raffaëlli

Jean-François Raffaëlli

Jean-François Raffaëlli was a French realist painter, sculptor, and printmaker who exhibited with the Impressionists. He was also active as an actor and writer....

, and recently published in Le Figaro

Le Figaro

Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...

.

Other Depictions of the Yellow House

No preliminary work for this composition is known, but the building shows up in a few other representations by Van Gogh.
The water-colour is, according to Van Gogh, based on the painting.

Decades later, Paul Signac, Van Gogh's comrade and partisan, did at least two water-colours of the site.

Pedigree

This painting never left the artist's estate. Since 1962, it is in the possession of the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, established by Vincent Willem van Gogh, the artist's nephew, and on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum

Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.-Background:...

, Amsterdam.

External links

• The Yellow House

43.682177°N 4.631998°W; Street view; look NNE along Avenue de Stalingrad