Les Arènes

Les Arènes
Original title, in French: Les Arènes

Artist	Vincent van Gogh
Year	1888
Type	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	73.5 cm × 91.5 cm (28.9 in × 36 in)
Location	Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

Les Arènes is a painting by Vincent van Gogh executed in Arles, in November or December 1888, during the period of time when Paul Gauguin was living with him in The Yellow House. The bullfight season in Arles that year started on Easter Sunday 1 April and ended on 21 October.^[1] Van Gogh's painting is therefore not a study from nature but done from memory. Gauguin encouraged Van Gogh to work in the studio in this manner. The painting may not be finished as the paint is very thinly applied, and patches of bare jute show through in places.^[2]

It seems that members of the Roulin Family are depicted in this portrait/,^[3] and the woman in Arlésienne costume has the profile of Madame Ginoux.^[2]

A matter of weeks after painting this canvas, at Christmas 1888, Van Gogh cut off part of his own ear. One of the many theories about this notorious incident is that the bullfights (or "bull games" as they are called in Arles) made a deep impression on Van Gogh, in particular the custom of severing one ear of a defeated bull. The victorious matador circles the arena displaying this prize to the crowd, before presenting it to a lady of his choice.^[4] There is some doubt as to whether the bulls were killed in this fashion in Arles in Van Gogh's time.^[5]

Footnotes

↑ L'Homme de Bronze, March 18, 1888, and October 21, 1888; see Roland Dorn 1990, p. 433. - L'Homme de Bronze and Le Forum Républicain were the two newspapers, edited in Arles in these years.
1 2 Gayford, Martin. The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles, Fig Tree, Penguin, 2006, ISBN 0-670-91497-5. page 152
↑ for example, Arnold, Wilfred N. Vincent van Gogh: Chemicals, Crises, and Creativity, Birkhãuser, Boston, 1992. ISBN 0-8176-3616-1. page 253
↑ The theory is attributed to J. Olivier of Saint Rémy de Provence, see for example, Lubin, Albert J. (1961). 'Vincent Van Gogh's Ear' in the Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 30:351-384, and by the same author Stranger on the earth: A psychological biography of Vincent van Gogh, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1972. ISBN 0-03-091352-7, page 158. The substance of the theory is described in a 1951 letter to V. W. van Gogh (the artist's nephew) ... letter A13
↑ Graetz, H. R., The Symbolic Language of Vincent van Gogh, McGraw-Hill 1963

External links

Media related to The arena in Arles at Wikimedia Commons

Vincent van Gogh

General	Biography Chronology Health Death Posthumous fame Cultural depictions List of works Post-Impressionism Auberge Ravoux The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Family	Theo van Gogh Wil van Gogh Johanna van Gogh-Bonger Andries Bonger Theo van Gogh (film director) Anton Mauve Johannes Stricker

Friends	Anthon van Rappard Paul Gachet Paul Gauguin Émile Bernard John Peter Russell Eugène Boch Anna Boch Agostina Segatori

Groups of works	Portraits Early works Lost early works Sien Peasant Character Studies Cottages Van Gogh's family in his art Montmartre Le Moulin de la Galette Asnières Seine Wheat Fields Flowering Orchards Almond Blossoms Langlois Bridge at Arles Paintings of Children Décoration for the Yellow House The Roulin Family Hospital in Arles Butterflies Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy The Enclosed Wheat Field at Saint-Rémy Copies by Vincent van Gogh Olive Trees Display at Les XX, 1890 Auvers size 30 canvases Auvers Double-squares and Squares Japonaiserie Sunflowers Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Netherlands) Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Paris) Meadows near Rijswijk and the Schenkweg

Paintings	Farmhouse Among Trees Cart with Black Ox Cart with Red and White Ox The Potato Eaters The Night Café Poppy Flowers Interior of a Restaurant in Arles The Yellow House Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) Cafe Terrace at Night Starry Night Over the Rhone Bedroom in Arles L'Arlésienne The Red Vineyard Falling Autumn Leaves Les Arènes View of Arles, Flowering Orchards Arles: View from the Wheat Fields Portrait of the Artist's Mother Ivy Farmhouse in Provence The Starry Night Enclosed Field with Peasant At Eternity's Gate Irises Portrait of Dr. Gachet Doctor Gachet's Garden in Auvers The Church at Auvers Wheatfield with Crows View of Paris from Vincent's Room in the Rue Lepic Daubigny's Garden Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin Portrait of Père Tanguy Farms near Auvers Thatched Cottages and Houses White House at Night A Lane near Arles Blossoming Chestnut Branches A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul Wheat Field with a Lark Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette Road with Cypress and Star Tree Roots Sunset at Montmajour View of the Asylum and Chapel of Saint-Rémy Green Wheat Field with Cypress Crab on its Back Two Crabs Houses at Auvers Self-portrait (1889) Girl in White The 'Laakmolen' near The Hague

Other works	Drawings, water-colours and prints 87 Hackford Road Sorrow

Public collections	Van Gogh Museum Kröller-Müller Museum Musée d'Orsay

Portrayals	Lust for Life novel film Van Gogh (1991 film) Van Gogh (1948 film) Vincent Vincent & Theo Vincent in Brixton "Vincent and the Doctor"

Cataloguers	Jacob Baart de la Faille (1928 & 1970; F) Jan Hulsker (1978, revised 1989; JH)

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Les Arènes

See also

Footnotes

External links