This painting depicts the room where Van Gogh stayed in Arles, in the south of France.
The bed is rendered with exaggerated scale, and the right wall of the bedroom spreads outward in an unnaturally expansive way. The perspective and sense of space inside the room are not rendered with strict accuracy.
The color of perfect rest
What Van Gogh sought to express in this painting was not precise depiction, but color. The walls are painted in pale violet, the chairs and bed in yellow, and the washbasin in blue.
As in Van Gogh's The Starry Night, by placing opposing colors against one another he created an effect in which each color appears all the more vivid.
Through these colors, Van Gogh reportedly wished to express perfect rest.
A sketch of the room Van Gogh left behind
In a letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh wrote that he wished to convey a sense of "calm" through this painting. The letter contains a sketch of the room along with written notes, in which he explained his desire to express the simplicity of his room through the colors he used to paint it.
Letter to his brother Theo
I want to tell you about the work I am doing at the moment.
The subject this time is my bedroom.
This time I want to work with the feeling of color rather than form.
Through this painting I want to convey the restfulness of a place for sleeping.First, the floor is laid with red tiles.
The walls are a pale violet.
The bed and chairs are a fresh butter-yellow, and the bedcover and pillow are a bright lemon-green.
The bedspread I painted in deep red.
The window in the wall is green, the dressing table on the left side of the room is orange, the small water bowl above it is blue, and the door is lilac.That is all there is to it.
I painted the furniture in a particularly solid way to express a rest undisturbed by anything.
The closed bedroom door is there for the same reason. I do not intend to give any sense of relief when I finish.Like a Japanese print.
I must hurry from early tomorrow morning to finish the work, so I will close here. Goodbye.
The Influence of Japanese Art
As was the case with many Impressionist painters of the time, Van Gogh was deeply influenced by Japanese art and culture. When painting this work, he drew inspiration from Japanese woodblock prints, boldly eliminating shadows and embracing a degree of angular distortion in his composition.
The "Japan" Van Gogh Dreamed Of
Van Gogh's choice of Arles as a refuge from his difficult life in Paris was also bound up with his sense that Arles resembled Japan. Though he had never actually visited Japan, it seems his imagined version of the country looked something like Arles. Shortly after arriving there, he wrote to Theo saying that Arles felt just like Japan.
Dreaming of a Shared Studio for Artists
This painting is also a work that Van Gogh deliberately rendered in bright tones. He envisioned the house as a place where painters could gather to work and exchange ideas. To that end, he even sent Gauguin a letter containing a sketch of the room, hoping to entice him to come.
Life with Gauguin, and the Parting
Van Gogh wrote to Gauguin with a detailed description of the painting, urging him to come to Arles and offer his assessment of his work.
Gauguin did indeed come to Arles and lived there alongside Van Gogh, but in the end the two parted ways due to their incompatible temperaments.
Three Versions of 'The Bedroom at Arles'
Van Gogh painted three similar works under the title 'The Bedroom at Arles.' The first is now held at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam; it was damaged by water while Van Gogh was briefly hospitalized, having left it in his room. After his discharge, he painted the second version, which is currently housed at the Art Institute of Chicago.
The third painting is the very work we are looking at here. It is somewhat smaller than the others because it was made as a gift for his mother and sister.
The Same Room, Different Portraits
Comparing the three paintings, there are subtle differences in tone, but the three are not dramatically dissimilar. The colors differ somewhat, yet the composition is otherwise identical. What is curious, however, is that the faces in the portraits on the wall are all different. Why he chose to depict different figures in the portraits across the three versions unfortunately remains unknown.
A Point of Contemplation for Today
"I want color alone to give rest"
Van Gogh hoped that this painting would bring a sense of ease to all who looked at it.
The canvas is small,
yet within it lives the full weight of the life Van Gogh longed for.
