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| image_file=File:Vincent van Gogh - Houses at Auvers - Google Art Project.jpg
| title=Houses at Auvers
| image_upright=1
| artist=[[Vincent van Gogh]]
| year=Auvers-sur-Oise, June 1890
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'''''Houses at Auvers''''' is an oil painting by [[Vincent van Gogh]]. It was created towards the end of May or beginning of June 1890, shortly after he had moved to [[Auvers-sur-Oise]], a small town northwest of [[Paris]], France.
His move was prompted by his dissatisfaction with the boredom and monotony of asylum life at [[Vincent van Gogh#Saint-Rémy (May 1889
In his final two months at Saint-Rémy, van Gogh painted from memory a number of canvases he called, "reminisces of the North," harking back to his Dutch roots. The influence of this return to the North continued at Auvers, notably in F789, ''[[The Church at Auvers]]''. He did not, however, repeat his studies of peasant life of the sort he had made in his [[Vincent van Gogh#Nuenen and Antwerp (1883–1886)|Nuenen period]]. His paintings of dwellings at Auvers encompassed a range of social domains.
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Vincent van Gogh spent the early 1881–1885 years of his brief ten-year career as an artist painting in the [[Netherlands]] at [[Etten-Leur|Etten]], [[The Hague]], [[Drenthe]], and [[Nuenen]] (his last family home). It was in Nuenen that Vincent executed F82, ''[[The Potato Eaters]]'', which he considered his first really successful painting, while other early paintings of the time, such as F83, ''The Cottage'' (left), attest to his sympathy for peasants and their way of life.<ref>Naifeh & Smith, pp. 423-51</ref>
Following the death of his father in March 1885 and ensuing difficulties and quarrels with both his family and neighbours in Nuenen, Van Gogh moved first to [[Antwerp]], [[Belgium]], where he briefly studied at the [[Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp)|Academy]]. Shortly thereafter, he joined his art dealer brother, [[Theo van Gogh (art dealer)|Theo
The two years he spent in Paris with his brother are the least documented of Vincent's career, simply because the main source for Vincent's life are the letters between them and, naturally, they did not correspond when together.{{efn-ua|In particular any paintings he might have sold in Paris have gone undocumented as a result. Van Der Veen and Knapp point out that in a sense he sold ''all'' his paintings to his art dealer brother Theo, because that is what they contracted together in return for Theo supporting him with what was by the standards of the day a comfortable stipend.<ref>Van Der Veen and Knapp pp. 13-4</ref>}} Nevertheless, there are abundant sources to show that Vincent participated fully in the artistic life of the city, although never aligning himself with the [[Impressionist]] movement. In particular, he came into contact with [[Paul Gauguin]], whom he idolized. By the end of the two-year period, relations between the brothers had soured somewhat and Vincent resolved to leave Paris and settle in [[Arles]] in the south of France, where he conceived the project of starting an artists' commune with Gauguin.<ref>Naifeh & Smith, pp. 540-63</ref>
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[[Auvers-sur-Oise]] was a medieval town about 15 miles northwest of the centre of Paris. It was only a few roads wide, but extended for miles along the river in both directions, vineyards and market gardens scattered all along its length. Its hamlets were a mix of clusters of thatched houses and farm enclosures. The French painter [[Charles-François Daubigny]] first moored his studio barge ''Botin'' there in the 1850s, and later purchased no less than three houses in the village as well as another nearby.<ref>Zemel p. 277 n.15</ref> With the advent of a railway, the town became a tourist centre, its population swelling from 2,000 to 3,000 in the summer months. It attracted artists such as [[Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot|Corot]], [[Cezanne]] and [[Pissarro]], all seeking to capture its rustic charms. Dealers like Theo van Gogh sold thousands of their images.<ref>Naifeh & Smith p. 826</ref>
Auvers had consequently become a prosperous community. It was a model of [[French Third Republic#Modernization of the peasants|Third Republic idealism]] regarding the
Van Gogh was alert to the change and the new modernity. Writing to Theo and Jo on 25 May, he remarked:<ref>Zemel pp. 214-5</ref><ref name="Letter 875" group=L>{{cite web|title=Letter 875: To Theo van Gogh and Jo van Gogh-Bonger. Auvers-sur-Oise, 25 May 1890|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let875/letter.html|website=vangoghletters.org|publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]]|at= 1v2|quote= Here we’re far enough from Paris for it to be the real countryside, but nevertheless, how changed since Daubigny. But not changed in an unpleasant way, there are many villas and various modern and middle-class dwellings, very jolly, sunny and covered with flowers. That
[[File:Vincent van Gogh - Landscape with Peasant Women Harvesting - F1615v JH2085.jpg|thumb|F1615v: ''Landscape with Peasant Women Harvesting'', [[Van Gogh Museum]].]]
Van Gogh made no paintings of traditional peasant life, ''la vie rustique'', at Auvers of the sort he had formerly made in Nuenen. His sketchbooks contain perhaps just half a dozen or so quick studies of peasant scenes, such as F1615v ''Landscape with Peasant Women Harvesting'' (right), as well as a rather larger number of studies of farm animals such as chickens and ponies. His subjects were landscapes, townscapes, portraiture, and still lifes. His paintings at Auvers imply a range of social domains. Thus, his paintings of dwellings range from thatched cottages through to middle-class villas and finally aristocratic châteaus, and these are set within the social spaces of gardens, streets, and the vestiges of [[demesne|feudal domain]] respectively.<ref>Zemel p 229 n.41</ref>
During the months of May, June and July
The village captivated him. On his arrival on 20 May
Van Gogh lodged at the [[Auberge Ravoux]], where he remained until his death in the early hours of the morning of 29 July
== Description ==
[[File:Auvers Chaponval - Une ferme - postcard before 1914.jpg|thumb|A postcard showing a farmhouse in Chaponval before 1914.]]
The central house was a townhouse in the hamlet of Chaponval, about a mile west of the Auberge Ravoux. It was situated at 5 Rue de Gré ({{Coord|format=dms|49|4|16.02|N|2|8|48.94|E}}) and still exists, although renovated. It belonged to a mason named August Lecroix and was the subject of an earlier 1873 painting by [[Paul Cézanne]] titled ''La maison du Père Lacroix''.<ref>{{cite web|title=La Maison du père Lacroix, Auvers-sur-Oise|url=http://www.cezannecatalogue.com/catalogue/entry.php?id=205|website=cezannecatalogue.com|publisher=The Paintings of Paul Cézanne, an online catalogue raisonné}}</ref> Hulsker thought ''Houses at Auvers'' was painted shortly after van Gogh arrived.<ref>Hulsker pp. 1988-9</ref> De La Faille thought it painted a little later at the beginning of June, citing a letter of 10 June
The two thatched cottages at the left are set at right angles. They reappear in F780 ''Thatched cottages in Auvers'' ([[
Van Gogh was generally meticulous in his depiction of street scenes, a fact that allowed the precise location of the F766 ''[[White House at Night]]'' to be ascertained, an Auvers painting that was once thought lost but re-emerged in 1995 in the collection of the [[Hermitage Museum]].<ref>{{cite news |date=23 April 2001 |title=Wishing on Van Gogh's star |newspaper=[[Toledo Blade]] |first1=Jenni |last1=Laidman |url=http://www.toledoblade.com/frontpage/2001/04/23/Wishing-on-Van-Gogh-s-star.html |access-date=8 March 2015 |archive-url=https://
[[Toledo Museum of Art]], the holding museum, points to the structural juxtaposition of the blue-tiled roof and the adjacent thatched roof of the house. Vigorous brush strokes, varying in direction, are used to highlight the contrast and textures. By contrast, the trees and garden are represented in the characteristic swirling manner van Gogh developed at Saint-Rémy.<ref>{{cite web|title=Houses at Auvers|url=http://classes.toledomuseum.org:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/People$00404087/1?t:state:flow=3fa304c4-7a6c-4703-b68d-e1fb75b89d46|website=toledomuseum.org|publisher=[[Toledo Museum of Art]]|access-date=2015-03-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402104757/http://classes.toledomuseum.org:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/People$00404087/1?t:state:flow=3fa304c4-7a6c-4703-b68d-e1fb75b89d46|archive-date=2015-04-02|url-status=dead}}</ref> Pickvance notes the colour scheme is restrained in accordance with van Gogh's return to the North, but also in response to the weather conditions: the sky is laden with clouds and a poplar tree bends to the force of the wind. The paint is applied remarkably thinly in places, and there are bare patches of canvas.<ref name= P234-5 /> Van Der Veen & Knapp remark that at the time of writing (2010), the shutters still retained their original green colour.<ref>Van Der Veen & Knapp p. 125</ref>
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=== Thatched cottages ===
[[File:Vincent van Gogh - Landscape with Houses - F1640r JH1986.jpg|thumb|F1640r: ''Landscape with Houses'', [[Van Gogh Museum]]]]
The picturesque thatched cottages of Auvers appear of necessity in many of van Gogh's views of the town. Only in four paintings are thatched cottages the dominant theme: F758, F780, F792, and F806.<ref>Pickvance, p. 249</ref> In drawings such as F1640r (right), the exaggerated rounded roof lines are not to be found in either French or Dutch cottages. They are part of van Gogh's return to the North he describes in a letter to Theo dated 29 April
<gallery class="center" widths="154px" heights="200px" >
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* The location of F795 ''Village street and stairs in Auvers with figures'' is the Rue de la Sansonne directly opposite the Auberge Ravoux, though the stairs connecting the two streets are no longer there.<ref>Pickvance p. 227</ref> There is a smaller companion piece F796 showing the same site whose authenticity Van Der Veen and Knapp question.<ref name="Van Der Veen & Knapp">Van Der Veen & Knapp</ref>
[[File:Vincent van Gogh - Sheet with Many Sketches of Figures - F1652R JH2071.jpg|thumb|F1652r: ''Sheet with Many Sketches of Figures'', [[Private collection]]]]
:*A sheet of figure studies F1652r (right) has at its upper left a young girl seen from behind very close to the lower rightmost girl in the painting.{{Clarify|date=February 2021}}<ref>De La Faille p.304</ref> The profile of a young girl to the right on the sheet is recognizably Adeline Ravoux, daughter of the innkeeper at the [[Auberge Ravoux]]
* F802 ''Village Street'' is a considerable curiosity as it was one of ten paintings exhibited at a [[Salon des Artistes Indépendants]] exhibition in 1891 a year after van Gogh's death.<ref>De La Faille pp. 643, 691</ref> The catalogue entry read ''Village (dernière esquisse)'' i.e. "Village (last work)". There is no mention of the painting in the letters and presumably its unfinished nature was responsible for calling it van Gogh's last painting. Pickvance notes the energy of the painting, betraying no indication of a tormented mind.<ref>Pickvance p. 248</ref> Hulsker noted its lively colour accents give it a cheerful aspect, to be found repeatedly in other paintings of the same sort at this time.<ref name= H458>Hulsker p. 458</ref> Van Der Veen & Knapp think it was part of a series of views of the village made between the end of May and the beginning of June and that it is unfinished simply because van Gogh abandoned it, dissatisfied with the results he was getting.<ref>Van Der Veen & Knapp p. 91</ref> It has the distinction of being the first van Gogh painting ever to be purchased by a museum, the [[Ateneum]] purchasing it in 1903 from the estate of [[Julien Leclercq (poet)|Julien Leclercq]], who had organised one of the earliest van Gogh exhibitions.<ref>{{cite web|title=International collection |url=http://www.ateneum.fi/en/international-collection |website=ateneum.fi |publisher=[[Arteneum]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140309173959/http://www.ateneum.fi/en/international-collection |archive-date=2014-03-09 }}</ref>
* De La Faille gives the location of F805 ''Houses at Auvers'' as 2 Rue Marceau ({{Coord|format=dms|49|4|16.21|N|2|8|58.99|E}}), about 200 yards east of 5 Rue de Gré. However, the correct address is 4 Rue Marceau. There were originally two farms, from the Caffin Family and the Youtte Family. Albert Caffin was the mayor of the town, who also signed Vincent Van Gogh's death certificate.<ref>De La Faille p. 306</ref> Hulsker includes it amongst his list of cheerful canvases enlivened by colour accents.<ref name= H458 /> Van Der Veen and Knapp place the painting as a continuation of van Gogh's early exploration of the village, contrasting it with the Dutch cottage F90 ''[[:commons:File:1885 van Gogh Bauernhaus in Nuenen anagoria.JPG|Cottage and Woman with a Goat]]'' he had painted a few years before in Nuenen and a companion piece to F83 ''The Cottage'' he had considered redoing as one of his "reminisces of the North" in Saint-Rémy.<ref name="Letter 863" group=L /> They note the use of complementary colours, for example the blue shadow of the foreground cottage cast on the yellow path.<ref>Van Der Veen & Knapp p. 92</ref> The painting was awarded top prize at the [[Boston Museum of Fine Arts]]' first "[[Crowdsourcing#Crowdvoting|crowd-sourced]]" exhibition{{mdash}}"Boston Loves Impressionism".{{efn-ua|"The public was given the opportunity to cast their votes on a group of 50 Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces from the MFA's collection.... With 4,464 votes, van Gogh's Houses at Auvers won the top prize, perhaps indicating the public's shifting allegiance from Monet and the Impressionists towards Post-Impressionism. However, [[Cézanne]]—who can also be categorized as a Post-Impressionist—has only one work voted into the show." the top three works at the exhibition were: 1. Houses at Auvers, 1890, Vincent van Gogh (4,464 votes); 2. [[Water Lilies]], 1907, [[Claude Monet]] (3,543 votes); 3. [[Little Dancer of Fourteen Years|Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer]], original model 1878–81, cast after 1921, [[Edgar Degas]] (2,869 votes)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mfa.org/news/Boston_Loves_Impressionism_Winners |first1=Karen |last1=Frascona |title=Vincent van Gogh's 'Houses at Auvers' Voted Boston's Favorite Impressionist Painting: Unveils First 'Crowdsourced' Exhibition |date=14 February 2014 |publisher=Museum of Fine Arts |work=Exhibition, Boston Loves Impressionism |location=Boston, Massachusetts |access-date=6 March 2015}}</ref> }}
== Provenance ==
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The painting was first shown at the 1905 Amsterdam exhibition and has been since exhibited all over the world, including at the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]].<ref name="MOMA">New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Van Gogh in Saint-Remy and Auvers, 1986, no. 63, pp. 234, 235, repr. (col.).</ref><ref>Pickvance p. 234, 235, repr. (col.)</ref>
==See also==
*[[List of works by Vincent van Gogh]]
== Notes ==
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*{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fdCzDt666RMC&q=toledo+Houses+at+Auvers&pg=PA47 |work=Vincent Van Gogh |title=Oil paintings by van Gogh in American museums |first1=Alfred H. |last1=Barr |isbn=978-0-7146-2039-8 |publisher=Taylor & Francis, Routledge
|date=28 February 1967}}
*{{cite book |last1=Erickson |first1=Kathleen Powers |title=At Eternity's Gate: The Spiritual Vision of Vincent van Gogh |url=https://archive.org/details/ateternitysgate00eric |url-access=registration |year=1998 |publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company |isbn=0-8028-4978-4 }}
*{{cite book|last=De La Faille|first=Jacob Baart|title=The works of Vincent van Gogh|year=1970|publisher=Meulenhoff|location=Amsterdam|edition=3rd |oclc=300160639}}
*{{cite book
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*{{cite web |url=http://classes.toledomuseum.org:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/People$00404087/1?t:state:flow=3fa304c4-7a6c-4703-b68d-e1fb75b89d46 |title=''Houses at Auvers'' |publisher=Toledo Museum of Art |work=Our Collection, E-museum |access-date=9 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402104757/http://classes.toledomuseum.org:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/People$00404087/1?t:state:flow=3fa304c4-7a6c-4703-b68d-e1fb75b89d46 |archive-date=2 April 2015 |url-status=dead }} {{ndash}} includes bibliography.
* [https://www.flickr.com/photos/7208148@N02/5508121887 2011 photo of the site]
*{{commons-inline}}
{{Vincent van Gogh}}
[[Category:Paintings by Vincent van Gogh]]
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