Landscape with Houses and Two Diggers
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, March-April 1890
pencil, chalk, on paper, 23.5 cm x 32.0 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
During bouts of illness at the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh frequently thought of returning to the Netherlands. He produced a series of paintings and drawings he called _Reminiscences of the North_. ‘And while my illness was at its worst, I still painted, among other things a reminiscence of Brabant, cottages with mossy roofs and beech hedges’, [he wrote](http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let864/letter.html) in April 1890. This drawing shows Dutch-style houses with low hedges in the hilly landscape around Saint-Rémy. Van Gogh usually took reality as the starting point for his art, but here he merges that reality with memories of his native region. He placed agricultural labourers – a frequent theme of his in the Netherlands – prominently in the foreground. He was not so impressed, however, by southern French peasants. ‘In our country one sees men, women, children, animals at work everywhere and at all times of the year, and here not a third of that, and in addition they’re not the honest workers of the north. They seem to work the land in an awkward, lax way, without energy’, [he wrote](http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let779/letter.html) to his brother Theo.
- F-number
- F1594r
- JH-number
- JH1915
- Object number
- d0229V1962r
- Dimensions
- 23.5 cm x 32.0 cm
- artist
- Vincent van Gogh
- Credits (obliged to state)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Mons, BAM - Beaux-Arts Mons, Van Gogh in de Borinage. De geboorte van een kunstenaar, 25 January 2015 - 17 May 2015
Genoa, Palazzo Ducale (Genua), Van Gogh e il viaggio di Gauguin, 12 November 2011 - 30 April 2012
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London, Marlborough Fine Art Ltd, Van Gogh's life in his drawings. Van Gogh's relationship with Signac, 1 May 1962 - 1 June 1962, no. 93
Copenhagen, Charlottenborg, Vincent van Gogh. Udstilling af malerier og tegninger, 22 June 1946 - 14 July 1946, no. 97
Malmö, Malmö Museum, Vincent van Gogh. Utställning anordnad till förmån för svenska hollandshjälpen, 29 May 1946 - 16 June 1946, no. 68
Gothenburg, Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Vincent van Gogh. Utställning anordnad till förmån för svenska hollandshjälpen, 3 May 1946 - 26 May 1946, no. 93
Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Vincent van Gogh. Utställning anordnad till förmån för svenska hollandshjälpen, 8 March 1946 - 28 April 1946, no. 93
Heerlen, Raadhuis, Vincent van Gogh, 8 February 1946 - 24 February 1946, no. 125
Bonnefantenmuseum, Vincent van Gogh, 12 January 1946 - 28 January 1946, no. 125
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Vincent van Gogh, 14 September 1945 - 1 December 1945, no. zonder nr.
Ed. by E. van Uitert and M. Hoyle; with contrib. from H. van Crimpen ... [et al.], The Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, 1987, p. 466
Jean Schwind, Van Gogh's "Starry Night" and Whitman : a study in source, p. 9
Marco Goldin ; translated by David Kerr, Van Gogh and Gauguin's journey : variations on a theme, 2011
Sjraar van Heugten ; Marije Vellekoop, Leo Jansen, Bart Moens ... [et al.], Van Gogh in de Borinage : de geboorte van een kunstenaar, 2015, p. 27, 128, 256
Marije Vellekoop, Roelie Zwikker ; met medew. van Monique Hageman, Vincent van Gogh tekeningen : Arles, Saint-Rémy & Auvers-sur-Oise 1888-1890 : Van Gogh Museum : 4, 2007, p. 331-336