Courtesan (after Eisen)
Currently on view
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Paris, October-November 1887
oil on cotton, 100.7 cm x 60.7 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Van Gogh based this painting on a woodcut by the Japanese artist Kesai Eisen. The print had been reproduced on the cover of the magazine Paris illustré in 1886. Van Gogh used a grid to copy and enlarge the Japanese figure. He used bright colours and bold outlines, as if it were a woodcut.
We can tell the woman is a courtesan by her hairstyle and the belt (obi) that she is wearing, which is tied at the front of her kimono rather than at the back. Van Gogh framed her with a pond full of water lilies, bamboo stems, cranes and frogs. This scene has a hidden meaning: grue (crane) and grenouille (frog) were French slang words for 'prostitute'.
- F-number
- F0373
- JH-number
- JH1298
- Object number
- s0116V1962
- Dimensions
- 100.7 cm x 60.7 cm, 117.5 cm x 77.5 cm
- Provenance
- Left by the artist at the apartment of his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris, October-November 1887; after Theo’s death on 25 January 1891, inherited by his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, Paris; administered until her death on 2 September 1925 by Jo van Gogh-Bonger, Bussum/Amsterdam/Laren; given on loan by Jo van Gogh-Bonger to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, from 1917 to 1919; given on loan from Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren, to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, since 22 October 1931; transferred by Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren, on 10 July 1962 to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam; agreement concluded on 21 July 1962 between the Vincent van Gogh Foundation and the State of the Netherlands, in which the preservation and management of the collection, and its placing in the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, to be realized in Amsterdam, is entrusted to the State; given on loan until the opening of the museum on 2 June 1973 to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from 2 June 1973 and at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, since 1 July 1994.
- artist
- Vincent van Gogh
- Credits (obliged to state)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Van Gogh & Japan, 24 March 2018 - 24 June 2018
Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art (Kyoto), Van Gogh & Japan, 20 January 2018 - 4 March 2018
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Museu Picasso, Devorar París. Picasso 1900-1907, 1 July 2011 - 16 October 2011
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Nagoya, The Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Van Gogh in context, 26 July 2005 - 25 September 2005, no. 64
Ōsaka, National Museum of Art, Van Gogh in context, 31 May 2005 - 18 July 2005, no. 64
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