Flying Fox
October-November 1884
oil on canvas
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
This is a type of tropical bat – an unusual subject for an artist. The one painted by Van Gogh was stuffed and mounted. Just look at its stiff, unnatural pose.
Van Gogh knew a man in Eindhoven (NL), Antoon Hermans, with a collection of more than 300 mounted exotic animals. This bat may have come from that collection. Van Gogh wanted to depict the translucent wings clearly, so he placed a light source behind them.
- F-number
- F0177a
- JH-number
- JH1192
- Object number
- s0136V1973
- Dimensions
- 41.5 x 79 , 60 x 97.5 , 8
- Provenance
- Probably left by the artist with his mother, A.C. van Gogh-Carbentus, Nuenen/Breda, sometime between November 1885 and February 1886; given in safekeeping to Janus Schrauwen, Breda, April 1888; left with Janus Schrauwen by A.C. van Gogh-Carbentus after her move to Leiden, 1889; sold by Janus Schrauwen to Jan C. Couvreur, 14 August 1902; sold by Jan C. Couvreur to Kees Mouwen Jr and Willem van Bakel, Breda, 1902-03; given on consignment by Kees Mouwen Jr and Willem van Bakel to Kunstzalen Oldenzeel, Rotterdam; 1904 sold by Kunstzalen Oldenzeel to A.F. Philips, Eindhoven, probably at their exhibition (Tentoonstelling van werken door Vincent van Gogh), cat. 36 (Vleermuis (vampier)); after his death on 7 October 1951 inherited by his widow A.H.E.M. Philips-de Jongh, Eindhoven; after her death on 7 March 1970 bequeathed to her inheritance; sold by the inheritance to the Theo van Gogh Foundation, Laren and transferred to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, 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.
- Credits (obliged to state)
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
Van Gogh and Still Life: From Tradition to Innovation, 17 October 2023-21 January 2024, no. 5
Vincent van Gogh: vitesse & aplomb, 2 March-30 June 2019
Beauté animale, 21 March-16 July 2012
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Tentoonstelling van werken door Vincent van Gogh, 10 November-18 December 1904, no. 36
The age of Van Gogh : dutch painting 1880-1895, Zwolle, 1990, p. 133-134