Giant Peacock Moth
Currently on view
Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, May-June 1889
oil on canvas, 33.5 cm x 24.5 cm
Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
In May 1889 Vincent wrote to his brother Theo, 'Yesterday I drew a very large, rather rare night moth there which is called the death’s head, its coloration astonishingly distinguished: black, grey, white, shaded, and with glints of carmine or vaguely tending towards olive green; it’s very big. To paint it I would have had to kill it, and that would have been a shame since the animal was so beautiful.'
Later he decided to paint the moth after all, using his drawing as a model. Van Gogh called it a 'death's-head moth' and depicted a kind of skull on the back of its body. It was actually a giant peacock moth, however – a species that has only stripes there.
- F-number
- F0610
- JH-number
- JH1702
- Object number
- s0189V1962
- Dimensions
- 33.5 cm x 24.5 cm, 52 cm x 42 cm
- Provenance
- With his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris, after June 1889; after his 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; transferred by Vincent Willem van Gogh, Laren, on 10 July 1962 to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam; agreement concluded 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, 21 July 1962; 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)
Arles, Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, Souffler de son souffle, 27 November 2021 - 1 May 2022
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Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art (Kyoto), Van Gogh & Japan, 20 January 2018 - 4 March 2018
Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Van Gogh & Japan, 24 October 2017 - 8 January 2018
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Williamstown, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Van Gogh and Nature, 14 June 2015 - 13 September 2015
Amsterdam, Hermitage Amsterdam, Vincent. Het Van Gogh Museum in de Hermitage Amsterdam, 29 September 2012 - 25 April 2013
Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, Van Gogh: Up Close, 25 May 2012 - 3 September 2012
Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Van Gogh: Up Close, 26 January 2012 - 6 May 2012
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Tierschau. Wie unser Bild vom Tier entstand, 16 March 2007 - 5 August 2007
Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), Carnegie Museum of Art, Fierce Friends. Artists & Animals in the Industrial Era 1750-1900, 25 March 2006 - 27 August 2006, no. zonder nr.
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