Saintes-Maries (Van Gogh series)

Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries, June 1888, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (F413)

Saintes-Maries is the subject of a series of paintings that Vincent van Gogh made in 1888. When Van Gogh lived in Arles, he took a trip to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer on the Mediterranean sea, where he made several paintings of the seascape and town.

Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

In June 1888 Van Gogh took a 30-mile stagecoach trip from Arles to the sea-side fishing village of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer on the coast of the Mediterranean sea. Van Gogh's week-long trip was taken to recover from his health problems and make some seaside paintings and drawings. At that time Saintes-Maries was a small fishing village with under a hundred homes.^[1]

Seaside

In just a few days he made two paintings of the sea, one of the village and nine drawings. One of the paintings was Van Gogh Museum's Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (F413), which he described to his brother, Theo: "I made the drawing of the boats when I left very early in the morning, and I am now working on a painting based on it, a size 30 canvas with more sea and sky on the right. It was before the boats hastened out; I had watched them every morning, but as they leave very early I didn't have time to paint them."^[2] Some of the work on the painting was finished in the studio, such as capturing the light in the sand, sea and sky.^[1]

Another seascape Van Gogh made was The Sea at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (F415) in which he sought to capture light's effect on the sea. He wrote that the "Mediterranean Sea is a mackerel color: in other words, changeable – you do not always know whether it is green or purple, you do not always know if it is blue, as the next moment the ever-changing sheen has assumed a pink or a gray tint." The setting includes fishing boats returning to the village. To emphasize contrast to the color green in the painting, Van Gogh signs his name in large bright letters.^[3]

Fishing Boats at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (F1433) is one of Van Gogh's reed pen drawings of Saint-Maries which he based on his painting The Sea at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer (F415). The fluid movements of Van Gogh's pen bring an energy to the drawing, not intended to be a mimetic copy. Both his choice of the reed pen and the "placement of tiered-patterned strokes" reflect the influence of Japanese prints. He brings life to the painting through technique. The Pointillist dotted sky accentuates the clouds. Whitecaps are evoked by the vertical lines and horizontal lines portray the calmer sea in the distance.^[4]

Seascape at Saintes-Maries (Fishing Boats at Sea) was painted six years after Van Gogh wrote that he wished to paint a seaside painting of sand, sea and sky. In this painting the combination of a high horizon and boats close to the top edge of the frame, draw the audience in to the choppy sea in the foreground and center of the picture. He also made three drawings of this composition.^[1]

The Sea at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, 1888, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (F415)
Fishing Boats at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, Pen and ink and pencil, June 1888, St. Louis Museum of Art (F1433)
Seascape at Saintes-Maries (Fishing Boats at Sea), 1888, Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia (F417)
Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries, Reed pen, 1888, Private collection (F1428)
Boats at Saintes-Maries, Reed pen and ink over graphite on wove paper, Late July-early August 1888, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries, watercolor, 1888, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (F1429)

Town

In the painting View of Saintes-Maries (F416) Van Gogh painted rows of what is likely lavendar from the foreground to the town of Saintes-Maries in the center of the frame, thereby drawing the viewer into the painting. A wall encloses the town in which a large church becomes the focal point. The painting takes upon a three-dimensional appearance, starting with relief-like layers of blue paint in the sky. Finer brushstrokes were used on the field and town buildings.^[1]

Three White Cottages in Saintes-Maries, 1888, Kunsthaus Zürich (F419)
Street in Saintes-Maries, Reed pen, 1888, Private Collection (F1434)
Street in Saintes-Maries, 1888, Private Collection (F420)
View of Saintes-Maries, 1888, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands (F416)

The Philadelphia Museum of Art owns a drawing that Van Gogh made titled The Road at Saintes-Maries. It is also known as Cottages in Saintes-Maries (F1436).^[5]

References

1 2 3 4 Beaujean, 48-89.
↑ "Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, 1888". Permanent Collection. Van Gogh Museum. 2005–2011. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
↑ "The Sea at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, 1888". Permanent Collection. Van Gogh Museum. 2005–2011. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
↑ "Fishing Boats at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, 1888". Collection. St. Louis Museum of Art. 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
↑ "The Road at Saintes-Maries". Collections. Philadelphia Museum of Art. 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-21.

Bibliography

Beaujean, D (2000). Van Gogh: Life and Work. Cologne: Konemann. ISBN 3-8290-2938-1

Vincent van Gogh

General	Biography Chronology Health Death Posthumous fame Cultural depictions List of works Post-Impressionism Auberge Ravoux Café du Tambourin The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Family	Theo van Gogh Wil van Gogh Johanna van Gogh-Bonger Andries Bonger Theo van Gogh (film director) Anton Mauve Johannes Stricker

Friends	Anthon van Rappard Paul Gachet Paul Gauguin Émile Bernard John Peter Russell Eugène Boch Anna Boch Agostina Segatori

Groups of works	Self portraits Portraits Early works Lost early works Sien Peasant Character Studies Cottages Van Gogh's family in his art Montmartre Le Moulin de la Galette Asnières Seine Wheat Fields Flowering Orchards Almond Blossoms Langlois Bridge at Arles Saintes-Maries Paintings of Children Décoration for the Yellow House The Roulin Family Hospital in Arles Butterflies Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy The Enclosed Wheat Field at Saint-Rémy Trees and Undergrowth Copies by Vincent van Gogh Olive Trees Display at Les XX, 1890 Auvers size 30 canvases Auvers Double-squares and Squares Japonaiserie Sunflowers Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Netherlands) Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Paris) Meadows near Rijswijk and the Schenkweg Houses at Auvers

Paintings	The 'Laakmolen' near The Hague Girl in White in the Woods Lying Cow Farmhouses Among Trees Bulb Fields Drawbridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam Old Church Tower at Nuenen Cart with Black Ox Cart with Red and White Ox Avenue of Poplars in Autumn Still Life with Straw Hat The Potato Eaters Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette Poppy Flowers Wheat Field with a Lark View of Paris from Vincent's Room in the Rue Lepic Portrait of Père Tanguy A Woman Walking in a Garden Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin Landscape with Snow La Mousmé The Night Café The Yellow House Café Terrace at Night Starry Night Over the Rhône Portrait of the Artist's Mother Bedroom in Arles Falling Autumn Leaves L'Arlésienne The Red Vineyard Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) Les Arènes Interior of a Restaurant in Arles A Lane near Arles View of Arles, Flowering Orchards Arles: View from the Wheat Fields Sunset at Montmajour Crab on its Back Two Crabs Irises The Starry Night Self-portrait (1889) A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul Enclosed Field with Peasant Green Wheat Field with Cypress Ivy Farmhouse in Provence Road with Cypress and Star At Eternity's Gate Thatched Cottages and Houses Portrait of Dr. Gachet Doctor Gachet's Garden in Auvers Houses at Auvers White House at Night Girl in White The Church at Auvers Daubigny's Garden Farms near Auvers Blossoming Chestnut Branches View of the Asylum and Chapel of Saint-Rémy Wheatfield with Crows Tree Roots Still Life: Vase with Pink Roses

Other works	Drawings, water-colours and prints 87 Hackford Road Sorrow Marsh with Water Lilies Torso of Venus and a Landscape

Public collections	Van Gogh Museum Kröller-Müller Museum Musée d'Orsay

Portrayals	Lust for Life (novel film) Van Gogh (1948 film) Vincent (1987 film) Vincent & Theo (1990 film) Vincent (1990 opera) Van Gogh (1991 film) Vincent in Brixton (2003 play) "Vincent and the Doctor" (2010 TV episode) Van Gogh (2017 film)

Cataloguers	Jacob Baart de la Faille (1928 and 1970; "F") Jan Hulsker (1978, revised 1989; "JH")

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