While in Arles, Van Gogh painted two very similar portraits of Marie Ginoux, the proprietress of the Café de la Gare, wearing the regional costume of the legendary dark-haired beauties of Arles. The first version, which he described in a letter of November 1888 as "an Arlésienne . . . knocked off in one hour," must be the more thinly and summarily executed portrait in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. In it a parasol and gloves lie on the table instead of books. This portrait belonged to the sitter until she sold it in 1895.
Artist:Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, Zundert 1853–1890 Auvers-sur-Oise)
Date:1888–89
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:36 × 29 in. (91.4 × 73.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Sam A. Lewisohn, 1951
Object Number:51.112.3
the sitter, Arles (by 1889–95; gift of the artist; sold through Henri Laget on October 17, 1895 for Fr 60 to Vollard); [Ambroise Vollard, Paris, 1895–97; sold as "dame jaune" in May 1897 for Fr 150 to Alice Ruben-Faber, possibly for her sister, Ella Ruben]; possibly Ella Ruben, Copenhagen (from 1897); Bernt Grönvold, Copenhagen and Berlin (by 1912–17; bought in Copenhagen for DM 3,000; sold on June 20, 1917 for DM 100,000 to Cassirer); [Paul Cassirer, Berlin, 1917; stock no. 2988; sold on July 3 for DM 133,000 to Falk]; Sally Falk, Mannheim (1917–19; consigned to Cassirer, April 11, 1918; sold through Cassirer, stock no. 3430, on April 17, 1919 for DM 200,000 to Winter); Moritz Winter, Warsaw (from 1919); Fritz Schön, Basel and Grunewald, Berlin (by 1924–26); [Stephan Bourgeois, New York, 1926]; Adolph Lewisohn, New York (1926–d. 1938; cat., 1928, pp. 151–52, ill. p. 153 and in color on frontispiece); his son, Sam A. Lewisohn, New York (1938–d. 1951)
Berlin. Ausstellungshaus am Kurfürstendamm. "XXIV. Ausstellung der Berliner Secession," April–May 1912, no. 81.
Berlin. Paul Cassirer. "Vincent van Gogh: Zehnte Ausstellung," May–June 1914, no. 80 (lent by Bernt Grönvold, Berlin).
Düsseldorf. Galerie Alfred Flechtheim. "Expressionisten," Easter–mid-May, 1919, unnumbered cat. (ill. pp. 5, 88, overall and installation view).
Kunsthalle Basel. "Vincent van Gogh," March 27–April 21, 1924, no. 43 (lent by a private collection, Basel).
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Vincent van Gogh," July 3–August 10, 1924, no. 41 (lent by a private collection, Basel).
Berlin. Paul Cassirer. "Impressionisten-ausstellung," September–October 1925, no. 22 [see La Faille 1928 and Kuhn 1925].
New York. Reinhardt Galleries. "Loan Exhibition of Paintings from El Greco and Rembrandt to Cézanne and Matisse," January 15–29, 1927, no. 24 (lent by Mr. Adolph Lewisohn).
Cambridge, Mass. Fogg Art Museum. "Exhibition of French Painting of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries," March 6–April 6, 1929, no. 92.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "First Loan Exhibition: Cézanne, Gauguin, Seurat, van Gogh," November 7–December 7, 1929, no. 73.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Summer Exhibition: Retrospective," June 15–September 28, 1930, no. 107.
New York. M. Knoedler & Co. "Pictures of People: 1870–1930," April 6–18, 1931, no. 2.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Taste of Today in Masterpieces of Painting before 1900," July 10–October 2, 1932, no catalogue.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Exhibition of Modern European Art," October 4–25, 1933, unnumbered cat.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Modern Works of Art," November 20, 1934–January 20, 1935, no. 16 (lent by the Adolph Lewisohn collection).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Summer Exhibition: The Museum Collection and a Private Collection on Loan," June 4–September 24, 1935, unnum. checklist.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Vincent van Gogh," November 4, 1935–January 5, 1936, no. 39.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition," June 26–October 4, 1936, no. 318.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Summer Exhibitions: Painting & Sculpture from the Museum Collection and on Loan," June 23–November 4, 1937, no catalogue.
New York. Wildenstein & Co., Inc. "Great Portraits from Impressionism to Modernism," March 1–29, 1938, no. 47 (lent by The Adolph Lewisohn Collection, New York City).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Art in Our Time," May 10–September 30, 1939, no. 69 (lent by the Lewisohn Collection, New York).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Modern Masters from European and American Collections," January 26–March 24, 1940, no. 11 (lent by the Lewisohn Collection, New York).
New York. World's Fair. "Masterpieces of Art: European & American Paintings, 1500–1900," May–October 1940, no. 358 (lent by the Lewisohn collection, New York).
New York. Wildenstein. "The Art and Life of Vincent van Gogh," October 6–November 7, 1943, no. 36 (lent by Sam Lewisohn).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Paintings from New York Private Collections," July 2–September 22, 1946, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Van Gogh: Paintings and Drawings," October 21, 1949–January 15, 1950, no. 87.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Van Gogh: Paintings and Drawings," February 1–April 15, 1950, no. 87.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Lewisohn Collection," November 2–December 2, 1951, no. 37.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art Treasures of the Metropolitan," November 7, 1952–September 7, 1953, no. 151.
Paris. Musée de l'Orangerie. "De David à Toulouse-Lautrec: Chefs-d'œuvre des collections américaines," April 20–July 5, 1955, no. 33.
New York. Plaza Theatre. "Benefit performance of 'Lust for Life'," September 17, 1956, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries," November 14, 1970–June 1, 1971, no. 385.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Van Gogh as Critic and Self-Critic," October 30, 1973–January 6, 1974, no. 4.
Toronto. Art Gallery of Ontario. "Vincent van Gogh and the Birth of Cloisonism," January 24–March 22, 1981, no. 30.
Amsterdam. Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh. "Vincent van Gogh and the Birth of Cloisonism," April 9–June 14, 1981, no. 30.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Van Gogh in Arles," October 18–December 30, 1984, no. 121.
Leningrad [St. Petersburg]. State Hermitage Museum. "From Delacroix to Matisse," March 15–May 10, 1988, no. 41.
Moscow. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. "From Delacroix to Matisse," June 10–July 30, 1988, no. 41.
Amsterdam. Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh. "Vincent van Gogh: Paintings," March 30–July 29, 1990, no. 75.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Van Gogh: Face to Face," July 2–September 24, 2000, unnumbered cat. (fig. 181).
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Van Gogh: Face to Face," October 22, 2000–January 14, 2001, unnumbered cat. (fig. 181).
Art Institute of Chicago. "Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South," September 22, 2001–January 13, 2002, no. 86.
Amsterdam. Van Gogh Museum. "Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South," February 9–June 2, 2002, no. 86.
Madrid. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. "Gauguin and the Origins of Symbolism," September 28, 2004–January 9, 2005, no. 51 (as "L'Arlésienne. Madame Ginoux").
Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "Melancholie: Genie und Wahnsinn in der Kunst," February 17–May 7, 2006, not in catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde," September 14, 2006–January 7, 2007, no. 123.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde," February 17–May 13, 2007, no. 123.
Paris. Musée d'Orsay. "De Cézanne à Picasso: Chefs d'oeuvre de la galerie Vollard," June 19–September 16, 2007, no. 155.
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters," January 23–April 18, 2010, no. 72 (as "L'Arlésienne: Madame Joseph-Michel Ginoux with Books").
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Van Gogh Repetitions," March 2–June 1, 2014, no. 17.
Amsterdam. Van Gogh Museum. "Van Gogh & Japan," March 23–June 24, 2018, unnumbered cat. (as "The Arlésienne [Marie Ginoux]").
Detroit Institute of Arts. "Van Gogh in America," October 2, 2022–January 22, 2023, no. 45.
Karl Scheffler. "Berliner Secession." Kunst und Künstler 10 (1912), p. 440, ill. p. 435, as in the Bernt Grönvold collection.
Robert Walser. "Zu der Arlesierin von Van Gogh." Kunst und Künstler 10 (1912), pp. 442–43 [English transl. published in Walser 2015, pp. 48–49], contemplates the mysterious and long-suffering quality of the picture’s subject; writes that it was painted with a “katholisch-feierlichen” (solemn Catholicism), as if by a “frühchristlicher Mensch und Meister hergestellt” (early Christian master).
G. "Ausstellungen: Berlin." Kunstchronik, n.s., 25 (July 1914), p. 571, as lent by Bernt Grönvold to the Cassirer exhibition.
Julius Meier-Graefe. "Erinnerung an van Gogh." Berliner Tageblatt und Handels-Zeitung 43 (June 23, 1914), p. 2 [reprinted in Malte Lohmann, ed., "Erinnerungen an Vincent van Gogh: Texte von Augenzeugen," Wädenswil, 2009, p. 232, ill. p. 233 (color)], recounts his encounter with Marie Ginoux, the model for the series (whom the author repeatedly calls "the Arlésienne") and quotes her as saying that the artist was "the best human being she had ever known".
Théodore Duret. Van Gogh Vincent. Paris, 1916, p. 54, pl. 35.
Paul Westheim. "Erinnerung an eine Sammlung." Kunstblatt 8 (August 1918), p. 234, ill. p. 237.
Robert Walser. "Das Van Gogh-Bild." Neue Zuricher Zeitung (May 5, 1918), p. 1 [reprinted in Sämtliche Werke, vol. 16, Frankfurt and Zürich, 1985, pp. 344–47; see Ref. Meier 1990; English transl. published in Walser 2015, pp. 43–47], discusses the ordinariness and solemnity of the subject and praises its formal qualities.
Curt Glaser. Vincent van Gogh. Leipzig, 1921, pl. 13.
Julius Meier-Graefe. Vincent. Munich, 1921, vol. 1, pp. 137–39, 173–74 [English ed., Vincent van Gogh, trans. John Holroyd Reece, London, 1922, vol. 1, pp. 126-28, vol. 2, pp. 24-25; later English ed., New York, 1933, p. 159], compares Van Gogh's "Arlésienne" to a portrait of an actor's head by the Japanese artist Sharaku; records a conversation between Van Gogh and Gauguin concerning Van Gogh's "Arlésienne," both or neither of which citations may refer to this particular work; illustrates three other versions of the subject.
Kurt Pfister. Vincent van Gogh. Potsdam, 1922, pl. 41.
Gustave Coquiot. Vincent van Gogh. Paris, 1923, pp. 187–88, 285, 289.
Louis Piérard. The Tragic Life of Vincent van Gogh. London, 1925, p. 104, [French ed., Paris, 1924].
Alfred Kuhn. "Impressionisten-Ausstellung bei Paul Cassirer." Kunstchronik und Kunstmarkt, n.s., 35 (October 3, 1925), p. 444.
"Chronik." Kunst und Künstler 24 (1926), pp. 417–18, announces its sale by Bourgeois to Lewisohn and notes that it once belonged to Grönvold.
"Lewisohn Buys Van Gogh's Famous 'Arlesienne'." Art News 24 (March 27, 1926), p. 1, ill.
Forbes Watson. "American Collections No. III: The Adolph Lewisohn Collection." The Arts 10 (July 1926), pp. 25–26, 28, ill. on cover, erroneously states that this version was exhibited at the Berlin Secession in 1901.
Frank Jewett Mather Jr. "Painting from Dan to Beersheba." The Arts 11 (February 1927), p. 75.
Der Querschnitt 6 (June 1927), ill. p. 474, [see Ref. La Faille 1928].
J.-B. de La Faille. L'Epoque française de Van Gogh. Paris, 1927, p. 46.
J.-B. de La Faille. L'Oeuvre de Vincent van Gogh: Catalogue Raisonné. Paris, 1928, vol. 1, pp. 139–40, no. 488; vol. 2, pl. 135.
Stephan Bourgeois. The Adolph Lewisohn Collection of Modern French Paintings and Sculptures. New York, 1928, pp. 151–53, ill. (black and white, and color on frontispiece).
Robert Allerton Parker. "French Art in an American Collection." International Studio 90 (August 1928), p. 73, ill.
"New Modern Art Museum Opens Exhibit Today." New York Herald Tribune (November 7, 1929), p. 48.
Royal Cortissoz. "French Painting in the Opening Show." New York Herald Tribune (November 10, 1929), p. G10.
J. F. "Items." New Yorker (November 30, 1929), p. 38, jokes that the sitter looks like Mary Baker Eddy.
Dorothy Grafly. "'Ancestor' Show Assembles Art of 'Modern' Pioneers." Philadelphia Public Ledger (November 10, 1929), p. 65?, states that at the same time that it delineates the strong character of the woman depicted it also reveals the artist's own personality; calls it "a bold, living, vibrating thing".
Forbes Watson. "The Fogg Museum Celebrates." The Arts 15 (April 1929), p. 234.
H[elen]. C[omstock]. "Van Gogh in 1929: Europe and America." International Studio 93 (June 1929), p. 41, ill. p. 38 (color).
Edith von Térey. "Die Sammlung Adolph Lewisohn, New York." Kunst und Künstler 27 (August 1929), p. 418.
R. H. Wile[n]ski. French Painting. Boston, 1931, pp. 296, 303–4, pl. 122.
Stephan Bourgeois and Waldemar George. "The French Paintings of the XIXth and XXth Centuries in the Adolph and Samuel Lewisohn Collection." Formes nos. 28–29 (1932), pp. 301, 305, ill. (color).
"L'Arlésienne, by Van Gogh: Vanity Fair's Series of Modern Painters, no. 5." Vanity Fair 41 (October 1933), p. 23, ill. p. 22 (color).
Alfred H. Barr Jr. "Painter, Mystic." Wings 7 (December 1933), p. 15, mentons it in the caption to an illustration of the Orsay version (F489).
"In the World of Art: Modern European Paintings." Mid-Week Pictorial 38 (October 14, 1933), ill. p. 10.
Alfred H. Barr Jr., ed. Modern Works of Art. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1934, pp. 12, 24, no. 16, pl. 16, dates it 1888.
Hans Tietze. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935, p. 345, pl. 303.
Daniel Catton Rich. "A Note on Sharaku's Influence in Modern Painting." Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 29 (January 1935), pp. 5–6, ill.
Daniel Catton Rich. "Gauguin in Arles." Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 29 (March 1935), p. 36.
James W. Lane. "Current Exhibitions." Parnassus 7 (December 1935), p. 27.
Marie Zoe Mercier. "Museum of Modern Art." Commonweal (February 15, 1935), p. ?, calls the picture "splendid".
Edward Alden Jewell. "Realm of Art: The Warfare that was Van Gogh." New York Times 85 (November 10, 1935), section 9, ill. p. 9.
Margaret Breuning. "Vincent van Gogh." Parnassus 7 (November 1935), p. 20.
"Art of Van Gogh Has First Full Showing in U.S." New York Herald Tribune 95 (November 5, 1935), p. 21.
Lamberto Vitali. Vincent van Gogh. Milan, 1936, pp. 9, 12–13, pl. 13.
Wilhelm Uhde and Ludwig Goldscheider. Vincent van Gogh. Vienna, 1936, p. 14, pl. 50, pp. 4, 8 of back matter.
W. Scherjon and Jos. De Gruyter. Vincent van Gogh's Great Period: Arles, St. Rémy and Auvers sur Oise (complete catalogue). Amsterdam, 1937, p. 19 n. 1, pp. 147–48, Arles no. 118, ill., erroneously identify this painting with the study of a "faded woman" with "strange eyes" mentioned in Van Gogh Letters 1958, letter no. 582.
Sam A. Lewisohn. Painters and Personality: A Collector's View of Modern Art. [New York], 1937, p. 56, colorpl. 28, [also published as "Van Gogh: Salvation in Paint," Art News 36 (October 2, 1937), p. 20].
J.-B. de La Faille. Vincent van Gogh. London, [1939], pp. 365, 569, 573, 587, no. 515, ill.
Thomas Craven, ed. A Treasury of Art Masterpieces, from the Renaissance to the Present Day. New York, 1939, pp. 542–43, colorpl. 132.
Sam A. Lewisohn. "Personalities Past and Present." Art News, section I (The 1939 Annual), 37 (February 25, 1939), p. 155, ill. p. 69 (installation photo of Lewisohn's home), states that they bought it in 1926, and that it was shipped from Switzerland.
Mary H. Piexotto. "Famous Art Collections: The Lewisohn Collection." Studio 117 (March 1939), p. 95, ill. p. 107 (color).
James S. Plaut. The Sources of Modern Painting. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Boston, 1939, p. 80, ill., compares it to Sharaku's actor prints, two of which are illustrated on p. 81.
R. H. Wilenski. Modern French Painters. New York, [1940], p. 80, states that it is patterned after Gauguin's "Old Women at Arles" (Art Institute of Chicago).
W[ilhelm]. Uhde and Ludwig Goldscheider. Vincent van Gogh. New York, 1941, p. 11, pl. 67 [German ed., Vienna, 1936].
Preface by Edward Alden Jewell inFrench Impressionists and Their Contemporaries Represented in American Collections. New York, 1944, ill. p. 134 (color).
Lionello Venturi. Painting and Painters: How to Look at a Picture, from Giotto to Chagall. New York, 1945, pp. 172–73, fig. 39.
Åke Meyerson. "Van Gogh and the School of Pont-Aven." Konsthistorisk tidskrift 15 (1946), pp. 143, 146, fig. 19.
Fiske Kimball and Lionello Venturi. Great Paintings in America. New York, 1948, pp. 204–5, no. 95, ill. (color).
Carl Nordenfalk. Vincent van Gogh. Amsterdam, [1948], p. 130, [1st ed., Stockholm, 1943].
Lionello Venturi. Impressionists and Symbolists. Vol. 2, New York, 1950, pp. 193–94, fig. 192.
Meyer Schapiro. Vincent van Gogh. New York, 1950, pp. 21, 34, 88–89, ill. (color).
William Gaunt. "Van Gogh: The Man in His Time." Art News Annual 19 (1950), p. 63, ill. (color).
Werner Weisbach. Vincent van Gogh: Kunst und Schicksal. Vol. 2, Basel, [1951], pp. 100–102, pl. 55.
Jean Leymarie. Van Gogh. [Paris], 1951, pp. 44–45, 90, 109, no. 73, ill.
Wilhelm Uhde and Ludwig Goldscheider. Vincent van Gogh. 3rd ed. Vienna, [1951], p. 14, pl. 54, pp. 4, 8 of back matter.
René Huyghe. Le Carnet de Paul Gauguin. Paris, 1952, pp. 75, 77.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 43.
Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), p. 7, ill. p. 55.
James Thrall Soby. De David à Toulouse-Lautrec: Chefs-d'œuvre des collections américaines. Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris, 1955, unpaginated, no. 33, pl. 78, dates it November 1888.
John Rewald. Post-Impressionism: From Van Gogh to Gauguin. 1st ed. New York, 1956, p. 260, ill. p. 261 [3rd, rev. ed., 1978, pp. 238, 240, ill. p. 239].
"Museum Lends Van Gogh to Premiere of Film on Artist." New York Times (September 15, 1956), p. 23, ill. (installation photo).
Walter Pach. Letter to Lewis Mumford. June 2, 1957 [published in Perlman 2002], mentions that James Rorimer had recently published an article in which he included it among The Met's "best-loved pictures nowadays".
A. Hyatt Mayor. "The Gifts that Made the Museum." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 16 (November 1957), p. 106, calls it "Van Gogh's sulphurously bilious Arlésienne".
August Kuhn-Foelix. Vincent van Gogh: Eine Psychographie. Bergen, Germany, 1958, p. 120.
Frank Elgar. Van Gogh: A Study of His Life and Work. New York, 1958, pp. 164–65, no. 153, ill.
John Canaday. Mainstreams of Modern Art. New York, 1959, pp. 372–73, fig. 447, dates it 1887.
Kurt Badt. Die Farbenlehre Van Goghs. Cologne, 1961, pp. 76, 127, colorpl. 21 (detail).
Charles Sterling and Margaretta M. Salinger. French Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 3, XIX–XX Centuries. New York, 1967, pp. 185–88, ill., call the Orsay version (F489) "very probably a repetition" of this picture.
Margaretta M. Salinger. "Windows Open to Nature." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27 (Summer 1968), unpaginated, ill., identifies this version as the one painted by Van Gogh in one hour, from the model.
Jean Leymarie. Van Gogh. [1st ed., 1968]. New York, 1977, pp. 128, 140, 166, 208, ill. p. 129 (color).
Marc Edo Tralbaut. Vincent van Gogh. New York, 1969, pp. 241, 243, 264 [French ed., "Van Gogh, le mal aimé"], publishes a photograph from the Archives Internationales de van Gogh (property of the author) of Mme Ginoux in old age.
J.-B. de La Faille. The Works of Vincent van Gogh: His Paintings and Drawings. Amsterdam, 1970, pp. 219–20, 630–31, no. 488, ill.
Mark Roskill. Van Gogh, Gauguin, and French Painting of the 1880s: A Catalogue Raisonné of Key Works. Ann Arbor, Mich., 1970, p. 69, calls the Orsay version (F489) a "straightforward pastiche" by a later hand.
Mark Roskill. Van Gogh, Gauguin, and the Impressionist Circle. Greenwich, Conn., 1970, pp. 82–83, 140–42, 146, 155, 297, pl. 60, sees in it a combination of the influence of Japan and of Puvis de Chavannes, relating it to a Kaigetsudo print (pl. 62) reproduced in a periodical that Van Gogh had received from his brother in September 1888, and to two Puvis portraits about which he had written to Bernard in August 1888; compares it to Gauguin's depictions of the same model.
Paolo Lecaldano. L'opera pittorica completa di Van Gogh e i suoi nessi grafici. Vol. 2, Da Arles a Auvers. repr. [1st ed., 1966]. Milan, 1971–77, pp. 215–16, no. 610, ill., calls it the first of Van Gogh's portraits of this model.
Wladyslawa Jaworska. Gauguin and the Pont-Aven School. [first ed., Neuchâtel, 1971]. Greenwich, Conn., 1972, p. 65, ill. p. 64, as by Gauguin.
Hope Benedict Werness. "Essays on van Gogh's Symbolism." PhD diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1972, pp. 47, 61 n. 37.
Matthias Arnold. "Duktus und Bildform bei Vincent van Gogh." PhD diss., Ruprecht-Karl University, Heidelberg, 1973, pp. 173, 195 n. 439.
Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov, ed. Van Gogh in Perspective. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1974, p. 157, reprints Ref. Nordenfalk 1948, identifying the work he mentions as this picture.
Anne Stiles Wylie. "Coping with a Dizzying World." Vincent 3, no. 1 (1974), p. 13, fig. 8.
Pierre Descargues. Vincent van Gogh. Paris, 1975, pp. 98–99, ill.
Rosemary Treble. Van Gogh and His Art. New York, 1975, p. 87, colorpl. 67.
Vojtech Jirat-Wasiutynski. Paul Gauguin in the Context of Symbolism. PhD diss., Princeton University. New York, 1978, pp. 101–2, 411, pl. 63.
Jan Hulsker. The Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Sketches. [1st ed., Amsterdam, 1977]. New York, 1980, pp. 372, 374, no. 1624, ill.
Klaus Berger. Japonismus in der westlichen Malerei: 1860–1920. Munich, 1980, pp. 142, 361, fig. 93, compares it to Harunobu's print "Girl Painting Flowers" (fig. 94), reproduced in a periodical received by Van Gogh, and also mentions the possible influence of the work of Shuncho.
Griselda F. S. Pollock. "Vincent van Gogh and Dutch Art." PhD diss., Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 1980, vol. 1, pt. 2, pp. 329–330; vol. 1, pt. 3, pp. 472, 511–12 n. 93, pp. 592, 613 n. 107; vol. 2., pt. 2, fig. 192.
Paul Hefting. Vincent van Gogh: A Detailed Catalogue of the Paintings and Drawings by Vincent van Gogh in the Collection of the Kröller-Müller National Museum. 4th rev. ed. Otterlo, 1980, p. 110 [1st Dutch ed., 1957; 1st English ed., 1959].
Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov. Vincent van Gogh and the Birth of Cloisonism. Exh. cat., Art Gallery of Ontario. Toronto, 1981, pp. 142–44, 188, no. 30, ill., believes it to be less indebted to Gauguin than is usually claimed; illustrates a postcard from about 1913 (fig. 54) depicting an Arlésienne in similar dress.
A[braham]. M. Hammacher and Renilde Hammacher. Van Gogh: A Documentary Biography. New York, 1982, pp. 169, 172, fig. 155 (color).
Ronald Pickvance. Van Gogh in Arles. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1984, pp. 206–10, no. 121, ill. (color), believes the Paris canvas (F489) to be the original version of the composition, and the work mentioned in Van Gogh's letters [see Refs. 1888 and 1889]; suggests that the MMA picture may have been painted for the sitter just before Van Gogh left Arles in May 1889; gives biographical information on the sitter.
Ronald Pickvance The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lecture at symposium held in conjunction with "Van Gogh in Arles" exhibition. November 17, 1984, notes the similarity between Mme Ginoux's pose and that of the sitter in Degas's "A Woman Seated Beside a Vase of Flowers (Madame Paul Valpinçon?)" (MMA, 29.100.128), which was bought by Van Gogh's brother Theo for Goupil in 1887.
James Beck. "Van Gogh in Arles." Arts Magazine 59 (December 1984), ill. p. 85.
Matthias Arnold. "Van Goghs 'Arlésienne'." Kunst und Antiquitäten no. 2 (1985), pp. 66–76, fig. 2 (color).
A[braham]. M. Hammacher. Vincent van Gogh: Genius and Disaster. 2nd ed. [1st ed., New York, 1968]. New York, 1985, pp. 106–7, ill. (color).
Ronald Pickvance The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Van Gogh in Saint-Rémy and Auvers. New York, 1986, pp. 177, 317.
Peter C. Sutton. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids, Mich., 1986, pp. 194–95, fig. 280.
Sjraar van Heutgen et al. inFranse meesters uit het Metropolitan Museum of Art: Realisten en Impressionisten. Exh. cat., Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1987, p. 15, pl. 4.
Gary Tinterow et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 8, Modern Europe. New York, 1987, pp. 10, 62–63, colorpl. 42, call it probably the second version of the composition.
Albert Kostenevich. Western European Painting in the Hermitage: 19th–20th Centuries. Leningrad [St. Petersburg], 1987, pp. 306–7, claims that Mme Ginoux is included in a green dress at the lower left in "The Arena at Arles" (Hermitage, St. Petersburg), and also resembles a figure included at the left in "Memory of the Garden at Etten" (Hermitage), which was painted at about the same time as the MMA portrait.
Judy Sund. "The Sower and the Sheaf: Biblical Metaphor in the Art of Vincent van Gogh." Art Bulletin 70 (December 1988), p. 669 n. 61.
Walter Feilchenfeldt. Vincent van Gogh & Paul Cassirer, Berlin: The Reception of Van Gogh in Germany from 1901 to 1914. Zwolle, The Netherlands, 1988, pp. 99, 149–50, 156, ill.
Judy Sund. "Favoured Fictions: Women and Books in the Art of Van Gogh." Art History 11 (June 1988), pp. 256–60, 266 n. 2, pl. 39.
Haruo Arikawa. "A New Point of View on Van Gogh's Portrait Paintings." Vincent Van Gogh: International Symposium. Ed. Shuji Takashina et al. Tokyo, 1988, p. 41, discusses the painting as one of the artist's meditation-themed portraits that draw on the art historical tradition of the personification of "Meditation" as the image of a woman with a book and one hand supporting her cheek (found in Cesare Ripa's "Iconologia" and still before).
Ettore Camesasca. The São Paulo Collection: From Manet to Matisse. Exh. cat., Rijksmuseum Vincent Van Gogh, Amsterdam. Milan, 1989, pp. 202, 204, 207, ill.
Fritz Erpel. Vincent van Gogh: Lebensbilder, Lebenszeichen. Munich, 1989, p. 301, pl. 394, dates it "November 1888/spring 1889(?)".
Walter Feilchenfeldt. "Van Gogh Fakes: The Wacker Affair, with an Illustrated Catalogue of the Forgeries." Simiolus 19, no. 4 (1989), p. 292, states that it belonged to the painter Bernt Grönvold, was in Cassirer's account books in 1917, and was sold to Sally Falk for DM 133,000.
Evert van Uitert et al. Vincent van Gogh: Paintings. Exh. cat., Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam. Milan, 1990, p. 180, no. 75, ill. p. 183 (color), call the Paris work the first version of the subject and date both pictures November 1888; suggest that the MMA picture may have been made to repay Mme Ginoux for posing.
Hans Bronkhorst. Vincent van Gogh. New York, [1990], pp. 109, 116, 121, ill. p. 110 (color), believes the Paris work (F489) is probably the version mentioned in Van Gogh's letters [see Refs. 1888 and 1889], but dates both pictures November 1888.
Marian Bisanz-Prakken inVincent van Gogh and the Modern Movement: 1890–1914. Exh. cat., Museum Folkwang, Essen. Freren, Germany, 1990, p. 422, mentions Van Gogh's portraits of Mme Ginoux as an influence on Egon Schiele's work from 1909 to about 1912.
Fred Leeman inVincent van Gogh and the Modern Movement: 1890–1914. Exh. cat., Museum Folkwang, Essen. Freren, Germany, 1990, p. 248, ill. p. 250, calls it the prototype for Jan Sluyters's "Woman Reading" (cat. no. 89; Stedelijk Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven) of 1911.
Andreas Meier inVincent van Gogh and the Modern Movement: 1890–1914. Exh. cat., Museum Folkwang, Essen. Freren, Germany, 1990, pp. 62–63, discusses Robert Walser's writings on this picture [see Refs. 1912 and 1918].
Roland Dorn. Décoration: Vincent van Goghs Werkreihe für das Gelbe Haus in Arles. PhD diss., Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität zu Mainz. Hildesheim, 1990, pp. 44, 153–55, 247 n. 44, p. 255 n. 104, pp. 407–13, 435.
Giovanni Testori and Luisa Arrigoni. Van Gogh: Catalogo completo dei dipinti. Florence, 1990, p. 266, no. 590, ill., date it November 1888.
Anna G. Barskaya and Albert G. Kostenevich. The Hermitage Catalogue of Western European Painting: French Painting, Mid-Nineteenth to Twentienth [sic] Centuries. Florence, 1991, pp. 177, 179, Barskaya dates both the Paris and New York versions of the portrait October 1888; Kostenevich calls the MMA version the first one, dating the Paris work after November 1888.
Georg Brühl. Die Cassirers: Streiter für den Impressionismus. Leipzig, 1991, pp. 114, 121, 336, states that Grönvold bought it in Copenhagen for DM 3,000, and that he had already owned it a number of years by 1912.
Jan Hulsker. "Van Gogh, Roulin and the Two Arlésiennes, a Re-examination: Part II." Burlington Magazine 134 (November 1992), p. 712, fig. 19, argues that the Paris portrait is the original version of the subject, that it is the work mentioned in the letters [see Refs. 1888 and 1889], and that the New York picture must have been presented to Mme Ginoux early on.
Judy Sund. True to Temperament: Van Gogh and French Naturalist Literature. Cambridge, 1992, pp. 207, 209–12, 236–37, 312 n. 23, colorpl. 10, identifies the Paris work as the first version, the one Van Gogh claimed to have completed in an hour or less [see Refs. 1888 and 1889].
Cornelia Homburg. "Affirming Modernity: van Gogh's 'Arlésienne'." Simiolus 21, no. 3 (1992), p. 133.
Carol Zemel. Vincent van Gogh. New York, 1993, unpaginated, colorpl. 5.
Roland Dorn inStiftung und Sammlung Sally Falk. Mannheim, 1994, pp. 137–38, 152, 190, 195, gives detailed provenance for the years 1917–19.
Denis Thomas. Van Gogh on Location. Edison, N.J., 1994, ill p. 64 (color).
Lauren Soth. "Vincent van Gogh Reads Harriet Beecher Stowe." Word & Image 10 (April–June 1994), pp. 160–61, fig. 2.
Matthias Arnold. Vincent van Gogh: Werk und Wirkung. Munich, 1995, pp. 155–57, 185, 817 n. 42, colorpl. 71.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 495, ill.
Jan Hulsker. The New Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Sketches. rev. ed. Amsterdam, 1996, pp. 370, 372, 374, no. 1624, ill., dates it "November 1888?".
Georg Klusmann. Vincent van Gogh: Still Life with Peonies. Mainburg, Germany, 1996, p. 87.
Håkan Larsson. Flames from the South: On the Introduction of Vincent van Gogh to Sweden. Eslöv, 1996, p. 148.
Carol Zemel. Van Gogh's Progress. Berkeley, 1997, pp. 4, 121–22, 125, fig. 1, colorpl. 7.
Martin Bailey. "Cent Van Gogh remis en question." Journal des arts no. 39 (May 30, 1997), pp. 14–15, fig. 1 (color), cites an unpublished article by Benoît Landais, who contends that the MMA work is not the version given to Mme Ginoux and therefore must be a fake, and who suggests that the painting's former owner, Émile Schuffenecker, may have painted it.
Martin Bailey. "At Least Forty-five Van Goghs May Well be Fakes." Art Newspaper 8 (July–August 1997), pp. 21–22, ill., reports that Hulsker placed a question mark after a painting's date to indicate that he is "very doubtful" about its authenticity [see Ref. Hulsker 1996].
Martin Bailey. "The New Complete Van Gogh . . . ." Apollo 145 (June 1997), p. 59.
Naomi Margolis Maurer. The Pursuit of Spiritual Wisdom: The Thought and Art of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Madison, N.J., 1998, pp. 101–2, fig. 178 (color).
Cynthia Saltzman. Portrait of Dr. Gachet: The Story of a Van Gogh Masterpiece. New York, 1998, pp. 82, 234–35, states that "according to descendants of the Ruben family, Alice's [Alice Ruben Faber] sister, Ella, owned a version of 'L'Arlésienne'" [see correspondence of June 4, 2001 in archive file].
Elisabeth Ravaud in Anne Distel and Susan Alyson Stein. Cézanne to Van Gogh: The Collection of Doctor Gachet. Exh. cat., Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. New York, 1999, p. 70 n. 8.
Nancy Forgione. "'The Shadow Only': Shadow and Silhouette in Late Nineteenth-Century Paris." Art Bulletin 81 (September 1999), pp. 500, 505, fig. 15.
Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov. Van Gogh in Provence and Auvers. [New York], 1999, pp. 35, 104, 109, 111–12, 153, 277, ill. (color).
Roland Dorn. "Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' Series: The Fifth Toile de 30." Van Gogh Museum Journal (1999), p. 44 n. 4, cites it as an example of a work not mentioned in Van Gogh's letters, and calls it "the version of the 'Arlésienne' . . . given to M and Mme Ginoux".
Judy Sund et al. inVan Gogh Face to Face: The Portraits. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 2000, pp. 114, 123, 197, 200–203, 206–8, 257 n. 147, ill. in color (2nd page of table of contents and fig. 181), date it "November 1888?".
Jill-Elyse Grossvogel. Claude-Émile Schuffenecker: catalogue raisonné. Vol. 1, San Francisco, 2000, pp. 8–9, under no. 20, in cataloguing a sketch (private collection) by Schuffenecker after the Orsay version, discusses the early provenance and exhibition history of both works, stating that Bernt Grönvold bought the MMA version from Amédée Schuffenecker in 1912.
Timothy W. Ryback. "The So-Called Van Goghs." Art News 99 (Summer 2000), pp. 186, 193, ill. (color), discusses the controversy surrounding the authenticity of this picture.
Ronald Pickvance. Van Gogh. Exh. cat., Fondation Pierre Gianadda. Martigny, 2000, pp. 281, 310.
Douglas Druick and Peter Kort Zegers et al. Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South. Exh. cat., Art Institute of Chicago. New York, 2001, pp. 245–46, 256, 356, 363, 365, 390 n. 251, 407, no. 86, fig. 137 (color), fig. 2 on p. 355 (color detail), call it the second version of the composition, dating it early December 1888 and stating that Van Gogh used a tracing of the first version (F489; Musée d'Orsay, Paris) to create it.
David Grossvogel. Behind the Van Gogh Forgeries: A Memoir. San Jose, Calif., 2001, pp. 55–56, 104, 127, 136, 150–56.
Hollis Clayson. "'Some Things Bear Fruit'? Witnessing the Bonds between Van Gogh and Gauguin." Art Bulletin 84 (December 2002), p. 684 n. 66.
Bennard B. Perlman. American Artists, Authors, and Collectors: The Walter Pach Letters, 1906–1958. Albany, 2002, p. 224.
Teio Meedendorp and Robert Verhoogt inThe Paintings of Vincent van Gogh in the Collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum. Ed. Toos van Kooten and Mieke Rijnders. Otterlo, 2003, p. 260, date the painting to December 1888.
Guillermo Solana inGauguin and the Origins of Symbolism. Exh. cat., Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Madrid, 2004, pp. 47–48, 327, no. 51, ill. p. 169 (color), calls it "L'Arlésienne. Madame Ginoux" and dates it 1888; remarks that the sitter "represents the melancholy and tormented soul of a modern woman".
Tomàs Llorens inPablo Picasso: Portraits d'Arlésiennes, 1912–1958. Exh. cat., Fondation Vincent van Gogh. [Arles], 2005, p. 24 n. 2, ill. p. 53 (color).
Walter Feilchenfeldt. By Appointment Only: Cézanne, Van Gogh and Some Secrets of Art Dealing. English ed. London, 2006, pp. 86, 296, 300–1, ill. pp. 85, 296 (color), as "L'Arlésienne (Mme Ginoux)," "L'Arlésienne," and "L'Arlésienne on a Yellow Background"; dates it to November 1888; notes that it was among 15 works by Van Gogh that were either given to the Ginoux or left behind when the artist went to Saint-Rémy ; states that the Ginoux sold it for Fr 60 along with the fourteen other paintings to Vollard, via an agent in Arles named Laget, and that it was later owned by Amédée Schuffenecker.
Jonathan Pascoe Pratt inCézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde. Ed. Rebecca A. Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2006, pp. 53, 59 n. 33, fig. 55 (color) [French ed., "De Cézanne à Picasso: Chefs-d'oeuvre de la galerie Vollard," Paris, 2007, pp. 62, 68 n. 33, p. 335, no. 155, ill. p. 60 (color)], states that the Ginoux sold it to Vollard for Fr 60 in October 1895 via Henri Laget, founder and editor of the journal "Provence artistique," and that Laget received a Fr 10 commission on the sale; citing Ref. Feilchenfeldt 2006, states that this was the first of fifteen Van Goghs that Vollard acquired in this manner.
Ann Dumas and Jonathan Pascoe Pratt inCézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde. Ed. Rebecca A. Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2006, pp. 378–79, no. 123, ill., summarize the early provenance; state that the Ginoux probably sold this version of "L'Arlésienne" to Vollard via Henri Laget and give details of the sale, including the history of Vollard's relationship with Laget; suggest that Wildenstein may have owned the painting in between Bourgeois and Lewisohn in 1926–27.
Rebecca A. Rabinow and Jayne S. Warman inCézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde. Ed. Rebecca A. Rabinow. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2006, p. 277, citing a reference to a "dame jaune" in the Vollard archives, state that Vollard probably sold it to Faber in May 1897.
Laurence Madeline. Van Gogh, Picasso. Paris, 2006, pp. 64–65, 73, 76, 99, 167 n. 12, p. 172 n. 5, p. 174 n. 7, fig. 38 (color).
Stefan Koldehoff. "Madame kam aus der Versenkung." Weltkunst 76 (April 2006), p. 107.
Stefan Koldehoff inVan Gogh and Expressionism. Ed. Jill Lloyd and Michael Peppiatt. Exh. cat., Neue Galerie, New York. Ostfildern, 2007, p. 169, fig. 2 (color), states that Bernt Grönvold, Berlin, purchased it about 1912 in Copenhagen for 3,000 DM and that Sally Falk, Mannheim, purchased it on July 3, 1917 at the Galerie Cassirer, Berlin for 133,000 DM.
Lin Arison in Lin Arison and Neil Folberg. Travels with Van Gogh and the Impressionists: Discovering the Connections. New York, 2007, pp. 25, 33.
Susan Alyson Stein inMasterpieces of European Painting, 1800–1920, in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, pp. 173, 256–57, no. 161, ill. (color and black and white).
Martin Bailey inVan Gogh: Heartfelt Lines. Ed. Klaus Albrecht Schröder et al. Exh. cat., Albertina, Vienna. Cologne, 2008, p. 81 n. 28.
Ann Dumas inThe Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 2010, p. 127.
Aukje Vergeest inThe Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 2010, pp. 134–35, no. 72, ill. (color), dates it November 1888.
Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith. Van Gogh: The Life. New York, 2011, pp. 811, 814, ill. between pp. 590 and 591 (color).
Ella Hendriks et al. Vincent van Gogh: Paintings. Vol. 2, Antwerp & Paris, 1885–1888: Van Gogh Museum. Amsterdam, 2011, p. 502 n. 3.
Ottfried Dascher. "Es ist was Wahnsinniges mit der Kunst." Alfred Flechtheim Sammler, Kunsthändler, Verleger. Wädenswil, 2011, pp. 122–23, ill. (reproduction of exh. cat. and installation view), states that the painting was included in the reopening exhibition of Flechtheim's gallery in 1919; reproduces the exhibition catalogue.
William H. Robinson inVan Gogh Repetitions. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection, Washington. New Haven, 2013, p. 9.
William H. Robinson et al. inVan Gogh Repetitions. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection, Washington. New Haven, 2013, pp. 91–96, 178, no. 17, ill. pp. 90, 95 (color, overall and detail), state erroneously that the work was once owned by Amédée Schuffenecker, confusing the provenance of the MMA painting with the Musée d'Orsay version; state that the artist must have completed the painting by May 1889, when he shipped the first version to Theo, but the order of completion is more inconclusive than stated here; include an extended comparison of the MMA picture's composition with that of the Orsay version, noting the possible use of tracing in between the two; claim erroneously that the sitter appears in the same chair from the Yellow House represented in the "La Berceuse" series and in "Gauguin's Armchair" (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam).
Eliza E. Rathbone inVan Gogh Repetitions. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection, Washington. New Haven, 2013, p. 155.
Marcia Steele and H. Travers Newton inVan Gogh Repetitions. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection, Washington. New Haven, 2013, pp. 96–99, figs. 44 (overlay with Orsay version), 45 (color detail), 46 (x-radiograph), report the results of a technical examination of the picture.
Martin Bailey. The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh's Masterpiece. London, 2013, pp.193, 226 n. 2, mistakenly identifies it as the version Matisse wanted to buy.
Walter Feilchenfeldt. Vincent van Gogh: The Years in France. Complete Paintings 1886–1890. London, 2013, pp. 107, 306, 314, 316–17, 319, 322, 324, 342, 346, ill. (color) [1st German ed., 2009], as "L'Arlésienne: Madame Ginoux with Books," dated December 1888.
Julian Bell. Van Gogh: A Power Seething. Boston, 2015, p. 137.
Wilhelm Uhde inVan Gogh. London, 2015, p. 28 [same text as Uhde and Goldscheider 1941 and 1951].
Griselda Pollock inVan Gogh. London, 2015, pp. 42–43, 45, colorpl. 67, compares the format of the painting and provincial costume of its sitter to seventeenth-century Dutch burgher portraits.
Robert Walser. Looking at Pictures. New York, 2015, pp. 43–49, ill. (color) [English transl. of Walser 1912 and 1918].
James Ottar Grundvig. Breaking Van Gogh: Saint-Rémy, Forgery, and the $95 Million Fake at the Met. New York, 2016, pp. 229–30.
Douglas Druick and Peter Zegers inGauguin Paintings, Sculpture, and Graphic Works at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ed. Gloria Groom and Genevieve Westerby. Chicago, 2016, para. 29, under no. 10, fig. 10.21 (color) [https://publications.artic.edu/gauguin/reader/gauguinart/section/139805], date it to early December 1888 in the text but, erroneously, to early December 1889 in the figure caption; contend that it emulates Guaguin’s working method by using the first, swiftly executed version of the composition as a study for a more refined final work, in the same way that Gauguin’s first drawing of Madame Ginoux (1888, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) was a study for his “Night Café at Arles” (1888, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow); argue that it was a means for Van Gogh to reconfigure “the attractions of Arles'' in order to reengage Gaugun’s interest in their faltering partnership.
Bernadette Murphy. Van Gogh's Ear: The True Story. New York, 2016, p. 74, colorpl. 2, as "Marie Ginoux (The Arlésienne)".
Stefan Koldehoff inThe Thannhauser Gallery: Marketing Van Gogh. Ed. Stefan Koldehoff and Chris Stolwijk. Brussels, 2017, pp. 144, 204.
Cornelia Homburg inVan Gogh & Japan. Ed. Tsukasa Kodera, Cornelia Homburg, and Yukihiro Sato. Exh. cat., Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo. Kyoto, 2017, p. 145.
Louis van Tilborgh inVan Gogh & Japan. Ed. Tsukasa Kodera, Cornelia Homburg, and Yukihiro Sato. Exh. cat., Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo. Kyoto, 2017, p. 86, fig. 90 (color), calls it "L'Arlessiene [sic]: Madame Ginoux with Books"; notes the artist's tendency to follow eighteenth-century Japanese prints in placing a dark figure against a yellow background.
Van Gogh & Japan. Ed. Tsukasa Kodera, Cornelia Homburg, and Yukihiro Sato. Exh. cat., Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo. Kyoto, 2017, p. 276, as "L'Arlessiene [sic]: Madame Ginoux with Books".
Louis van Tilborgh and Nienke Bakker inVan Gogh & Japan. Exh. cat., Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Brussels, 2018, pp. 8, 192.
Louis van Tilborgh inVan Gogh & Japan. Exh. cat., Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Brussels, 2018, p. 79, fig. 112 (color).
Cornelia Homburg inVan Gogh & Japan. Exh. cat., Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Brussels, 2018, p. 125.
Cornelia Homburg inGauguin Portraits. Ed. Cornelia Homburg and Christopher Riopelle. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada. Ottawa, 2019, p. 77, fig. 47 (color) [French ed., 2019].
Vincent Alessi. Popular Art and the Avant-Garde: Vincent van Gogh's Collection of Newspaper and Magazine Prints. Clayton, 2020, p. 177, locates the sitter in the café she ran with her husband; compares it in sentiment to Hubert Herkomer's print of "Heads of the People: The Agricultural Labourer—Sunday" from "The Graphic", October 19, 1875, a copy of which Alessi suggests was in Van Gogh's collection; notes that the representation of Ginoux with modern literature emphasizes her modern qualities.
Mariella Guzzoni. Vincent's Books: Van Gogh and the Writers Who Inspired Him. Chicago, 2020, pp. 164–65, 184, 189, 217 n. 23, p. 218 n. 29, ill. p. 163 (color).
Louis van Tilborgh, Teio Meedendorp, and Kathrin Pilz. "Van Gogh as Mentally Ill: His Contested Oslo Self-Portrait." Burlington Magazine 162 (February 2020), p. 101 n. 99.
Susan Alyson Stein inVan Gogh in America. Ed. Jill Shaw. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 2022, pp. 85–86, 88 nn. 86, 89, colorpl. 29, fig. 11 (cover of New York 1935–36, color).
Joost van der Hoeven and Roelie Zwikker inVan Gogh in America. Ed. Jill Shaw. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 2022, fig. 6 (installation photo of New York 1935–36), fig. 7 (Edith Cleaves Barry's painting of New York 1949–50).
Dorota Chudzicka inVan Gogh in America. Ed. Jill Shaw. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 2022, pp. 210, 218.
Jill Shaw inVan Gogh in America. Ed. Jill Shaw. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 2022, p. 237, no. 45, ill. pp. 4, 237 (color, overall and detail).
Marie Julien (1848–1911) married Joseph-Michel Ginoux (1836–1902) in 1866. Together they ran the Café de la Gare at 30, place Lamartine, in Arles. Van Gogh rented a room at the café from early May to mid-September 1888.
There is another version of this portrait with an umbrella and gloves on the table, rather than books (F489; Musée d'Orsay, Paris). Van Gogh wrote a letter to his brother Theo around November 3, 1888 [Van Gogh Letters 1958, letter no. 559/Van Gogh Letters 2009, letter no. 717] describing a painting of an Arlésienne "knocked off in one hour." Later letters also mention a painting which must be either the New York or the Paris picture, but never mention two separate versions. Although the question cannot be resolved with certainty, most authors after Pickvance (1984) believe that the Paris picture was the first version, and thus the work referred to in the letters.
For additional references see the following: Van Gogh Letters 1958, letter no. 573/Van Gogh Letters 2009, letter no. 741 [asks if Theo saw “the portrait in black and yellow of Mme Ginoux” during his visit to Arles, and states “that’s a portrait painted in 3 quarters of an hour”]; Van Gogh Letters 1958, letter no. 589/Van Gogh Letters 2009, letter no. 767 [states that he recently sent to Theo two crates of canvases (probably including a version of “L’Arlésienne)]; Van Gogh Letters 1958, letter no. 590/Van Gogh Letters 2009, letter no. 768 [possibly referring to portraits of Mme Roulin and Mme Ginoux among a batch of canvases he had just sent to Theo, states that “you’ll clearly see that the two women’s expressions are different from the expressions one sees in Paris”]; Van Gogh Letters 1958, letter no. T10/Van Gogh Letters 2009, letter no. 781 [writes that he likes the “vertical figure of a woman” and adds that it was admired by “a fellow here named Polack who knows Spain and the paintings there well. He said that it was as beautiful as one of the great Spaniards”]; Van Gogh Letters 1958, letter no. 595/Van Gogh Letters 2009, letter no. 782 [in response to Theo’s letter (see preceding ref.), writes that he is glad to hear that “there was another who found something in the yellow and black figure of a woman”]; Van Gogh Letters 1958, letter no. 625/Van Gogh Letters 2009, letter no. 850 [writes that he is anxious for an ill woman friend “whose portrait I did in yellow and black”]
Van Gogh painted four other portraits of Madame Ginoux (F540–43), all based on a drawing by Paul Gauguin (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco).
Near the end of his life, Vincent van Gogh moved from Paris to the city of Arles in southeastern France, where he experienced the most productive period of his artistic career.
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, Zundert 1853–1890 Auvers-sur-Oise)
1937
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