拍品专文
De la Faille mentions the richness of the current drawing in his note to entry no. 1585 in his catalogue:
'According to A. Bowness, in exhib. cat. van Gogh, London [Hayward Gallery] 1968-9, nr 100 (F 1585 verso), F 1585 recto is a Memory of the North. The editor, however, sees it as a member of a series in which impressions both from the North and Vincent's surrounding at that moment are mixed up. The whole series consists of the following drawings: F 1585 recto and verso, F 1587 verso, F 1588, F 1589 recto and verso, F 1596 verso, F 1600 verso, F 1601 recto and verso, F 1620 recto, F 1684 recto and verso, F 1649 verso and F 1651 recto.'
Van Gogh arrived at the asylum of Saint-Paul de Mausoée in Saint-Rémy-en-Provence on 8 May 1889 and remained there until 20 May 1890. He went there voluntarily in the hope that he might be cured and be free of the ordered life he led under doctor's orders. During his stay, he often remained in his room due to illness and copied works by Millet, Delacroix and Daumier; the artists he admired.
On 19 September, he explained to his brother Théo, 'I can assure you that making copies interests me enormously and it means that I shall not lose sight of the figure, even though I have no models at the moment. Besides, this will make a studio decoration for me or someone else'. (LT. 607, p. 215, The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, vol. III, Thames & Hudson, London, 1958).
Van Gogh applied himself to this task with great enthusiasm: from September 1889 onwards he copied twenty-one paintings after Millet alone. One of these is called 'Peasants Digging up Potatoes' (F. 694, St. Rémy, March-April 1890) to which the central two figures on the verso of this drawing are related.
Théo wrote to van Gogh on 3 May 1890 saying 'The copies after Millet are perhaps the best things you have done yet, and induce me to believe that on the day you turn to painting composition figures, we may look forward to great surprises'. (T. 133, p. 173, Ronald Pickvance, Van Gogh in Saint-Rémy and Auvers, exhibition catalogue, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 25 Nov. 1986 - 22 March 1987).
He made numerous drawing of peasants during a long illness in March and April. These drawings are what van Gogh called 'Memories of the North' and are both a return to the past and an appeal to the land of his childhood for which he was getting increasingly homesick.
'According to A. Bowness, in exhib. cat. van Gogh, London [Hayward Gallery] 1968-9, nr 100 (F 1585 verso), F 1585 recto is a Memory of the North. The editor, however, sees it as a member of a series in which impressions both from the North and Vincent's surrounding at that moment are mixed up. The whole series consists of the following drawings: F 1585 recto and verso, F 1587 verso, F 1588, F 1589 recto and verso, F 1596 verso, F 1600 verso, F 1601 recto and verso, F 1620 recto, F 1684 recto and verso, F 1649 verso and F 1651 recto.'
Van Gogh arrived at the asylum of Saint-Paul de Mausoée in Saint-Rémy-en-Provence on 8 May 1889 and remained there until 20 May 1890. He went there voluntarily in the hope that he might be cured and be free of the ordered life he led under doctor's orders. During his stay, he often remained in his room due to illness and copied works by Millet, Delacroix and Daumier; the artists he admired.
On 19 September, he explained to his brother Théo, 'I can assure you that making copies interests me enormously and it means that I shall not lose sight of the figure, even though I have no models at the moment. Besides, this will make a studio decoration for me or someone else'. (LT. 607, p. 215, The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, vol. III, Thames & Hudson, London, 1958).
Van Gogh applied himself to this task with great enthusiasm: from September 1889 onwards he copied twenty-one paintings after Millet alone. One of these is called 'Peasants Digging up Potatoes' (F. 694, St. Rémy, March-April 1890) to which the central two figures on the verso of this drawing are related.
Théo wrote to van Gogh on 3 May 1890 saying 'The copies after Millet are perhaps the best things you have done yet, and induce me to believe that on the day you turn to painting composition figures, we may look forward to great surprises'. (T. 133, p. 173, Ronald Pickvance, Van Gogh in Saint-Rémy and Auvers, exhibition catalogue, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 25 Nov. 1986 - 22 March 1987).
He made numerous drawing of peasants during a long illness in March and April. These drawings are what van Gogh called 'Memories of the North' and are both a return to the past and an appeal to the land of his childhood for which he was getting increasingly homesick.