Skip to main content

Vincent van Gogh, Two Crabs

Key facts
Full title Two Crabs
Artist Vincent van Gogh
Artist dates 1853 - 1890
Date made 1889
Medium and support Oil on canvas
Dimensions 47 × 61 cm
Acquisition credit On loan from a Private Collection
Inventory number L995
Location Room 43
Image copyright On loan from a Private Collection, © Private collection. Used by permission
Collection Main Collection
Two Crabs
Vincent van Gogh

This is thought to have been painted soon after Van Gogh's release from hospital in Arles in January 1889. On 7 January he wrote to his brother Theo: 'I am going to set to work again tomorrow. I shall start by doing one or two still lifes to get used to painting again'. He was probably also inspired by a woodcut by Hokusai, 'Crabs', which was reproduced in the May 1888 issue of 'Le Japon Artistique', sent to Vincent by Theo in September of that year. In a related painting in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, the crab is shown lying on its back. Here it is probably the same crab shown both on its back and upright. The artist has used varied brushstrokes to convey texture. Parallel strokes sculpt the creature's form on an exuberant sea-like surface.

Why can't I download this image?

The National Gallery has endeavoured to make as many images of the collection as possible available for non-commercial use. However, an image of this painting is not available to download. This may be due to third party copyright restrictions.

If you require a license for commercial use of this image, please use the National Gallery Company's Online Picture Library or contact them using the following:

Two Crabs

Vincent van Gogh

More paintings by Vincent van Gogh

(Showing 6 of 7 works)
A Wheatfield, with Cypresses
A Wheatfield, with Cypresses
Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh painted several versions of A Wheatfield, with Cypresses during the summer of 1889, while he was a patient in the psychiatric hospital of Saint-Paul de Mausole, in the village of St-Rémy in the south of France. A first version, which he described as a study, was painted on site in late J...
Room 43
Farms near Auvers
Farms near Auvers
Vincent van Gogh
On display elsewhere
Head of a Peasant Woman
Head of a Peasant Woman
Vincent van Gogh
In late 1883 Van Gogh moved to the town of Nuenen in North Brabant, in the south of the Netherlands. His arrival there marked the beginning of a highly productive period that was to culminate in his first major painting, The Potato Eaters of 1885 (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam).This picture belongs...
Not on display
Landscape with Ploughman
Landscape with Ploughman
Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh painted this view from his window at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, following a severe epileptic attack which had prevented him from painting. Typical of his work at this date, the scene is based on direct observation but is laden with personal meaning. The hardworking ploughman, tilling the...
Room 43
Long Grass with Butterflies
Long Grass with Butterflies
Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh painted this patch of meadow when he was a patient at the psychiatric hospital at Saint-Paul de Mausole, near the village of St-Rémy in the south of France. While at the hospital he made a number of sketches and paintings that look down at small areas of meadow or undergrowth.Although th...
On display elsewhere
Sunflowers
Sunflowers
Vincent van Gogh
This is one of five versions of Sunflowers on display in museums and galleries across the world. Van Gogh made the paintings to decorate his house in Arles in readiness for a visit from his friend and fellow artist, Paul Gauguin.‘The sunflower is mine’, Van Gogh once declared, and it is clear tha...
Room 43
Van Gogh's Chair
Van Gogh's Chair
Vincent van Gogh
This painting of a simple chair set on a bare floor of terracotta tiles is one of Van Gogh’s most iconic images. It was painted in late 1888, soon after fellow artist Paul Gauguin had joined him in Arles in the south of France. The picture was a pair to another painting, Gauguin’s Chair (Van Gogh...
Room 43
You've viewed 6 of 7 paintings