Plaster Cast of a Woman's Torso

Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890), Paris, February-March 1887

oil on canvas, 40.8 cm x 27.1 cm

Credits (obliged to state): Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

The more you zoom in, the better you can see that Van Gogh used a large network of thin brushstrokes to suggest the forms of the human body. It's almost as if he were drawing in thin paint. You can also see the contrasting colours: green, orange-red and purple. But if you look from a distance (or through your eyelashes), all those colours melt into a warm grey.

Van Gogh based the female torso in this painting on one of his favourite plaster casts: a small copy of a classical sculpture of Venus.

F-number
F0216g
JH-number
JH1055
Object number
s0199V1962
Dimensions
40.8 cm x 27.1 cm, 49.1 cm x 35.5 cm
Provenance
Left by the artist at the apartment of his brother Theo van Gogh, Paris, February-March 1887; 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 to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam, 10 July 1962; 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)

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