Landscape on Martinique

Currently on view

Charles Laval (1861 - 1894), Martinique, 1887-1888

oil on canvas, 59.7 cm x 73.1 cm

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

A woman enters the scene from stage left, as it were. The long, slender trunks of the trees on each side of the foreground function like the side-pieces of a theatre set. This is an old trick for creating an illusion of depth. In this case, however, the extreme symmetry makes the effect slightly disconcerting.

Charles Laval painted this landscape on the Caribbean island of Martinique. He travelled there with his friend Paul Gauguin in 1887. Their style was then so similar that for a long time this painting was attributed to Gauguin.

Object number
s0378V1982
Dimensions
59.7 cm x 73.1 cm, 77.5 cm x 91.5 cm
Provenance
Purchased by Andries Bonger, Amsterdam, probably through Theo van Gogh, before 1904; after his death on 20 January 1936 inherited by his widow, Françoise W.M. Bonger-van der Borch van Verwolde, Amsterdam; sold by Françoise W.M. Bonger-van der Borch van Verwolde to the Theo van Gogh Stichting, Laren, 1974; given on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, 1974; transferred by the Theo van Gogh Foundation to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam, 15 October 1982; given on permanent loan to the Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh from 15 October 1982, and at the Van Gogh Museum since 1 July 1994.
artist
Charles Laval
Credits (obliged to state)
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Ongekend. Verhalen rond 10 jaar aanwinsten, 5 February-12 September 2021

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Gauguin en Laval op Martinique, 5 October 2018-13 January 2019

Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Gauguin y el viaje a lo exótico, 9 October 2012-13 January 2013, no. 4

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Paul Gauguin. De doorbraak naar moderniteit, 19 February-6 June 2010

Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, Paul Gauguin: Paris, 1889, 4 October 2009-18 January 2010

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Odilon Redon en Emile Bernard : meesterwerken uit de collectie van Andries Bonger, 10 April-20 September 2009, no. 95

Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Van Gogh in context, 26 July-25 September 2005, no. 101

Ōsaka, National Museum of Art, Van Gogh in context, 31 May-18 July 2005, no. 101

Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art (Tokyo), Van Gogh in context, 23 March-22 May 2005, no. 101

Indianapolis, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Van Gogh and the Labors of the Field, 15 January-9 June 2002

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Van Gogh en zijn Franse vrienden. Het cloisonisme als stijl 1886-1891, 9 April-14 June 1981, no. 132

Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, Vincent van Gogh and the Birth of Cloisonism, 24 January-22 March 1981, no. 132

Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, De verzameling van Theo van Gogh. Met uitzondering van de werken van zijn broer Vincent, 31 March-11 May 1953, no. 27c

Otterlo, Kröller-Müller Museum, De verzameling van Theo van Gogh. Met uitzondering van de werken van zijn broer Vincent, 1953, no. 27c

The Hague, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, De verzameling van Theo van Gogh. Met uitzondering van de werken van zijn broer Vincent, 1953, no. 27c

Vergeest, Aukje, The French collection : nineteenth-century French paintings in Dutch public collections, 2000, p. 210-211

Dijk, Maite van, Hoeven, Joost van der, Crussard, Sylvie, Rechnitzer Pope, Karen Kristine, Gauguin and Laval in Martinique, 2018, p. 91

Dijk, Maite van, Hoeven, Joost van der, Crussard, Sylvie, Rechnitzer Pope, Karen Kristine, Gauguin en Laval op Martinique, 2018, p. 91

Dijk, Maite van, Hoeven, Joost van der, Crussard, Sylvie, Rechnitzer Pope, Karen Kristine, Gauguin et Laval en Martinique, 2018, p. 91

Brettell, Richard Robson, Schneider, P., Ruiz del Árbol, M., Gauguin y el viaje a lo exótico, 2012, p. 83, 86-87, 257

Darley, Esther, Suijver, Renske, Masterpieces in the Van Gogh Museum, 2019, p. 121

Darley, Esther, Suijver, Renske, Meesterwerken in het Van Gogh Museum, 2019, p. 121

Leeman, Fred, Roos Rosa de Carvalho, Fleur, Vergeest, Aukje, Stolwijk, Chris, Odilon Redon and Emile Bernard : masterpieces from the Andries Bonger collection, 2009, p. 91, 121

Leeman, Fred, Roos Rosa de Carvalho, Fleur, Vergeest, Aukje, Stolwijk, Chris, Odilon Redon en Emile Bernard : meesterwerken uit de collectie van Andries Bonger, 2009, p. 82, 91, 121

Lemonedes, Heather, Thomson, Belinda, Juszczak, Agnieszka, Stolwijk, Chris, Stanton, M., Paul Gauguin : de doorbraak naar moderniteit, 2009, p. 146-149, 223, 239

Lemonedes, Heather, Thomson, Belinda, Juszczak, Agnieszka, Stolwijk, Chris, Stanton, M., Paul Gauguin : the breakthrough into modernity, 2009, p. 146-149, 205, 223, 240

Uitert, Evert van, Hoyle, Michael, Crimpen, Han van, The Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, 1987, p. 356

Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh te Amsterdam : verslag van de directeur over het jaar 1974, 1976, p. 90

Uitert, Evert van, Stolwijk, Chris, Van Gogh in context : collection from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam and the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, 2005, p. 146

Leeuw, Ronald de, Van Gogh Museum : schilderijen en pastels, 1993, p. 122-123

Leeuw, Ronald de, Tilborgh, Louis van, Esner, Rachel, Becker, Edwin, Heugten, Sjraar van, Leeman, Fred, Vriend, Anita, Van Gogh Museum Journal 1995, 1995, p. 190-191

Gogh, Vincent Willem van, De verzameling van Theo van Gogh : met uitzondering van de werken van zijn broer Vincent = La collection de Theo van Gogh : excepté les oeuvres de son frère Vincent, 1953, [unpaged]

Welsh-Ovcharov, Bogomila, Vincent van Gogh and the birth of Cloisonism, 1981, p. 361

Search in the collection