London’s Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers exhibition, which closed on the Nationwide Gallery earlier this 12 months, supplied the prospect to see how the artist’s works have been framed by their lucky house owners. With loans from practically 50 museums and personal collections, practically all of the work had been displayed in ornate gilded frames—which Van Gogh disliked.
Van Gogh’s The Massive Airplane Timber (Highway Menders at Saint-Rémy) (December 1889) in a typical instance of a French Baroque gilded body—it has been on the portray because it was bought by the supplier Paul Rosenberg in 1947
Cleveland Museum of Artwork ({photograph} The Artwork Newspaper)
Though most exhibition guests most likely don’t consciously discover framing, it does have a considerable visible and psychological impression on how we view work. It’s also an enchanting and comparatively little-studied side of artwork historical past.
Van Gogh favoured wood frames with out carved decoration, with a plain design, sometimes painted. As Vincent put it to his sister Wil: “If the portray appears to be like good in a easy body, why put gilding round it?”
His personal concept of framing might be seen in certainly one of his work which was within the Nationwide Gallery exhibition, the model of The Bed room (September 1889) from Chicago. Simply above the artist’s mattress he depicted what might be an imaginary panorama scene, framed merely in pure wooden and moderately crudely hanging from a string or wire on a nail.
Van Gogh’s The Bed room (September 1889)
Artwork Institute of Chicago (Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Assortment, 1926.417)
From the early 1900s Van Gogh’s work had been starting to promote and sellers began framing them to match consumers’ expectations, giving him the standing of a longtime “grasp”. This angered Paul Gachet Jr, the son of the physician who in 1890 had cared for the artist on the finish of his life. In 1905 Gachet Jr complained that “it’s an act of ethical barbarism to place gold frames round Vincent’s canvases, that straightforward, humble man”.
Uncommon framesAmidst the ocean of gilded frames within the Nationwide Gallery exhibition there have been a handful or so of moderately completely different ones that are worthy of observe. It’s fascinating to discover these few examples which break free from the standard ornate framing which Van Gogh disliked.
Most distinctive of all had been the six work on mortgage from the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, within the east of the Netherlands. These included the wonderful panorama Tree Trunks within the Grass (April 1890).
Van Gogh’s Tree Trunks within the Grass (April 1890), in its Jacob van den Bosch duplicate body
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo ({photograph} The Artwork Newspaper)
The museum’s wood frames, with barely raised sq. corners, are replicas of the early frames which Helene Kröller-Müller commissioned from round 1910 for her vital Van Gogh assortment. Designed by the Dutch inside decorator Jacob van den Bosch, they’re in an early Artwork Deco fashion.
Just about all of the Van den Bosch frames had been discarded in Nineteen Fifties, to get replaced with cheap linen-edged frames merely purchased from an artwork store. Within the Eighties some Van Goghs had been reframed once more, to a design by the architect Wim Quist. After a number of years neither the Nineteen Fifties nor the Eighties replacements had been thought to be passable.
Lastly in 2003-05 it was determined to revert to the design of the Van den Bosch frames, which had survived on two or three work, together with a Twenties forgery, Seascape at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Duplicate frames had been created from the these templates, so the museum’s assortment of Van Gogh work is now introduced on this approach.
Van Gogh’s Roses (April 1889), in its vintage gilded body and its new duplicate Gachet body
Nationwide Museum of Western Artwork, Tokyo (pictures by The Artwork Newspaper)
A Van Gogh from Japan on mortgage to the London exhibition had a reproduction body based mostly on an much more vital historic instance. Tokyo’s Nationwide Museum of Western Artwork determined to reframe their Roses (April 1889) particularly for the present, based mostly on an instance that was as soon as within the assortment of Dr Paul Gachet.
A couple of years in the past some empty frames as soon as owned by the physician had been found, deserted with a neighbour. On the again of certainly one of them was an inscription recording that it had as soon as held one other Van Gogh panorama.
Roses had been owned by Dr Gachet, bought off by his son in 1923, then purchased by the distinguished Japanese collector Kojiro Matsukata and ultimately acquired by the Nationwide Museum of Western Artwork. It due to this fact appeared applicable to reframe it within the fashion which the physician had used.
Van Gogh’s Mountains at Saint-Rémy (July 1889), in its Seventeenth-century black Italian body
Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (Thannhauser Assortment)
Mountains at Saint-Rémy (July 1889), from New York’s Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum, demonstrates the challenges of framing a Van Gogh. Its early frames are unrecorded, however when in 1965 it was donated to the museum by the supplier Justin Thannhauser it got here in an ornate Seventeenth-or 18th-century gilded body. This was modified quickly after its arrival and once more in 2007, however neither substitute body was profitable.
In 2016 it was determined to make use of a Seventeenth-century black Italian body with delicate gold marks. The curvature of Van Gogh’s brushstrokes is softly echoed by the ornamental patterning of this body. Within the Nationwide Gallery exhibition it stood out as profitable framing.
Van Gogh’s Nonetheless Life with Espresso Pot (Could 1888), with its purple and white painted ‘body’ included by the artist
Basil and Elise Goulandris Basis, Athens
Curiously, in one of many footage within the present Van Gogh has inserted his personal trompe-l’oeil ‘body’. In Nonetheless Life with Espresso Pot (Could 1888) he painted a skinny purple border across the fringe of his composition, then including a wider white border round that.
Van Gogh would presumably have hung the nonetheless life on the whitewashed partitions of his home in Arles, presumably with out a easy strip body in order that the white canvas on the sides would have visually blended in with the room. I’ve at all times imagined that he would have displayed the portray in his kitchen, near his espresso pot and crockery.
Van Gogh’s Sunflowers: Philadelphia’s model in its earlier French Baroque gilded body and within the new less complicated body within the Nationwide Gallery exhibition
Philadelphia Museum of Artwork (London body photographed by The Artwork Newspaper)
The London exhibition’s biggest success had been to recreate certainly one of Van Gogh’s “triptychs”, by displaying two of his variations of Sunflowers on both facet of La Berceuse (The Lullaby) (January 1889).
The Nationwide Gallery’s Sunflowers with a yellow background (August 1888) is in a reasonably easy Seventeenth-century Italian body which is barely distressed—previous woodworm holes, from bugs lengthy useless, might be seen on shut inspection.
The Philadelphia Museum of Artwork’s nonetheless life on a blue background has lengthy been in an ornate gilded body, most likely added by its earlier proprietor, the artist Carroll Tyson and his spouse, who donated the masterpiece in 1963. Collectively, the 2 very completely different frames as a part of a triptych would have produced a jarring impact.
Philadelphia’s answer was to reframe its portray in the same body to that of the London Sunflowers for the exhibition. It’s intentionally not an actual duplicate of the London body, because the ornamental marks are barely completely different, however from a distance most viewers would really feel they had been the identical.
Though the brand new Philadelphia body just isn’t the easy wood strips which Van Gogh had envisaged, he would most likely have most well-liked it to a gilded instance. When the portray returned after the London exhibition, the Philadelphia curators determined to retain the less complicated body.
Different Van Gogh information
On 27 August Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum issued a tricky assertion, saying it’s susceptible to closure except the Dutch ministry of tradition gives an elevated grant to assist finance the upkeep of its buildings. Director Emilie Gordenker stated that with the funding the museum “will be unable to ensure the protection of the gathering, guests and employees”. She argues that the Dutch authorities is breaking a 1962 settlement with the Van Gogh household, and it’s obliged to help. The museum is taking authorized motion in opposition to the federal government, with the difficulty resulting from come to courtroom on 19 February 2026.
REVISED: Initially printed on 17 January 2025, this weblog publish was up to date with new info on 29 August.
Martin Bailey is a number one Van Gogh specialist and particular correspondent for The Artwork Newspaper. He has curated exhibitions on the Barbican Artwork Gallery, Compton Verney/Nationwide Gallery of Scotland and Tate Britain.
Martin Bailey’s current Van Gogh books
Martin has written a variety of bestselling books on Van Gogh’s years in France: The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh’s Masterpiece (Frances Lincoln 2013, UK and US), Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence (Frances Lincoln 2016, UK and US), Starry Night time: Van Gogh on the Asylum (White Lion Publishing 2018, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale: Auvers and the Artist’s Rise to Fame (Frances Lincoln 2021, UK and US). The Sunflowers are Mine (2024, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale (2024, UK and US) are additionally now out there in a extra compact paperback format.
His different current books embody Dwelling with Vincent van Gogh: The Properties & Landscapes that formed the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, UK and US), which gives an summary of the artist’s life. The Illustrated Provence Letters of Van Gogh has been reissued (Batsford 2021, UK and US). My Pal Van Gogh/Emile Bernard gives the primary English translation of Bernard’s writings on Van Gogh (David Zwirner Books 2023, UKand US).
To contact Martin Bailey, please e-mail vangogh@theartnewspaper.com
Please observe that he doesn’t undertake authentications.
Discover all of Martin’s adventures with Van Gogh right here
