Thatched Cottages in Chaponval Auvers sur Oise

Vincent van Gogh

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Keywords: ThatchedCottagesChaponvalAuversOise

Work Overview

Thatched Sandstone Cottages in Chaponval
Vincent van Gogh
Date: 1890; France *
Style: Post-Impressionism
Genre: landscape
Media: oil, canvas
Dimensions: 65 x 81 cm
Location: Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland


On Sunday 8 June, Theo, Jo and baby visited Vincent and they all had dinner together at Dr. Gachet. The following Tuesday 10 June, van Gogh wrote to say he had since completed two more studies in "the greenery" (i.e. the suburbs). Hulsker thought these were most likely F758 Farmhouses in Jorgus with figures and F806 Farmhouse with two figures.[29][L 8] Van Der Veen & Knapp describe F758 as extremely crude, a reminder that not everything from a master is masterful, nevertheless pointing out the masterly economy of the figure on the right and the line of chickens to her left. By contrast the figure on the left is quite unfinished. Similarly F806 is unfinished in parts, especially at the lower right where there is bare canvas. The brushwork is indistinct and the sky lacks definition.[30]


JH2116: Sketch C Letter 902
F780 Thatched Cottages in Auvers depicts the thatch on a cottage being renewed. The location is the same one in Chaponval as F759 Houses in Auvers (i.e. the subject of this article), featuring the same house with a pointed roof and distinctive chimney (the leftmost house in F758 is the rightmost house in F780 seen at right angles). However, whereas F759 was painted shortly after van Gogh arrived in Auvers, F780 would seem to have been amongst the last of van Gogh's paintings, as he encloses a sketch of it (right) in his last letter to Theo of 23 July.[B][L 9] Both Hulsker and De La Faille date it July 1890.[33][34] Both Pickvance and Van Der Veen & Knapp note that it is compositionally similar to F420 Row of Cottages at Saintes Maries painted some two years earlier on a day trip from the asylum at Saint-Rémy.[35][36]
Van Der Veen and Knapp describe F792 Thatched Cottages at Cordeville as characteristic of the village views van Gogh made at this time. The colors are subdued and no use of complementary colors is made. The location is quite likely 18 Rue Rajon (49°4′27.80″N 2°11′11.09″E).[37] Hulsker places it amongst the earliest of the Auvers paintings.[38] De La Faille notes similarities of location with drawing F1637r.