Oil Painting

Object/Work🔺

• Catalog Level:🔺 item (value type: controlled list)
• Type:🔺 painting (value type: authority)

Classification

• Terms:🔺
  paintings
  European Art (value type: controlled list)

Titles or Names🔺

• Text:🔺 Irises (value type: free text)
  Preference: preferred (value type: controlled list)
  Type: repository (value type: controlled list)
  Language: English (value type: controlled list)

• Text:🔺 Les Iris
  Preference: alternate
  Language: French

• Text:🔺 Piante di iris
  Preference: alternate
  Language: German

• Text:🔺 Irysy
  Preference: alternate
  Language: Polish

• Text:🔺 Irissen
  Preference: alternate
  Language: Dutch

Creation🔺

• Creator Description:🔺 Vincent van Gogh (Dutch painter and draftsman, 1853-1890) (value type: free text)

• Identity:🔺 Gogh, Vincent van (value type: authority)
  Role:🔺 painter

• Creation Date:🔺 1889 (value type: free text)
  Earliest:🔺 1889 Latest:🔺 1889 (value type: controlled format)

• Creator Place/Original Location: Saint Rémy de Provence (Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur, France) (value type: authority)

Style/Period/Group/Movement

• Indexing Terms:
  Impressonist
  Post Impressionist (value type: authority)

Measurements🔺

• Dimensions Description:🔺 71 x 93 cm (28 x 36 5/8 inches) (value type: free text)

• Value: 71 Unit: cm Type: height
  Value: 93 Unit: cm Type: width (value type: controlled format and controlled lists)

Materials and Techniques🔺

• Description:🔺 oil on canvas, applied with brush and palette knife (value type: free text)

• Material Name:
  oil paint Role: medium
  canvas Role: support (value type: authority)

• Technique Name: impasto
  Technique Implement: palette knife
  Technique Implement: brush (value type: authority)

Inscriptions/Marks

• Transcription or Description: signed, lower right: “Vincent” (value type: free text)

Subject Matter🔺

• Indexing Terms:🔺
  botanical
  nature
  irises
  regeneration
  soil (value type: authority)

Descriptive Note

• Text: This work was painted when the artist was recuperating from a severe attack of mental illness; it depicts the garden at the asylum at Saint Rémy. The cropped composition, divided into broad areas of vivid color with monumental irises overflowing the borders of the picture, was probably influenced by the decorative patterning of Japanese woodblock prints. There are no known drawings for this painting; Van Gogh himself considered it a study. His brother Theo recognized its quality and submitted it to the Salon des Indépendants in September 1889, writing to Vincent of the exhibition: “[It] strikes the eye from afar. It is a beautiful study full of air and life.” (value type: free text)

• Citation: J. Paul Getty Museum. Handbook of the Collections. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1991 (value type: authority)
  Page: 129 (value type: free text)

Current Location🔺

• Repository Name/Geographic Location:🔺 Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, California, United States) (value type: authority)
  Repository Numbers:🔺 90.PA.20 (value type: free text)

Exhibition/Loan History

• Exhibition Title or Name: Salon des Indépendents of 1889 (value type: free text)

• Date: September 1889 (value type: free text)
  Earliest: 1889-09-01 Latest: 1889-09-30 (value type: controlled format)

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NOTE: 🔺 indicates a core CDWA category.

Revised 23 July 2024
by Emily Benoff