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The Yellow House

Vincent van Gogh, 1888

Vincent van Gogh's The Yellow House, painted in 1888, is part of the collection of the Van Gogh Museum. It shows the building in Arles where he rented rooms and set up a studio, painted in strong yellows set against a deep blue sky.

Where to see it

The Yellow House is held by the Van Gogh Museum. The museum may rotate works, lend them to other institutions, or close galleries for maintenance, so check the Van Gogh Museum's official website for current display status before you plan your visit. The canvas measures 72 x 91.5 cm, a moderate size that rewards standing both at a distance, to take in the whole street scene, and up close, to see the brushwork.

What to look for in person

Yellow against blue

Start by stepping back and noticing the colour contrast that structures the whole picture. The warm yellow of the house and the sunlit ground sits against a dark, intense blue sky. Van Gogh was deeply interested in complementary and contrasting colours during his time in the south of France, and here the effect makes the buildings seem to glow. Notice that the sky is not a soft, airy blue but a dense, almost solid band of colour across the top of the canvas.

The house and its neighbours

Look at the corner building with its green shutters and door. This is the house where Van Gogh lived and worked, and he painted it as part of an ordinary street rather than isolating it as a portrait of a single building. Neighbouring houses, shopfronts and a pink-toned facade crowd beside it. Take time to compare the different window shapes and wall surfaces: Van Gogh varied his strokes and tones to give each building its own character while keeping the scene unified.

Life in the street and beyond

Move closer and scan the middle and background. Small figures walk along the street, and a road leads the eye past the houses. In the distance, look for railway bridges, with a train passing over one of them, its smoke drifting into the sky. These details turn the picture from a study of architecture into a view of a working neighbourhood. Up close, you can also see how loosely the ground in the foreground is painted compared with the more defined buildings.

About the painting

In 1888 Van Gogh moved from Paris to Arles in the south of France, drawn by its light and colour. There he rented part of a yellow-painted house on a square near the edge of town, which he used as his home and studio. He hoped it could become a base for a community of artists working together, an idea often referred to as the 'Studio of the South'. The painter Paul Gauguin later came to stay with him there for a period, a famously difficult collaboration that ended at the close of 1888.

The Yellow House records this place at a hopeful moment. Van Gogh described the house and its surroundings in his letters, and the painting reflects his pleasure in the bright buildings under a strong southern sky. Rather than a romantic or picturesque view, it is a plain, everyday street: houses, passers-by, a road and a railway beyond. That ordinariness is part of its appeal for visitors today, because it lets you see the setting of one of the most productive phases of his career.

The house itself no longer stands in its original form; it was badly damaged during the Second World War. The painting therefore also serves as a visual record of a building closely tied to the artist's life.

When you visit, it is worth considering the work alongside other paintings Van Gogh made in Arles, if they are on view, to see how he used similar bold colour contrasts across subjects ranging from interiors to landscapes.

Key facts

More by Vincent van Gogh

• Café Terrace at Night — Kröller-Müller Museum
• White House at Night
• The siesta (after Millet) — Musée d'Orsay
• The Church at Auvers — Musée d'Orsay
• Portrait of Père Tanguy
• Starry Night Over the Rhône — Musée d'Orsay
• The Potato Eaters — Van Gogh Museum
• The Red Vineyard
• Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin — Van Gogh Museum
• Irises — J. Paul Getty Museum
• Langlois Bridge at Arles with Women Washing, The — Kröller-Müller Museum
• Blossoming chestnut trees — Kröller-Müller Museum

Sources

• Wikidata Q2200610
• www.vangoghmuseum.nl