THE YELLOW HOUSE (1887–1888)
Vincent van Gogh’s moods fluctuated with the seasons. He was often chronically ill during the colder winter months no matter where he lived. Suffering from an ongoing cough (probably from a prolific liking for tobacco), general malaise (probably from a limited diet that kept him near starvation and definitely malnourished) and increasingly displaying uncontrolled mental illness, Vincent sought a change during the winter of 1887–1888.
With his newfound acceptance in the contemporary art community — even with his argumentative temperament — Vincent’s dreams of art were renewed. Friends that included Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Emile Bernard, Camille Pissarro and John Russell likely bolstered Vincent’s confidence and inspired a renewed view of his own capabilities. So, he headed south away from Paris to Arles with the hopes of starting an artist’s community and school.
Vincent’s time in Paris had been more than productive. During the two years he spent there he produced over 200 works. Although some have indicated that Vincent’s move to southern France was due, at least in part, to a desire to escape the busy pace of Paris, Vincent’s pace in Arles was similarly manic — it is said that he produced 14 paintings of orchards in one month. Also, despite a desire to shake the general feeling of malaise that haunted him during the cold winters of the north, Vincent’s destructive personal habits followed him to Arles. In fact it seems Arles was the place to foster those bad habits — according to artist Christian Mourier-Petersen, one of Vincent’s companions in Arles, the city was exotic, filthy, and full of brothels and drunks. One Arles resident, Jeanne Calment, who was interviewed in 1995 at the age of 113 recalls Vincent as, “dirty, badly dressed, disagreeable… very ugly, ungracious, impolite, and sick.”
On 1st May 1897 Vincent began planning a move to №2 Place Lamartine, known as the Yellow House. The Yellow House is not only where Vincent lived, it is also the subject of his painting — The Yellow House. We can learn quite a bit about Vincent through this painting — he lived in the right wing of the Yellow House while the left wing was a grocery store. He leased the entire right wing, using two rooms on the ground floor as a studio and kitchen and two rooms on the upper floor as a bedroom and guestroom. It was here — in the Yellow House — that Vincent hosted Paul Gauguin for more than two months that fall. Gauguin was housed in the upper right room while Vincent’s bedroom was the upper left room of the right wing of the house.
During the time he was in Arles Vincent produced some of his best known works including Bedroom in Arles, The Night Café, The Café Terrace on the Place Du Forum, Arles at Night and Joseph Roulin (The Postman). His use of color was impressive and his dream of having his work displayed in a local art gallery seems to indicate Vincent’s fame as well as his mood were on the rise. Yet — even during what seemed to be a bright spot in the artist’s life, Vincent’s fate was ever present.
