Commentary: Auvers-sur-Oise

Vincent van Gogh Daubigny's Garden June 1890 oil on canvas Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

Although Van Gogh had come to terms with his illness during the year he spent in Saint-Rémy, he was still having seizures every few months and realized that he might never be cured. On the advice of Camille Pissarro, Theo suggested that his brother move to Auvers-sur-Oise, a small town about 20 miles northwest of Paris. Its proximity to Paris would make it easier for Van Gogh to visit Theo and his family, and vice versa. In addition, Dr.Paul Gachet, who worked for the French Railroad Company and maintained a clinic in Paris, also worked several days a week at his home in Auvers. Pissarro had thought that Dr.Gachet, an amateur painter and engraver as well as a friend and collector of the impressionists, would be more sympathetic to artists than other doctors.

Van Gogh did move to Auvers and followed the therapy prescribed by Dr. Gachet -- which was to paint. The reasoning was that since his art brought Van Gogh the most satisfaction and joy this would provide him some relief and happiness. While under the care of Dr. Gachet, Van Gogh did enjoy some measure of relief.

Auvers had a secondary appeal for Van Gogh in that it had an artistic history. A number of artists, including Corot and Paul Cézanne, had worked there. Its location on the Oise River made the town an ideal source for the river scenes favored by the impressionists and post-impressionists. Another artist who took up residence in Auvers, from 1861 until his death in 1878, was Charles Daubigny. Daubigny was a landscape painter of the Barbizon school who was much admired by the impressionists. He had defended and promoted their art, securing exhibition of their work at the Paris salons. He was a father figure for artists of the younger generation.

Although Daubigny had passed away by the time Van Gogh came to Auvers, his house was something of a pilgrimage site. His widow still lived there, and Van Gogh wrote to Theo shortly after arriving in Auvers, saying that he hoped to visit her. He was taken not only with the house but with its luxurious garden, and he expressed to Theo the idea of producing a large canvas of the setting. The relatively small sketch seen here was done in preparation for the painting. It shows the garden, with the artist's house in the background. Soft pastel hues of pink and green are reminiscent of Van Gogh's Paris paintings. The picture is quiet, restful, subdued, reflecting the peace that he and others found in the garden. Van Gogh actually made two finished paintings of the garden that were twice the size of this oil sketch.

The Auvers period was very brief but phenomenally productive. Van Gogh lived there for only seventy days but painted some seventy-five canvases. It was almost as if he recognized that his time was short and he was trying to make the most of it.

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