Girl in White

1890

Vincent van Gogh

Painter, Dutch, 1853 - 1890

Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman wearing a floppy, canary-yellow hat and a long white dress stands in a field of spring green in this vertical painting. Brushstrokes and loose dabs of paint are visible throughout. The woman’s body is angled to our left, and she looks off in that direction with bright green eyes. Her nose, eyebrows, and narrow chin are outlined with medium brown, and her pink lips are closed. Her black hair is pulled back under the hat, the wide brim of which droops down either side of her face. A sky-blue ribbon or decoration is on the front of the crown. Her dress has a high collar, a fitted bodice, long sleeves, and a long skirt. Pale pink daubs on the white dress are thickly applied so the texture of the paint can be seen on the surface of the canvas. The background is painted with long and short curved dashes of celery green layered over laurel and cool green. Several tangerine-orange dots, a few shell-pink dabs, and some angular, heart-shaped forms in cobalt blue to each side of the woman suggest flowers.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 83

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 66.7 x 45.8 cm (26 1/4 x 18 1/16 in.)
    framed: 96.2 x 73.7 cm (37 7/8 x 29 in.)

  • Accession

    1963.10.30

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Mme Johanna van Gogh-Bonger [1862-1925], the artist's sister-in-law, Amsterdam; {1] sold August 1908 to (J.H. de Bois [C.M. van Gogh], The Hague); sold August 1908 to Richard Kisling [1862-1917], Zürich;[2] Mme Hedwig Glatt-Kisling, Zürich until 1929;[3] (Max Bollag, Zürich); by whom sold 1951 to Chester Dale [1882-1962], New York;[4] bequest 1963 to NGA.
[1] Listed no. 255 in the Andries Bonger stock list of 1890 as ‘Jeune fille en blanc’ (12). This is a reference to a size 12 figure canvas which measured 61 x 50 cm. The painting is now considered to have been painted on a size 15 marine canvas, which measured 65 x 45 cm., Van Gogh, for his own artistic reasons, wanting to exploit the less orthodox, more elongated shape. This slight discrepancy in the canvas size is understandable given that Bonger’s assessments were presumably being made by eye alone.
[2] Walter Feilchenfeldt, Vincent van Gogh & Paul Cassirer, Berlin, Amsterdam, 1988, p. 120. Silvia Volkart, in Richard Kisling (1862-1917): Sammler, Mäzen und Kunstvermittler, Bern, 2008, p. 15, reproduces the page in Kisling's account book that documents the purchase.
[3] The Swiss dealer Max Bollag sold privately and then held a public auction of the Kisling collection on 18 November 1929. This painting was not included in the 1929 sale and remained with Bollag until its acquisition by Dale in 1951.
[4] Date and source of acquisition according to Chester Dale papers in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1905

  • Schilderijen en Teekeningen door Vincent van Gogh, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1905, no. 223

1908

  • Vincent van Gogh/Paul Cezanne, Emil Richter, Dresden, 1908, no. 66

  • Cent tableaux Vincent van Gogh, Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 1908, no. 48

  • VI. Serie: Vincent van Gogh, Cuno Amiet, Hans Emmenegger, Giovanni Giacometti, Kunstlerhaus [now Kunsthaus], Zurich, 1908, no. 40

  • Vincent van Gogh, Kunstverein, Frankfurt, 1908, no. 77

  • Vincent van Gogh, Moderne Kunsthandlung, Munich, 1908, no. 68

1913

  • Eine Zürcher Privat-Sammlung, Schweizerkunst des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1913, no. 120.

1924

  • Vincent van Gogh, Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1924, no. 71

  • Vincent van Gogh, Kunsthalle Basel, 27 March - 21 April 1924, no. 72.

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

1998

  • Van Gogh's Van Goghs: Masterpieces from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1998-1999, not in catalogue (shown only in Washington).

2010

  • From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, January 2010-January 2012, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

1928

  • Faille, J.-B. de la. L'Oeuvre de Vincent Van Gogh, catalogue raisonné. 4 vols. Paris and Brussels, 1928: 1:no. 788; 2:repro.

1939

  • Faille, J.-B. de la. Vincent Van Gogh. New York and Paris, 1939: 531, no. 788, repro.

1952

  • McBride. Henry. "Chesterdale's Way." Art News 51, no. 9 (December 1952): 21, repro.

1953

  • Walker, John. "Young Peasant Girl." Ladies Home Journal (May 1953): 61+, repro.

1963

  • MacNeil, Neil. "Chester Dale: Collector." McCalls (November 1963): 124, repro.

1965

  • Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings & Sculpture of the French School in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 129, repro.

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 59.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 51, repro.

1970

  • Faille, J.-B. de la. The Works of Vincent van Gogh: Paintings and Drawings. Amsterdam, 1970: no. F788, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 156, repro.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 522, repro. 523.

1980

  • Hulsker, Jan. The Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, drawings, sketches. New York, 1980: 472, no. 2055, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 518, no. 778, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 179, repro.

1986

  • Gloor, Lukas. Von Böcklin zu Cézanne: Die Rezeption des franszösischen Impressionismus in der deutschen Schweiz. Bern, 1986: 135, 281n.

1988

  • Feilchenfeldt, Walter. Vincent van Gogh & Paul Cassirer, Berlin. Amsterdam, 1988: 120, repro.

1989

  • Wheldon, Keith. Van Gogh. London, 1989: repro.

1993

  • Heijbroek, Jan Frederik. Kunst, kennis en commercie: de kunsthandelaar J.H. de Bois (1878-1946). Amsterdam, 1993: 201, repro..

  • Harrison, Charles, Francis Fascina, and Gill Perry. Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century. New Haven, 1993: 201, repro.

1994

  • Walther, Ingo F., and Rainer Metzger. Vincent van Gogh: Sämtliche Gemälde. 2 vols. Cologne, 1994: 2:675.

  • Gachet, Paul. Les 70 jours de van Gogh à Auvers : essai d'éphéméride dans le décor de l'époque (20 mai-30 juillet 1890), d'après les lettres, documents, souvenirs et déductions, Auvers-sur-Oise, 1959. Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, 1994: 159, 318 (where dated around 25 June 1890), color repro. XXVII.

1999

  • Welsh-Ovcharov, Bogomila. Van Gogh: Provence and Auvers. New York, 1999: 281-283, repro. 279

  • Lumpkin, Libby, ed. The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art: European and American Masters. Rev. ed. Las Vegas, 1999: 103, repro.

2002

  • Stolwijk, Chris, and Han Veenenbos. The account book of Theo van Gogh and Jo van Gogh-Bonger. Amsterdam and Leiden, 2002: 52 (17/9), 127 (92/2), 149, 190 no. F788 JH 2055.

2005

  • Volkart-Baumann, Silvia. "Richard Kisling (1862-1917): Ein Schweizer Sammler und Kunstvermittler der Moderne." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Zurich, 2005: 56-57, 127.

2008

  • Volkart, Silvia. Richard Kisling, 1862-1917 : Sammler, Mäzen und Kunstvermittler. Bern, 2008: 14, 15, 24, 201.

2009

  • Van der Veen, Wouter, and Peter Knapp. Vincent van Gogh à Auvers. Paris, 2009: 179, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q5564475

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