Marsh with Water Lilies - Misplaced Pages

1881 drawing by Vincent van Gogh

Marsh with Water Lilies

Artist	Vincent van Gogh
Year	1881
Catalogue	F845 JH7
Type	Pencil, pen, reed pen
Dimensions	23.5 cm × 31 cm (9.25 in × 12.25 in)
Location	Private collection

Marsh with Water Lilies is a drawing by Vincent van Gogh. It was executed at Etten (now Etten-Leur) in June 1881.

Vincent's father Theodorus van Gogh, a pastor, was called to Etten in 1875. Vincent spent periods of time there, notably from Easter to Christmas 1881 when he returned to join his brother Theo, an art dealer, determined to become an artist. This period at Etten represents the beginning proper of Vincent's ten-year career as an artist. He had drawn since boyhood, and the previous year had enrolled in a beginners' class in Brussels where he met the painter Anthon van Rappard, but he now began to draw in earnest. He rapidly developed an accomplished technique in landscape drawing but remained rather more uncertain in his figure drawing, which he practiced assiduously with the aid of Charles Bargue's drawing course. Rappard made a twelve-day visit during this time, and they sketched together in the marshes and heaths round Etten. Vincent also visited his cousin-in-law Anton Mauve in The Hague, a celebrated artist of the time, who had expressed an interest in his drawings and who encouraged him further. At this time Vincent had not progressed as far as painting, though he did wash some of his drawings with watercolor. At the end of the year he made an extended visit to Mauve, who introduced him to painting. He returned to Etten with the intention of setting up a studio there. However he quarreled with his father on Christmas Day and left the family home to set up his studio in The Hague instead.

History

The drawing was in the holdings of Vincent's sister Wil who left Etten in June 1881 to take up a position as a governess in Amsterdam. At the same time there is a mention in a letter to Theo of Vincent making a pen drawing in the Passievaart marshes of lilies during an excursion with Anthon van Rappard, who was visiting. It is reasonable to suppose he gave this drawing as a leaving gift to Wil, thus dating the drawing as around 13 June 1881 from van Rappard's own date for his Passievaart drawing.

Provenance

Miss W. van Gogh, Dieren, Netherlands
J.P, Scholte, Barchem, Netherlands
Lochem, Netherlands, Mrs. A.T. Scholte-van Houten
Scholte-van Houten collection

Exhibition history

1947, Basle, 112
1956, Munich, 6
1957, Essen, 128
1960, Paris, 73
1962, Warsaw, 89
1963, Tel Aviv, Haifa, 7

Notes

Hulsker pp. 13-29.
Naifeh and White Smith pp. 230-52.
Hulsker, p. 13.

Letters

"Letter 168 to Theo van Gogh. Etten, end of June 1881". Vincent van Gogh: The Letters. Van Gogh Museum. 1r:1. I must tell you that Rappard was here for 12 days or so, and has now left. Naturally he sends you his regards.
We went on a fair number of excursions together, several times to the heath at Seppe, among other places, and the so-called Passievaart, a huge marsh. There Rappard painted a large study (1 metre x 50 cm), much of which was good. Incidentally, he made around 10 small sepias, also in the Liesbos.
While he was painting I made a pen drawing of another spot in the marsh where many water lilies grow. (Near Roosendaalseweg.)
"Letter 600 to Theo van Gogh. Arles, on or about Friday, 20 April 1888". Vincent van Gogh: The Letters. Van Gogh Museum. 1r:1. These drawings are done with a reed cut the same way as you'd cut a goose quill. I plan to do a series like that. And I hope to do better than the first two. It's a process I already tried in Holland in the past, but I didn't have as good reeds there as here.

Bibliography

de la Faille, Jacob-Baart. The Works of Vincent van Gogh: His Paintings and Drawings. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1970. ISBN 978-1556608117
Hulsker, Jan. The Complete Van Gogh. Oxford: Phaidon, 1980. ISBN 0-7148-2028-8
Naifeh, Steven; Smith, Gregory White. Van Gogh: The Life. Profile Books, 2011. ISBN 978-1846680106
Pomerans, Arnold. The Letters of Vincent van Gogh. Penguin Classics, 2003. ISBN 978-0140446746
Tralbaut, Marc Edo. Vincent van Gogh, Macmillan, London 1969, ISBN 0-333-10910-4

External links

Vincent van Gogh

General

Groups of
works

Early works (1881–82)
Portraits (1881–1890)
Peasant Character Studies (1881–1885)
Van Gogh's family in his art (1881–1888)
Sien (1882–83)
Cottages (1883–1885)
Water Mill at Gennep (1884)
Still life paintings, Netherlands (1884–85)
Old Church Tower at Nuenen (1884–85)
Amsterdam (1885)
Wheat Fields (1885–1890)
Le Moulin de la Galette (1886)
Still life paintings, Paris (1886–87)
Montmartre (1886–87)
Self portraits (1886–1889)
Outskirts of Paris (1887)
Asnières (1887)
Seine (1887)
Japonaiserie (1887)
Sunflowers (1887–1889)
Trees and Undergrowth (1887–1890)
Copies by Vincent van Gogh (1887–1890)
Langlois Bridge at Arles (1888)
Saintes-Maries (1888)
Boats du Rhône (1888)
Décoration for the Yellow House (1888)
The Roulin Family (1888–89)
Hospital in Arles (1888–89)
Flowering Orchards (1888–89)
Almond Blossoms (1888–1890)
Paintings of Children (1888–1890)
The Wheat Field (1889)
Reaper (1889)
Olive Trees (1889)
Wheat Fields (1889)
Butterflies (1889–90)
Saint-Paul Asylum, Saint-Rémy (1889–90)
Auvers size 30 canvases (1890)
Auvers Double-squares and Squares (1890)
Lost works by Vincent van Gogh
Display at Les XX, 1890

Oil paintings

1882	Beach at Scheveningen in Stormy Weather Girl in White in the Woods Lying Cow A Girl in the Street, Two Coaches in the Background
1883	Cows in the Meadow Farmhouses Among Trees Bulb Fields Landscape with a Church at Twilight Landscape with Dunes Footbridge across a Ditch Marshy Landscape A Wind-Beaten Tree Farm with Stacks of Peat Farmhouses in Loosduinen near The Hague at Twilight Three Figures near a Canal with Windmill
1884	Two Rats Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen Landscape with Pollard Willows Cart with Black Ox Cart with Red and White Ox Lane in Autumn Water Mill at Opwetten Water Mill at Kollen Village at Sunset Avenue of Poplars in Autumn Avenue of Poplars at Sunset Head of an Old Farmer's Wife in a White Hat
1885	Still Life with Straw Hat The Potato Eaters Peasant Woman Digging Peasant Woman Digging Up Potatoes Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette
1886	Vase with Red Poppies Vase with White and Red Carnations The Kingfisher
1887	Poppy Flowers Wheat Field with a Lark View of Paris from Vincent's Room in the Rue Lepic Portrait of Père Tanguy A Woman Walking in a Garden Imperial Fritillaries in a Copper Vase Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin Red Cabbages and Garlic
1888	Madame Roulin and Her Baby Landscape with Snow La Mousmé The Zouave Still Life: Vase with Oleanders The Night Café The Yellow House Van Gogh's Chair Café Terrace at Night Starry Night Over the Rhône Portrait of the Artist's Mother Bedroom in Arles The Painter on the Road to Tarascon Les Alyscamps A Lane in the Public Garden at Arles Falling Autumn Leaves L'Arlésienne The Red Vineyard Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) Les Arènes Interior of a Restaurant in Arles A Lane near Arles Arles: View from the Wheat Fields Sunset at Montmajour Farmhouse in Provence Orchard with Cypresses
1889	Valley with Ploughman Seen from Above View of Arles, Flowering Orchards Portrait of Doctor Rey Crab on its Back Two Crabs Irises Lilac Bush The Starry Night The Gardener Self-portrait (1889) Self-portrait without beard Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear A Meadow in the Mountains: Le Mas de Saint-Paul A Road at Saint-Remy with Female Figure Enclosed Field with Peasant Rain Cypresses Wheat Field with Cypresses Green Wheat Field with Cypress The Diggers The Ravine of the Peyroulets Ivy View of the Asylum and Chapel of Saint-Rémy The Large Plane Trees The Mulberry Tree
1890	The Siesta Road with Cypress and Star At Eternity's Gate Thatched Cottages and Houses Portrait of Dr. Gachet Doctor Gachet's Garden in Auvers Houses at Auvers White House at Night Landscape with a Carriage and a Train Girl in White The Church at Auvers Daubigny's Garden Farms near Auvers The Cows The Town Hall at Auvers Blossoming Chestnut Branches Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat Still Life: Vase with Pink Roses Portrait of Adeline Ravoux Plain near Auvers Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds Wheatfield with Crows Prisoners' Round (after Gustave Doré) Tree Roots Landscape at Auvers in the Rain Poppy Field

Watercolours

Boy Cutting Grass with a Sickle (1881)
Meadows near Rijswijk and the Schenkweg (1882)
The 'Laakmolen' near The Hague (1882)
Church Pew with Worshippers (1882)
Woman on Her Deathbed (1883)
Landscape with Trees (1883)
Peatery in Drenthe (1883)
Landscape with Wheelbarrow (1883)
Drawbridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam (1883)
Breton Women (1888)
Old Vineyard with Peasant Woman (1890)

Drawings

Museums

Portrayals

Family

Cataloguers

Jacob Baart de la Faille (1928 and 1970; "F")
Jan Hulsker (1978, revised 1989; "JH")

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