Bedroom in Arles

Vincent van Gogh painted a room.

It was his own bedroom. He lived in a Yellow House. The room had a window. It also had two doors. Vincent made three versions of this painting. One version was very small. He made it for his family. The walls had small pictures on them. These pictures showed his friends. He loved to paint his life. It is a very famous room.

Vincent van Gogh was a famous painter. He made three paintings of his own bedroom.

The room was in a place called the Yellow House. It was in Arles, France. The room was not a normal shape. It had a wide corner on one side. It had a sharp corner on the other.

Van Gogh painted the first version in 1888. He made it after he was sick in bed. This version shows small pictures on the wall. These pictures were portraits of his friends. One was called "The Poet." Another was called "The Lover."

He made a second version in 1889. He made this one to be the same size as the first. He sent it to his brother, Theo. The third version was smaller. He made these small ones for his mother and his sister. This third painting is now in a museum in Paris. All three paintings show how much he cared about his home.

Vincent van Gogh made three famous paintings of his bedroom.

He called these works "The Bedroom." They show his room in the Yellow House in Arles, France. This room was located at 2, Place Lamartine. The room had a very unusual shape. It was not a simple rectangle. Instead, it was a trapezoid shape. One corner was wide and obtuse. The other corner was sharp and acute.

Each painting shows different details on the walls. The first version has small portraits of his friends. One portrait is of Eugène Boch, called "The Poet." The other is of Paul-Eugène Milliet, called "The Lover." In the third version, the small pictures change. One portrait looks like his own "Peasant of Zundert" self-portrait. The other portrait does not match any of his other known works. These small details help us tell the three paintings apart.

Van Gogh began the first version in mid-October 1888. He painted it after a sickness left him stuck in bed. He shared his ideas through letters to his brother Theo and his friend Gauguin. In April 1889, the first painting was damaged by a flood of the Rhône river. Van Gogh was staying at the Old Hospital in Arles at that time. He later made a second version in September 1889. This second version was the same size as the first one.

There are three distinct versions of this scene. The first version stays with the Vincent van Gogh Foundation. It is on loan to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The second version is at the Art Institute of Chicago. It has been part of the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection since 1926. The third version is a smaller painting called a "reduction." He made these for his mother and his sister, Wil. This small version is now at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

These paintings help us learn about the artist's life. We know about the room from floor plans by an architect named Léon Ramser. These plans come from the 1920s. Even though the Yellow House was damaged in an air-raid in 1944, the art lives on. In 2016, all three versions were shown together in an exhibition. This show was called "Van Gogh's Bedrooms." It even included a digital way to see his room again.

The paintings titled "Bedroom in Arles" are a series of three works by the Dutch Post-Impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh.

Van Gogh referred to this specific composition simply as "The Bedroom" in French, or "La Chambre à coucher." These oil paintings represent a deeply personal subject: the artist's own living space. The scene depicts his bedroom located at 2, Place Lamartine in Arles, France. This building was famously known as the Yellow House. By painting this room, Van Gogh captured a private moment of his life in the Bouches-du-Rhône region.

To understand the composition, one must look at the unique geometry of the room. The space was not a standard rectangle. Instead, it was a trapezoid shape. The front wall featured an obtuse angle in the left-hand corner. At the right side, the wall met at an acute angle. The layout included specific architectural details. A door on the right side opened toward the staircase and the upper floor. On the left, a door led to a guest room prepared for his friend Paul Gauguin. A window in the front wall offered a view of the public gardens at Place Lamartine. Because the building was damaged in an air-raid on June 25, 1944, we rely on 1920s floor plans by architect Léon Ramser to understand the room's true dimensions.

There are three distinct versions of this painting, which can be identified by the miniature pictures on the right-hand wall. The first version was started in mid-October 1888. Van Gogh explained in letters to his brother Theo that he began this work after a sickness left him bedridden. This version features two specific portraits of his friends. One is a portrait of Eugène Boch, titled "The Poet." The other is a portrait of Paul-Eugène Milliet, titled "The Lover."

The second version is a "repetition," which is a term Van Gogh used for a copy made at the original scale. This version was executed in September 1889. It was created after Van Gogh sent the first version to Theo, only to regret that it had been damaged by a flood of the Rhône river. While Van Gogh was interned at the Old Hospital in Arles, Theo suggested the painting be relined and sent back so it could be copied. This second version measures 72 x 90 cm and is currently held at the Art Institute of Chicago.

The third version is a "réduction," or a smaller-scale version. Van Gogh decided to redo some of his best compositions in smaller sizes during the summer of 1889. He intended these smaller works for his mother and his sister, Wil. This version was finished in late September 1889 and measures 57.5 x 74 cm. It is not an exact copy of the others. In this version, the miniature portrait on the left resembles Van Gogh's "Peasant of Zundert" self-portrait. The portrait on the right does not have a known link to any other painting by the artist.

The history of these paintings is preserved through various international collections. The first version has remained with the artist's estate and is on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. It has been held by the Vincent van Gogh Foundation since 1962. The second version has been part of the Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago since 1926. The third version was once owned by Van Gogh's sister, Wil, and later by Kojiro Matsukata. It entered the French national collections in 1959 and is now displayed at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

These works have left a lasting legacy in the world of art. In 1992, the artist Roy Lichtenstein reproduced the work under the title "Bedroom at Arles." This shows how Van Gogh's compositions continue to influence other creators. In 2016, the Art Institute of Chicago hosted a special exhibition called "Van Gogh's Bedrooms." This event brought all three versions together for the first time. The exhibition even used digital technology to create a reconstruction of the bedroom, connecting the historical paintings to the physical space they once represented.