FISHING BOATS ON THE BEACH AT SAINTES MARIES
By VINCENT VAN GOGH
"FISHING BOATS ON THE BEACH AT SAINTES MARIES" (25.5"/31.8" inches) oil on canvas, Painted by VINCENT VAN GOGH in June 1888(Arles). Collected by V. W. van Gogb, Laren.
VAN GOGH has described with joy his visit to the Mediterranean shore near Arles at the fishing village of Saintes Maries. Where he painted & drew for several days. It was a new world for him, & he responded to it with his usual eagerness & excitement.
In the picture of the fishing boats- two different kinds of vision are united in one work, nature seen as light and airy, in countless tones of high keyed colour, ever changing & vibrant through universal contrast, on the other hand, man's objects, the boats. drawn precisely & painted in flat airless tones of primary colour.
The pearly softness of the seascape becomes a setting for the hard, firmly compartmented colours of the boats. But these boats, disposed along the beach beside one another, overlapping & with crossing masts, make an intricate network of spots & colored lines, which participate in the unstable airy shiftings of the natural tones, in the irregular patterns of the seashore & the waves, & the vast currents of the shapeless clouds.
This network of the boats is a typical pattern of VAN GOGH"S vision, it had appeared already in his Dutch period in the drawings of trees, & as in those early works, the branchings of the boat are drawn with unflagging devotion to the detailed individual shapes.
As the colour ranges from the frank primary hues of the boats to tones of iridescence in the sky, with delicate blues, greens, and lavenders, & nameless sandy tones, on the beach blendings of cool, neutralized yellow, tan, and brown Impressionist in the subtle discriminations and pairings of cool & warm so in the application of the paint. there is a corresponding span from thin, flecked, & transparent touches to thick & mat.
VINCENT VAN GOGH PAINTINGS