1890
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
The Drinkers is a 1890 oil by Vincent van Gogh, a Impressionism work, depicting Drinking, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see four men at a table, hunched over glasses of wine or beer. Their faces are puffy, noses bulbous—almost like cartoons. The colors are thick and rough, not smooth. Van Gogh painted this while staying in a mental hospital. Instead of inventing a scene, he copied an old print by Daumier. The copy let him focus on brushwork and mood without worrying about what to paint. The men look tired, not happy, even though they’re drinking. Look up *impasto* next—it’s how Van Gogh piled paint so thick it stands off the canvas.
During his time in the Asylum of Saint-Paul in Saint-Rémy, a small town near Arles, Vincent van Gogh made a number of copies of the work of artists he admired, which freed him from having to produce original compositions and allowed him to concentrate instead on interpretation. For this image, Van Gogh copied a wood engraving from Honoré Daumier’s Drinkers , a parody on the four ages of man. The exaggerated figure types capture Daumier’s characteristic humor and convey his sad message about the horrors of alcoholism. The greenish palette may well be an allusion to the notorious alcoholic…
The artist; sent to his brother, Theo van Gogh (died 1891); possibly by descent to his wife, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger (died 1925). Given to Émile Bernard (died 1941), Paris, 1890 or 1891; his mother, Héloïse Bernard (died 1909), before 1899; given to Galerie Vollard, Paris, Jan. 7, 1899 [Vollard Stock Book, Wildenstein Gallery Archives, New York]; sold to Jack Aghion, Paris (died before 1914), by 1905 for 500 FRF [Paris 1905]. Carl Reininghaus, Vienna (died 1929), by 1909 to at least 1925 [Vienna 1909; Berlin 1914; Vienna 1925]; by descent, until 1931. Probably given on consignment to Galerie…
Paris, Salon des Indépendants, Exposition Rétrospective de l’Oeuvre de Vincent van Gogh, Mar. 24–Apr. 30, 1905, cat. 1 Vienna Secession, Internationale Kunstschau, May–Oct., 1909, cat. 10 Berlin, Paul Cassirer, Zehnter Ausstellung. Vincent van Gogh, May–June, 1914, cat. 113. Vienna Secession, Die führenden Meister der franzöisischen Kunst im neunzehnten Jahrhundert, Mar.-Apr. 1925, cat. 89. Chicago, Arts Club, Exhibition of the Joseph Winterbotham Collection, Dec. 9–31, 1936, cat. 44. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Van Gogh in Saint-Rémy and Auvers, Nov. 25, 1986–Mar. 22, 1987, cat.…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art.
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