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Rectangular plots of flowers, each in a single color, stretch toward us below a sky nearly filled with cream-white clouds in this horizontal landscape painting. Together, the monochromatic plots create the impression of a patchwork quilt, with large areas of pale pink, butter yellow, bright white, and baby blue. A person walks across the plots to our right. The horizon line comes almost halfway up the painting and is lined with dark brown houses with tall, pitched roofs. Two barren trees twist into the cloudy sky. The loose, short, parallel brushstrokes and touches of paint create a soft, hazy effect.

Vincent van Gogh

Flower Beds in Holland, c. 1883

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas on wood

Dimensions

overall: 48.9 x 66 cm (19 1/4 x 26 in.)

framed: 71.1 x 88.9 x 8.3 cm (28 x 35 x 3 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

Accession Number

1983.1.21

Artists / Makers

Vincent van Gogh (painter) Dutch, 1853 - 1890

Image Use

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Provenance

Probably Anna.Cornelia van Gogh-Carbentus [1817-1907], the artist's mother, Nuenen/Breda. November 1885/April 1886. A Schrauwen [1833-1920], Breda, 1886. J..C.[1877-1961] and J.M. Couvreur, Breda. Willem van Bakel [b. 1866] and Kees Mouwen, Breda, 1902. Consigned 1904 to (Kunsthandel Oldenzeel, Rotterdam). [1] Acquired 1905 by Jan Smit [1837-1918], Kinderdijk, Amblasserdam, Netherlands; (his sale, A. Mak, Amsterdam, 10 February 1919, no. 31); John Enthoven [1885-1957].[2] (W. Brinkman, Schipluiden, Netherlands) in 1954.[3] (Frank Perls Gallery, Westbury, Long Island); on joint account 1954 with (M. Knoedler & Co., New York);[4] sold January 1955 to Mr. Paul Mellon, Upperville, VA;[5] gift 1983 to NGA.

[1] It seems likely that The Flower Beds in Holland was among the works that the artist abandoned in Nuenen when he made his precipitate departure for Antwerp in late 1885. These works were moved to Breda in 1886, when Van Gogh’s mother and sister Willemina moved to the town, and put in storage with a Breda carpenter, Adrianus Schrauwen. In 1902, although not their legal owner, Schrauwen sold a number of works to the brothers Couvreur, dealers in old furniture in Breda, who swiftly passed them to Kees Mouwen, a military clothing dealer, who seems to have jointly owned them with Willem van Bakel. From that source they were entrusted to the owner of the Oldenzeel gallery, Margareta Wilhelmina Oldenzeel-Schot, who exhibited them in 1904.

[2] John James Enthoven was the son of van Gogh collector Lodewijk Cornelis Enthoven [1854-1920], but this painting was actually owned first by Jan Smit, Lodewijk's father-in-law and John's grandfather, from whose sale it was acquired by John Enthoven (annotated copy of sales catalogue in NGA curatorial files). On the Enthovens and van Gogh, see Lodewijk Cornelis Enthoven, Verzamelaar te Voorburg, exh. cat., Museum Museum Swaensteyn, Voorburg, 2004, and Jos ten Berge, "The Enthoven mystery," in The paintings of Vincent van Gogh in the collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, 2003: 424-427 (copies NGA curatorial files).

[3] According to a 1954 letter from Brinkman to de la Faille, in the documentation files of the van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, the painting was with Brinkman at that time.

[4] M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Stock book no. 10, p. 139, no. A5854; Sales book no. 17, p. 122 (copies in NGA curatorial files). Invoice from Perls to Knoedler, dated 17 January 1955, Frank Perls Gallery Records, Box 3, Archives of American Art (copy in NGA curatorial files).

[5] Invoice from Knoedler to Mellon, dated 3 January 1955 and marked paid on 12 January; copy in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Bakel, Willem van
Brinkman, Willem
Couvreur, J.C.
Couvreur, J.M.
Enthoven, John
Knoedler & Company, M.
Kunsthandel Oldenzeel
Mak, A.
Mellon, Paul
Mouwen, Kees
Perls Galleries
Schrauwen, Adrianus
Smit, Jan
van Gogh-Carbentus, Anna Cornelia

Exhibition History

1904: Tentoonstelling van Werken door Vincent van Gogh, Kunstzalon Oldenzeel, Rotterdam, 1904, no. 2, as Tulpenland.

1960: Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture Collected by Yale Alumni: An Exhibition, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, 1960, no. 68, repro., as Champs de fleurs en Hollande.

1966: French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, no. 129, repro.

1986: Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, July-October 1986, unnumbered checklist, repro.

1986: Monet in Holland, Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, October 1986-January 1987, repro.

1989: Impressionisti della National Gallery of Art di Washington, Ala Napoleonica e Museo Correr, Venice; Palazzo Reale, Milan, 1989, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1999: Around Impressionism: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999, no catalogue.

1999: Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1999, no. 56, repro.

2005: De Haagse School en de jonge Van Gogh [The Hague School and The Young Van Gogh], Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, 2005, unnumbered catalogue.

2009: Vincent van Gogh - Between Heaven and Earth: The Landscapes, Kunstmuseum Basel, 2009, no. 1, repro.

2013: Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art, Museo dell'Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome (exhibition title in this venue: Impressionist Gems); California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo, Seattle Art Museum, 2013-2016.

2019: Vincent van Gogh and His Inspirations, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, 2019 - 2020, 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. 186; 2:repro.

1939: Faille, J.-B. de la. Vincent van Gogh. Paris, 1939: 45, no. F 186, repro.

1966: French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966: repro. no. 129.

1966: Goldwater, Robert. "The Glory that was France." Art News 65 (March 1966): 42.

1966: Kuh, Katherine. "Golden Loans for a Silver Anniversary." Saturday Review (19 March 1966): 45.

1970: Faille, J.-B. de la. The Works of Vincent van Gogh: Paintings and Drawings. Amsterdam, 1970: no. F186, repro.

1972: Tralbaut, Marc-Edo. Van Goghiana. 10 vols. Antwerp,1972: 7:61-64, repro.

1980: Hulsker, Jan. The Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, drawings, sketches. New York, 1980: 82, no. 361, repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 180, repro.

1991: Coman, Florence E. Joie de Vivre: French Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1991: no. 26, repro.

1991: Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 283, color repro.

1994: Walther, Ingo F., and Rainer Metzger. Vincent van Gogh: Sämtliche Gemälde. 2 vols. Cologne, 1994: 1:25.

1998: Bloemstillevens uit Nederland en België 1870-1940. Exh. cat. Kunsthal Rotterdam, 1998:14-15, repro.

1999: Mancoff, Debra N. Van Gogh's Flowers. London, 1999: repro. 76-77, 78.

2000: Van Gogh: Face to Face. The Portraits, Exh. cat. The Detroit Institute of Arts; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Philadelphia Museum of Art. Detroit, 2000-2001: 52, fig. 34 (not in the exhibition).

2011: Skea, Ralph. Vincent's Gardens: Paintings and Drawings by Van Gogh. New York, 2011: 31, 33 no. 16, color repro.