The Drinkers

1890 · Oil on canvas

Sul dipinto

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 drink absinthe.

This is one of thirty-five works that comprise the Winterbotham Collection. Click here to learn more about the collection.

Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0

Scheda

Nel frattempo, nella vita di Vincent van Gogh

Tutta la vita

February 1888
To Arles, dreaming of a “Studio of the South”
The public still neither accepted nor bought his paintings, and in February 1888 Van Gogh left for Arles in the south of France to found a “Studio of the South”, a brotherhood of like-minded artists in which he gave Gauguin the leading role. Theo backed the plan with money.
23 October 1888
Gauguin arrives in Arles
After much pleading Gauguin arrived in Arles, and in November the two painted together: Gauguin portrayed Van Gogh in “The Painter of Sunflowers”, and their first joint outing was to the Alyscamps. At Gauguin's suggestion Vincent painted from memory, producing “Memory of the Garden at Etten”.
23 December 1888
The severed ear
After an altercation on the evening of 23 December, Van Gogh, seemingly hearing voices, severed his left ear, wholly or in part, with a razor and delivered it, wrapped in paper, to a woman at a brothel. Next morning a policeman found him unconscious; in hospital he was diagnosed with “acute mania with generalised delirium”.
May 1889
Voluntarily into the Saint-Paul asylum
Van Gogh left Arles and voluntarily entered the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum, a former monastery in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, accompanied by the Protestant clergyman Frédéric Salles. Of his two cells with barred windows one became a studio, and the clinic and its garden became the main subjects of his paintings.
27 July 1890