VINCENT VAN GOGH | Study of a Blacksmith

H. P. Bremmer, The Hague (acquired by 1911; until 1956) Private Collection, The Hague (by descent from the above 1956-1960)

Private Collection, Germany

Sale: Kornfeld und Klipstein, Bern, 11th-13th June 1969, lot 494

Mayfair Kunst, Zug (acquired by 1970)

Sale: Christie's, New York, 12th May 1988, lot 107

Private Collection, New York

Avanti Galleries Inc., New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1993

Paris, Hotel George V, Galerie Hopkins-Thomas, 2ème Salon du Dessin de Collection, 1992  New York, Avanti Galleries Inc., Vincent van Gogh: Works from the Dutch Period, 1995, no. 2, illustrated in the catalogue

Jacob-Baart de la Faille, L'Œuvre de Vincent van Gogh: Catalogue raisonné, Paris & Brussels, 1928, vol. III, no. 1044, catalogued p. 51; vol. IV, no. 1044, illustrated pl. LIV

Walther Vanbeselaere, De hollandsche periode (1880-1885) in het werk van Vincent van Gogh, Antwerp, 1937, pp. 92, 185 & 410

Jacob-Baart de la Faille, The Works of Vincent van Gogh: His Paintings and Drawings, London, 1970, no. F 1044, illustrated p. 386 (titled The Blacksmith: Facing Right)

Jan Hulsker, The Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Sketches, New York & Oxford, 1980, no. 208, illustrated p. 55 (titled A Carpenter with Apron) Jan Hulsker, The Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Sketches, New York, 1984, no. 208, illustrated p. 55 (titled A Carpenter with Apron)

Jan Hulsker, The New Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Sketches, Amsterdam, 1996, no. 208, illustrated p. 55 (titled A Carpenter with Apron)

Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten & Nienke Bakker (eds.), Vincent van Gogh, the letters. The complete illustrated and annotated edition, London, 2009, vol. II, letter no. 272, mentioned p. 172

Inspired by the Barbizon school of painters, especially Jean-François Millet, Van Gogh sought the simplicity and higher values of the rustic past. During his time spent in the Hague Van Gogh drew inspiration from those that worked around him, such as the blacksmith, and this provided him with fertile ground in which to further his studies of the human figure. He strove to reinvent the subject with a contemporary twist situating the peasant as the protagonist. The present work depicts a blacksmith with telling psychological realism, a style that he would eventually culminate in the fantastically colourful portraits epitomised in the Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and Auvers-sur-Oise period. Van Gogh’s portraits of everyday working life formed an important stage in the development of his artistic career and this is already evident in the fine use of pencil to capture the deeply expressive features of the blacksmith’s face.

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.