Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch artist best known for his vibrant oil on canvas paintings like The Starry Night, has recently been in the spotlight due to the traveling Immersive Van Gogh experience. This has encouraged the Cleveland Museum of Art, among other museums, to highlight the artist’s original artworks in the collection. The CMA’s special installation includes four works, two of which are notably unique: an etching and a watercolor.
Let’s zoom in on the details of one of Van Gogh’s watercolor paintings.
Landscape with Wheelbarrow is one of sixteen works on paper to survive from Van Gogh’s brief sojourn in Drenthe, the Netherlands, from mid-September to late December 1883. This watercolor depicts the vast wet heathland with its peat bogs and shallow bodies of water that characterized the edges of the province at the time.
Landscape with Wheelbarrow, 1883. Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890). Watercolor and opaque watercolor with black chalk on cream paper; sheet: 24.9 x 35.7 cm. Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr., 1958.30
When looking at this watercolor, the viewer is plunged into a boldly executed and astonishingly verdant landscape that rolls out from the picture plane across a great expanse to meet a softly lit and crepuscular, pink-tinged sky.