Émile Bernard (28 April 1868 – 16 April 1941)

Émile Henri Bernard was born on April 28, 1868 in Lille, France. Located in the north near the Belgian border.

Lille is famous for its textile industry. Lille had many places for Émile to explore, one of his favorite was an art studio that made stained glass windows.

In 1877 Émile attends the College de la Monnaie in Lille and lives with his maternal grandmother, Sophie Bodin-Lallement, who runs a successful laundry business. He is encouraged to draw by his grandmother’s lodger.

The spirited 18 year old decided to study on his own by taking a six month tour of the French countryside - on foot. His plan was to explore the regions of Normandy and Britannic sketching the landscape and painting canvases along the way.

Van Gogh met Bernard in 1886 at the Cormon studio, where they were both studying painting, Bernard was intelligent and very talented young artist at that time. Bernard had completed many paintings by the time he returned to Paris that autumn.

Bernard seems to have had a stimulating effect on his great colleague but thereafter his work as painter declined in importance and he became of interest chiefly for his activities as a writer.
Émile Bernard (28 April 1868 – 16 April 1941)

A Pair of Shoes by van Gogh

A Pair of Shoes by van Gogh is a painting of shoes waiting to be worn. It was painted in 1887. It is one of the first paintings after his move to Paris in 1886. Several paintings were given the same title.

He must have been particularly satisfied with one version, A Pair of Shoes, since he signed and dated the painting, Vincent 87.

A Pair of Shoes by van Gogh

Van Gogh at St Paul's hospital

In May 1889 Van Gogh admitted himself to the asylum of St. Paul-de-Mausole I Saint-Remy, thirty kilometers form Arles.

Van Gogh himself led Dr Rey to believe that there was a history of epileptic attacks in his family. The doctor in Saint-Remy accepted this diagnosis of new patient without question.

He continued to paint the surrounding countryside at various times of day from within these confines, working form views through the window of his room or in the garden of the hospital.

During his stay in the hospital van Gogh pointed landscapes, in which he recreated the world of his childhood anew.

Green Wheat Field with Cypress

His approach to nature became more abstract with trees bent into cruel, sinister shapes and skies colored purple and yellow as in The Garden of Saint Paul’s Hospital.  He painted two versions of The Garden of Saint Paul’s Hospital.

In early June Van Gogh began to venture out of the hospital and into the surrounding countryside, where he painted Olive Grove, which depicts olive trees bathed in the warm glow of the setting sun.

Other painting including The Reaper, the Enclosed Field and The Evening Stroll are among 150 canvases during his twelve months stay.

By early 1890 van Gogh's attacks of illness worsened and he believed that his stay at the asylum was not helping to make him better. This led to his plans to move to Auvers-sur-Oise just north of Paris in May, 1890.
Van Gogh at St Paul's hospital

Van Gogh moving to Arles

In the fall of 1886, van Gogh said, in spring – say February or even sooner – I may going to the South of France, the land of the blue tones and gay colors, as he wrote to his English painter friend Horace Mann Livens.

 He left Paris in February 19th, 1888. He is stimulated by the blazing sun and the brilliance of the Provence colors.

 Van Gogh rented two rooms the Yellow House at 2 Place Lamartine, unfurnished in early May 1888, but did not sleep there until mid-September.

 The renting of this little house had enormous emotional significant for van Gogh: it was a symbol of possession, of security and of freedom from hotel keepers.

 He envisioned the house as an open space where artists could come to freely share ideas and resources.

 In December, van Gogh cuts off his ear lobe, wraps it in newspaper and trusts it to a prostitute called Rachel. He is hospitalized.

 Van Gogh spent 15 months in Arles in the South of France, from February 1888 to May 1889. During his stay, he produced some 200 paintings, made over 100 drawings and water colors, and wrote some 200 letters.

 In 1890, van Gogh sells his first and the only painting The Red Vineyard. In May of 1890, he moves to Auvers-sur-Oise, paint Portrait of Dr. Gachet. Van Gogh shoots himself on July 27 and dies two days later.
Van Gogh moving to Arles

History of van Goh’s Sunflowers

In the late 1880s, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh created his most famous works in a brief period while living in Arles, in southern France.

He famous for his color, which makes his painting look almost alive. These include vases of sunflowers. Sunflowers were van Gogh’s favorite flower, and Provence was covered with fields of them.

He decided to greet Gauguin, his guest with a room filled with sunflowers painting, therefore he arranged fresh cut sunflowers in a simple vase and painted six luminous pictures.

He began his series of sunflower paintings to enliven the studio of his Yellow House, but from the beginning they always meant more to him than simple decoration.

Then he chose two to hang in the bedroom. Van Gogh hopes that his sunflowers series would prompt discussion with his guests about art and illuminates for them the aesthetic experience of panting.

Van Gogh’s Sunflowers was auctioned in April 1987 to a Japanese industrialist for $39,900,000.

History of van Gogh’s Sunflowers 

Vincent van Gogh – Portrait of Dr. Gachet

Vincent van Gogh – Portrait of Dr. Gachet
Dr. Gachet was a physician who treated him in his last illness. He had painted the doctor and said, with the “heartbroken expression of our times.” Van Gogh viewed Doctor Gachet as a melancholy, thoughtful man.

Van Gogh told his sister: “I have found a true friend in Gachet. He is something like a brother, we resemble each other physically and spiritually as well, he is also nervous and odd… like you and me. He is older and has been a widower for a few years, but he is a doctor through and through, and his faith and vocation give him the strength to carry on.”


Portrait of Dr. Gachet was painted six weeks before Van Gogh committed suicide in 1890. Dr. Paul Ferdinand Gachet was Homeopathic doctor and tended Van Gogh before his death.

Dr. Paul Ferdinand Gachet had small practice in Paris that brought him a little pleasure and in his free time he painted and etched, and was not without talent. Gachet was a patron and friend to many artists, including Pissarro and Cézanne and was one of the first to purchase their paintings.

Dr. Gachet had agreed to look after van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise after his discharge from asylum at Saint Remy. Van Gogh lived there in an attic room above a café and spent much of his time at the doctor’s house.

Soon after arrival, Vincent expressed a wish to paint the doctor’s portrait. Pensive, almost careworn, with a slight hint of scepticism, his pale face, framed by blonde hair and topped by a white cap, stands out against the blue of the jacket and background. The artist felt a distinct affinity between the doctor and himself, of whom he said that he was “at least nervous as I am”.

In the Portrait of Dr. Gachet, Van Gogh was making a deliberate reference to the doctor’s profession by placing a stem of foxglove in Gachet’s hand. The plant was used to treat various heart ailments.

The painting was sold at record $82.5 million to a Japanese buyer in May 15, 1990.
Vincent van Gogh – Portrait of Dr. Gachet