For most of us, when we hear of Vincent Van Gogh, we are instantly reminded of The Starry Night. But today, we are taking a path less travelled and analyzing Van Gogh’s ‘A Woman Walking In A Garden’.
It was painted by him in 1887. And as the title aptly indicates, it depicts a woman walking through a garden, surrounded by greenery and hints of red and yellow flowers.
In February 1886, Vincent van Gogh was so poor that he could not pay his rent in Antwerp, Belgium, so he hotfooted it to Paris to move in with his brother, Theo. The sudden move ended up being particularly fortuitous for van Gogh, who was immediately thrust into a milieu of young avant-garde artists experimenting with new styles. It was the beginning of a two-year period that resulted in a transformative shift in his work, from the dark, somber hues of his early realist paintings to the colorful, textured flowers and portraits that most people associate with Van Gogh today.
The identity of the woman in the garden remains unknown, adding to the painting's enigmatic quality. Some speculate that it may be Marguerite Gachet, the daughter of van Gogh's physician. Regardless, the figure's solitary walk through the garden suggests a sense of introspection and contemplation.
Van Gogh wrote in a letter to his sister, Willemien Van Gogh, in October 1887, "when I painted the landscape and Asnières (the subject and location of paintings Van Gogh made in 1887) this summer I saw more color in it than before." He also wrote in another letter to his sister explaining his new usage of color, "what people demand in art nowadays is something very much alive, with strong color and great intensity." Van Gogh's new usage of color in A Woman Walking in a Garden was a result of the brighter subjects he was painting, the inspiration he found in Paris and the new impressionism he was experimenting with.
On June 20, 2005 the painting was sold at a Sotheby’s sale in London and is now held in a private collection.
