Bedroom in Arles

Bedroom in Arles is a series of three paintings by Vincent van Gogh depicting his room in the Yellow House in Arles. Their simplified forms, strong outlines, and contrasting colors turn an ordinary interior into an expressive composition.

Bedroom in Arles (first version): The 1888 painting of Van Gogh’s bedroom in the Yellow House, now in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. This original version established the composition before damage prompted a later copy.
Complementary colors: Pairs of colors opposite one another on a color wheel, such as blue and orange. Van Gogh set contrasting hues against each other to intensify the room’s visual structure.
Arles: A city in southern France where Van Gogh lived and worked from 1888 to 1889. Van Gogh’s time in Arles produced the room and the paintings’ distinctive setting.
Vincent van Gogh: A Dutch Post-Impressionist painter whose expressive landscapes, portraits, and still lifes became widely influential. His letters connect the bedroom’s colors and furnishings to his own hopes for a home.
Bedroom in Arles (second version): A 1889 repetition of Van Gogh’s bedroom painting, now held by the Art Institute of Chicago. Van Gogh made this version while recovering in the asylum at Saint-Rémy.
Linear perspective: A method of representing three-dimensional space through lines that converge toward a vanishing point. The room’s tilted and inconsistent angles depart from the orderly depth linear perspective usually creates.
Paul Gauguin: A French painter whose brief stay with Van Gogh in Arles ended in December 1888. Van Gogh hoped the Yellow House and its bedroom would welcome Gauguin as a fellow artist.
Post-Impressionism: A diverse movement in late nineteenth-century painting that developed beyond Impressionism’s approaches to color and form. The painting’s expressive color and constructed space exemplify concerns associated with Post-Impressionist art.
Bedroom in Arles (third version): A smaller 1889 version of Van Gogh’s bedroom painting, now in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. This reduced version was made for Van Gogh’s family.
Color theory: The study of how colors relate, mix, and affect visual perception. Van Gogh’s written account of the painting explains its color relationships as expressive choices.

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