Vincent van Gogh painted “The Red Vineyards near Arles” oil on canvas, sized 29.5 inches × 36.6 inches, on a privately primed piece of burlap in November 1888 when he was living in Aries with Gauguin, a fellow artist. He was very excited on the idea of sharing a studio with him; however, his hopes were dashed to the ground when the stay ended in disaster and the artist’s attempted self-mutilation. Gauguin’s influence can be seen in the artist’s paintings of that era. Van Gogh was especially fascinated with a local vineyard whose colours were turning to autumn shades of reds and yellows at that time of the year. The unique feature of the canvas is that while painting it, the artist was not standing in front of the vineyard; he painted it at the Yellow House.

In “The Red Vineyard ...” he captures the mellowed tones and glistening light of the early evening sun reflecting in the river. The painting was first exhibited at the annual exhibition of Les XX, 1890 in Brussels, and sold for 400 Francs to Anna Bock, an impressionist artist and collector. In fact this canvas has a unique distinction of being the only painting which Vincent van Gogh sold during his lifetime. It is exhibited at Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. — E.J.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, December 20th, 2015