GREGOIRE
JEANMONOD
Art and its stories as an inspiration
Vincent Van Gogh
the Arlesienne
1889
Working with...and in spite of the other
His friend Paul Gauguin had just joined him in Arles, and together they asked Marie Ginoux, owner of the Café de la Gare, to pose for them. The interested party
accepts and finds them dressed in her
traditional costume. But of both
artists it is the charismatic Gauguin who
has his favors: she sits opposite him and the
look into your eyes as he des-
sine his charcoal portrait. Van Gogh,
deported to the side of the stage, must
content with an oblique view of the Arlé-
his: in an hour he therefore brushes this
touching portrait, which must paradoxically
its charm and originality to the embarrassment
caused by the presence of Gauguin
​
This Arles woman from 1889 occupies a special place among the portraits of Vincent Van Gogh. Whereas up to now the artist has always painted his models frontally, with direct visual contact which
gave their gaze a striking intensity.
health, he represents here a woman almost
in profile, staring into space, like
surprise in full reverie. The intensity of
face-to-face thus leaves room, as
never before with Van Gogh, at the char-
me of mystery and melancholy.
​
If the painter breaks here so firmly with
his habits as a portrait painter, it is absolutely
read not by choice, but by constraint.
Paul Gauguin
L'Arlesienne , 1889
What we can take away:
​
Working in a team involves giving up personal comfort to accommodate the presence of others, their habits and requirements. This constraint, sometimes badly experienced, is nevertheless fertile because it forces us to disconnect our automatic pilot to consider new ways of working. " Hell is other people said Sartre, but sometimes it's good...