Sister-in-law hid one dedicated to Gauguin because of ‘anger at the French artist’s attacks on his former friend’
was promoted as a really important piece of art,” said Louis van Tilborgh, senior researcher at the Van Gogh museum and professor of art history at the University of Amsterdam, who published his research in the Dutch art journalHe thinks that the reason Bonger did not want to exhibit the painting was that she disliked Gauguin after the French artist publicly belittled his former friend.
Van Gogh painted the pictures after inviting Gauguin, whom he deeply admired but hardly knew, to live with him in Arles and work on great art together. He purchased 12 “exceedingly simple” wooden chairs but only one ornate, luxurious armchair, which he placed in Gauguin’s room. Van Gogh wrote a letter to his brother about his work on the paintings, describing them as “rather droll”. Due to a mistake concerning the date of that letter, for nearly a century it was thought Van Gogh had painted the chairs immediately after Gauguin announced their temperaments were incompatible and Gauguin was thinking of moving out.
In fact, Van Tilborgh points out that Van Gogh completed the diptych long before Gauguin’s announcement, and the chairs are not empty but occupied by the belongings of their owners, indicating what they do to relax.
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