Memory of the Garden at Etten by Vincent Van Gogh Postcard

Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles) by Vincent Van Gogh, oil on canvas 1888, is a painting of three women carrying and picking bright flowers along a path with cypress trees in a flower garden. Working from memory instead of painting directly from life on the advice of his compatriot, the painter Paul Gauguin, Van Gogh constructs a peaceful, painterly image of his time living in the village of Arles. Combining flattened areas of colour in bold, simplified outlines with striated strokes of contrasting colours, Van Gogh masters the compositional ideas of Gauguin and other Post-Impressionist painters interested in more than capturing a fleeting moment of the natural world. Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) was a Dutch painter of the Post-Impressionist movement known for bold, expressive drawing, swirling brushstrokes and bold, heightened colours. In early adulthood Van Gogh worked as an art dealer, teacher and pastor before taking up the full time study of drawing and painting in his late twenties. Influenced by Rembrandt, the 19th century Realists and Barbizon school, Van Gogh's early paintings featured studies of workers and peasants in sombre earth tones. Moving to France in 1886, Van Gogh met with the startling innovations of the Impressionist painters and began to apply their approach to colour and subject matter, which continued into the mature style for which the artist is most renowned. Van Gogh produced many hundreds of drawings and paintings including portraits, landscapes, still life and flower paintings, and numerous self-portraits that became a dominating influence on the modern art of the 20th century and made him one of the most popular artists of all time.