Description
Evening Landscape is a painting Vincent van Gogh made in Nuenen, in the Netherlands, in 1885: a ditch full of water runs straight back through a dark field towards the horizon, tall thin trees stand against the last light of the sky, and the water catches that light. The original measures 35 x 43 cm and is in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. We paint it by hand in oil on canvas, in 16 sizes from 43 x 35 to 150 x 120 cm or to your own measurement, and send you a photograph of the finished work for approval before dispatch.
| Title: | Evening Landscape |
| Other titles: | Paisaje al atardecer · Paesaggio al tramonto |
| Painter: | Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) |
| Year painted: | 1885, Nuenen |
| Original size: | 35 cm x 43 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard |
| Painting style: | Realism, Dutch period |
| Located at: | Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid (accession no. 788) |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, 16 sizes or made to measure |
Evening Landscape – Vincent van Gogh
What does Evening Landscape show?
The painting shows flat open country at dusk, seen from the edge of a field. A narrow ditch of water starts at the bottom of the canvas, a little left of the centre, and runs straight back towards the horizon. Its water holds the light of the sky in bright broken patches, while the banks on either side are dark. To the right of the ditch the earth is heaped up in a long ridge, painted in thick, short strokes that catch a little of the light.
Behind the field a dark band of low growth crosses the whole width of the canvas, with a few small dark clumps of bushes on the horizon in the middle and at the right. Above it tall, thin trees rise high into the sky: a group of them at the left, one in the centre and a few more at the right edge, each a bare trunk topped by a small, ragged crown. The sky fills more than half of the painting, brushed in broad horizontal strokes of dark green-grey, with an orange band low along the horizon. In that band, left of the centre and between the trees, sits a small red sun. There is no house and no figure: only land, water, trees and evening light.
Why is the painting so dark?
According to the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, this landscape is almost nocturnal, and it allowed Van Gogh to paint the darkness he so admired in seventeenth-century Netherlandish painting, as he did in his scenes of country folk eating in a shadowy room.
The museum describes his style in this first Dutch period, before his move to Paris, as a realism with strong tenebrist undertones. Only in Paris, it writes, did his palette become more luminous and colourful, under the influence of the new artistic trends around him.
What does the painting mean?
The museum reads it alongside The Potato Eaters. In April 1885, while he was concentrating on the series devoted to The Potato Eaters, a tribute to the country folk of Brabant, Van Gogh wrote to his brother: ‘I am also working on a red sunset.’ In August of the same year he mentioned ‘an evening effect after sunset’ among his most recent paintings.
It is not certain which canvas he meant. The museum notes that some authors have identified this sunset with a landscape in a Swiss private collection, but that it could also be the painting in Madrid.
Where is the original today?
The original is in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. The museum lists it as Evening Landscape, 1885, oil on canvas mounted on cardboard, 35 x 43 cm, under inventory number 788 (1966.8), in its permanent collection.
The Wikipedia list of Van Gogh’s works dates it more narrowly than the museum, to April 1885, places it in Nuenen, in the Netherlands, and gives its catalogue numbers as F 191 and JH 762.
Evening Landscape or another Van Gogh evening – which to choose?
Four other paintings in our range are close to this one in date or mood. The Potato Eaters was painted in Nuenen in 1885 and shows a peasant family at their evening meal indoors under a lamp; it belongs to the series the museum connects with the red sunset. The Cottage is from May 1885: a thatched double cottage at dusk, with a woman at the door. Lane of Poplars at Sunset was painted in Nuenen in the autumn of 1884: a straight road between two rows of tall poplars, with a dark figure walking towards a setting sun.
Landscape at Twilight is a later work, painted in Auvers in 1890. Choose Evening Landscape if you want a landscape format with nothing in it but open country: no house, no road, no figure, just a dark field, a line of water and tall trees against the evening sky.
How is our hand-painted Evening Landscape made?
The painter first sets the low horizon, the line of the ditch and the tall trunks, so that the field and the sky keep the proportions of the original. Then come the sky in broad horizontal strokes, the dark band of growth along the horizon and the deep olive-green and brown of the field. Last come the small red sun, the ragged crowns of the trees, the heaped earth beside the ditch and the bright patches of light in the water. Our oil painting reproduction is painted entirely by hand on canvas with real impasto: the paint goes on thickly, so the brushstrokes stand up from the canvas as they do in the original and catch the light.
On this painting the relief matters most in the short, thick strokes of the earth ridge, in the crowns of the trees and in the reflections in the ditch. A print shows only a flat surface; on our painting the strokes are real.
Every painting is a hand-painted copy made for your order, so no two are quite the same.
Which size for which wall?
Short answer: 60 x 50 or 70 x 56 cm above a chest of drawers, a desk or in a hallway, 100 x 80 or 120 x 100 cm above a sofa or a bed, and 150 x 120 cm for a large wall of its own.
There are 16 sizes: 43 x 35, 50 x 40, 55 x 45, 60 x 50, 70 x 56, 70 x 59, 70 x 60, 80 x 65, 85 x 68, 85 x 70, 85 x 72, 92 x 73, 100 x 80, 100 x 85, 120 x 100 and 150 x 120 cm (width x height). The original is 43 cm wide and 35 cm high, so our 43 x 35 cm size is exactly its size, a good choice for a bookshelf, a study or a small wall. As the painting is dark, with its light held in the sky and the water, it looks best on a warm white, cream or light grey wall that gets daylight or a lamp. A painting for the living room in a size from 100 x 80 cm upwards gives the evening sky enough room to glow.
Hang it with the centre of the canvas about 150 cm above the floor, leaving 20 to 30 cm between the furniture and the bottom edge.
What if I need a custom size or a frame?
If none of the 16 sizes fits your wall, we paint it to measure. Keep the proportions close to the original, otherwise the trees get squeezed or the field stretched. Send us the width and height you want and we will quote a price and a lead time. Every painting we make is stretched over a wooden stretcher and ready to hang.
For the moulding, use our 3D application: it shows each of our frame profiles on this subject, so you can compare gold, silver, black, white and natural wood – the application is for choosing the frame only. Seeing the painting on your own wall is our separate room placement service. A gold frame picks up the warm light of the sky and the water, and a dark wood frame suits the deep browns of the field.
How does delivery work, and what is the guarantee?
Every painting is made to order in our studio in Slovenia, so allow 15 to 45 days depending on the size you choose. We ship it stretched and protected, framed if you chose a frame, across the EU with no customs. Before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished work to approve, and we correct anything that is not right. Our returns policy applies to every order.
You will find more famous Van Gogh paintings among all our Vincent van Gogh paintings, and there is more about the painter in our article on Vincent van Gogh. If you are giving it as a present and are not sure of the size, a wall art voucher lets the recipient choose.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original of Evening Landscape today?
In the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. The museum lists it as Evening Landscape, 1885, oil on canvas mounted on cardboard, 35 x 43 cm, under inventory number 788 in its permanent collection. The Wikipedia list of Van Gogh’s works gives its catalogue numbers as F 191 and JH 762 and dates it to April 1885.
When and where did Van Gogh paint Evening Landscape?
In Nuenen, in the Netherlands, in 1885. The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza dates it to 1885, and the Wikipedia list of his works gives April 1885. That April, the museum writes, Van Gogh was concentrating on the series devoted to The Potato Eaters, and he mentioned a red sunset in a letter to his brother in the same month.
Is Evening Landscape the red sunset Van Gogh wrote about?
Possibly, but it is not certain. The museum explains that in April 1885 he wrote to his brother ‘I am also working on a red sunset’, and that in August he listed ‘an evening effect after sunset’ among his recent paintings. Some authors identify this sunset with a landscape in a Swiss private collection; according to the museum, it could also be the painting in Madrid.
Why is Evening Landscape so dark?
The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza calls the landscape almost nocturnal and writes that it let him paint the darkness he admired in seventeenth-century Netherlandish painting, as in his scenes of country folk eating in a shadowy room. Only the sky and the water in the ditch hold light; the field, the low growth and the trees are deep olive-green and brown.
How big is the original of Evening Landscape?
The museum gives its size as 35 x 43 cm: 35 cm high and 43 cm wide, a small landscape format. Our 43 x 35 cm size is exactly its size, and there are larger sizes from 50 x 40 up to 150 x 120 cm, as well as custom sizes painted to measure. Above a sofa, 100 x 80 or 120 x 100 cm is a good choice.
Does your Evening Landscape have the raised brushstrokes of the original?
Yes. We paint our copy in impasto: the paint goes on thickly, so the brushstrokes stand up from the canvas as on Van Gogh’s original. You see it best in the heaped earth beside the ditch, in the ragged crowns of the tall trees and in the bright patches of water, where the relief catches the light and changes as you walk past the painting.
Which period of Van Gogh does Evening Landscape belong to?
To his Dutch years in Nuenen, before he moved to Paris. The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza describes his style in this first Dutch period as a realism with strong tenebrist undertones, and writes that his palette became more luminous and colourful only in Paris. The painting is close in date to The Potato Eaters and shares its dark tones.
Is Evening Landscape a good gift?
It suits someone who is drawn to quiet evenings, flat open country or Van Gogh’s early years in Nuenen, and its landscape format fits above a sofa, a bed or a desk. As a canvas painting in deep olive and brown with a glowing sky, it brings a calm evening mood into a room, and a voucher lets the recipient choose the size.
- Subject: a ditch of water running straight back through a dark field towards the horizon, tall thin trees and a small red sun low in a dark sky, no house and no figure.
- Original: 1885, Nuenen, 35 x 43 cm, oil on canvas mounted on cardboard, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
- Ours: a Van Gogh reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas, in 16 sizes from 43 x 35 to 150 x 120 cm or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: our 43 x 35 cm size is exactly the size of the original in Madrid.
