Description
The Dance Hall in Arles is the painting Vincent van Gogh made in Arles in 1888, during the weeks Paul Gauguin spent with him: a packed dance hall seen over the heads of the crowd, women with dark hair and long dark blue ribbons in the foreground, round yellow lamps along a green balcony at the top, every shape held by a dark outline. The original measures 65 x 85.5 cm and is in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. We paint it by hand in oil on canvas, in 17 sizes from 50 x 40 to 160 x 127 cm or to your own measurements, and send you a photograph of the finished painting for approval before dispatch.
| Title: | The Dance Hall in Arles |
| Other titles: | La Salle de danse à Arles · The Dance Hall at Arles |
| Painter: | Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) |
| Year painted: | 1888, Arles |
| Original size: | 65 cm x 85.5 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Post-Impressionism, cloisonnism |
| Located at: | Musée d’Orsay, Paris (accession no. RF 1950 9) |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, 17 sizes or made to measure |
The Dance Hall in Arles – Vincent van Gogh
What does The Dance Hall in Arles show?
The painting shows a dance hall so full that no floor is visible. We look over the heads of the crowd from close behind it, and people fill the canvas almost to the top. In the foreground several women are seen from behind or in profile, their dark hair piled up high and tied with long dark blue ribbons that hang down over pale yellow and cream shawls. On the left a woman in an olive green dress turns her face aside; in the middle another, in a pale cap, looks down, and below her a patch of checked blue and yellow cloth breaks up the dark mass of hair.
Further back the crowd turns into rows of hats, faces and dark clothes, with a man in a red cap on the right. Across the top runs a green balcony with an orange-red edge, where small dark figures look down, and round yellow lamps hang along it and around the hall. The colours are few and strong: yellow, green, dark blue and black, with touches of red. Each shape is flat and closed by a dark line.
When was it painted, and which dance hall is it?
He painted it in Arles at the end of 1888, while Paul Gauguin was staying with him. According to the Musée d’Orsay, Gauguin joined Van Gogh in Arles on 23 October 1888, and the two dreamt of founding a studio of the South together. Their enthusiasm soon waned, but towards mid-December, during a brief improvement in their relationship, they worked together again. In the museum’s account, the two great works of those few days are Gauguin’s own Arlésiennes (Mistral), in the Art Institute of Chicago, and Van Gogh’s The Dance Hall in Arles.
The museum writes that the painting seems to show an evening at the Folies-Arlésiennes, a dance hall on the Boulevard des Lices in Arles. On 16 or 17 December the two painters visited the Musée Fabre in Montpellier; according to the Musée d’Orsay, the arguments that followed made their separation inevitable, and Gauguin prepared to leave.
What does the painting mean?
In the Musée d’Orsay’s reading, Gauguin’s influence is clear: Van Gogh scrupulously applies the principles of synthesism and cloisonnism that his friend had developed at Pont-Aven. Cloisonnism means flat areas of colour enclosed by dark contours, which is how every hat, shawl and lamp in this crowd is drawn. The museum also sees a reference to Japanese art in the unusually high horizon and in the strange, decorative foreground, where the curves and counter-curves of the women’s hair dominate.
In the museum’s words, the many figures, the variety of their clothes and the way they overlap convey a feeling of crowding and saturation. It points to the portrait of Madame Roulin on the right, the only figure who turns to look at the viewer, and suggests that her face expresses a claustrophobic terror. In Gauguin’s Arlésiennes, the museum adds, two women also express anxiety.
Where is the original today?
The original is in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. The museum lists it as La Salle de danse à Arles, 1888, oil on canvas, under the inventory number RF 1950 9, and gives its size as 65 x 85.5 cm, height by width.
According to the French Wikipedia article on the painting, it entered the French national collections in 1951 as a gift from André Meyer and his wife, who retained a life interest in it.
The Dance Hall in Arles or another Arles painting – which to choose?
Four other paintings in our range were made in Arles. The Night Café, from 1888, shows the inside of an all-night café in Arles, with a billiard table under hanging lamps. Café Terrace at Night, from September 1888, shows the lit terrace of a café on the Place du Forum under a starry sky. Both are lit scenes after dark, but they show a place; The Dance Hall in Arles is all crowd.
L’Arlésienne is a portrait of Madame Ginoux of Arles seated at a table with books, and The Zouave is the half-length portrait of a young soldier in a red fez that he painted in Arles in June 1888. Choose The Dance Hall in Arles for an evening crowd in strong flat colour, and one of the portraits for a single face.
How is our hand-painted Dance Hall in Arles made?
The painter first draws the balcony, the lamps and the large heads of the foreground, then the smaller hats and faces behind them. The flat colour areas follow, and last the dark outlines that close each shape. Our oil painting reproduction is painted by hand on canvas, with real impasto: the paint goes on thickly, so the brushstrokes stand up from the canvas and catch the light.
On this painting the relief matters most in the women’s piled-up hair, in the long blue ribbons and in the yellow lamps. A print is completely flat; on our painting every brushstroke stands out in real paint.
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: 81 x 65 or 85 x 68 cm above a sideboard, a desk or a bed, 120 x 100 or 135 x 109 cm above a sofa, and 160 x 127 cm for a large wall. The landscape format suits a long wall above furniture, a dining room or a hallway.
There are 17 sizes: 50 x 40, 60 x 50, 70 x 55, 75 x 60, 81 x 65, 85 x 68, 90 x 70, 93 x 75, 100 x 80, 105 x 85, 110 x 90, 120 x 100, 130 x 102, 135 x 109, 142 x 114, 150 x 120 and 160 x 127 cm (width x height). The original is 85.5 cm wide and 65 cm high, so our 85 x 68 cm size comes close to it. Its yellows, greens and dark blues stand out on a white, light grey or warm cream wall. A 50 x 40 cm size fits above a bedside table or on a bookshelf. A painting for the living room should take up about two thirds of the width of the furniture below it.
Hang it with the centre of the canvas about 150 cm above the floor, leaving 20 to 30 cm between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the canvas.
What if I need a custom size or a frame?
If none of the 17 sizes fits your wall, we paint it to measure. Keep the proportions close to the original, otherwise the crowd gets squeezed or the balcony stretched. Send us the width and height you want and we will quote you a price and a delivery time. Every painting we make is mounted on a wooden stretcher, ready to hang.
Our 3D app shows each of our frame profiles on this painting, so you can compare gold, silver, black, white and natural wood. The app is for choosing the frame only. To see the painting on your own wall, use our separate room placement service. A gold frame picks up the yellow lamps and shawls, and a black frame repeats the dark outlines.
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 on its stretcher, carefully packed (and framed, if you chose a frame), across the EU with no customs duty. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished painting to approve, and we correct anything that is not right. Our returns policy applies to every order.
You will find more of Van Gogh’s famous works 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 The Dance Hall in Arles today?
In the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. The museum lists it as La Salle de danse à Arles, 1888, oil on canvas, 65 x 85.5 cm, with the inventory number RF 1950 9. It entered the French national collections in 1951 as a gift from André Meyer and his wife, who retained a life interest in it, as the French Wikipedia records.
When did Van Gogh paint The Dance Hall in Arles?
In Arles at the end of 1888. According to the Musée d’Orsay, Gauguin arrived in Arles on 23 October 1888, and towards mid-December the two painters worked together again for a few days. The museum names this canvas and Gauguin’s own Arlésiennes (Mistral) as the two great works of that short spell.
Which dance hall does The Dance Hall in Arles show?
According to the museum, probably the Folies-Arlésiennes. The Musée d’Orsay writes that the painting seems to show an evening at the Folies-Arlésiennes, a dance hall on the Boulevard des Lices in Arles. The painting itself shows no sign or name, only the crowd, a balcony with spectators and round yellow lamps.
How did Gauguin influence The Dance Hall in Arles?
Through his way of painting. According to the Musée d’Orsay, Van Gogh scrupulously applies here the principles of synthesism and cloisonnism that Gauguin had developed at Pont-Aven: flat areas of colour closed by dark contours. You can see it in every hat, shawl and lamp of the crowd, each one a flat shape inside a dark line.
Who is the woman looking out of The Dance Hall in Arles?
The Musée d’Orsay identifies her as Madame Roulin. She is on the right of the painting and, in the museum’s words, she alone turns to look at the viewer while the others look away from us. The museum suggests that her face expresses a claustrophobic terror, and compares it with the anxious women in Gauguin’s own Arlésiennes (Mistral).
How big is the original of The Dance Hall in Arles?
The original is 65 cm high and 85.5 cm wide, a landscape format, as the Musée d’Orsay records it. Our 85 x 68 cm size comes close to it, and there are smaller and larger sizes from 50 x 40 up to 160 x 127 cm, as well as custom sizes painted to measure. Above a sofa, 120 x 100 or 135 x 109 cm is a good choice, and 81 x 65 cm suits a desk or a sideboard.
Does your Dance Hall in Arles have the raised brushstrokes of the original?
Yes. We paint it in impasto, building up each brushstroke in thick oil, so the surface is raised like Van Gogh’s original. You see this best in the piled-up hair of the women in the foreground, in the long dark blue ribbons and in the round yellow lamps, where the relief catches the light and changes as you walk past the painting.
Is The Dance Hall in Arles a good gift?
It suits someone who is drawn to Van Gogh’s months in Arles, to his friendship and quarrel with Gauguin, or to an evening out in a southern town, and it works well in a dining room, a hallway or above a long sideboard. As a canvas painting in yellow, green and dark blue it brings colour and movement into a room, and a voucher lets the recipient choose the size.
- Subject: a crowded dance hall in Arles in the evening, women with dark blue ribbons in the foreground, a green balcony and round yellow lamps at the top.
- Original: 1888, Arles, 65 x 85.5 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
- Ours: a Van Gogh reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas, in 17 sizes from 50 x 40 to 160 x 127 cm or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: our 3D app shows the painting in each of our frame profiles before you order.
