Description
The Zouave is the half-length portrait Vincent van Gogh painted in Arles in June 1888 of a young soldier of the Zouave regiment: a tanned face with a moustache, a red fez, a dark jacket trimmed with orange and yellow braid, set against a green door and an orange brick wall. The original, oil on canvas, measures 65.8 x 55.7 cm and is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. We paint it by hand in oil on canvas, in 16 sizes from 40 x 50 to 135 x 160 cm or to your own measurements, and send you a photograph of the finished painting for approval before dispatch.
| Title: | The Zouave |
| Other titles: | Le Zouave · The Zouave (half-figure) · Zouave |
| Painter: | Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) |
| Year painted: | June 1888, Arles |
| Original size: | 65.8 cm x 55.7 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Post-Impressionism |
| Located at: | Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (acc. no. s0067V1962) |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, 16 sizes or made to measure |
The Zouave – Vincent van Gogh
What does The Zouave show?
A young soldier fills almost the whole canvas, seen from the waist up. His face is tanned, with a dark moustache, heavy eyebrows and green shadows on the cheeks and forehead. On his head he wears a red fez with a dark tassel falling to the left. His short jacket is a deep blue-black, edged with red and decorated with orange and yellow braid that curls into loops and round buttons on both sides of his chest. Below it a strip of bright blue shows at the waist.
Behind him almost everything is green: a door painted in long vertical strokes. On the right a narrow strip of orange-red brick wall with white joints closes the composition. There is no landscape, only the figure, the door and the wall.
Why are the colours of The Zouave so bold?
Because Van Gogh wanted them that way. The Van Gogh Museum asks whether the colours seem a little harsh or coarse, and answers that this was exactly what he intended. It quotes his wish to work on portraits that are “vulgar, even garish” like this one, adding: “It teaches me, and that’s what I ask of my work above all.”
The red fez sits against the green door, and the orange braid against the dark jacket: each colour is set beside its opposite. The English Wikipedia article on the Zouave paintings cites his own description of the result as a “savage combination of incongruous tones”. According to the museum, he even painted the red bricks on the right for the sake of the colour contrast, although such bricks were not used in Arles.
What does The Zouave mean?
It is above all a portrait study, and a sign of how much Van Gogh wanted to paint people. The museum writes that he was pleased to have the chance to draw and paint this infantryman: there was nothing he liked more than working with models, but he rarely found people willing to pose for him.
He was not easy on himself. Wikipedia quotes a letter to his brother Theo in which he says he is very dissatisfied with his recent work because it is very ugly, “but all the same, figure is interesting me more than landscape”. Read that way, the painting shows his interest moving from the landscape to the human figure, in his own words.
Where does the original hang?
The original is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which lists it as The Zouave, Arles, June 1888, oil on canvas, 65.8 x 55.7 cm, under the object number s0067V1962. Its credit line reads Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation).
The museum also records how it got there. In mid-August 1888 Van Gogh gave the painting to Paul-Eugène Milliet to take to his brother Theo in Paris. After Theo’s death in January 1891 it passed to his widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son Vincent Willem van Gogh, who transferred it to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation in 1962. Since the museum opened in Amsterdam in 1973, the painting has been there.
The Zouave or another Van Gogh – which should you choose?
First, which Zouave this is. Van Gogh painted the soldier twice in oil in June 1888: this half-length portrait, and a second canvas in which the soldier sits and is seen in full figure, known as The Seated Zouave, which Wikipedia places in a private collection. Our painting is the half-length portrait from the Van Gogh Museum.
Among the other portraits in our range, Portrait of Joseph Roulin is another Arles sitter in uniform, the postman. Self-Portrait as an Artist shows the painter himself, and Portrait of a Young Peasant is another portrait of a young man. The Yellow House shows the house in Arles that he rented. Choose The Zouave for a strong face in red, green and blue, the Roulin portrait for a calmer sitter, and The Yellow House if you would rather have a street than a face on the wall.
How is our hand-painted version of The Zouave made?
The painter first draws the head, the fez, the shoulders and the outline of the jacket, and checks the proportions against the original. Then come the green door and the brick wall, after them the dark jacket and the blue at the waist, then the face with its green and pink shadows, and last the braid, the buttons, the tassel and the moustache. 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 as they do in the original and catch the light.
On this painting the relief shows most in the long strokes of the door, in the loops of orange and yellow braid and in the white joints of the bricks. 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: 40 x 50 or 55 x 66 cm for a narrow wall in a hallway or a study, 80 x 100 cm above a chest of drawers or a desk, and 100 x 120 or 110 x 130 cm above a sofa or on a large wall.
There are 16 sizes: 40 x 50, 55 x 66, 60 x 70, 64 x 80, 70 x 85, 75 x 90, 80 x 100, 85 x 105, 90 x 110, 93 x 115, 100 x 120, 105 x 125, 110 x 130, 120 x 140, 127 x 150 and 135 x 160 cm (width x height). The original is 55.7 cm wide and 65.8 cm high, so our 55 x 66 cm size is almost exactly the size of the original, and 110 x 130 cm keeps its proportions exactly at twice the scale. As an upright portrait it also suits a narrow wall between two doors or windows. A painting for the living room should cover 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, so the soldier’s eyes are close to your own. Above a sofa, a bed or a sideboard, leave 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 16 sizes fits your wall, we paint it to measure in any width and height you need. 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 black or dark wood frame repeats the jacket and makes the red and orange stronger, while a gold one picks up the yellow braid and the bricks.
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 more about the painter in our article on Vincent van Gogh. If it is a present and you are not sure of the size, a wall art voucher lets the recipient choose.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original of The Zouave today?
In the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The museum lists it as The Zouave, painted in Arles in June 1888, oil on canvas, 65.8 x 55.7 cm, under the object number s0067V1962, with the credit line Vincent van Gogh Foundation. Van Gogh sent it to his brother Theo in Paris in August 1888, and it stayed with the family until it went to the foundation in 1962.
When and where did Van Gogh paint The Zouave?
In June 1888, in Arles in the south of France, where he had arrived earlier that year. The Van Gogh Museum dates it to June 1888. Wikipedia notes that Arles had torrential rain for more than three days in late June, during the very days he worked on the Zouave pieces, and that he wrote of being exhausted.
Who was the soldier in Van Gogh’s The Zouave?
A young French infantryman of the Zouave regiment, recognisable by his red fez and the short dark jacket with curling braid. The Van Gogh Museum calls him an infantryman and does not give his name. Van Gogh was glad to have him, because he rarely found anyone willing to sit for him, and he drew him as well as painting him.
How many Zouave paintings did Van Gogh make?
Two oil paintings, both from June 1888 in Arles: this half-length portrait in the Van Gogh Museum, and The Seated Zouave, a full-figure version that Wikipedia places in a private collection. Around them there are drawings of the same soldier, among them a pencil and reed pen drawing in the Van Gogh Museum and a watercolour in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Why is there a brick wall in The Zouave?
For the colour. According to the Van Gogh Museum, he painted the red bricks on the right for the sake of the colour contrast, even though such bricks were not used in Arles. The orange-red of the wall answers the green of the door and the red of the fez, and closes the composition on the right like a narrow vertical band.
What did Van Gogh say about The Zouave?
That it was meant to be harsh. The Van Gogh Museum quotes him wanting to work on portraits that are vulgar, even garish, because it teaches him, and Wikipedia quotes his description of the colours as a savage combination of incongruous tones. He also called his recent work very ugly, yet wrote that figure interested him more than landscape.
How big is the original of The Zouave?
65.8 cm high and 55.7 cm wide, according to the Van Gogh Museum: a medium upright format. Our 55 x 66 cm size is almost exactly the size of the original. If you want the soldier larger, there are 16 sizes up to 135 x 160 cm, and custom sizes in any proportions.
Which size of The Zouave suits a living room?
Above a sofa, choose 100 x 120 or 110 x 130 cm, so that the canvas painting holds its own on a large wall and the face reads clearly from across the room. On a narrower wall, beside a bookcase or above a sideboard, 64 x 80 or 80 x 100 cm works well. For a very high wall, choose our largest size, 135 x 160 cm.
Does your copy of The Zouave 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 long vertical strokes of the green door, in the loops of orange and yellow braid on the jacket and in the white joints of the brick wall, where the relief catches the light from the side.
- Subject: a young soldier of the Zouave regiment in a red fez and a dark jacket with orange and yellow braid, against a green door and an orange brick wall.
- Original: June 1888, Arles, oil on canvas, 65.8 x 55.7 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
- Ours: a Van Gogh reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas, in 16 sizes from 40 x 50 to 135 x 160 cm or made to measure.
- Worth knowing: our 3D app shows every frame profile on this portrait, so you can choose the frame before you order.
