{"id":185266,"date":"2026-08-13T15:19:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T13:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/?post_type=product&p=185266"},"modified":"2026-08-13T15:19:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T13:19:40","slug":"arlesiennes-mistral","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/en\/paul-gauguin\/arlesiennes-mistral\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Gauguin \u2013 Arlesiennes (Mistral)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arlesiennes (Mistral) \u2013 Gauguin\u2019s Arles autumn, painted on jute<\/h2>\n

In the autumn of 1888, during the shared stay with Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin painted the Arlesiennes in Arles. The work measures 73 x 92 cm \u2013 the museum states height first and width second \u2013 so it is a landscape format, wider than it is tall. It is held by the Art Institute of Chicago under accession number 1934.391. Two women in Arlesian dress walk in the foreground, cloaks pulled over their heads; behind them opens the garden of the hospital where van Gogh spent that winter recovering.<\/p>\n

What the painting shows<\/h3>\n

The two figures are caught mid-stride, bent against the wind. The mistral, the cold north wind of Provence, is in the title and in their posture: the cloaks are drawn tight around the face, the bodies tipped forward. Behind them grow two conical bushes that Gauguin has simplified almost to a geometric shape, and an orange-brown path turns away into the depth. A bench and a few smaller figures appear in the background.<\/p>\n

Technique: oil on jute<\/h3>\n

The support is not canvas in the usual sense but jute \u2013 the coarse sacking from which sacks were sewn at the time. Gauguin and van Gogh bought a roll of it in Arles because it was cheap, and that is why this work was made on jute rather than on painter\u2019s canvas. Jute is strikingly coarse and irregular in weave; the fabric shows through the thin layers of paint and gives the surface a grainy character. Colour does not sit smoothly on it but catches in the fibres.<\/p>\n

The lettering along the bottom edge<\/h3>\n

Along the lower edge, brushstrokes in the paint itself form lettering. It is the painter\u2019s own brushstroke and part of the original work \u2013 not a watermark added afterwards, and not a publisher\u2019s mark. On the reproduction it is painted just like the rest of the scene, because it belongs to the work.<\/p>\n

How a hand-painted reproduction is made<\/h3>\n

The reproduction is painted by hand, in oils on canvas, brushstroke by brushstroke. On this subject the greatest care goes to the balance between the roughness of the support and the softness of the two figures: if the texture is lost, the work turns too smooth and gives up the character of the original. Before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished piece for approval.<\/p>\n