Landscape near Arles

Gallery label:
This canvas was the first one Gauguin painted during the two months he spent in Provence with Vincent van Gogh in 1888, just after his productive summer in Pont-Aven. Gauguin had rebelled against Impressionism's reliance on the visible world, and he altered nature's shapes and colors to suggest his own more subjective reaction to the landscape. In this composition, however, Gauguin focuses on forms and structure. While the rural subject and acidic colors show the influence of van Gogh, this image is more indebted to Paul Cézanne. In his careful integration of the haystack and farm buildings, Gauguin has echoed Cézanne's emphasis on geometric form.

Indianapolis Museum of Art
Gift in memory of William Ray Adams