{"id":676788,"date":"2026-11-06T13:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T13:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/676788\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T13:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T13:56:16","slug":"budapest-exhibition-explores-van-gogh-and-gauguins-artistic-excursion-to-montpellier-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/676788\/","title":{"rendered":"Budapest exhibition explores Van Gogh and Gauguin’s artistic excursion to Montpellier – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Paul Gauguin arrived in Arles in October 1888 to stay with his friend Van Gogh, the two artists would go out to paint together and then socialise and discuss art in the evenings over a glass of wine. Their very different personalities, however, soon led to tensions. Living together in the confines of the Yellow House and sharing a small room as a studio, they began to row. As winter approached, and the weather made it impossible to work outside, the situation only worsened. <\/p>\n

In mid-December, in an attempt to clear the air, Gauguin suggested that they should make a trip to Montpellier, 70 km west of Arles. Their goal was to visit the Mus\u00e9e Fabre, renowned for its fine collection of paintings.<\/p>\n

The artistic result of this trip forms a central part of a major exhibition on Gauguin which opened this week at Budapest\u2019s Museum of Fine Arts. Bonjour Monsieur Gauguin: The Circles of Post-Impressionists and Symbolists<\/a> (until 28 February 2027) provides a wide-ranging exploration of the art of Gauguin and his associates. The show\u2019s title comes from a key painting by the artist inspired by the Montpellier visit, Bonjour Monsieur Gauguin (late 1889).<\/p>\n

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Paul Gauguin\u2019s Bonjour Monsieur Gauguin (late 1889)<\/p>\n

Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (photograph The Art Newspaper)<\/p>\n

Van Gogh and Gauguin travelled from Arles to Montpellier by train, which took around four hours. Although it has long been assumed that they made a day trip on either 16 or 17 December 1888, it is arguably more likely that they spent the night there and stayed for both days. The Mus\u00e9e Fabre had over 800 paintings on display, so they would surely have wanted time to savour the works. Many of the finest pictures were French, given by Alfred Bruyas, a local collector and patron of Gustave Courbet.<\/p>\n

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Gustave Courbet\u2019s Bonjour Monsieur Courbet (1854)<\/p>\n

Mus\u00e9e Fabre, Montpellier<\/p>\n

For Gauguin, the highlight of the museum was Courbet\u2019s Bonjour Monsieur Courbet<\/a> (1854). This landscape composition includes the figure of Courbet himself, laden with his equipment and holding a walking pole. He is greeting Bruyas, who is accompanied by a bowing servant.<\/p>\n

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Gustave Courbet\u2019s Bonjour Monsieur Courbet and Gauguin\u2019s Bonjour Monsieur Gauguin in the Budapest exhibition<\/p>\n

The Art Newspaper<\/p>\n

Gauguin, who was impressed with the Courbet, painted a work in response, a year later, in the Brittany fishing village of Le Pouldu. The main figure in this work is Gauguin himself, facing a Breton woman on the other side of a gate.<\/p>\n

Superficially, the Gauguin painting bears little resemblance to the Courbet. Stylistically, Courbet\u2019s smoothly painted picture contrasts with Gauguin\u2019s rough brushwork. The compositions appear to have little in common, other than showing an artist encountering other people\u2014and being greeted with a \u201cgood day\u201d (and, incidentally, both scenes also include a dog).<\/p>\n

The moods seem very different. Courbet appears thrilled to greet his patron and friend. Gauguin\u2019s encounter with the Breton woman, however, is fleeting, as they happen to pass each other at a gate. The Budapest exhibition\u2019s lead curator, Judit Gesk\u00f3, sees the Gauguin picture as representing \u201cthe artist as a solitary wanderer\u201d.<\/p>\n

But despite the differences, Gauguin\u2019s decision to entitle his work as he did shows that he was directly acknowledging the source of his inspiration, the Courbet. Gauguin\u2019s title is actually inscribed on the painting, in the lower-left corner.<\/p>\n

Gauguin made two versions of his composition: the one on loan to Budapest from the Hammer Museum<\/a> in Los Angeles and the other (which was unavailable for borrowing) at the National Gallery in Prague. The Hammer picture, which was the original, was created to display on the dining room door in the small inn<\/a> where he was staying in Le Pouldu.<\/p>\n

As for Van Gogh, the Dutchman was particularly struck in the Mus\u00e9e Fabre by the portraits by Courbet. These included a self-portrait, The Man with the Pipe<\/a> (around 1849), which may well have inspired Van Gogh one month later to paint his Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe<\/a> (January 1889).<\/p>\n

Bruyas was depicted by a range of artists and these portraits were also much admired by Van Gogh in the Montpellier museum. Vincent described Bruyas\u2019 appearance to his brother Theo as \u201ca gentleman with a beard, red hair, who looks damnably like you or me\u201d.<\/p>\n

Electric discussions<\/p>\n

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Postcard of Mus\u00e9e Fabre, Montpellier (1905)<\/p>\n

Collections ND<\/p>\n

Both Gauguin and Van Gogh were great admirers of Courbet, who was very well represented in the Mus\u00e9e Fabre. Although they agreed about Courbet, their tastes for other artists were often rather different. Vincent wrote to Theo that their artistic discussions in Montpellier had been \u201cexcessively electric\u201d. He explained: \u201cWe sometimes emerge from it with tired minds, like an electric battery after it\u2019s run down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite these animated discussions, the inspirational visit seemed a success. Vincent reported back to Theo the day after their return that in the museum they had been \u201cright in the midst of magic\u201d. He added: \u201cGauguin said to me this morning, when I asked him how he felt: \u2018that he could feel his old self coming back\u2019, which gave me great pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadly, the reconciliation did not last long: just four days later Van Gogh severely mutilated his ear. Although the trigger<\/a> was probably news he had just received that Theo had become engaged (which Vincent feared would threaten his brother\u2019s support), tensions with Gauguin were also a contributing factor.<\/p>\n

Van Gogh in the Gauguin show<\/p>\n

Budapest\u2019s Gauguin exhibition is ambitious, with 80 works by the French master and 70 by other artists. Although financial valuations for exhibitions are rarely revealed, The Art Newspaper can report that its total insurance value is \u20ac1.5bn. <\/p>\n

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Van Gogh\u2019s Field with Irises near Arles (May 1888)<\/p>\n

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)<\/p>\n

The show includes three works by Van Gogh: the landscape painting Field with Irises near Arles<\/a> (May 1888, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam) and two rarely-displayed drawings from the collection of the Budapest museum, The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Winter<\/a> (March 1884) and Haystacks<\/a> (July 1888).<\/p>\n

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Van Gogh\u2019s The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Winter (March 1884) and Haystacks (July 1888)<\/p>\n

Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest<\/p>\n

The Budapest exhibition has two Gauguin paintings dating from his stay with Van Gogh in Arles: the landscape Les Alyscamps<\/a> (October 1888, Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris) and the portrait Madame Roulin<\/a> (November-December 1888, Saint Louis Art Museum). Both of these subjects were also tackled by Van Gogh.<\/p>\n

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Gauguin\u2019s Les Alyscamps (October 1888) and Madame Roulin (November-December 1888)<\/p>\n

Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay, Paris and Saint Louis Art Museum<\/p>\n

Among the other Gauguin highlights in the show is Sunflowers on an Armchair<\/a> (1901, B\u00fchrle Collection, on loan to the Kunsthaus Zurich). This is one of four still-life paintings inspired by Van Gogh\u2019s favourite motif\u2014sunflowers. Gauguin painted these in the Marquesas Islands (north of Tahiti), with flowers grown from seeds<\/a> he was sent by a friend from Paris. <\/p>\n

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Gauguin\u2019s Sunflowers on an Armchair (1901)<\/p>\n

B\u00fchrle Collection, on loan to the Kunsthaus Zurich<\/p>\n

The museum estimates that the Gauguin exhibition could see up to 350,000 visitors, a huge number for a medium-sized European capital. However, even this won\u2019t match Gesk\u00f3’s Van Gogh show<\/a> in 2006, which attracted 486,000 people to the museum to see the Dutch painter’s works. <\/p>\n

Martin Bailey is a leading Van Gogh specialist and special correspondent for The Art Newspaper. He has curated exhibitions at the Barbican Art Gallery, Compton Verney\/National Gallery of Scotland and Tate Britain.<\/p>\n

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Martin Bailey\u2019s recent Van Gogh books<\/p>\n

Martin has written a number of bestselling books on Van Gogh\u2019s years in France: The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh’s Masterpiece (Frances Lincoln 2013, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>), Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence (Frances Lincoln 2016, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>), Starry Night: Van Gogh at the Asylum (White Lion Publishing 2018, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>) and Van Gogh\u2019s Finale: Auvers and the Artist\u2019s Rise to Fame (Frances Lincoln 2021, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>). The Sunflowers are Mine (2024, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>) and Van Gogh\u2019s Finale (2024, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>) are also now available in a more compact paperback format.<\/p>\n

His other recent books include Living with Vincent van Gogh: The Homes & Landscapes that shaped the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>), which provides an overview of the artist\u2019s life. The Illustrated Provence Letters of Van Gogh has been reissued (Batsford 2021, UK<\/a> and US<\/a>). My Friend Van Gogh\/Emile Bernard provides the first English translation of Bernard\u2019s writings on Van Gogh (David Zwirner Books 2023, UK<\/a>and US<\/a>).<\/p>\n

To contact Martin Bailey, please email vangogh@theartnewspaper.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Please note that he does not undertake authentications.<\/p>\n

Explore all of Martin\u2019s adventures with Van Gogh here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Paul Gauguin arrived in Arles in October 1888 to stay with his friend Van Gogh, the two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[16161,307,304,305,306,37015,308,93,4197,61,60,69206,34872,34871],"class_list":["post-676788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-adventures-with-van-gogh","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-budapest","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-exhibitions","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-museum-of-fine-arts","tag-paul-gauguin","tag-vincent-van-gogh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}