The Red Vineyard
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
The Red Vineyard is a painting Vincent van Gogh completed in early November 1888 in Arles, held at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, and generally regarded as the only painting he sold during his lifetime through a formal exhibition sale[1]. He painted it entirely from memory. Walking with Paul Gauguin near Montmajour past empty vineyards, he described a grape harvest he had witnessed a month earlier, and Gauguin challenged him to paint the scene without going back to look at it, offering to paint his own version from nothing but Vincent's account[3]. Confined to the studio by a week of rain, Van Gogh built the picture from memory and from years of sketching fieldwork, filling the vineyard with women harvesters in purple and blue against a burning yellow sky, with a large sun low near the horizon[3]. He described the finished canvas to Theo as depicting the vineyards absolutely red and yellow, with small blue and violet figures and a yellow sun, and admitted separately that the study had cost him much blood[4]. It was shown at the 1890 exhibition of the Brussels artists' group Les XX and bought there for 400 francs by Anna Boch, herself an Impressionist painter and the sister of Eugène Boch, a fellow painter and friend Van Gogh had portrayed in Arles the previous autumn[1]. The painting was later acquired by the Russian collector Sergei Shchukin, whose collection was nationalised after the Bolshevik Revolution and eventually passed to the Pushkin Museum[1].
Where it is held
Held at Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia.
Sold in 1890 to Anna Boch at the Les XX exhibition in Brussels for 400 francs. It later entered the collection of the Russian collector Sergei Shchukin, was nationalised with the rest of his holdings after the Bolshevik Revolution, and eventually passed to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow[1].
A scene painted entirely from memory
The painting grew out of a walk Van Gogh and Gauguin took near Montmajour on the first Sunday of November 1888, passing the empty vineyards at the base of the hill. Van Gogh described to Gauguin a harvest he had watched a month before, mostly women working over the heavy, purpling vines under a still-intense southern sun. Moved by the account, Gauguin challenged him to paint the scene from memory rather than return to the site, and offered to paint his own version based only on Vincent's telling[3]. Van Gogh accepted, later writing that Gauguin gave him the courage to imagine things. Confined indoors by a spell of rain over the following week, he drew on years of sketching fieldwork, going back to studies of potato diggers from his time in The Hague to populate the empty vineyard with anonymous, toiling figures[3].
Vineyards absolutely red and yellow
Van Gogh described the finished canvas to Theo in a November 1888 letter as depicting the vineyards absolutely red and yellow, with small blue and violet figures and a yellow sun, a colour scheme he had already been experimenting with in other vineyard studies that autumn, where he described the vine plants themselves as green, purple and yellow, with violet grapes and black and orange trunks[4]. Elsewhere he admitted to Theo that the study had cost him much blood, a measure of how hard the invented, memory-built composition had been to bring off.
Shown, and sold, at Les XX
The painting was one of six Van Gogh works shown at the January to February 1890 exhibition of Les XX in Brussels, alongside two versions of his Sunflowers and other recent canvases. The show provoked real controversy: one member of the group, Henry de Groux, objected to hanging his own work near what he called Van Gogh's laughable pot of sunflowers, and Toulouse-Lautrec, defending Van Gogh's honour at the exhibition dinner, challenged a detractor to a duel, an argument that ended with the sceptic's resignation from the group[5]. Amid that furore, The Red Vineyard itself sold for 400 francs to Anna Boch, a fellow painter and collector and the sister of Van Gogh's friend Eugène Boch[1].
Common questions
Why is The Red Vineyard significant in Van Gogh's career?
It is generally regarded as the only painting Van Gogh sold during his lifetime through a formal exhibition sale[1].
Who bought The Red Vineyard, and for how much?
Anna Boch, a Belgian Impressionist painter and collector, bought it for 400 francs at the 1890 Les XX exhibition in Brussels[1].
Was this really the only work Van Gogh ever sold?
It is the only sale formally recorded, but he almost certainly sold or traded other pieces informally during his lifetime[2].
Did Van Gogh paint the vineyard on the spot?
No. He painted it from memory a month after witnessing the harvest, taking up a challenge from Paul Gauguin to work purely from recollection[3].
Sources
Editorial draws on the following references, verified against the museum and public-domain image record for this work.
- [1] book VINCENT VAN GOGH, Works of Vincent van Gogh (Masters of Art) Used for: this artwork.
- [2] book Susie Hodge;, Vincent Van Gogh Used for: this artwork.
- [3] book Steven Naifeh, Van Gogh Used for: this artwork.
- [4] book Brodskaïa, Nathalia; , Impressionism and Post-Impressionism Used for: this artwork.
- [5] book James Grundvig, Breaking van Gogh Used for: this artwork.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-09-03. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
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