The Red Vineyard by Vincent van Gogh

The Red Vineyard is a fairly significant painting because it is the only one that Van Gogh sold himself while he was alive.

The painting was exhibited at the annual exhibition of Les XX - a group of 20 Belgian painters and designers - in 1890 in Brussels, Belgium. The fact that Van Gogh was allowed to exhibit his art at this event shows his positive reception as it was an exclusive event. While there, Van Gogh sold The Red Vineyard to Anna Boch, a member of Les XX and a Belgian Impressionist painter, for 400 Francs. This painting was later acquired by Sergei Shchukin, a famous Russian art collector, and is currently held in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, Russia.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) was a Dutch painter during the middle to late 1800s. He painted during the Post-Impressionist movement which is characterized by its reaction to Impressionism. The movement did use some of the same techniques, including vivid colors and real subjects, but tended to use unnatural colors, emphasize geometric forms and distort the paintings for effect.

Post-impressionist artists often placed higher importance on the abstract aspects of their paintings. In particular, Van Gogh is known for expressing his thoughts and feelings through vibrant, swirling, expressive and dramatic strokes. Van Gogh was a leader of this movement along with Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne and Georges Seurat. Van Gogh's timeless and influential body of artwork is massive, including approximately 860 oil paintings, many of which were done in the final two years of his short life. These paintings vary in subject from still lifes and landscapes to portraits and self-portraits.

An example of a landscape painting is The Red Vineyard from November of 1888. This painting depicts a vineyard in Arles in southern France. Van Gogh lived here for a short time and fell in love with the local vineyards. This painting was done during the autumn, so the vineyard was full of red and yellow tones, as Van Gogh depicts in the image. These colors are amplified by the setting sun, which is reflected in the river running beside the workers. There are also details to note in the painting, including the building in the background and the horse pulling a cart. The field is lined with lush trees and the completed work by the many workers is evident.