Adeline Ravoux

It has been a very busy summer! I am currently immersing myself in analysing paintings, which is the only part of my current thesis work that I am really enjoying.

I have been looking at van Gogh's portraits of Adeline Ravoux today.

Gorgeous, isn't it?  The depth of colour, the primness of her pose... the ice blue gaze that stares off at something outside of the painting, at something we will never see. Her hands seem almost fidgety, as though sitting for the charmless painter made her nervous.  

Upon a quick scour of the interwebs, I found this photograph of Adeline in her old age:

Needless to say, this photograph delights me.  It is such a lovely, nostalgic image. I am a little bit in love.

The Van Gogh Gallery has put Adeline Ravoux's account of her time with Vincent on their website, which you can read here. It's a very enlightening read.

The part of her account that stands out to me, especially, is in regard to her perception of the portrait when compared to that of an outsider.  She wrote: 

"I confess that I was only poorly satisfied with my portrait, that I was even disappointed: I did not see a resemblance. Nevertheless, last year, someone who came to see me to talk about Van Gogh: the first time that they met me they recognized me from this portrait that Vincent had done and added: 'This is not the youthful girl that you were that Vincent saw, but the woman that you would become'."

What a remarkable insight into Vincent's vision of those who sat for him, and indeed resonates with his own comment on the style of his portraits:

"I should like to paint portraits which would appear after a century to people living then as apparitions."1

1 Letter 879 to Williemien van Gogh, 5 June 1890.