page_title: Paintings of Children (Van Gogh series)
section_title: Adeline Ravoux
hierarchical_section_title: Paintings of Children (Van Gogh series) / Auvers-sur-Ouise / Adeline Ravoux
context_page_description: Vincent van Gogh enjoyed making Paintings of Children. He once said that it's the only thing that "excites me to the depths of my soul, and which makes me feel the infinite more than anything else." Painting children, in particular represented rebirth and the infinite. Over his career Van Gogh did not make many paintings of children, but those he completed were special to him. During the ten years of Van Gogh's career as a painter, from 1881 to 1890, his work changed and grew richer, particularly in how he used color and techniques symbolically or evocatively.
  His early works were earth-toned and dull. After a transformative period in Paris, Van Gogh embarked on his most prolific periods starting in Arles, in the south of France and continuing until his final days in Auvers-sur-Oise. During those times his work became more colorful and more reflective of influences, such as Impressionism and Japonism. Japonism influences are understood in the painting of a young girl, La Mousmé. Among others, he was inspired by the work of Jean-François Millet which he emulated in First Steps and Evening: The Watch.
  Van Gogh enjoyed painting portraits when he had available models.
context_section_description: During his time in Auvers, Van Gogh rented a room at the inn of Arthur Ravoux, whose sixteen-year-old daughter sat for three paintings.  Van Gogh depicts Adeline, rather than a photographic resemblance, with "impassioned aspects" of contemporary life through the "modern taste for color."  Van Gogh wrote to his brother: “Last week I did a portrait of a girl about sixteen, in blue against a blue background, the daughter of the people with whom I am staying.  I have given her this portrait, but I made a variation of it for you, a size 15 canvas."
  Adeline Ravoux was asked sixty-six years later what she remembered of Van Gogh.  Before he painted her portrait, van Gogh had only made polite exchanges of conversation with Adeline.  One day, though, he asked her if she would be pleased if he were to do her portrait.  After obtaining her parents permission, she sat one afternoon in which he completed the painting.  He smoked continually on his pipe as he worked, and thanked her for sitting very still.  She was very proud to sit for the painting she described as a "symphony in blue".  Van Gogh thought she was sixteen, but she was just thirteen years of age at the time. Adeline sat just once, but three paintings were made of her:
  For the sitting, Adeline was dressed in a blue dress, the background was blue and her hair ribbon was blue.
  Van Gogh made a copy of the original painting for his brother, with slightly different shades of blue.
  In a slightly different pose or aspect, Adeline appears against a background of roses, portions of a still life of roses (F595) that he completed just a few days prior to this painting. This painting is owned by the Cleveland Museum of Art.
  Neither she nor her parents appreciated Van Gogh's style and were disappointed that it was not true to life.  Yet, even though Adeline was a young girl at the time, pictures of her as a young woman showed that van Gogh painted her as she would become.
caption: Portrait of Adeline Ravoux, June 1890, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio (F786)
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2007:05:25 09:29:21", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8378", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "570", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "572"}