“The White House at Night”
This 1890 oil on canvas piece by Dutch Post-Impressionist painter, Vincent Van Gogh, is titled “The White House at Night.”
Van Gogh did a series of house paintings while in Auvers-sur-Oise and this is one of the later ones. It was actually painted just six weeks before he died. Notice his thick brush strokes, his familiar method of depicting a sun, and the mood on the face of the woman.
In the late 1920s, this painting was in the private collection of Otto Krebs, a German industrialist. After the Nazi’s took over just prior to WWII, this type of art was seen as degenerate, so Krebs hid his collection to keep the work safe. The Soviets confiscated a large number of paintings from Germany after the war, including this piece. Its whereabouts wasn’t known until 1995 when it was displayed at an art exhibit at the Hermitage Museum.
“The White House at Night” is currently on display at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
For more on Vincent Van Gogh, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
