The documented sale
Was this the only painting Van Gogh sold?
No. The Van Gogh Museum says the exact number of paintings sold during his lifetime is unknown, but was more than a couple. It names a sale to Julien Tanguy and another made by Theo to a London gallery, as well as Anna Boch’s purchase of The Red Vineyard. [2]
The sale of this particular canvas has a clear place in the correspondence. In a letter to his mother, dated 19 February 1890 by the editors, Vincent says that Theo had told him a painting sold in Brussels for 400 francs. [3] The letter itself does not name the painting or the buyer. The edition’s note 5 identifies The Red Vineyard and Anna Boch, citing Theo’s account book and a contemporary exhibition report. [3]
A well-documented sale is not proof that there were no others. Commissions, exchanges and sales describe different transactions; the museum also discusses work traded for food or materials. [2] Those distinctions help us ask what a record actually proves instead of repeating a total it cannot supply.
Look closely
The visible figure and the hidden one
Look closely
The figure on the road
Find the small standing figure to the right of the cart. The pale road leads towards that figure, while the red vines press against its left edge. Keep the whole painting in mind: the figure is small beside the foreground workers and the sun.
The Pushkin’s conservation page says an X-ray showed that a woman with a skirt, white blouse and hat was originally on the road instead of a man. The museum says the reason for the change can only be speculated about. [6]
This crop shows the visible painting, not the X-ray. It cannot reveal the earlier clothing or tell us why Van Gogh changed the figure. Open the museum’s account alongside it to distinguish the reported finding from what the photograph lets you see.
Look closely
Blue over red in the foreground
Move down to the bent blue figure near the centre. Compare the blue clothing with the red marks around it. Look for places where the figure’s outline meets the vines, rather than treating blue and red as two tidy blocks.
The museum describes a woman with a basket added after the vineyard had been painted, and red showing through a thin layer of blue. [6] That is the museum’s account of the paint sequence. The photograph is useful for locating the passage; it does not replace an examination of the paint layers.
After looking at the crop, return to the whole image. Does the blue make the figure easier to find, or does the busy red surface keep pulling your attention away?
Reading the letters
What the letters tell us about the colour
In letter 717, dated about 3 November 1888, Van Gogh tells Theo that he is working on a vineyard in purple and yellow. He also recalls seeing a vineyard “red like red wine”, with yellow in the distance, a green sky and violet ground after rain. The edition’s note identifies the painting as The Red Vineyard. [4]
Try locating those areas in the image before deciding what the colour means. Follow the yellow from the sky into the field, and look at the cooler marks in the foreground.
By letter 718, dated 10 November 1888, he reports finishing a vineyard canvas in purple and yellow, with small blue and violet figures and a yellow sun. [5] He then writes about working from memory on bad-weather days. [5]
The earlier letter says Gauguin was painting women in a vineyard entirely from memory. [4]
Sale and collection
The sale in Van Gogh’s own account
In his letter to his mother, Vincent considers using the proceeds of the sale to visit Theo in Paris. [3] The passage gives the transaction a place in his plans, beyond the later story of an artist who sold nothing.
The scholarly edition separates the surviving letter from the supporting documents. Its note names Anna Boch as the purchaser at the Les Vingt exhibition in Brussels and says the letter in which Theo told Vincent of the sale is not known. [3] We can read Vincent’s response; we cannot read that missing letter through it.
Susie Hodge’s Vincent van Gogh places the painting among six of his works shown at the group’s exhibition in 1890 and records Boch’s purchase for 400 francs. [7]
The painting is now in the Pushkin’s collection. Its catalogue identifies the work as Ж-3372 and dates it to November 1888. [1] The Russian record gives 73 × 91 cm; use the catalogue number when matching the object across differently translated titles. [1] Check the museum’s current visiting information before travelling. A collection record does not guarantee that a painting is on display.
Catalogue checked 6 October 2026. Current display status has not been verified.
Common questions
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What did the X-ray reveal?
The museum’s conservation page reports that a woman was originally on the road instead of a man and leaves the reason for the change uncertain. [6] The detail shown here is a visible-light photograph, not a diagnostic image.
This painting is available as a print. View the print →
