''The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen'' ( nl, De pastorie in Nuenen), alternatively named ''The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring'' ( nl, De pastorie in Nuenen in het voorjaar) or ''Spring Garden'' ( nl, Lentetuin: F185, JH484), is an early oil painting by 19th-century Dutch post-Impressionist painter

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

, created in May 1884 while he was living with his parents in

Nuenen Nuenen () is a town in the municipality of Nuenen, Gerwen en Nederwetten in the Netherlands. From 1883 to 1885, Vincent van Gogh lived and worked in Nuenen. In 1944, the town was a battle scene during Operation Market Garden. The local dialect i ...

. Van Gogh made several drawings and oil paintings of the surrounding gardens and the garden façade of the parsonage. The painting was in the collection of the

Groninger Museum The Groninger Museum () is an art museum in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. The museum exhibits modern and contemporary art of local, national, and international artists. The museum opened in 1874. The current post-modernist building co ...

The Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

from 1962 to 2020. On 30 March 2020, it was stolen from an exhibition at the

Singer Laren Singer Laren is a museum and concert hall located in the center of Laren, the Netherlands. The museum is devoted to presenting and preserving the collection of the American artist William Henry Singer (1868–1943) and his wife Anna (1878–196 ...

museum in Laren which had been closed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands The COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus reached the Netherlands on 27 February 2020, when its first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Tilburg. It involved a 56-year-old Dutchman ...

Background

Van Gogh lived in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

with Sien Hoornik and then alone for a few months in Drenthe in the northern Netherlands. He then went to live with his parents in the parsonage of the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

near Eindhoven in December 1883 where his father was pastor. The family turned the laundry room into a studio in the back of the house. Van Gogh remained with his parents in Nuenen for nearly two years, producing about 200 drawings and paintings, including his first major work, ''

The Potato Eaters ''The Potato Eaters'' ( nl, De Aardappeleters) is an oil painting by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh painted in April 1885 in Nuenen, Netherlands. It is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The original oil sketch of the painting is at the Kröl ...

''. He moved to Antwerp in November 1885 and then to Paris in 1886.

Description

In Nuenen, Van Gogh documented the changing seasons in his paintings of the parsonage's garden, which was enclosed by a high stone wall and included a duck pond with a boat dock, paths and hedges, flower and vegetable garden plots and an orchard. Preceded by a series of wintery drawings, this work was probably painted in May 1884. It depicts a view of the garden with a dark-clothed female figure in the foreground. In the distance are the ruins of the old church, also depicted in works such as ''

Old Church Tower at Nuenen ''Old Church Tower at Nuenen'' (or ''The Peasants' Churchyard'') are names given to several oil paintings and drawings created in 1884 and 1885 by Vincent van Gogh. Most reflect the way the 12th-century church looked in its better days when its ...

'', before it was demolished in 1885. It uses the dark palette of greens and browns, typical of Van Gogh's early work, with touches of green and red in the painting indicating that winter has passed and spring has begun. In a letter that Van Gogh sent to

Anthon van Rappard Anthon Gerard Alexander van Rappard (14 May 1858, Zeist – 21 March 1892, Santpoort) was a Dutch painter and draughtsman. He was a pupil of Lawrence Alma-Tadema. He was also a friend and mentor of Vincent van Gogh for about four years, who is sai ...

in March 1884, he mentioned the change in the seasons: "Ben ook zoekende naar de kleur van den wintertuin. Doch die is reeds een lente tuin - nu. En is iets heel anders geworden." ("Am also searching for the colour of the winter garden. But it is already a spring garden - now. And has become something completely different.") The painting is unusually wide, measuring without its decorative frame, exceeding double square. Van Gogh may have worked with the help of a perspective window (a wooden frame strung with wires).Lentetuin, de pastorietuin te Nuenen in het voorjaar (1884) - Vincent van Gogh
artsalonholland.nl It had been in the collection of the

, in the Dutch city of Groningen, since 1962 but was stolen in 2020. File:Wintertuin, Vincent van Gogh, Nuenen, maart 1884.jpg, ''Winter Garden'' ("Wintertuin"), pencil and ink drawing, March 1884,

Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum () is a Dutch art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in the Museum Square in Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw. The museum opene ...

, Amsterdam (F1128, JH466) File:Vincent van Gogh - The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Winter - Google Art Project.jpg, ''The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Winter'', pen and ink drawing, March 1884,

Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest The Museum of Fine Arts ( hu, Szépművészeti Múzeum �seːpmyveːsɛti ˈmuːzɛum is a museum in Heroes' Square, Budapest, Hungary, facing the Palace of Art. It was built by the plans of Albert Schickedanz and Fülöp Herzog in an eclecti ...

(F1130, JH465) File:Gogh - f 1133.jpg, ''Parsonage Garden'', April 1884, small drawing sent to

, private collection (F1188) File:Van Gogh - Der alte Friedhofsturm in Nuenen.jpeg, ''

'', May 1884, oil on canvas on panel, Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zürich (F88, JH490) File:Van Gogh - Der Pfarrgarten in Nuenen im Schnee1.jpeg, ''The Parsonage Garden in Nuenen in the Snow'', oil on canvas on panel, January 1885,

Norton Simon Museum The Norton Simon Museum is an art museum located in Pasadena, California, United States. It was previously known as the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum and displays numerous sculptures on its grounds. Overview The Norton Si ...

, Pasadena (F194, JH603) File:Van Gogh - Der Pfarrgarten in Nuenen im Schnee.jpeg, ''The Parsonage Garden in Nuenen in the Snow'', oil on canvas on panel, January 1885,

Armand Hammer Museum of Art The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...

, Los Angeles (F67, JH604) File:De tuin van de pastorie te Nuenen, van Gogh, 1885.jpg, ''The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen'', watercolour on paper, October/November 1885,

Noordbrabants Museum Het Noordbrabants Museum is an art museum in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. History The Provincial Society for Arts and Sciences ''Het Provinciaal Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen in Noord-Brabant'' (Provincial society for arts and s ...

’s-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...

(F1234, JH954) File:Van Gogh - Der Pfarrgarten in Nuenen mit Teich und Figuren.jpeg, ''The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen with Pond and Figures'', oil on panel, 1885, destroyed by fire in Rotterdam in the Second World War (F124, JH955)

Theft

The painting was

stolen Stolen may refer to: * ''Stolen'' (2009 Australian film), a 2009 Australian film * ''Stolen'' (2009 American film), a 2009 American film * ''Stolen: The Baby Kahu Story'' (2010 film), a film based on the real life kidnapping of baby Kahu Durie ...

from the

museum in

Laren, North Holland Laren () is a town and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the Gooi region, it is the oldest town in the area. Together with its neighbor Blaricum, Laren is one of the most affluent towns in the Netherlands. N ...

on 30 March 2020, Van Gogh's birthday. The painting had been on loan from the

. At the time of the theft, the museum was closed to the public due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Police said the thief or thieves smashed through the glass doors with a sledgehammer around 3:15 a.m. and left before law enforcement responded to the alarm. Museum director Jan Rudolph de Lorm said, "I'm shocked and unbelievably annoyed that this has happened." In June, photographs of the painting with a copy of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' dated 30 May were sent to detective Arthur Brand. Also in the photo was the book ''Meesterdief'' ( en, Masterthief). He compared this to the theft of two paintings from the

, Amsterdam in 2002. Groniger Museum director Andreas Blühm said he was pleased that the painting still existed and believed the photographs were genuine. Since 1988, twenty-eight Van Gogh paintings have been stolen in the Netherlands, but all have been recovered. In early April 2021, Dutch police arrested a man in

Baarn Baarn () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, near Hilversum in the province of Utrecht. The municipality of Baarn The municipality of Baarn consists of the following towns: Baarn, Eembrugge, Lage Vuursche. The town of Baarn ...

, Utrect in connection with the theft of the painting and also that of the c. 1626 painting '' Twee Lachende Jongens met een Mok Bier'' by Frans Hals, which had been stolen from the

Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden The Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden is a museum and former hofje in Leerdam, Netherlands, on the Kerkstraat (numbers 57 and 89). It was built during the years 1770-1772 on the former location of the "Kasteel van Leerdam", a castle that was destroye ...

, in

Leerdam Leerdam () is a city and former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. The municipality was merged with the municipalities of Vianen and Zederik on 1 January 2019. The name of the new municipality is Vijfheerenlan ...

, Utrecht on 26 August 2020. Neither of the paintings had then been recovered. Art detective Arthur Brand told a reporter that the person in custody probably did not know the location of the works because "stolen artwork was often moved around quickly by criminal gangs". According to unnamed sources, the value of the painting was estimated as "up to £5m" in articles published by Deutsche Welle and ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. On 24 September, the man was convicted of the thefts and sentenced to eight years imprisonment.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parsonage Garden At Nuenen 1884 paintings Churches in art Landscape paintings Lost paintings Paintings by Vincent van Gogh Stolen works of art COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the arts and cultural heritage

Background

Description

Theft

See also

References

External links