A double-square painting is a painting made on uncommonly large

canvas Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags ...

es, which have one

dimension In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a Space (mathematics), mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any Point (geometry), point within it. Thus, a Line (geometry), lin ...

that is twice the size of the other.

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, 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 ...

used double-squares almost exclusively during the final weeks of his life in Auvers, in June and July 1890.These terms were coined by Ronald Pickvance, one of the leading experts in Van Gogh-research. Other artists who have painted double-square canvases include

Charles-François Daubigny Charles-François Daubigny ( , , ; 15 February 181719 February 1878) was a French painter, one of the members of the Barbizon school, and is considered an important precursor of impressionism. He was also a prolific printmaker, mostly in etchin ...

Puvis de Chavannes Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (14 December 1824 – 24 October 1898) was a French painter known for his mural painting, who came to be known as "the painter for France". He became the co-founder and president of the Société Nationale des Beau ...

,Hammacher, A. M. ''The Ten Creative Years of Vincent van Gogh,'' Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1968. page 175 and

Ivon Hitchens Ivon Hitchens (born London, 3 March 1893 – 29 August 1979) was an English painter who started exhibiting during the 1920s. He became part of the 'London Group' of artists and exhibited with them during the 1930s. His house was bombed in 1940 du ...

Description

In a double-square painting, one dimension of the canvas is twice the size of the other, so that the canvas is the shape of two adjoining squares. The overall effect of this is stability, and the

compositional In semantics, mathematical logic and related disciplines, the principle of compositionality is the principle that the meaning of a complex expression is determined by the meanings of its constituent expressions and the rules used to combine them. ...

challenge is to avoid monotony.

Use

Prior to Van Gogh, artists such as Charles-François Daubigny and Puvis de Chavannes had used canvases of similar proportions, and Van Gogh was aware of this.

Van Gogh's Double-square canvases

Vincent van Gogh - Mademoiselle Gachet au piano

used double-squares almost exclusively during the final weeks of his life in Auvers, in June and July 1890. To arrive at this size, Van Gogh combined the legs of two standard sizes: the 50 cm leg from a size 12 and the 100 cm leg of a size 40 stretcher. The result was a ''double-square'' of , and from this size, easily the ''square'' could be derived by using two 50 cm legs. His choice of this size points into another direction from previous artists; his ''double-squares'' can easily be combined with size 30 canvases to more elaborated ''décorations'', and his ''squares'' extend these possibilities. File:Vincent van Gogh - Tree Roots and Trunks (F816).jpg, ''

Tree Roots ''Tree Roots'' is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh that he painted in July 1890 when he lived in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. The painting is an example of the double-square canvases that he employed in his last landscapes. Background Van G ...

,'' July, 1890, Van Gogh Museum,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

(F816, JH2113) File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 038.jpg, ''Wheat Fields near Auvers'', June–July 1890,

Österreichische Galerie Belvedere The Österreichische Galerie Belvedere is a museum housed in the Belvedere palace, in Vienna, Austria. The Belvedere palaces were the summer residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736). The ensemble was built in the early eighteenth centu ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

File:Wheatfield - Van Gogh.jpg, ''Sheaves of Wheat'', 1890, Dallas Museum of Art (F771) File:Van Gogh - Feld mit Korngarben.jpeg, ''Field with Stacks of Grain,'' July 1890, Beyeler Foundation, Riehen, Switzerland (F809) File:Vincent van Gogh - Undergrowth with Two Figures (F773).jpg, ''Undergrowth with Two Figures'', June 1890, Cincinnati Museum of Art File:VanGoghThatchedCottagesByAHill.jpg, ''

Thatched Cottages by a Hill ''Farms near Auvers'' or ''Thatched Cottages by a Hill'' is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh that he painted in July 1890 when he lived in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. The painting is an example of the double-square canvases that he employed in h ...

,'' July 1890,

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

(F 793, JH 2114) File:Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) - Wheat Field with Crows (1890).jpg, ''

Wheat Field with Crows ''Wheatfield with Crows'' ( nl, Korenveld met kraaien) is a July 1890 painting by Vincent van Gogh. It has been cited by several critics as one of his greatest works. It is commonly stated that this was van Gogh's final painting because Vincen ...

'', 1890, Van Gogh Museum,

File:Vincent van Gogh - Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds - VGM F778.jpg, ''Wheatfieldd Under Thunderclouds'', July 1890, Van Gogh Museum,

File:Van Gogh - Landschaft mit Schloss Auvers bei Sonnenuntergang.jpeg, ''Landscape with Castle Auvers at Sunset'', June 1890, Van Gogh Museum,

(F770) File:Vincent van Gogh - Landscape at Auvers in the Rain.jpg, ''Landscape at Auvers in the Rain'', July 1890, National Museum Cardiff,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

File:Vincent Willem van Gogh 021.jpg, ''

Daubigny's Garden ''Daubigny's Garden'', painted three times by Vincent van Gogh, depicts the enclosed garden of Charles-François Daubigny, a painter whom Van Gogh admired throughout his life. Van Gogh started with a small study of a section of the garden. Then ...

'', 1890, Hiroshima Museum of Art,

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

Subsequent uses of the dimensions

worked primarily in double-squares at certain periods in his career.

Footnotes

References

* Pickvance, Ronald: * Zemel, Carol: {{Vincent van Gogh Paintings by Vincent van Gogh Series of paintings by Vincent van Gogh 1890 paintings

Description

Use

Van Gogh's Double-square canvases

Subsequent uses of the dimensions

See also

Footnotes

References