Post-Impressionism · 1853–1890 · Dutch

Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh built his color on complementary contrasts, blue against orange and red against green, learned from Delacroix and Japanese prints. Some of his reds were fugitive and have faded, so parts of his paintings are cooler today than he made them.

Across 10 works, the colors are mostly brown (25%), yellow (23%) and blue (17%). On average the canvases are mid-toned, vivid and warm. Signature colors, used far more here than across the collection: gold, light gold, pale golden yellow, light yellow and light lime yellow.

Color print

The swatches covering most of these canvases, averaged over every work, dark to light.

MG 222 charcoal 7.4% of canvas
MG 223 soot 7.0% of canvas
MG 039 gold 6.5% of canvas
MG 038 light gold 5.7% of canvas
MG 036 pale gold 3.9% of canvas
MG 211 dark slate 3.5% of canvas
MG 178 rich orange ochre 3.4% of canvas
MG 034 amber 3.2% of canvas
MG 106 blue 2.7% of canvas
MG 044 light yellow 2.7% of canvas
MG 188 rich amber ochre 2.6% of canvas
MG 037 light amber gold 2.5% of canvas
MG 045 yellow 2.5% of canvas
MG 041 pale golden yellow 2.4% of canvas
MG 218 graphite 2.4% of canvas
MG 221 blue black 2.3% of canvas

Measurements

Lightness: 0.50
Contrast: 0.37
Vividness: 0.064
Warmth: +0.38
Complexity: 158 cells
Hue range: 0.48
Focus: 0.07

Vincent van Gogh

Color print

Measurements

Works