Vincent van Gogh's display at Les XX, 1890, in Brussels is an important testament to the recognition he received amongst avant-garde peers during his own lifetime. Participation in the annual exhibition of Les XX was for members and by invitation only. Van Gogh's choice proves that he was going for more than a simple selection of paintings he considered superior, but that he was willing to provide a well reasoned summary of his years of work in Provence. Evidently this notion remained neglected, and even more: it was washed away by the scandal his works provoked. Then the same works were again shown at the annual exhibition of the Artistes Indépendants in Paris which offered space for an expansion of the display: this was done by Theo van Gogh, the brother of Vincent, who was suffering from long lasting mental problems.
Paintings included
In November 1889, Van Gogh selected six of his paintings, all size 30 canvases, to be displayed at Les XX, in 1890. On the back of the letter of invitation from Octave Maus, dated November 15, 1889, there is a pencil sketch that gives some hints for the display Van Gogh proposed, and for its artistic background. His reply to Maus, dated November 20, 1889, supplied the titles later printed in the catalogue, but did not point out the arrangement he intended: The missing information can easily be compiled from other parts of Van Gogh's correspondence; there is now agreement that Van Gogh's exhibit can be reconstructed in the order of paintings below: Ivy, the center piece of Van Gogh's arrangement, has been lost without trace since World War II; Hermann Göring is the last person photographed with this canvas while it was stored, together with other works of art confiscated from French Jewish collections, in the Jeu de Paume Galleries. Van Gogh indicated his two Sunflowers were to be displayed either side of Ivy. To the left and right of this upright triptych, he wanted to place the Flowering Orchard and the Wheat Field at Sunrise. Finally, he indicated Red Vineyard was to be hung underneath this arrangement.
"Impressions of Provence"
The four landscapes depict traditional notions of the four seasons: flowering trees in spring, a shaded hiding place in the midst of ivy in summer, the vineyard harvest in autumn, and new wheat on the furrows in winter. In between the seasons were embedded the heraldic flowers of Provence — sunflowers, dear to the artistic and literary circles of the Félibres, the néo-provencal movement around Frédéric Mistral. These seasonal links are set not only in subject matter, but — and from Van Gogh's point of view even more important — reinforced by the choice of colour. Each of the six paintings is dominated by one of the six primary colours. He uses yellow and orange in the two Sunflowers-versions, red in the vineyard, green in the ivy, blue in the orchard, and violet in the field. Thus, the full colour spectrum is manifested in this selection, which can consequently be read as a single entity, "a whole". Earlier this year, Van Gogh had already expressed his wish before returning to the North to summarise his "impressions of Provence".
Scandal and success
The exhibition of Les XX opened January 18, running till February 23. Two days before the opening, Henry de Groux announced that his works would not be seen side by side with the "abominable Pot of Sunflowers by Monsieur Vincent or any other agent provocateur". At the opening dinner, De Groux once again attacked Van Gogh's paintings and called him That same evening, Les XX expelled De Groux from their association; the next day he apologised and was allowed to resign. Thus the duel was averted, and Paul Signac was soon one of two supplementary members elected to Les XX. One work of Van Gogh's exhibit was sold, The Red Vineyard. The buyer was Anna Boch, a painter and member of Les XX since its foundation and sister of Eugène Boch, who was also a painter and a friend of Vincent van Gogh.
Altered exhibit at the Artistes Indépendants
The Artistes Indépendants, collaborating closely with Les XX in Brussels, were eager to present Van Gogh to the public in Paris in an even broader scale, and finally showed ten paintings in their 6th annual exhibition, March 20 through April 27, 1890: Evidently, the first part of Van Gogh's exhibit was now chosen by Theo, while the remainders from Brussels were added at the end of this selection, excluding one version of the Sunflowers. Again, Van Gogh exhibit was the clou of the show: Gauguin, Guillaumin and other colleagues proposed to exchange works; Duez sent his compliments; and Theo wrote to Vincent on April 23 that Monet had said, "your pictures were the best of all in the exhibition". ;Some of Van Gogh's paintings in the Artistes Indépendants show
