The Bedroom, 1888
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Oil on Canvas, 72 X 90 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
(Vincent van Gogh Stichting)
F 482

Here, Van Gogh has depicted his bedroom in the Yellow House, furnished with simple pine furniture and his own paintings. Over the bed hang his portraits of the poet Eugène Boch and the soldier Paul-Eugène Milliet.

Color and Perspective
The most striking aspects of this work are the bright patches of contrasting color, the thickly applied paint and the odd perspective. The rear wall appears strangely angled. This is not a mistake: this corner of the Yellow House was, in fact, slightly skewed. (See painting The Yellow House)

Elsewhere, however, the objects seem to tilt upward because the artist has not applied the laws of perspective accurately. Van Gogh worked this way on purpose. In a letter to Theo he stated that he had –flattened” the interior and left out the shadows so that his picture would more closely resemble a Japanese print. (See painting The Courtesan). But the artist was interested in more than just making a Japanese image. The simple interior and bright colors were meant to convey notions of –rest” and –sleep,” both literally and figuratively.