Vincent Can Gogh painted The Red Vineyard in 1888, some time after Paul Gauguin arrived in Arles,France. Paul Gauguin was the artist that Van Gogh looked up to most. Van Gogh wanted to be just like Gauguin and become famous for his artwork. As the weeks passed,
Gauguin moved his easel out into the fields surrounding Arles, and van Gogh followed. The Red
Vineyard combines Vincent 's efforts to learn from Gauguin 's example with his own interest in color and motif. The diagonal axes that sweep across the foreground to meet the high horizon reflect Paul Gauguin 's formal approach to composition, but the thickly worked surface illuminated by a yellow sun in a yellow sky mark Vincent van Gogh 's own aesthetic style.
The Red Vineyard was the only painting sold by Van Gogh during his lifetime. Looking at the painting, you can feel the richness of the color and how they harmonize the whole masterpiece. Van Gogh used the colors of orange and yellow together with green and blue which are analogous but at the same time are complementary with each other. It is also visible that the lighting is at low angle which somehow gives an impression of an afternoon or sunset theme to the painting. In this painting, it is evident that there are lines that separate each entity to one another. Above is a horizontal line that divides the sky to the land and on the right side is a curve line that detaches the land to the river. An implied line that organizes an artwork is applied in the painting. The peasants are aligned diagonally, horizontally and vertically to each other.
The Red Vineyard was painted purely from Van Gogh’s memory and imagination, when he happened to pass by a vineyard one evening. For me the painting expresses peace and harmony and simplicity of life. The peasants were basically harvesting crops and gathering fish to store for future use and as if they are one family working together. In this painting everyone – male and
Citations: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/vasko-kohlmayers-globe/2011/aug/2/ red-vineyard-picture-vincent-van-gogh-sold/ http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/artwork/vincent-van-gogh-biography3.htm