Adeline Ravoux (1890): Art, History and Details

Adeline Ravoux (1890) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In May 1890, Vincent van Gogh arrived in Auvers, a small town north of Paris, where he rented a room at the inn of Arthur Ravoux. This portrait, completed during the last months of the artist’s life, depicts Ravoux’s 13-year-old daughter, Adeline. Van Gogh wrote that rather than photographic resemblance, he wanted his portraits to convey the “impassioned aspects” of contemporary life through the “modern taste for color.”

Object facts

• Title: Adeline Ravoux
• Date: 1890
• Creator attribution: Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890)
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on fabric
• Dimensions: Framed: 72.5 x 73.5 x 8.5 cm (28 9/16 x 28 15/16 x 3 3/8 in.); Unframed: 50.2 x 50.5 cm (19 3/4 x 19 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1958.31

A detail from the museum

Adeline Ravoux, at age 13, was not pleased with her portrait and did not think the image resembled her. Today, a photograph exists of Adeline in her late seventies and the resemblance is truly remarkable.

Collection credit

Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.

Further reading listed by the museum

• Louis Anfray, “Les souvenirs d’Adeline Ravoux sur le séjour de Vincent van Gogh à Auvers-sur-Oise,” Les Cahiers de Van Gogh no. 1 (Geneva: Pierre Cailler, 1956): p. 9.
• Société Anonyme. Report 1920-1921. [New York]: The Society, 1921.
• Dreier, Katherine S. Western Art and the New Era; An Introduction to Modern Art. New York: Brentano's, 1923.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.