
Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00001248The Drinkers
Provenance
The artist; sent to his brother, Theo van Gogh (died 1891); possibly by descent to his wife, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger (died 1925). Given to Émile Bernard (died 1941), Paris, 1890 or 1891; his mother, Héloïse Bernard (died 1909), before 1899; given to Galerie Vollard, Paris, Jan. 7, 1899 [Vollard Stock Book, Wildenstein Gallery Archives, New York]; sold to Jack Aghion, Paris (died before 1914), by 1905 for 500 FRF [Paris 1905]. Carl Reininghaus, Vienna (died 1929), by 1909 to at least 1925 [Vienna 1909; Berlin 1914; Vienna 1925]; by descent, until 1931. Probably given on consignment to Galerie Thannhauser, Munich and Berlin, Apr. 1931 [according to annotated working list prepared for the Arts Club exhibition, Chicago 1936; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to Joseph Winterbotham, Jr. (died 1954), Burlington, Vt., before Nov. 13, 1933 [purchase from Thannhauser is implied by context on working list cited above]; given by Joseph Winterbotham to the Art Institute, 1953.
Exhibition history
Paris, Salon des Indépendants, Exposition Rétrospective de l’Oeuvre de Vincent van Gogh, Mar. 24–Apr. 30, 1905, cat. 1 Vienna Secession, Internationale Kunstschau, May–Oct., 1909, cat. 10 Berlin, Paul Cassirer, Zehnter Ausstellung. Vincent van Gogh, May–June, 1914, cat. 113. Vienna Secession, Die führenden Meister der franzöisischen Kunst im neunzehnten Jahrhundert, Mar.-Apr. 1925, cat. 89. Chicago, Arts Club, Exhibition of the Joseph Winterbotham Collection, Dec. 9–31, 1936, cat. 44. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Van Gogh in Saint-Rémy and Auvers, Nov. 25, 1986–Mar. 22, 1987, cat. 47. Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Hermitage Museum, Ot Delakrua do Matissa: shedevry frantsuzskoĭ zhivopici XIX-nachala XX veka, iz Muieia Metropoliten v Niu-Ĭorke i Khudozhestvennogo Instituta v Chikago, Mar. 15-May 19, 1988, cat. 44; Moscow, Pushkin Museum, June 10-July 30, 1988. [From Delacroix to Matisse: Great Paintings From the XIX century to the Beginning of the XXth century From Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago] Budapest, Sveepmuvesti Museum, Van Gogh in Budapest, Dec. 1, 2006—Apr. 1, 2007, cat. 69. Rome, Complesso Monumentale dell Vittoriano, Vincent Van Gogh: Timeless Country – Modern City, 8 Oct. 2010 – 6 Feb. 2011, cat. 86, as The Drinkers or The Four Ages of Man. Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Van Gogh at Work, Sep. 1, 2013-Jan. 13, 2014, cat. 284.
Publications
Julius Meier-Graefe, Vincent van Gogh (Munich 1912), 56, 57 (ill.). Julius Meier-Graefe, Vincent van Gogh, John Holyroyd Reece, trans. (London, Liverpool, and Boston, 1922), 70–71, pl. 82. Gustave Coquiot, Vincent van Gogh avec 24 reproductions hors texte de Vincent van Gogh (Paris, 1923), 319. Julius Meier-Graefe, Entwicklungsgeschichte der modernen Kunst (Munich, 1927), 605, pl. 518 [first ed. Stuttgart, 1904]. Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh to His Brother, 1872–1886 (London: Constable; Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1927), vol. 2, 83, no. 265. Vincent van Gogh, Further Letters of Vincent van Gogh to His Brother, 1886–1889 (London: Constable; Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1929), vol. 2, 430 letter no. 623, 437 letter no. 626. Waldemar George, Van Gogh: 24 phototypies, Les Albums d’Art Druet 3 (Paris: Librairie de France, 1927), pl. 1. Jacob Baart de la Faille, L’Oeuvre de Vincent van Gogh: catalogue raisonné (Paris: G. Van Oest, 1928), vol. 1, 187 no. 667; vol. 2, pl. 188. Wilhelm Uhde, Vincent van Gogh (Vienna: The Phaidon Press; London: G. Allen and Unwin, 1936), 16–17, pl. 80. W. Scherjon and W[illiam] J[osiah] de Gruyter, Vincent van Gogh’s Great Period: Arles, St. Remy and Auvers sur Oise (Amsterdam: De Spieghel, 1937), 291, no. 97. Jacob-Baart de la Faille, Vincent van Gogh, trans. Charles Terrasse (New York: French and European Publications; Paris: Hyperion Press, 1939), 473 fig. 687, 568. "Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, Apr.–June 1953," Art Quarterly 16 (1953): 348, 356 (ill.). "Recent Purchases and Gifts," Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 47, no. 4 (November 1953): 73 (ill.). Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), 199-200, 330 (ill.). Jacob-Baart de la Faille, The Works of Vincent van Gogh, His Paintings and Drawings (New York: Reynal, 1970), 262, 263 (ill.), no. F667. Paolo Lecaldano, L’opera pittorica completa di Van Gogh e i suoi nessi grafici, vol. 2 (Milan: Rizzoli, 1977), 225-26 no. 761. Marla H. Hand, “Renaissance or Decadence: The Drinkers by Vincent Van Gogh” (master’s thesis, University of Chicago, 1979). John Rewald, Post-Impressionism: From van Gogh to Gauguin, 3rd ed. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1978), 327 (ill.). Jan Hulsker, The complete Van Gogh: Paintings, drawings, sketches (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1980), 433–34. B. Naeling, "Vincent van Gogh," PAN. Unsere herrliche Welt, no. 9 (September 1984): 4–23. Susan A. Stein, ed., Van Gogh: A Retrospective (New York: Hugh Laughter Levin, 1986), 318, 327 (ill.), 328. Walter Feilchendeldt, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cassirer, Berlin: the reception of Van Gogh in Germany from 1901 to 1914 (Zwolle: Van Gogh Museum, 1988), 111, 147, 150, no. F667 Bruce Laughton, The Drawings of Daumier and Millet (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1991), 202–03 (ill.). Margherita Andreotti, “The Joseph Winterbotham Collection,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 20, no. 2 (1994): 126–27 (ill.). Cornelia Homburg, The Copy Turns Original: Vincent van Gogh and a New Approach to Traditional Art Practice (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1996), fig. 6, 96-98, 108-07, 174 no. 54. Naomi Margolis Maurer, The Pursuit of Spiritual Wisdom: The Thought and Art of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin (London: Fairleigh Dickson University Press, 1998), 99, fig. 176. Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov, Van Gogh in Provence and Auvers (New York: Hugh Lautner Levin, 1999), 215 (ill.). Belinda Thomson, Van Gogh (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New York: distributed by Harry N. Abrams, 2001), 77, 84, pl. 14. Walter Feilchendeldt, Vincent van Gogh, Die Gemälde 1886–1890, Händler, Sammler (Wädenswil: Nimbus Kunst und Bücher, 2009), 200 (ill.), 287, 295, 299, 302. Cornelia Homburg, ed., Vincent van Gogh: Timeless Country – Modern City. exh. cat. (Milan: Skira, 2010), 27, 190 cat 86, 201, 267. Stefan Koldehoff and Chris Stolwijk, eds., The Thannhauser Gallery: Marketing Van Gogh (Brussels: Mercatorfonds; Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum, 2017), 52, 70, 71, 237 no. 70, 237 (ill.). "Standing up for drinking in art," Apollo (Aug. 7, 2026), accessed August 11, 2026
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890)
- Date
- 1890
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 59.4 × 73.4 cm (23 3/8 × 28 7/8 in.); Framed: 78.9 × 93.3 cm (31 1/16 × 36 3/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- oil on canvas
- Style
- Post-Impressionism
- Place
- Netherlands
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Joseph Winterbotham Collection
- Accession no.
- 1953.178
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