Location📍 Art Institute of Chicago → Gallery 241

The Bedroom

'The Bedroom' by Vincent van Gogh is perhaps the most famous depiction of a bedroom in Western art history, documenting the artist's sleeping quarters in his “Yellow House” in Arles, France. In a letter to his brother Theo, Vincent van Gogh described the palette of the room, including pale lilac walls, a faded red floor, chrome yellow furniture, pale lemon green pillows and sheets, a blood-red bedspread, an orange dressing table, a blue washbasin, and a green window. Featuring bold colors, thick and broken brushwork, and sharply receding lines, the picture might suggest a nervous energy to some, but the artist understood it as a calming and restful image. The version held in the Art Institute’s collection is the second iteration of the scene, produced by Vincent van Gogh in September 1889.