{"data":{"id":79349,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/79349","is_boosted":false,"title":"The Drinkers","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBgAFAPQAAE1dSUtdTERbVkRgRFZmWVN0Y1drcFx6fG59ZmaCZWWDaHKGin2RiX+ZkoadhoiZhoeUi52klqmvnaOtp73AqbrGusjDrszPtsHPwc3Wy9DYxNTYyNTazN3dygAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAGAAUAAAUYYJVhGrd1ESVdFkQwxjIBiCMcTfAkQ6GEADs=","width":5922,"height":4764,"alt_text":"Painting of three male figures, two older men in top hats and a younger man with red hair, standing outdoors around a wooden table with a pitcher on it, drinking from glasses. A much smaller, childlike figure at left peers over the table and drinks from a white cup. The scene is rendered in winding paint strokes in shades of green and blue."},"main_reference_number":"1953.178","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":null,"date_start":1890,"date_end":1890,"date_display":"1890","date_qualifier_title":"","date_qualifier_id":null,"artist_display":"Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853\u20131890)","place_of_origin":"Netherlands","description":"<p>During his time in the Asylum of Saint-Paul in Saint-R\u00e9my, a small town near Arles, Vincent van Gogh made a number of copies of the work of artists he admired, which freed him from having to produce original compositions and allowed him to concentrate instead on interpretation. For this image, Van Gogh copied a wood engraving from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/artists\/40517\">Honor\u00e9 Daumier\u2019s<\/a> <em>Drinkers<\/em>, a parody on the four ages of man. The exaggerated figure types capture Daumier\u2019s characteristic humor and convey his sad message about the horrors of alcoholism. The greenish palette may well be an allusion to the notorious alcoholic drink absinthe.<\/p>\n<p>This is one of thirty-five works that comprise the Winterbotham Collection. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/the-winterbotham-collection\">Click here to learn more about the collection.<\/a><\/p>\n","short_description":"While institutionalized in Saint-R\u00e9my, Van Gogh often copied works by artists he admired, which freed him from having to produce original compositions and allowed him to concentrate on interpretation. In his vibrant take on Honor\u00e9 Daumier\u2019s woodcarving \"Physiology of Drinking,\" there is real pathos and a desperation in the earnest concentration with which the men drink, as if to quench a spiritual thirst.","dimensions":"59.4 \u00d7 73.4 cm (23 3\/8 \u00d7 28 7\/8 in.); Framed: 78.9 \u00d7 93.3 cm (31 1\/16 \u00d7 36 3\/4 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":73,"height":59,"diameter":null,"clarification":null},{"depth":null,"width":93,"height":78,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Framed"}],"medium_display":"Oil on canvas","inscriptions":null,"credit_line":"Joseph Winterbotham Collection","catalogue_display":"<p>Faille, de la<\/p>","publication_history":"Julius Meier-Graefe, Vincent van Gogh (Munich 1912), 56, 57 (ill.).\n\nJulius Meier-Graefe, Vincent van Gogh, John Holyroyd Reece, trans. (London, Liverpool, and Boston, 1922), 70\u201371, pl. 82.\n\nGustave Coquiot, Vincent van Gogh avec 24 reproductions hors texte de Vincent van Gogh (Paris, 1923), 319.\n\nJulius Meier-Graefe, Entwicklungsgeschichte der modernen Kunst (Munich, 1927), 605, pl. 518 [first ed. Stuttgart, 1904].\n\nVincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh to His Brother, 1872\u20131886 (London: Constable; Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1927), vol. 2, 83, no. 265.\n\nVincent van Gogh, Further Letters of Vincent van Gogh to His Brother, 1886\u20131889 (London: Constable; Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1929), vol. 2, 430 letter no. 623, 437 letter no. 626.\n\nWaldemar George, Van Gogh: 24 phototypies, Les Albums d\u2019Art Druet 3 (Paris: Librairie de France, 1927), pl. 1.\n\nJacob Baart de la Faille, L\u2019Oeuvre de Vincent van Gogh: catalogue raisonn\u00e9 (Paris: G. Van Oest, 1928), vol. 1, 187 no. 667; vol. 2, pl. 188.\n\nWilhelm Uhde, Vincent van Gogh (Vienna: The Phaidon Press; London: G. Allen and Unwin, 1936), 16\u201317, pl. 80.\n\nW. Scherjon and W[illiam] J[osiah] de Gruyter, Vincent van Gogh\u2019s Great Period: Arles, St. Remy and Auvers sur Oise (Amsterdam: De Spieghel, 1937), 291, no. 97.\n\nJacob-Baart de la Faille, Vincent van Gogh, trans. Charles Terrasse (New York: French and European Publications; Paris: Hyperion Press, 1939), 473 fig. 687, 568.\n\n\"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, Apr.\u2013June 1953,\" Art Quarterly 16 (1953): 348, 356 (ill.).\n\n\"Recent Purchases and Gifts,\" Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly 47, no. 4 (November 1953): 73 (ill.).\n\nArt 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.).\n\nJacob-Baart de la Faille, The Works of Vincent van Gogh, His Paintings and Drawings (New York: Reynal, 1970), 262, 263 (ill.), no. F667.\n\nPaolo Lecaldano, L\u2019opera pittorica completa di Van Gogh e i suoi nessi grafici, vol. 2 (Milan: Rizzoli, 1977), 225-26 no. 761.\n\nMarla H. Hand, \u201cRenaissance or Decadence: The Drinkers by Vincent Van Gogh\u201d (master\u2019s thesis, University of Chicago, 1979).\n\nJohn Rewald, Post-Impressionism: From van Gogh to Gauguin, 3rd ed. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1978), 327 (ill.).\n\nJan Hulsker, The complete Van Gogh: Paintings, drawings, sketches (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1980), 433\u201334.\n\nB. Naeling, \"Vincent van Gogh,\" PAN. Unsere herrliche Welt, no. 9 (September 1984): 4\u201323.\n\nSusan A. Stein, ed., Van Gogh: A Retrospective (New York: Hugh Laughter Levin, 1986), 318, 327 (ill.), 328.\n\nWalter 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\n\nBruce Laughton, The Drawings of Daumier and Millet (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1991), 202\u201303 (ill.).\n\nMargherita Andreotti, \u201cThe Joseph Winterbotham Collection,\u201d Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 20, no. 2 (1994): 126\u201327 (ill.).\n\nCornelia 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.\n\nNaomi 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.\n\nBogomila Welsh-Ovcharov, Van Gogh in Provence and Auvers (New York: Hugh Lautner Levin, 1999), 215 (ill.).\n\nBelinda Thomson, Van Gogh (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New York: distributed by Harry N. Abrams, 2001), 77, 84, pl. 14.\n\nWalter Feilchendeldt, Vincent van Gogh, Die Gem\u00e4lde 1886\u20131890, H\u00e4ndler, Sammler (W\u00e4denswil: Nimbus Kunst und B\u00fccher, 2009), 200 (ill.), 287, 295, 299, 302.\n\nCornelia Homburg, ed., Vincent van Gogh: Timeless Country \u2013 Modern City. exh. cat. (Milan: Skira, 2010), 27, 190 cat 86, 201, 267.\n\nStefan 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.).","exhibition_history":"Paris, Salon des Ind\u00e9pendants, Exposition R\u00e9trospective de l\u2019Oeuvre de Vincent van Gogh, Mar. 24\u2013Apr. 30, 1905, cat. 1\n\nVienna Secession, Internationale Kunstschau, May\u2013Oct., 1909, cat. 10\n\nBerlin, Paul Cassirer, Zehnter Ausstellung. Vincent van Gogh, May\u2013June, 1914, cat. 113.\n\nVienna Secession, Die f\u00fchrenden Meister der franz\u00f6isischen Kunst im neunzehnten Jahrhundert, Mar.-Apr. 1925, cat. 89.\n\nChicago, Arts Club, Exhibition of the Joseph Winterbotham Collection, Dec. 9\u201331, 1936, cat. 44.\n\nNew York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Van Gogh in Saint-R\u00e9my and Auvers, Nov. 25, 1986\u2013Mar. 22, 1987, cat. 47.\n\nLeningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Hermitage Museum, Ot Delakrua do Matissa: shedevry frantsuzsko\u012d zhivopici XIX-nachala XX veka, iz Muieia Metropoliten v Niu-\u012corke 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]\n\nBudapest, Sveepmuvesti Museum, Van Gogh in Budapest, Dec. 1, 2006\u2014Apr. 1, 2007, cat. 69.\n\nRome, Complesso Monumentale dell Vittoriano, Vincent Van Gogh: Timeless Country \u2013 Modern City, 8 Oct. 2010 \u2013 6  Feb. 2011, cat. 86, as The Drinkers or The Four Ages of Man.\n\nAmsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Van Gogh at Work, Sep. 1, 2013-Jan. 13, 2014, cat. 284.","provenance_text":"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 \u00c9mile Bernard (died 1941), Paris, 1890 or 1891; his mother, H\u00e9lo\u00efse 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.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":14,"fiscal_year":null,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":26.0057,"color":{"h":70,"l":42,"s":44,"percentage":0.005948694261609577,"population":34},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Painting and Sculpture of Europe","department_id":"PC-10","artist_id":40610,"artist_title":"Vincent van Gogh","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[40610],"artist_titles":["Vincent van Gogh"],"category_ids":["PC-10"],"category_titles":["Painting and Sculpture of Europe"],"term_titles":["oil on canvas","drinking","oil painting","Post-Impressionism","oil paint (paint)","pitcher","table","clouds","work","hats","factory","alcohol","dutch","oil paintings (visual works)","paint","canvas","paint","painting","painting","painting (image making)","painting techniques","19th century","nineteenth century","painting","european painting","men","leisure"],"style_id":"TM-7547","style_title":"Post-Impressionism","alt_style_ids":["TM-13203","TM-15636"],"style_ids":["TM-7547","TM-13203","TM-15636"],"style_titles":["Post-Impressionism","19th century","nineteenth century"],"classification_id":"TM-66","classification_title":"oil on canvas","alt_classification_ids":["TM-15692","TM-78","TM-10387","TM-9","TM-54"],"classification_ids":["TM-66","TM-15692","TM-78","TM-10387","TM-9","TM-54"],"classification_titles":["oil on canvas","dutch","oil paintings (visual works)","paint","painting","european painting"],"subject_id":"TM-12077","alt_subject_ids":["TM-15493","TM-14175","TM-11222","TM-10093","TM-12109","TM-13785","TM-14173","TM-10121","TM-10094"],"subject_ids":["TM-12077","TM-15493","TM-14175","TM-11222","TM-10093","TM-12109","TM-13785","TM-14173","TM-10121","TM-10094"],"subject_titles":["drinking","pitcher","table","clouds","work","hats","factory","alcohol","men","leisure"],"material_id":"TM-2451","alt_material_ids":["TM-3124","TM-2577","TM-13502"],"material_ids":["TM-2451","TM-3124","TM-2577","TM-13502"],"material_titles":["oil paint (paint)","canvas","paint","painting"],"technique_id":"TM-4273","alt_technique_ids":["TM-14210","TM-3891","TM-3971"],"technique_ids":["TM-4273","TM-14210","TM-3891","TM-3971"],"technique_titles":["oil painting","painting","painting (image making)","painting techniques"],"theme_titles":[],"image_id":"d0ff5b36-bb38-b156-6042-5c8545352c2f","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":["586c515b-7954-aa57-bf25-3982d1d2e7fd"],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":["586c515b-7954-aa57-bf25-3982d1d2e7fd"],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1953.178"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["The Drinkers"],"weight":24035,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-07-14T12:16:46-05:00","updated_at":"2026-07-14T15:24:49-05:00","timestamp":"2026-07-16T16:20:33-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.14"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}