Van Gogh’s gardener identified after a little digging
Art historians have scratched their heads for centuries over the identity of the young man in one of Van Gogh’s most celebrated works.
He painted Portrait of a Gardener in the grounds of Saint-paul Asylum, Saint-rémy, where he voluntarily admitted himself six months after he had cut off his ear. The young subject has been identified by Martin Bailey, a British art historian who unearthed an unpublished letter from the grandson of a worker at the hospital in 1889-90.
François Poulet worked at the asylum as an orderly and carriage driver, often accompanying Van Gogh outside the walls to paint the local landscape. His grandson Louis said in the letter that his grandfather had told him the portrait depicts “Jean Barral (1861-1942)”.
Researching French records, Mr Bailey discovered that Jean Barral worked as a gardener in the area, and was “highly likely” to have carried out gardening and landscaping work within the asylum’s grounds.
The man, the son of a basket-weaver, would have been 28 at the time. His family had lived for generations in a house just outside the asylum.
Mr Bailey, who is co-curating a Van Gogh exhibition for Tate Britain, wrote in the Art Newspaper: “In the portrait Jean looks the epitome of youthful optimism, but tragedy was about to strike. On 10 May, 1890, his wife had their first child, a girl called Adeline, who died just five days later. The death occurred the day before Van Gogh’s departure from the asylum, so he may never have learned about the traumatic loss suffered by his friend.”
Portrait of a Gardener hangs in Rome’s Galleria Nazionale d’arte Moderna e Contemporanea.