VINCENT VAN GOGH - A CRAB ON IT'S BACK [1887]

Look at this beautiful painting! It is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam which stands as one of my favourite museums I have ever visited, the journey through Vincent's life is one of the most moving it has been my privilege to witness but it is possible to miss little gems to the more famous and showy (if you will?) paintings so this is worth a look and just bowls me over in it's approaching perfection. 

I re-blog this from the wonderful  'DayintoNight' weblog 

here 

Intercepted By Gravition

A Crab on its BackParis, August-September 1887 Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890)oil on canvas, 38.0 cm x 46.8 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation) Van Gogh took the idea of painting a crab from Japanese prints. He had found the same subject there. Vincent and his brother Theo collected colourful Japanese woodcuts.
Here, Van Gogh painted the crab in bright shades of red against a green background. He was experimenting with what he called ‘the laws of colour’described by the French painter Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863). According to this theory, colours like red and green form a pair. They are known as complementary because, when placed side by side, they both have a stronger effect. Van Gogh was a great admirer of Delacroix and had learned about his colour theory from books by Charles Blanc.