The Peculiar Role Shadows Play in Van Gogh’s Art

Exploring Vincent’s use of light and shade

The Bedroom (1889) by Vincent van Gogh. Oil on canvas. 74 × 92 cm. The Art Institute, Chicago, U.S. Image source Wikimedia Commons

Recently I noticed a surprising thing about Vincent van Gogh’s painting style: that he rarely painted deep shadows and when he did, the intention was very specific.

This realisation was made more stark to me because of the research I was doing into the Italian artist Caravaggio, for whom deep shadows were a bedrock.

Caravaggio developed an intense mode of painting that became known as “tenebrism”, from the Italian tenebroso (dark, gloomy, mysterious), a style that won him many admirers and created a new generation of “Caravaggesque” followers.

Saint Jerome in His Study (1605–6) by Caravaggio. Oil on canvas. 112 × 157 cm. Galleria Borghese, Rome. Image source Wikimedia Commons

For many artists, light and shadow are fundamental to expressing three-dimensional form. They also help to create atmosphere. With a painting like Caravaggio’s Saint Jerome in his study, every shape and form is in dialogue with the shadows that surround them.

Now look at the image below, The Bedroom, painted by Van Gogh in 1888. Notice how not a single object in the room casts a shadow — with perhaps the very slight exception of the picture frames on the right-hand wall.