About the Artwork
The Diggers
1889
Vincent van Gogh
1853-1890
Dutch
Unknown
Oil on paper lined onto canvas
Unframed: 25 5/8 × 19 3/4 inches (65.1 × 50.2 cm) Framed: 35 5/8 × 29 3/4 × 2 1/2 inches (90.5 × 75.6 × 6.4 cm)
Paintings
European Modern Art to 1970
Bequest of Robert H. Tannahill
70.158
Public Domain
Markings
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Provenance
Johanna van Gogh-Bonger [1862-1925] (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
April 1907, purchased by (Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, France)
1907, Frankfurter Kunstverein (Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany)
by 1912, Hugo Nathan (Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany)
by 1938, Mrs. Hugo Nathan (Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany)
(J.K. Thannhauser Gallery, New York, New York, USA)
1941, (Wildenstein & Co., New York, New York, USA)
1941-1969, Robert H. Tannahill [1893-1939] (Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, USA)
1970-present, bequest to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
We welcome your feedback for correction and/or improvement.
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Exh. cat., Stedelijk Museum. Amsterdam, 1905, cat. 438. [as Spitters in het bosch.]
Exh. cat., Paul Cassirer Gallery, Hamburg, 1905, no. 40. [as Feldarbeiter.]
Sales cat., Galerie Bernheim-Jeune. Paris, 1906, no. 88. [as Bêcheurs et arbres.]
Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung. Exh. cat., Städtische Ausstellungshalle. Cologne, 1912, cat. 51. [as Die beiden Grabenden, Collection Hugo Nathan.]
Frankfurter Kunstschätze. Exh. cat., Frankfurter Kunstverein. Frankfurt, 1913, p. 11, cat. 28 (ill.). [as Die beiden Feldarbeiter, Collection Hugo Nathan.]
Swarzenski, Georg. "Die Sammlung Hugo Nathan." Kunst und Künstler 15 (December 1916): pp. 114-115 (ill.).
Faille, J. B. de la. L'oeuvre de Van Gogh: Catalogue Raisonné. Paris, 1928, vol. 1, p. 200; no. 701, vol. 2, pl. CXCVIII.
Leblond, M.-A. Peintres de Races. Brussels, 1910, p. 15 (ill.).
Vincent van Gogh en zijn tijdgenooten. Exh. cat., Stedelijk Museum. Amsterdam, 1930, cat. 99 (ill.).
Huyghe, R. "Les origines de la peinture contemporaine." Histoire de l'art contemporain: La peinture. Paris, 1935, pp. 112-113, pl. 11.
Scherjon, W., and J. de Gruyter. Van Gogh's Great Period: Arles, St. Rémy and Auvers Sur Oise. Amsterdam, 1937, p. 356, no. 184 (ill.).
Faille, J.B. Vincent van Gogh, Paris, 1939, p. 497, no. 721. [executed in April 1890 – as in Frankfurt-am-Main, Collection Mrs. Hugo Nathan.]
Goldscheider, L. and W. Uhde. Vincent van Gogh, 1947, London, pl .107. [dated April 1890 and stated to be in a private collection in Switzerland.] earlier edition: London, 1941, pl. 107. [as Frankfurt-am-Main, Collection Mrs. Hugo Nathan.]
Novotny, F. "Die Bilder van Goghs nach fremden Vorbildern." Festschrift Kurt Badt. Berlin, 1961, pp. 213-230.
Faille, J.B. de la. The Works of Vincent Van Gogh, 3rd ed. New York, 1970, p. 274, no. F701 (ill.).
The Robert Hudson Tannahill Bequest to The Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1970, pp. 27, 34 (ill.).
Lecaldano, P. L'Opera pittorica completa di Van Gogh. Milan, 1971, vol. 2, pp, 222, 224, no. 731 (ill.).
Hulsker, J. The Complete Van Gogh. New York, 1984, p. 425, no. 1847 (ill.).
Barrielle, J.F. La vie et l'oeuvre de Vincent van Gogh. Paris, 1984, p. 161 (ill.).
Kodera, T. "'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread': Diggers in the oeuvre of Van Gogh." Van Gogh in Brabant. Exh. cat., Noordbrabants Museum. 's-Hertogenbosch, 1987, pp. 59-71, pp. 62, 66, 69, 70, note 16 (fig. 61). [as from the Spring of 1890.]
Masterpieces from The Detroit Institute of Art. Exh. cat., Bunkamura Museum of Art, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, and Museum of Modern Art. Tokyo, Kyoto, and Ibaraki 1989, pp. 98,175, 222, cat. 66 (ill.). [dated ca.1889-90.]
Feilchenfeldt, W. Vincent van Gogh & Paul Cassirer, Berlin. Zwolle, 1988, p. 114, no. F701 (ill.).
Van Gogh and Millet. Rijksmuseum. Amsterdam, 1988, p. 23 (ill.). [In catalog but not included in exhibition.]
Kodera, T. Vincent Van Gogh: Christianity Versus Nature. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, 1990, pp. 74, 78 (fig. 109), pl. 5.
Hulsker, J. The New Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Sketches. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, 1996, p. 425, no. 1847 (ill.). [as November-December, 1889.]
Message 1995. Exh. cat., Toyota Municipal Museum of Art. Toyota, 1995, pp. 62, 204, cat. 16 (ill.).
Walther, I.F. and R. Metzger. Vincent van Gogh: The Complete Paintings, Cologne, 1997, p. 606 (ill.). [as dated March/April 1890.]
Millet / Van Gogh. Exh. cat., Musée d'Orsay. Paris, 1998, pp. 62, 162, cat. 22 (ill.).
Degas to Matisse: Impressionist and Modern Masterpieces from The Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., the Phillips Collection. Washington, D.C., 2000, pp. 88-89, 139 (ill.).
Wissman, F.W. European Vistas: Cultural Landscapes. Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 2000, pp. 30-31 (ill.).
Bulletin of the DIA: Annual Report 77, no. 3/4 (2003): p. 8 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Vincent van Gogh, The Diggers, 1889, oil on paper lined onto canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Bequest of Robert H. Tannahill, 70.158.
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