Cart with Black Ox, or The Ox-Cart, is an oil painting created in 1884 by Vincent van Gogh. It has been cited as one of his important early works.[1][2]

Cart with Black Ox
ArtistVincent van Gogh
Year1884
Catalogue
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions60.0 cm × 80.0 cm (23.6 in × 31.5 in)
LocationPortland Art Museum, Portland

Description

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Created in the village of Nuenen before Van Gogh went to the South of France, the painting has a dark palette[1] and has been described as "disquieting"; the ox and cart are both decrepit.[3]

Cart with Black Ox was owned by a family who had bought it in 1950. It was donated in 2007 to the Portland Art Museum,[1] and as of 2010 is the most valuable gift yet made to the museum.[1][2]

Curator Bruce Guenther argued, "The way the wheel becomes a definition lifted off the surface of the painting with the brush is Van Gogh establishing his vocabulary as a painter. He becomes Van Gogh here."[1]

In 2010, the painting was analyzed by digital X-ray and CT scanning to look for information on the artist's working methods and to add to the database at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. A painted-out flying bird was discovered.[2] A related painting made the same year, Cart with Red and White Ox, is in the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, the Netherlands.

See also

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References

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