File:Vincent van Gogh - The 'Laakmolen' near The Hague (The Windmill) F 884 JH 59.jpg
Vincent van Gogh - The 'Laakmolen' near The Hague (The Windmill) F 884 JH 59.jpg
Vincent van Gogh: The 'Laakmolen' near The Hague    Artist artist QS:P170,Q5582 Title The "Laakmolen" near The Hague (The Windmill) label QS:Len,"The "Laakmolen" near The Hague (The Windmill)" Object type watercolor painting  Date Summer 1882 date QS:P571,+1882-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P4241,Q40720564 Medium watercolor and pen on paper mounted on board Dimensions height: 37.7 cm (14.8 in); width: 56 cm (22 in) dimensions QS:P2048,37.7U174728 dimensions QS:P2049,56U174728 Collection Private collection institution QS:P195,Q768717 Object location Notes Catalogues raisonnés: F884: Faille, Jacob Baart de la (1970) [1928] The Works of Vincent van Gogh. His Paintings and Drawings, Amsterdam: J.M. Meulenhoff, no. 884 . JH59 : Jan Hulsker (1980), The Complete Van Gogh, Oxford: Phaidon, no.  59. Both Hulsker and De La Faille place the work as done at Etten around October 1881. Hulsker notes that the work is not mentioned anywhere and is difficult to place. Christie's, following Martha Op de Coul [1990], date the watercolor as done later in summer 1882 after van Gogh had moved to The Hague. The mill is identified as the Laakmolen, a well known mill on the way to Rijswijk, at that time a village near The Hague (see letter 11 n. 15). Here you could get milk to drink (a sign Melk te koop "milk for sale") is visible in the watercolor). If the mill is indeed the Laakmolen, then the watercolor assumes considerable popular interest because in the summer of 1872 (i.e. some ten years earlier), Vincent's brother Theo had come to visit Vincent at The Hague and together they had walked to a mill at Rijswijk (presumed to be the Laakmolen, one of just two at Rijswijk) where they drank milk together. It seems this walk held special emotional significance for Vincent, as he later referred to it several times in his letters to Theo. Biographers have suggested that at this time they made a pact together to pursue a career in art (Naifeh et al., p. 76 n. 187). There is an article in the Dutch wikipedia on the Laakmolen here. The mill's geolocation is 52°4′4.16″N 4°19′56.98″E﻿ / ﻿52.0678222°N 4.3324944°E﻿ / 52.0678222; 4.3324944 References Naifeh, Steven and Smith, Gregory White. Van Gogh: the Life, New York: Random House, 2011, p. 76. ISBN 978-0-375-50748-9 Op de Coul, Martha. De Laakmolen in Den Haag door Vincent van Gogh, Oud Holland - Quarterly for Dutch Art History, Volume 104, Issue 3, pages 336 – 340, 1990, DOI: 10.1163/187501790X00183 J.B. de la Faille, The Works of Vincent van Gogh: His Paintings and Drawings, Amsterdam, 1970, no. F 844, pp. 317 & 644 (illustrated; titled 'The Windmill' and dated 'August 1881') J. Hulsker, The New Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Sketches, Amsterdam, 1996, no. 59, p. 24 Source/Photographer Christie's, LotFinder: entry 5915643 (sale 10334, lot 14, London, 23 June 2015) Other versions The Laakmolen today Jan Weissenbruch, The Shipping Canal at Rijswijk, known as "The View at Geestbrug" . Weissenbruch was a contemporary and early champion of Vincent's at The Hague. The mill in the painting is the Laakmolen. Antique photograph of the Laakmolen. Date is unknown, but the hay barn is shown as in Vincent's watercolor.