Painting of artist with bicycle? Who knows where to find it?

[Andre Jute]

I'm looking for a painting of an artist with a bicycle.  He's standing on an angle, perhaps coming up from a river, fields and maybe factories in the background. The bicycle is a Pedersen. Can you help me find it?



Here I have  Robert Rosenblum's beautiful book of the paintings in the Musee d'Orsay open on my treadmill and am paging through it, looking for the "missing" painting of the artist with a bicycle. I'm also in the photo; you can see my halo.



But it's slow work. There are about 900 pages in the book: here it lies on a box for a 100 canvas panels, so you can see how thick it is. Stewart, Tabori and Chang, who published it, give real value for money! More books of paintings from our shelves to follow until I find it, because it's needling at me to know the painting exists and not be able to put my finger on it.

-- Andre Jute

[Andre Jute]

More info.

Originally I thought it would be easy: it looked like a Vincent van Gogh self-portrait, with a Vincent-like style in the background too. That gives you an era and a style, which is why I'm looking into the Musee d'Orsay paintings first; they're basically a 19th century gallery. But this has to be very late. The Pedersen bicycle in the painting was made from 1896, which knocks the van Gogh theory on the head as he died in 1890, well before the first patent for the bicycle in question was issued; the bicycle is distincively designed with, instead of a saddle, a hammock connected between the “seat post” and the head tube.

This is what the bicycle in the painting looks like (this is a modern recreation). In the painting it is not in profile though, more like three-quarters and the colour is something dull and neutral like ochre yellow (I think; memory is weird!).

[geocycle]

There are an amazing number of impressionist works contains bicycles! Interesting comment on their symbolism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Lots of rural compositions as well. I'll keep looking.

Ooh is this the one:
Die Brücke von Arles, van Gogh, Mikael Pedersen Poster Kunstdruck

[JimK]

nice work finding that painting!

[jags]

how the hell did you go about finding that picture sherlock wouldn't get a look in.


jags.

[geocycle]

Van Gogh 1853-1890, Van Gogh was in Arles for the last couple of years of his life and painted lots of views of the bridge. Pedersen lived 1855-1929, but the patent on the Pedersen bike was 1893, so the poster must be an anachronism. I don't know when it was made.

[Andre Jute]

Ooh is this the one:
Die Brücke von Arles, van Gogh, Mikael Pedersen Poster Kunstdruck

That's the exact image I was thinking of. This is what I was looking for:

Fake bicycle poster with "Vincent van Gogh" background

And this is what made me think of Vincent van Gogh, because he did paint the background.

Vincent van Gogh, Langlois Bridge at Arles

Someone added a rider and a bicycle over a crude copy of a van Gogh scene. No wonder I couldn't find it in the Musée d'Orsay!

Thanks to all who helped solve the puzzle for me by suggesting avenuses of investigation. Give Geocycle the big cigar!

There are an amazing number of impressionist works contains bicycles! Interesting comment on their symbolism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Lots of rural compositions as well. I'll keep looking.

There's something about the bicycle that caught the artistic imagination to an extent that the motorcar never did.