The Green Parrot 1886

Vincent van Gogh painted The Green Parrot using oil on canvas at some point in his short career. This is an image that has a lot to tell us about the cultural moment in which it was made. Although Van Gogh is famous for his landscapes and portraits of working-class people, here we see him engaging with a tradition of still-life painting which often depicted exotic and luxurious objects. Parrots, in nineteenth-century Europe, would have been a rare sight, imported from distant colonies. So, in this painting, we might see Van Gogh commenting on the social structure of his time; the parrot becomes a symbol of wealth, colonialism, and the human desire to control nature. As art historians, we can research these aspects of the painting further, looking at the ways parrots were regarded in popular culture, in literature, and how they were traded and displayed. By understanding this historical context, we can gain a richer understanding of Van Gogh's artistic choices.