Physical Dimensions: overall: 71 x 90 cm (27 15/16 x 35 7/16 in.)
Provenance: By inheritance after the artist's 1890 death to his brother, Theo van Gogh [1857-1891], Paris; by inheritance to his wife and the artist's sister-in-law, Mme Johanna van Gogh-Bonger [1862-1925], Amsterdam; sold 9 June 1891 to Paul Gallimard [1850-1929], Paris.[1] private collection of the Bernheim-Jeune family, Paris, from at least 1917;[2] sold 1929 to (Alex Reid & Lefèvre, London);[3] half share with (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); sold January 1930 to W. Averell Harriman [1891-1986], New York;[4] his third wife, Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman [1920-1997], Washington, D.C., and Paris; gift (partial and promised) 1991 to NGA; gift completed 1997.
[1] The painting is listed in the Andries Bonger list, no 264, as "roses dans un pot (fond vert bleu) / vendu le 9 juin 1891 à M. Gallimard à fr. 400." This list of 364 works by Van Gogh is in the handwriting of Andries Bonger, who was Theo Van Gogh's brother-in-law. The list is undated, but thought by scholars to be c. 1890/1891 ("Catalogue des oeuvres de Vincent van Gogh," manuscript b 3055 V/1962, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; transcribed and published in Walter Feilchenfeldt, _Vincent van Gogh: die Gemalde 1886-1890_, Wadenswil, 2009, and Walter Feilchenfeldt, _Vincent van Gogh, the Years in France. Complete Paintings 1886-1890_, London, 2013: 287ff; copy in NGA curatorial files). The transcription of the entry for 264 in Feilchenfeldt 2013 is missing the word "bleu" in the first line; see the Bonger list in digitized form at http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/en/geheugen/view?coll=ngvn&identifier=VGM01%3Ab3055 (accessed May 2018). Previously the first documented reference to Gallimard's ownership was a 1905 exhibition catalogue mentioned by J.-B. de la Faille, _The Works of Vincent van Gogh: Paintings and Drawings_, Amsterdam, 1970: no. F681. The painting is not described in Louis Vauxcelles, "Collection M.P. Gallimard," _Les Arts_ (September 1908): 1-32.
[2] The painting was lent by "Coll. B.J" to a 1917 exhibition in Zurich, the catalogue not specifying Alexandre Bernheim (1839-1915), or his sons, Josse Bernheim-Jeune (1870-1941) or Gaston Bernheim-Jeune (1870-1953), who joined him in the art dealership.
[3] Letter dated 7 February 1929 from Reid & Lefèvre to Bernheim-Jeune (Lefèvre archives, Hyman Kreitman Research Centre, Tate Britain, London, TGA 2002/11, Box 228; copy in NGA curatorial files). The painting was exhibited at Alex Reid & Lefevre in Glasgow in 1929 as "from a great private collection."
[4] M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Stockbook No. 8, p.75, and Sales Book No. 13 (copies in NGA curatorial files).