Two Crabs

Two Crabs, painted in January 1889 during the difficult weeks between Van Gogh's breakdown and his voluntary admission to Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, connects his personal crisis to a subject drawn from the Japanese print tradition he had long admired. Hokusai's manga drawings and his animal studies had shown Van Gogh how crabs could be treated as serious subjects — their hard shells, multiple legs, and sideways movement presenting specific formal challenges that rewarded sustained attention. The crab as a cultural image carried a mild wit that Van Gogh was capable of appreciating: a creature with a defensive exoskeleton and an oblique approach to movement, perhaps more personally resonant in January 1889 than at other moments. He painted both crabs from different angles — one upright, one inverted — creating a double study in the animal's structure. The National Gallery in London holds this as one of a small number of Van Gogh works in the collection, acquired through the bequest of Gwendoline Davies.

Van Gogh renders the crabs from multiple angles — one upright, one inverted — examining the shell's structure and colour with forensic intensity. The carapace is built up with varied strokes that capture both the hardness of the shell and the iridescent colour of the animal, set against a warm, loosely handled background.