Why didn’t the police in Arles like Van Gogh’s painting of red herrings?

A herring was slang for a gendarme. Vincent van Gogh painted them with this in mind after he had been in trouble with the police. They locked up Vincent’s house when he was in hospital in Arles after the ear accident. And they didn’t feel like giving Theo and Signac entrance to Vincent’s house to check out paintings.

Today 133 years ago, on 24 March 1889,

Vincent van Gogh wrote to Theo from Arles:

"My dear Theo, I’m writing to tell you that I’ve seen Signac, which did me a lot of good.. As a keepsake I gave him a still life which had exasperated the good gendarmes of the town of Arles because it depicted two smoked herrings, which are called gendarmes, as you know.”

Still life with red herrings
Arles, 1889
Oil on canvas
33 x 41 cm
Private collection

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Van Gogh's 'Still life with red herrings'

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