Arles, the largest year in the catalogue

The record dates Coal Barges to 1888. That single year accounts for 135 of the 610 works gathered here, more than any other, and it is the only period in this chronology made of one year alone. Barges are named in two titles, both dated 1888.

What the record gives

The canvas measures 64 by 53.5 centimetres and is held by the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, which holds three works in this catalogue, dated 1885, 1888 and 1890 — one from the Dutch years, one from Arles, one from Auvers. The measured palette reads as ochre and yellow.

Ochre in the Arles year

Ochre dominates nineteen of the 135 works dated 1888, against twenty-one of the ninety-five dated 1887. In proportion the family is falling even as its raw count holds, because the year itself is so much bigger; yellow, by comparison, dominates ninety-three works of the same year. Proportion against count is the thing a chronological catalogue has to keep straight, since a busy year makes every reading look more common than it is. The record gives the subject, the size and the city holding it, and stops.