Van Gogh’s Pietà

Van Gogh made this small Pietà for his sister Willemien shortly before his death in July 1890. Mary holds the body of Christ, their figures brought close together within the narrow canvas. Religious themes were uncommon in his painting, despite his deep engagement with faith. His model was a lithograph after Eugène Delacroix’s Pietà. The print reversed the original painting, and Van Gogh followed that reversed arrangement. A note in the corner identifies the debt to Delacroix. Van Gogh’s own colour and brushwork give the borrowed composition another painted form. He had already made a larger, brighter version of the subject for his brother Theo. That painting is now in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The Vatican work is the smaller version associated with Willemien. Its family connection gives a personal setting to a subject with a much longer history in European religious art, from mourning images to altarpieces and printed reproductions.