Crab on its Back

Crab on its Back (Dutch: Een op zijn rug liggende krab) is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh. It is a still life of a crab lying on its back with a green background. The Van Gogh Museum dates the work to August–September 1887,^[1] while other sources date it to early 1889.^[2] The painting is in the permanent collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.^[1]

Crab on its Back
Dutch: Een op zijn rug liggende krab
Artist	Vincent van Gogh
Year	c. 1887-1889
Catalogue	F 605
Type	Still life
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	38 cm × 46.5 cm (15 in × 18.3 in)
Location	Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

The painting is possibly inspired by a Japanese print of a crab by Hokusai that Van Gogh had seen in the magazine Le Japon Artistique, which his brother Theo van Gogh had sent him in September 1888.^[1][3]

Related work

Van Gogh also painted Two Crabs (1889), a still life with two crabs one of which is lying on its back, on display in the National Gallery in London.^[3]

Two Crabs (1889)

See also

• List of works by Vincent van Gogh