ART SUNDAY - VAN GOGH

“Not even the excellent of humans is exempt from a touch of madness.” – Aristotle
 
Vincent van Gogh, one of the most important 19th century post-impressionist artists was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland on March 30, 1853. He was the son of a pastor and consequently was brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere. At the same time, his rather constrained family environment contributed to him becoming highly emotional and lacking in self-confidence. Between 1860 and 1880, when he decided to become an artist, van Gogh had had two unsuitable and unhappy romances and had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in the Borinage (a dreary mining district in Belgium), where he was dismissed for overzealousness.  He remained in Belgium to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty.
 
The works of his early Dutch period are dark and limited in colour, theatrically spot- lit, of a theme that extols the every day life of common people and labourers. “The Potato Eaters” (1885) is the most famous and characteristic of this period. In that year van Gogh went to Antwerp where he discovered the works of Rubens and purchased many Japanese prints. This stimulated the artist to explore the possibility of a colourful palette and find true expression of his talent through the means of pure colour.
 
In 1886 he went to Paris to join his brother Théo, who at that time was the manager of Goupil’s Gallery. In Paris, van Gogh studied with Cormon, met Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin, and began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists. His nervous temperament made him a difficult companion and night-long discussions combined with painting all day undermined his health. He decided to go south to Arles where he hoped his friends would join him and help found a school of art. Gauguin did join him but with disastrous results. Near the end of 1888, an incident led Gauguin to ultimately leave Arles. Van Gogh pursued him with an open razor, was stopped by Gauguin, but ended up cutting a portion of his own ear lobe off.
 
Van Gogh then began to alternate between fits of madness and lucidity and was sent to the asylum in Saint-Remy for treatment.  In May of 1890, he seemed much better and went to live in Auvers-sur-Oise under the watchful eye of Dr Gachet. Two months later he was dead, having shot himself “for the good of all”. During his brief career he had sold only one painting. Van Gogh’s finest works were produced in less than three years in a technique that grew more and more impassioned in brushstroke, in symbolic and intense colour, in surface tension, and in the movement and vibration of form and line.
 
Van Gogh’s success as a consummate artist stems from his powerful fusion of form and content. His paintings are dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and emotional. The artist was completely immersed in his art and was at all times struggling to explain either his battle against madness or his comprehension of the spiritual essence of man and nature.
 
In 1888 Vincent van Gogh painted “A Memory of the Garden at Etten” (seen above), a recollection of his mother and his sister walking through a garden in his boyhood village. This was painted in response to Gauguin’s advice that he work more from imagination and less from nature. In a letter to his sister Wil, Vincent van Gogh explained that the motifs and the colors carried specific meanings. The “sombre violet violently stained by the citron yellow of the dahlias” suggested their mother’s personality, whereas the red and green presented Wil as a character out of a Dickens novel. The painting is a powerful emotional double portrait that is aesthetically pleasing as well as of great significance to the artist. It always reminds me a little of an Indian painting and the women are as though they are wearing saris. The yellow flowers are reminiscent of marigolds - so widespread in India and who knows, maybe Vincent had seen some Indian prints in amongst the Japanese ones we know he had studied.

Happy Easter if you are celebrating it!

ART SUNDAY - VAN GOGH

“I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.” - Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh was born near Brabant in Southern Holland on March 30, 1853. He was the oldest son of a Dutch minister, and his father had high hopes for him, which were disappointed when his son finally found his life’s work in art. Van Gogh grew to become one of the most well-known and influential artists of the 19th century, but unfortunately not in his lifetime. Van Gogh tried his hand at several different vocations including working for Goupil & Co., an art dealer, at the age of 16 with his younger brother Theo, teaching as an assistant in Ramsgate, and acting as a layman preacher in a poor coal mining district in Belgium, before finally deciding to become an artist at the age of twenty-seven. His early works are dark portraying poor city dwellers as well as Dutch peasants hard at work.

Van Gogh’s good relationship with his four-year younger brother, Theo, is well documented in the vast number of letters they sent each other. Van Gogh’s letters to his brother and to other artists provide a rare insight into the life and thoughts of this painter and make for fascinating reding. In 1886, Van Gogh moved to Paris where he lived with his brother, now the manager of Goupil’s. Theo financially supported Vincent for nearly all of his life, necessary as Van Gogh hardly sold any paintings during his life. In Paris Van Gogh became familiar with the work of the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists.  He befriended Pissarro, Monet and Gauguin. Van Gogh began to lighten his color palette and experimented with different shorter brushstrokes.  His works changed from peasant workers to images of Paris, portraits, self-portraits, and images of flowers.

In 1888, at the age of 35, Van Gogh moved from Paris to Arles where he had dreams of starting a community of artists.  Theo continued to support him financially and tried to sell his artwork, albeit unsuccessfully. Fellow artist Paul Gauguin joined him for a short time in Arles, however, the two soon fell out. Van Gogh threatened Gauguin with a razor and ended up cutting off a portion of his own ear, forcing Gauguin to flee Alrles. Struggling with fits of madness Van Gogh spent time in an asylum in Arles and then in Saint Remy.

Van Gogh spent much time in the asylum at Saint Remy though it was later believed that he suffered from epilepsy. In Saint Remy he painted some 150 paintings. Upon his release in 1890 he went to Auvers-sur-Oise where he was under the care of physician and painter, Dr. Paul Gachet (an excellent portrait of whom by Vincent exists). In two months Van Gogh was averaging a painting a day. At the age of 37, Van Gogh attempted suicide, while in a wheat field he shot himself in the chest.  He died two days later with his brother at his side.  Six months later Theo died as well and was buried next to his brother in the small church at Auvers-sur-Oise.

The painting above is The Red Vineyard, painted in 1888, and which is believed to be the only painting van Gogh sold during his lifetime. The painting was exhibited for the first time at the annual exhibition of Les XX, 1890 in Brussels, and sold for 400 Francs (equal to about $1,000-1,050 today) to Anna Boch, an impressionist painter, member of Les XX and art collector from Belgium; Anna was the sister of Eugène Boch, another impressionist painter and a friend of Van Gogh, too, who had painted Boch’s portrait (Le Peintre aux Étoiles) in Arles, in autumn 1888. Like The Night Café, it was subsequently acquired by the famous Russian collector Sergei Shchukin, was then nationalised by the Bolsheviks with the rest of his collection and eventually passed to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, where it is currently exhibited.

The painting is a fine scene of the travails of the rural worker during the vintage months of Autumn. Van Gogh has chosen sunset to give the russet leaves of the vines a stunning colour. The workers are busy gathering the grapes, while the sun beams down as it goes towards the West, peripheral in the canvas but central to the composition and a magnet for the eyes. The sun’s reflection in the water leads the eyes into the vineyard where figures provide pivotal points for the exploration of this wonderful canvas. The yellows and reds are balanced by the blacks, greys, violets and browns, providing for a visual feast.

ART SUNDAY - VAN GOGH AT ARLES HOSPITAL

“In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing” - Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) is one of my favourite painters. He was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland on March 30, 1853. He was the son of a pastor and although he was brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. Between 1860 and 1880, when he finally decided to become an artist, van Gogh had had two unsuitable and unhappy liaisons and had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in the Borinage (a dreary mining district in Belgium), where he was dismissed for overzealousness.

He remained in Belgium to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty. The works of his early Dutch period are sombre-toned, sharply lit, genre paintings of which the most famous is “The Potato Eaters” (1885). In that year van Gogh went to Antwerp where he discovered the works of Rubens and purchased many Japanese prints. In 1886 he went to Paris to join his brother Théo, the manager of Goupil's gallery. In Paris, van Gogh studied with Cormon, met Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin, and began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists.

His nervous temperament made him a difficult companion and night-long discussions combined with painting all day undermined his health. He decided to go south to Arles where he hoped his friends would join him and help found a school of art. Gauguin did join him but with disastrous results. Near the end of 1888, an incident led Gauguin to ultimately leave Arles. Van Gogh pursued him with an open cut-throat razor, was stopped by Gauguin, but ended up cutting a portion of his own ear lobe off. This led to Vincent’ hospitalisation in Arles.

Van Gogh then began to alternate between fits of madness and lucidity and was sent to the asylum in Saint-Remy for treatment. In May of 1890, he seemed much better and went to live in Auvers-sur-Oise under the watchful eye of Dr. Gachet. Two months later he was dead, having shot himself “for the good of all”. During his brief artistic career he had sold only one painting. Van Gogh’s finest works were produced in less than three years in a technique that grew more and more impassioned in brushstroke, in symbolic and intense colour, in surface tension, and in the movement and vibration of form and line. Van Gogh’s inimitable fusion of form and content is powerful, dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and emotional, for the artist was completely absorbed in the effort to explain either his struggle against madness or his comprehension of the spiritual essence of man and nature.

In this painting, "Courtyard of Hospital in Arles", completed in 1889, Vincent depicts the courtyard of the Arles hospital in which he was confined after mutilating his ear. The artist made a drawing of the courtyard of the hospital in June 1889. The vantage point for the painting was his room within the hospital. Van Gogh’s description and his painting of the garden allow for identification of its flowers, such as: Blue bearded irises, forget-me-nots, oleander, pansies, primroses, and poppies. The original design of the courtyard as described by Van Gogh has been preserved. Radiating segments are surrounded by a “plante bande” now filled with irises. A difference between Van Gogh’s painting and the garden is that Van Gogh increased the size of the central fish pond for better compositional results. Adept at using colour to convey mood, the shades of blue and gold in the painting seem to suggest melancholy. The yellow, orange, red and green in the painting are not vivid shades seen in other work from Arles, such as “Bedroom in Arles”.

This is a painting by a man meditating on death and his colourful brushtrokes and vital composition is a last ditch attempt at clutching at life and using the beauty of the world around him to haul himself out of the black hole into which his mental state had made him descend into.

Please join me here on the Art Sunday meme if you have a post on Art in your blog.

ART SUNDAY - VAN GOGH'S IRISES

“In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove; In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” - Lord Alfred Tennyson

It was a cool, rather windy and showery day today so we ended up staying in and enjoying our home. Time enough to relax, listen to music, watch a movie, but also do some chores around the house. When the sun did peep out now and then one could always stroll in the garden and enjoy the roses and irises that are now blooming. Spring is a changeable season and today certainly was proof enough. We have a good variety of irises in the garden: Yellow, blue, purple, maroon and white. The blue and purple ones are my favourite and seem to characterise the essence of this flower. They are a beautiful flower, although very delicate and extremely quick to bloom and then rest for the remainder of the year.

For Art Sunday today, Vincent Van Gogh’s “Irises”, painted in Saint-Rémy, France in 1889. It is an oil on canvas, 71 x 94 cm and is owned by the J. Paul Getty Museum in USA, currently to be viewed at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Van Gogh is one of the greatest painters and even though success eluded him while he was alive, after his death his paintings became highly sought after and are now priceless. His distinctive style with its lively impasto and bright, almost pure pigment palette is immediately recognisable even by non-experts.

Unfortunately, this passionate and consummate artist became mentally unstable later in his life. In May 1889, after episodes of self-mutilation and hospitalisation, Vincent elected to enter a mental asylum in Saint-Rémy, France. While an inmate there, in the last year before his death, he created about 130 paintings. Within the first week, he began to paint the “Irises” shown here, working from nature in the asylum’s garden. The composition is divided into broad areas of vivid color with the striking irises overflowing its borders, almost as though the painting was a larger canvas and was cropped. Vincent was influenced by the decorative patterns of Japanese woodblock prints and several of his canvases show this influence.

There are no known drawings for this painting, the artist considering it a study rather than a “finished” painting. His beloved brother Theo quickly recognised the painting’s masterly quality and submitted it to the Salon des Indépendants in Paris in September 1889, writing to Vincent details of the exhibition: “[Your painting] strikes the eye from afar. It is a beautiful study full of air and life.” Vincent himself called the painting “…the lightning conductor for my illness”, because he felt that he could keep himself from going insane by continuing to paint.

Each one of Van Gogh’s irises is unique and beautiful. He carefully studied the movements of the blooms and their baroque shapes to create a variety of curved silhouettes bounded by wavy, twisting, and curling lines. Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, show strong outlines, unusual angles, including close-up views and also flattish local colour (not modelled according to the fall of light). All of these features are found in this painting, which shows an exquisite blend of the oriental and occidental artistic traditions to create something vital, new and exciting to behold.

The painting’s first owner, French art critic (and anarchist!) Octave Mirbeau, and one of Van Gogh’s earliest supporters, wrote: “How well he has understood the exquisite nature of flowers!” Mirbeau paid 300 francs for the painting. In 1987, it became the most expensive painting ever sold, setting a record, which stood for two and a half years. Then it was sold for US$53.9 million to Australian businessman Alan Bond, but he did not have enough money to pay for it. “Irises” was later re-sold in 1990 to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Irises is currently (as of 2010) tenth on the inflation-adjusted list of most expensive paintings ever sold, and in 25th place if the effects of inflation are ignored.

SONG FROM THE PAST

“Let's not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it.” - Vincent Van Gogh

Regrets and nostalgia are a potent mix of explosive emotional force. The past haunts and beguiles us. The moments of rare happiness write themselves indelibly on our heart while tears and pain are wiped away, softened, becoming hazy in the distant horizon. All the while the sun of remembered joy illuminates the watercoloured domain of nostalgic perfection. Missed opportunities, lost chances, evanescent happinesses, miseries of lonely nights disappear while bright springs, the newly-born feeling of first love, perfect summer days persist and torture us in the approaching winter of our old age.

A song from the past, remembered tonight. “Another Day”, by Roy Harper

ART SUNDAY - VAN GOGH

“The richness I achieve comes from Nature, the source of my inspiration.” – Claude Monet

For Art Sunday today a vase full of Spring irises as painted by the incomparable Vincent van Gogh. We have had Spring weather today, showers and sunshine, some wind and some calm. We walked to the Darebin Parklands in the morning and enjoyed the flowers on show everywhere. Irises certainly are at their best now, with roses and jasmine, azaleas and rhododendrons, bottlebrushes and lilies putting on a good show.

Enjoy the week ahead!