Today we woke up and started museum day. We got up and had a wonderful breakfast (pre-paid as part of the package), As we were now old hands at riding the trams, we rode the number 12 across town to the Van Gogh Museum. Kate had arranged a tour at 9:30am, but of course we arrived early at 8:30am or so.
While we waited a line started forming so Kate went up to the guy organizing it to check.
It turns out we needed to go to the other building for the group (of 2) tours. We went around front to the other building and eventually got in. Our tour guide met us and our group, and we started the guided tour.
This was near the middle of the 10-year career of Vincent Van Gogh, and he was practicing to be a portrait painter and did a large number of self-portraits. The other side of the picture was from an early part of his career.
This was typical Dutch Art at the time, dark (reflecting the gloomy weather) and a still life. Vincent’s younger brother Theo was the one who got him into painting, working as an art dealer in Paris. It was he who encouraged and supported him through his short tragic life.
Vincent finished up his Dutch paintings with “The Potato Eaters”, a poor family next door that grew and could only afford to eat potatoes. Notice the misshapen features that made the people resemble the subject. Vincent was very proud of this, much later remarking it was his favorite painting, but when he sent it to Theo to sell, Theo said you have to come to France where they are doing things with colors and pointillism and all kinds of stuff.
Vincet moved to Paris and although he still didn’t sell, he began to do colors. He didn’t have the patience for pointillism; he adapted a version by painting with short strokes. Look at the first picture again and notice the short strokes that defined the pictures.
In the meantime, his brother Theo got married and had a son that they named Vincent after his uncle. This cheered him up immensely, although his mood was often dark. He painted “Almond Blossoms” for his nephew.
Notice that it was painted from the view of a child, lying on the ground looking up.
We also stopped by the Yellow Exhibit in the adjoining display space so Kate could see her favorite “Sunflowers”.
He continued to descend into mental illness and while in the south of France with Paul Gauguin and he eventually sliced off an ear.
After checking in and out of asylums, he entered a period of frenetic activity and in the last 10 weeks of his life he painted over 70 paintings. He then shot himself in the chest with a revolver, but the shot was deflected by a rib and missed all of his vital organs. Theo rushed to his side the next day and they talked before Vincent died following day.
Unfortunately, his brother Theo died the following year leaving his wife and child with over 800 works of dubious value. But she was a canny businesswoman and she, and later her son Vincent, began to publicize and sell his paintings. It was she who established Vincent Van Gogh as a famous artist.
The real hero of the story of Vincent Van Gogh is Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger.
Her son, named Vincent after his uncle, continued the process of promoting and selling Van Gogh’s works. On 2 June 1973 Vincent Van Gogh attended the opening and passed ownership of all remaining paintings to the museum which has the most paintings remaining.
My favorite painting was long ago (1941) sold to MOMA in New York is “Starry Night“.
It was about 11:15am when we finished up with Van Gogh and decided to walk over to the adjacent (kind of) Rijks Museum. Last night Kate had gotten two admittances for 12:00 noon (for 25 Euros apiece).
But I will continue this in another post since this is getting long. Stay tuned.