"Many people believe it was 'Wheatfield With Crows,' because Vincente Minnelli’s 1956 biopic 'Lust for Life' depicts van Gogh, played by Kirk Douglas, painting that work as he goes mad, just before killing himself. Andries Bonger, Theo van Gogh’s brother-in-law, who wrote down some of the events surrounding Vincent’s death, noted in a letter, 'The morning before his death, he had painted a forest scene, full of sun and life.' In 2012, the Van Gogh Museum published a paper... arguing that the letter referred to 'Tree Roots,' an unfinished painting in the museum’s collection. That claim has now largely been accepted by scholars. Because of the way light is depicted on the roots, [scholar Wouter] van der Veen says he believes that van Gogh was looking at his subject matter at the end of the afternoon, about 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. He says he thinks this means that van Gogh probably spent the entire day painting. Mr. van der Veen added that the new evidence challenged a theory put forward in 2011 by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith... They argued that van Gogh did not commit suicide, but may have gotten drunk and argued with two young boys, who then accidentally killed him, not far from the Auberge Ravoux.... 'Now that we know he was painting all day, there was even less time for that to happen,' Mr. van der Veen said. Mr. Naifeh responded that it would be impossible to time-stamp a painting based on the angle of the light. 'It’s not a photograph; it’s a painting.... The fact that he went out and painted all day, not just an average painting but a very important painting, indicates that he may not have been depressed... It was otherwise a productive normal day, and that runs counterintuitive to the idea that he might then go and kill himself.'"
DNYUZ reports.
Here's "Tree Roots":
What time of day do you think that looks like? A time that excludes time enough to get into a fatal argument?
How about the mood? Do you think it's more likely that the artist went directly from painting that to ending his own live or to getting into an argument with 2 young boys?
Posts
57 comments:
The density suggests 3 pm.
The painting looks like a Suicide note.
Okay, but where is the racist angle on this?
I visited the Louvre in January 1972 while a traveling Van Gogh exhibit was there. There were three rooms of paintings, and when you entered the first room you could see down through the open archways to the third room, where Crows was visible. One saw it from a distance, then moved ever closer while studying the works in the first two rooms.
A marvelous experience. The photos of Crows somehow don't do it justice. Far more impressive than the Mona Lisa (which was hard to see because the large crowds never diminished.
"A very important painting"?
his was the 1st Covid-19 death, wasn't it? Or, were there ones before that?
Ended his life. Because it looks like something child might have painted. His heart wasn't in it.
I voted for more likely, because (1) the roots look like bones, suggesting he had death on his mind; and (2) the composition is very disorganized, suggesting disorganized thinking. My true opinion, however, is the painting tells you diddly squat about his time or manner of death.
If his self-portrait progressions don't SCREAM madness, nothing does. Having said that, it certainly doesn't mean he wasn't shot by someone else.
Call CSI Paris!
What time of day do you think that looks like?
Half-past time to stop drinking cheap absinthe.
I was always (despite having an art history background) agnostic on van Gogh until 'Starry Night' came through town about ten years ago. It was, of course, a very well-attended exhibition.
When it was our turn to shuffle by I was at first shocked that the painting was on the wall no more than three feet from us, with no shield of any kind.
It was one of the most incredibly luminous, beautiful things I'd ever seen.
I had a similar reaction to 'Girl with the Pearl Earring' by Vermeer. Stunning despite its relatively small size.
I would have guessed pre-sunrise.
All of his important work was done in the last year and a half of his life, the culmination of his artistic/life project. He had started with a religious vocation but his edgy or neurotic personality wouldn't allow it, so he switched to painting to achieve the same thing. Mentally ill, unsuccessful in love, he finally achieved a blazing communion with God in the form of his art, but it wasn't sustainable. The death was built in.
I really like the Matt Smith Dr. Who episode with Van Gogh. But I don't see a Tardis in Van Gogh's last painting.
Is that a man's face with red hair and beard just to the left of the upper right corner blue? A dead Vincent lying among the roots?
Doesn't look very full of sun and life to me. Looks like the trees are menacing. But maybe that's my hangup, not Vincent's.
The fact that he had a productive day might be "counterintuitive" to the idea that he then committed suicide... but is there any actual data on how suicides behave on their last day?
Our intuition isn't the best tool for understanding cosmology, sub-atomic particles, or abnormal mental states.
So he didn't paint dogs playing poker? Or those kids with the big eyes?
I had a similar reaction to 'Girl with the Pearl Earring' by Vermeer. Stunning despite its relatively small size.
That collection came through Atlanta a few years ago and despite my hatred of crowds, the chance to see that portrait trumped all. It was a collection of Dutch artists, including Rembrandt, and, of course, they run the queue in a zigzag pattern past 'minor' works culminating to the 'Girl with the Pearl Earring' in it's own room and out the door to the souvenir shop. (Got a refrigerator magnet of 'Girl')
Anyway, I walked by one painting that stopped me in my tracks. A painting of a Goldfinch that was so perfect I thought it could get up and fly away. I had never seen it before nor had heard of the artist.
About two weeks later I saw that same painting on the cover of a new book from Donna Tartt and felt God must have wanted me to read that book.
Well...it was AWFUL. Worst "acclaimed" book I ever tried to read. Maybe the only novel I put down after 400 pages and just left there. I mean, pretty words every so often, but a God Awful book!
I can't answer Ann's question, but it did remind me of something else. Anyone else see similarities to this young man's work?
https://www.burchfieldpenney.org/image/?action=resize&m_w=1813&m_h=717&path=/files/images/objects/1979.016.000.jpg
Or when older?
https://www.burchfieldpenney.org/image/?action=resize&m_w=1813&m_h=717&path=/files/images/objects/2003.018.000.jpg
Re: Van Gogh's "Starry Night"
It is approximately for a.m. On the morning of 19 June 1889. Vincent van Gogh, a patient at an asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, is in his room on the second floor looking through his grilled window and painting a picture of the predawn sky… While van Gogh exaggerated scale and telescoped distance, he chose as his primary stellar motifs the most conspicuous heavenly bodies in the actual star field during the night of 18–19 June 1889. The evidence for this comes from both the historical documents of the period and the re-creation of the night sky by the Zeiss planetarium projector of the Griffith Park Observatory. Van Gogh’s written comments suggest a more than a perfunctory interest in celestial phenomena. His desire to depict accurately such observations is clear from a letter to his sister in September 1888 where he states that close attention to the night sky reveals “that certain stars are citron-yellow, others have a pink glow, or a green, blue and forget-me-not brilliance. And without me expatiating on this theme it will be clear that putting little white dots on the blue-black surface is not enough.” This empirical attitude is confirmed in his other paintings of night skies. The same month he wrote to his sister he painted two major nocturnal studies out-of-doors, the "Café Terrace by Night" and the "Starry Night Over the Rhône River". The first was done early in the month and faces due south toward the Hotel de Ville of Arles. Late that evening an observer could see in the southern sky the constellation of Aquarius. In the painting, it seems as if we are looking directly into the center of the familiar y-shape of the urn. The "Starry Night" of 1889 clearly shows the Big Dipper, and van Gogh wrote to his friend Eugène Boch that he painted the picture with the Great Bear.
Albert Boime
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 17, p.511
A dead Vincent lying among the roots?
No. That's Grounds Keeper Willy taking a bit of a lie-down on the School Board's time.
Ney, awa wit ye blouse-wearin' poodle wakah.
Van Gogh's artistic fame has been fueled by the public's identification with a story of a genuine artistic genius's tragic suicide. The sensitive but misunderstood man is iconic, we feel that it describes the core of ourselves in some way. The alternative story of an unsuccessful artist and local crackpot, bullied and accidentally shot by local thugs, is not romantic or inspirational. It is simply not heroic. We don't want to be that guy.
There is no question Van Gogh had a difficult life but he never reportedly spoke or wrote about suicide in his many letters. You never really know about people, but he was an idealist and that is what fueled his creativity. He was not a nihilist and those who kill themselves mostly are nihilists. Also I think that suicide was unthinkable due to his religious convictions.
Van Gogh did not die instantly because he was shot in the chest. That is not something a person would do if they intended to end their own life. He was questioned about the incident before he died but he refused to blame the young assailants. Imo that was a final act of forgiveness and compassion, preferring not to ruin their lives. That genuine generosity of spirit aligns more with Van Gogh's character as revealed in his work. For me that understanding of him is more moving than the tragic suicide story.
Van Gogh didn't kill himself.
MadisonMan, that is among my favorite Dr. Who episodes. If only it were real . . .
Jean Calment, who lived to be 117 year old, worked when she was as an adolescent in an art store where Van Gogh bought his paints. She said he was dirty, ugly, and disagreeable. It may well be that he got into a fight with two others who may have shot him. (He is alleged, after all, of having physically attacked Gaugin.)
Why do we care?
My links are to two paintings by Charles Burchfield. I see names did not come up.
https://www.burchfieldpenney.org/collection/charles-e-burchfield
My wife and I enjoyed the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam in 1978--it was a better experience than I expected.
As for this painting poll, I'm not even looking--there's simply not enough evidence contained in the post or comments (I'm late) for any answer to be better than guesswork.
My own research has led me to conclude that his last painting was of Elvis. Playing poker with dogs.
Narr
On Black velvet! (h/t Bilwick)
Van Goh was a pretty volatile character. Killing himself or getting himself killed in a stupid fight could both follow a day of seeming sanity.
"The "Starry Night" of 1889 clearly shows the Big Dipper, and van Gogh wrote to his friend Eugène Boch that he painted the picture with the Great Bear."
If van Gogh said he painted the Great Bear, fine, but damned if I can see the Big Dipper in it.
I voted that he killed himself, because I would have done the same had I painted that. And I'm a big VG fan.
One of my most memorable experiences was happening onto a bauxite mine by the side of the road near Les Baux-de-Provence where hundreds of projectors displayed wonderfully focused details of his art on the white walls, ceilings and floors of the enormous rectangular caverns of the mine with a Bach cello sonata softly filling the space.
It was magical
- Krumhorn
Here's the place in Provence.
Completely wonderful.
- Krumhorn
https://www.burchfieldpenney.org/image/?action=resize&m_w=1813&m_h=717&path=/files/images/objects/1979.016.000.jpg ...
You can see those images better at these URLs - (click image again to embiggen)
1979.016.000.jpg
2003.018.000.jpg
Also I think that suicide was unthinkable due to his religious convictions.
In his letters ("Dear Theo") he said he was embarrassed by the religious content of his psychotic delusions.
the original title of the painting was
"I've Got Dirt On the Clintons"
It was one of the most incredibly luminous, beautiful things I'd ever seen.
I had the same reaction to the Botticelli paintings at the Gardner Museum. The colors were intense, the paintings glowed. Seeing them in person was nothing like looking at a photo, totally different experience.
You can see the pro-Trump imagery in Van Gogh's final paintings. The bullet was 19th C cancel culture
Art from David Hockney's Paper Pools series makes a £4.8million splash
Hackney,Hockney?
How do you figure which side is up with that painting?
I am sort of a philistine about “art”. I was nonetheless persuaded by my lovely bride many years ago to see the exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum which included Starry Night. Of which I had seen hundreds of photos. I expected to be unimpressed.
Wow. See it if you get the chance.
gilbar said...
his was the 1st Covid-19 death, wasn't it? Or, were there ones before that?
7/28/20, 1:36 PM
It's hard to wear a face mask when you're missing an ear.
If van Gogh said he painted the Great Bear, fine, but damned if I can see the Big Dipper in it.
I always figured The Pleiades.
Could call it tree roots with yellow sky?
Bilwick, it's the world acclaimed version of enormous eyed dogs dressed in Dutch outfits, seated around a table, consuming potatoes.
Pleasure in the viewing is one of art's great rewards. The glow of an iris, the vibration of a star, the light on the fields, even the smirk on a dog holding a winning card hand, pleasure in the viewing deserves praise. Not all art need be pleasant, bring pleasure, or please the viewer. But that which does is nice to observe.
What great art if any will result from the grafitti and messages of the rioters in US cities these days? A new Guernica likely isn't coming forth from a kid in a paintball mask, LARPing in front of a court house.
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