Edinburgh, United Kingdom:

Although he had spent the earlier 12 months at an asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence within the south of France, Vincent van Gogh arrived within the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, simply north of Paris, in an optimistic temper. It was right here, in 1890, that he would spend the previous few months of his life which, regardless of the despair that might quickly return, have been his best.

The transfer provided him the prospect of a recent begin, near his brother Theo, and underneath the watchful eye of Paul Gachet, a homeopathic physician with an curiosity in artwork and psychological wellbeing. Over the course of the subsequent two months, Van Gogh produced no fewer than 74 work and greater than 50 drawings, that are catalogued chronologically by Nienke Bakker, Emmanuel Coquery, Louis van Tilborgh and Teio Meedendorf of their e-book, Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise: His Last Months.

As Van Tilborgh observes within the opening essay, Van Gogh’s remaining works have “a particular, virtually existential significance” for us. The work most carefully recognized together with his remaining days embody the profoundly melancholic Wheatfield with Crows (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), whose central path leads us via the golden wheat in the direction of an intensely brooding sky. It was right here, within the fields above Auvers, that Van Gogh would shoot himself on the age of 37 in July 1890.

As Meedendorf recounts, Van Gogh was initially enchanted by this “distinctive and picturesque” village nestling within the coronary heart of the countryside. Accessible from Paris by prepare, it remained surprisingly unspoiled, with thatched whitewashed cottages and a particular medieval church.

At dwelling in nature

Not like earlier inhabitants of Auvers, such because the panorama artist and precursor of impressionism, Charles-François Daubigny, Van Gogh ignored the close by river Oise. He most well-liked to document the village, its quaint outdated buildings merging organically with the panorama and the encompassing vineyards. He additionally selected surprisingly fashionable motifs such because the city corridor bedecked with flags and bunting on Bastille Day.

One other essential topic, explored by Nienke Bakker, was a collection of floral nonetheless lifes, painted between late Might and mid-June 1890. Van Gogh had painted irises and roses as if “in a frenzy” in the direction of the tip of his keep at Saint-Rémy and was optimistic that his footage would discover a purchaser, even if they’d failed to take action up to now.

He had a desire for wild cornflowers, daisies, poppies, buttercups and thistles, but additionally painted Chinese language asters, carnations and marigolds, blossoming chestnuts and acacia, rendered in rhythmic patterns that dominated the image house.

Flowers and ears of wheat seem additionally in his portraits, most memorably within the two of Dr Gachet, leaning on his elbow in a traditional melancholic pose and clutching a sprig of foxglove, which he utilized in his homeopathic treatments.

Gachet was an essential early supporter, not solely of Van Gogh, however of the impressionist artists Camille Pissarro, who lived at close by Pontoise, and Paul Cézanne, who painted Gachet’s distinctive white home at Auvers.

The ultimate days

The e-book features a helpful map of Auvers-sur-Oise which identifies lots of the websites at which Van Gogh arrange his easel. Certainly one of these is Tree Roots(Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), just lately recognized as the ultimate work produced by the artist.

It’s one in every of a collection of 13 works that have been distinctive for his or her double-square format. As Emmanuel Coquery explains, the format derived from Daubigny, who’s referenced within the third canvas within the collection, Daubigny’s Backyard (Rudolf Staechelin Assortment).

Daubigny continues to be celebrated right this moment within the village. His home and studio, adorned by his good friend Camille Corot, and in addition his youngsters, have been preserved for posterity. So, too, has the room on the Auberge Ravoux, by which Van Gogh died on 29 July 1890.

Fittingly, the final two essays on this brilliantly researched and colourfully illustrated e-book concentrate on Van Gogh’s remaining days. Following a go to to Theo in early July, the artist was beset by an prolonged interval of despair, introduced on by emotions that he was turning into a burden to his brother.

In his letters he wrote: “My life … is attacked on the very root, my step is also faltering.” He described his newest landscapes as expressions of “disappointment, excessive loneliness”. Finally he shot himself within the chest with a revolver and died in Theo’s arms practically two days later.

His physique was laid to relaxation in a spacious, sunny plot within the graveyard, near the wheatfields he cherished a lot. In 1914, Theo’s stays have been transferred to the identical ivy-covered grave, exceptional for its simplicity.

As the ultimate essay by Bregje Gerritse and Sara Tas reveals, even earlier than his dying, Van Gogh was starting to be appreciated by critics akin to Gustave Kahn and Albert Aurier.

He made his solely recorded sale when the Belgian artist Anna Boch bought The Purple Winery (Pushkin State Museum of Wonderful Arts, Moscow) for 400 francs. Earlier than lengthy he would posthumously obtain the celebrity and business success he had so longed for.

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(Writer:Frances Fowle, Private Chair of Nineteenth-Century Artwork, Historical past of Artwork, The College of Edinburgh)

(Disclosure Assertion:Frances Fowle doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or organisation that might profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their tutorial appointment)

This text is republished from The Dialog underneath a Artistic Commons license. Learn the unique article.
 

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