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A CASE STUDY, VINCENT VAN GOGH

portrait of vincent van gogh

Vincent Van Gogh's self-portrait
showing the self mutilation to his ear.
This happened during Gauguin's stay in Arles.

 self-portrait of paul gauguin

Paul Gauguin's self-portrait,
painted in 1888 and
sent to Van Gogh in Arles.

Throughout the history of art there have been many artists who have made great personal sacrifices for their art. Vincent Van Gogh is probably the most prominant of these in modern times. To my mind he epitomises the struggle that an artists - especially one who is seeking to find a "new art" - goes through. He is now regarded as one of the most original artists ever. Yet, unlike many artists, he didn't take up painting until the age of 27. Incidently, the same was true of Gauguin. Vincent was largely self-taught, but absorbed lessons from the Impressionist painters during two years he spent in Paris. As a direct result of his wanting to paint his life was always a desperate struggle against poverty, hunger, alcholism and insanity. In the following essay I will be recounting his time spent in Arles, in the Yellow House, especially when Paul Gauguin stayed with him for nine weeks at the end of 1888. What this period does is to illustrate the very question of "What is Art?" In a way, this was the struggle that would take place between himself and Gauguin in Arles during these few months. It wasn't simply a time to enjoy each other's company and to paint, as we might do, to give us pleasure. They were trying to find a new more modern way to paint.



Left, a painting by Vincent of the Yellow House. His accomdation was to the right, with the green shutters.
Right, a photo of the same building, taken just after the Second World War.
painting of vincent van goghpainting of vincent van gogh
Vincent and Gauguin lived in the section on the right. The adjacent building was a local grocer shop when Vincent was there, and from where he'd buy some of the weekly food. At this time, neither painter was regarded as "successful". Yes, Gauguin was the better known and was beginning to establish a reputation, but only within the small circle of painters based mostly in Paris at that time. Vincent, at this time aged 35, had virtually no reputation. His associates saw him as an odd fellow with intriguing ideas. At this point in time, no one would realise that in the next coming months Vincent would be engaged in one of the most astonishing creative moments in art. In the following few months he would produce paintings, such as the one below, that would, in a little over a hundred years later, each sell for millions of pounds.

painting of vincent van gogh

on the left, Vincent's painting of the "Cafe Terrace on the Place Du Forum, 1888" One of his famous paintings completed in Arles.


When Gauguin arrived in the Yellow House in October 1888 one of the first things that struck him was the extraordinary paintings Vincent had completed during his nine months in Arles. As a passionate artist myself I often try to recapture what that Yellow House might not only have looked like, but also the atmospher within. It seems to me an ideal situation: the weather was warm enough to work out of doors, even in autumn. One down stairs room was given over to a studio. Gauguin recalls that it smelt of turpentine, paints, pipe smoke - and of Vincent himself. I can certainly tast the smell of paints and turpentine, and what an exotic cocktail these smells are. The Yellow House was well situated from an artist's perspective. A grocer's shop next door provided them their provisions. Across the road, a park. Around one corner, a nearby hotel, also the Cafe de la Gare, owned by Ginoux, whom Vincent would paint.

painting of van gogh's cafe

on the left, Vincent's painting of the interior of the Cafe Terrace on the Place Du Forum, 1888" One of his famous paintings completed in Arles.


It was in this cafe that Vincent would spend some of his evenings, even painting, to the curiosity of its clients, local drinkers and prostitutes. Yet I can sense the atmospher in this cafe, with its low-life (think I've been in such places in my youth), prostitutes waiting for a customer, tired drinkers, money probably spent, empty pool table, and to the left the wood-burning stove. As mentioned earlier, the lack of money and poverty were ever present in Vincent's life. And I can understand what a lack of money to pay everyday bills can do to an artist - it's very destructive. Yes, one can argue that when one falls into this situation then the artists should give up and find other employment. But artists don't think in those terms. From my own experience, an artists doesn't take up art to make lots of money. It goes deeper than that. Yes, we need to earn sufficient to meet our day-to-day needs, but beyond that it's our art that really matters. I sympathise totally with Vincent's statement of: "...I myself realize the necessity to produce even to the extent of being morally crushed and physically drained by it, just because after all I have no other means of ever getting back what we have spent. I cannot help it that my pictures do not sell." As Martin Gayford points out in his book: The Yellow HouseVincent's debts were poisoning his life.
...AND SO WORK BEGINS
On Wednesday, October 24, a fine autumn morning. Van Gogh and Gauguin began work, out in one of the local fields- just a few minutes walk away. He wrote to his brother Theo (an art dealer and who represented Paul Gauguin) and explained. "You know that I came to the south and threw myself into work for a thousand reasons.... I'm looking for a different light... ...I believe that observing nature under a brighter sky might give one a more accurate idea of the way the Japanese feel and draw". Japanese prints, with their bright, flat colours, were collected by the Impressionist painters who found them to be a source of inspiration for their own work.


painting of the alyscamps, arles 1888

on the left, One of the first paintings produced by Gauguin in Arles, titled: The Alyscamps, Arles.


The two painters worked side-by-side over the next weeks and months, either directly from the landscape or in the studio. This was time when they could absorb themselves completely in their work, struggling to find a new way of painting. The painting to the left was painted by Gauguin within days of his arrival in Arles. The scene is of the old Roman cemetry. Vincent was working along side him at the time and produced



painting of the alyscamps, arles 1888

on the left, One of the first paintings produced by Vincent in Arles, titled: Les Alyscamps.


...I SHALL BE ADDING TO THIS ESSAY ON A REGULAR BASIS.

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