The world of van gogh 1853 1890 (art ebook)

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IOOK OF FAMILY FINANCI

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TIME-LIFE LIBRARY OF ART

The World Van Gogh

of

1853-1890 by Robert Wallace

and the Editors of Time-Life

Time-Life Books.

New York

BRIGHTON

Books

About the Author M\1h-i

IFF.

Robert Wallace has published more than 100 nonaction articles as well as numerous short

BOOKS 189H-1%7

R. Luce

1

He

-tnne> and poems.

mi NDER: Henry

the author of Rise ofRussia in Time-Life

i>

The Grand Canyon and Hawaii

series,

Librarv of Art volumes. The

Donovan

Editor-in-Chief: Hedle)

The

Bernini.

Chairman ofthe Board: Andrew HeiskeU

Group

ice President:

'

its

Remhmndt and Thr

If

oridoj

predecessors are the Iruit of more than four years Stud) in

European and American museums and

libraries.

K. Sheplej

James

President:

oridoj Leonardo, The U oridoj

It

present book and

Books Great Ages of Alan

the American Wilderness series, and three other

in

Hheii Austell

The Consulting Editor Chairman

u <

I

Larsen

H<>% K.

H.

Maness, Martm Mann,

Planning Director: Oliver

The Consultant Seymour Slive

ChiefofResearch: Beatrice T. Dobie Director oj Photograph) 1

L

Meivin

Harvard

Scott

In Director

at

the

tor his

Business Manager

C

Nicholas J.

Promotion Director

his stay in the

to see the

Chairman of

Book

a Frans Hals exhibition in

at

and Pomona College and has been an

niversity of Leningrad. Dr. Slive. the recipient of a

I

articles

Guggenheim

Haarlem. He

is

House of

the author

on Dutch painting.

even

nt

\wm

mi.

i

1

Siajf

Paul

I*

n

is

on page

>a\ id

Diese two drawings

between

Ipril

awton

I

Hie dots and

his style.

Men vn

i.

(

more

tssistant

Douglas B

bkejv

<>i

change with

was .m rvohiiion

it

ni

-

Robert

<

is

reminded

<>l

little

flowers."

The

full

taken appears on page 185; a sketch of the

ol In-

in

Provence wen- made 1

'

Van Gogh within

a

and show a marked change

in

b)

an Gogh's increasing!) disturbed mental

latter.

state, but

graphic technique.

1

1

vi

Iim

i

individuals ol

lunelm

\,

«. Servii

Endl Vender Horal

t

helped to produce this book; Editorial Production,

Benjamin Ughlman; Picture Collection, Doris O'Neil; Photographic Laboratory,

i

e,

Murra)

J

Gart; Correapondenti Maria \ incensa Uoiai (Paris),

Amsterdam), Margol Hapgood (London), Elisabeth Kraemer (Bonn) and

I

James]

Dolorei I

\

iposito,

(i

i

<•*

huh.

Pal hi

ia

Milk

Keith, Pearl Sverdhn

\l<

orchards

\nn Natanaon (Rome) I

Quality Director

larmen

tirey; Library, is;

1

LetjeH

Picture Department Trnffu

md

he follow in

Norman

Craham

Cop? V/W/ Roaalind Stubenbera, Ion

one

the earl) sketch (front tare transformed into swirls in the

lines ol

this

nofi

Madrid

Quality Director

thai

iv

I.

Production Editon Cennarol

in..

is

you

Goolrick

I

I

•

Production Editor

in

the beach, quite Hat and sand v. there are

form and color

1888 and the spring ol IKK

Suzanne Seisa

tssistant

iolet,

Paula Pierce,

iron Hartz, I

ynda Kefauver, Gail Hansberry,

row m prodi

\

the changing beht has taken on j tinge ol

End Papers

Some experts conned

<i

to his brother

green or

154.

Front and Back

Chief Researcher Martha I

is

an Gogh

ich other

hulberg,

Rewearchen

"On

to a friend:

He-wrote it

i

" riten John

Die

I

Kathleen ShortaJI

Picture Editor

Designer

Bcene

oridoj

it

moment

painting from which the detail on the slipcase

Ilirsh

:,,.,

1,

j

an Gogh traveled 25 miles farther south

^ ou don't know d

mackerel

ol

because the nexl

\nd he wrote

.

Irles, \

a village called Saintes-Maries-de-Ia-Mer.

boats, green, red and blur, so prett) in

iff]

series editor: Robert Morton

Editorial Stafl for The

.it

"has the colors

sa) it- blur,

pink or grav

HMFIHr MUlum

southern French town of

Mediterranean

lln-n thai the sea

Nicholas llenion

can't

1

also

the Slipcase

During

H Stewarl

I'aul

Publu Relations Director

h

is

numerous publications

his

Ingleton

Sates Director Carl C. Jaeger

ni

where he

In

al>o taught at Oherlin College

work on

numerous books and

On

MeSweene)

General Manager John D.

\

t Diversity,

fine Vrts and Chairman of the Department of Fine Arts

ol

He has

Diversity.

I

Orange-Nassau of

ui

New York

isheh: Joan D. Manlej

pi hi

I

at

Washington Square College. Among

Fellowship, was honored by the Dutch government a- an Officer of the Order of the

Arnold C. Holeywell

Chiefoj Research: Myra Mangan

tssistant

at

for This

Professor

is

exchange professor

Diana Hirsh

Senior Text Editor: tssistant

Professor of Fine Arts

is

A. H. C. \\ hippie

Allen

K.

Janson

Sheldon Cotler

Director:

trt

.

are The Sculpture oj DonateUo and History of

Managing Editors: K/ra Bowen.

tssistant

Da\i<l

\A

[he Department of Fine llts

MANACING EDITOR: Jerry Korn

ellan

\

©19W

rime

In.

Ml rights reserved

Published limultaneousl) inCanadi Reprinted I

it t lea,

'

alherinc Ireyi

I

ibr.irv ol

t

longreu

i

atalogue

s hool and library distril «

«

and

numbei

l'».

i

TO rj*>HH

b) Silver Burdetl

Company, Morristown, Htm

i

Contents

I

The

A

7

Misfit

Mission in Art

29

III

Pilgrimage to Paris

49

IV

Friends and Influences

69

The Southern Sun of Aries

89

II

V VI

VII

VIII

Gauguin

117

in Paradise

Mastery out of Despair

137

"A

161

terrible

Chronology

and maddened genius"

of Artists:

183

Bibliography: 181 Credits and Acknowledgments:

Index: 186

18.i

v

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w

* :

/

^^

-\

I

The Misfit

If

there

one

is

about

fact

\

incent van

that he cut off his ear and ga\e

portant in

itself,

but

book about

\

is

is

a

is

The

is

known,

well

act

not at

is

anticlimactic. Perhaps

on the part about the ear w :

i-

it

im-

all

reader, on picking up

an Gogh, cannot help but wonder when he it.

ill

it

be found

is

at

will

come

to

he mav skim over information

hundredfold more pertinent. Having got past

that all else

Now

that

wildly disconcerting, and obscures the whole

the part about the ear. In anticipating that

Gogh

to a prostitute.

Even the most sophisticated

picture of the artist. a

it

it

he mav

it.

feel

best to meet the problem head-

the end of Chapter

that the ear (in fact merely the ear lobe) has been

5.

removed,

it

mav be possible to take a more relaxed view of the unhappy man who removed it. \ incent van Gogh, w ho died at 37. in 1890. had one of the briefest careers in art history. first

It

spanned only 10 vears

— and

of these, the

four were devoted almost exclusively to drawing. But the volume

of his output was astonishing. Close to 1.700 of his works survive,

most 900 drawings and more than 800 paintings, made bursts of creation that sometimes saw

him produce

in

a canvas a

weeks on end. During his lifetime he sold only one painting

among use':''" The

equivalent of S80). and tion,

"But what's the

his last recorded

use. of course,

al-

volcanic out-

dav for (for the

words was the ques-

became apparent within

25 years after his death. Together with Paul Cezanne. Georges Seurat

and Paul Gauguin. thers of \

modern

\

an Gogh

is

now ranked

as

one of the founding

fa-

art.

an Gogh drew these sketche? of

him~elf

in

Pan? when he was

3

Nan Gogh's work

1.

is

of

an extremely personal sort. With the ex-

countryman Rembrandt, no other

seven years after beginning hi~

ception

career as an artist. Such draw ings

produced more self-portraits (more than 40). His landscapes,

were part of his learning process; in

teriors

probing "to develop the best and

most serious side" of

art.

some 40

and

his

still lifes

are in a sense self-portraits a^ well.

od to fuse what he saw. and what he

bv which

self-portraits

JW.

into the blue, yellow

178. 179).

door of a furnace. Three Self- Portraits, Pans. 1887

It

artist

has

figures, in-

was

his

meth-

as quickly as possible into

are so powerful that looking at one of his paintings can be like staring

most of them within only three years (pages

felt,

great

statements that were revelations of himself. His color and his warmth

he meant portraiture, he drew and painted

of

•

of hell.

On

It is

and orange flames beyond the suddenly opened not that he had an apocalyptic vision of the

the contrary, few

men have

fires

ever had greater capacity to

give love, or greater need to receive

only in his ings he

art.

When

it.

Sadly, he could express his love

he sought to express

met onlv misunderstanding or

it

human bemav have a blazing

directly to other

hostility. ""One

hearth in one's soul." he wrote, ''and yet no one ever comes to

bv

sit

Passersbv see only a wisp of smoke rising from the chimnev and con-

it.

tinue on their way."

w,

he was alive Nan Gogh was regarded as an exceedinglv

hile

ficult,

obstinate and even frightening man.

in his

grave for fourscore years, he

Now

dif-

that he has been safelv

widely viewed as a hero. To an

is

age that seems dedicated to the obliteration of the individual, he stands

out as an early anti-establishment resistance fighter of the

rank.

first

It

own life, but not until he had fought harder, against greater odds, than a man can reasonably be expected to do. He saw the world as an intolerable botch, something God had put together true that he took his

is

"in a hurry on one of His bad davs." and he took the only honorable

doomed

course: a

Moreover, he did not consider himself a

struggle.

more authentic.

hero, which makes his bravery even able that

I

shall

have

to suffer a great deal yet,"

the honest truth, under no circumstances do

For

reer.

I

"It

very prob-

is

he wrote, "and to

tell

long for a martvr's ca-

I

have always sought something different from heroism, which

Vincent smother, vnna Carbentus van Gogh, i-

revealed

son

-

in

the photograph above and in her

affectionate portrait below a> a lively

woman

\

incent, she ÂŤj~ especiall)

a-- a boy. She once became when her mother-in-law boxed little

protective of him

Furious

\ incent's car- lor '

an Cogh

between the two

some minor

a loll

da\ to

women

offense.

It

make peace

in hi>

took

do not have, which

again.

u ith a >en>c of humor. Ha\ ing lost a

child before

Pastor

I

certainly admire in others, but which,

consider neither

I

He was works

I

my

duty nor

"\ an Gogh" but merelv "\ incent."

by saying that his last

made

in

— not

indeed he did sign them

in

vou

tell

I

ideal."

often inclined to belittle himself in other ways.

— when

home.

my

He

signed his

"\ incent van Gogh" or

He once attempted

to pass this off

France, where his greatest paintings were produced,

name was unpronounceable. But in fact, his earlier Holland, also bear only the name "\ incent." It is

paintings,

though

as

he was always sending urgent, affectionate messages to someone, any-

who might be kind enough

one,

His Christian names were

to accept

\

incent

and the "Gogh" probablv derived from

man

border.

Among

his ancestors

utives, consuls, goldsmiths

and

was born on March 30, 1853.

him

as a friend.

\\ illem. after his

a small

were various preachers,

a successful sculptor in

grandfathers,

town on the Dutch-Gerstate exec-

He

a solid lot.

the village of Groot Zundert in the

Dutch province of North Brabant near the southern (Belgian)

frontier.

His father, Theodorus, was pastor of a small Dutch Reformed church.

Theodorus was

called "the

handsome dominie" and was beloved

parishioners, hut he was not o\ erly gifted all

the "promotions"

lage io another.

similarly mild

in mi

Vincent's mother.

and uninspired

\\

ith intelligence

I

i-

or eloquence

career were lateral, from one obscure

soul.

It

vil-

\nna Cornelia Carbentus, was is

common

Van Gogh's parents with a wave of the hand

miss i

in his

b) his

correct. Their bourgeois outlook on

life,

and per hafts with

it>

that judg-

narrow

-in

i

tided

emphasis on proprieties and outward appearances, was the opposite his

own. But

it

is

It is

man)

oi

onl\ lair Io -a\ thai the parents were \er\ decent peo-

ple in their fashion;

son. so did

a

lor biographers to dis-

if

the) had difficult) understanding their remarkable

ot hers.

an equall) presumptuous business

in

indulge

in

posthumous

psy-

v

choanalysis of tried

One

it.

V

has been noted

fact that

is

I

Van Gogh children, he was

dest of the

hirth. to the very day, his

and also named

l><>\.

number

an Gogh, although a

of accredited experts ha*

although

fiat

no1 the

first.

mother was delivered

\ irieent

\\

was

\ in cent

One

t

year before his

another child, also

of

e

fie el-

diem van Gogh. He was

a

Stillborn. His

grave was near the church door, which the second Vincent, with the iden-

name and

tical

same birthday, walked

the

past ever)

Sunday of his child-

hood. This could not have been pleasant, and there the

in

Van Gogh family papers

m

was mentioned often

Vincenl

bearing on In- "guill feelings

s

girls,

a

statement

flat

dead predecessor

to

in-

doubt.

the family of Pastor Theodorus,

in

but of these only one was of great importance

whose

Vincent: Then,

is

presence. Bu1 whether thai had an)

here were several other children

two boys and three to

of the

or his supposed sense of being "an

adequate usurper"' remains wide open I

name

that the

was inextricably and tragically

life

W

twined with that of his elder brother.

inter-

ithout the support and almost

superhuman understanding of Theo, four years younger, Vincents and indeed his \- to older

and uncles,

would have come

life

relatives,

all

of

Vincent was plentifully supplied with aunt-

them exemplary

men who became

military

art

to nothing.

Two

citizens.

One

generals.

ol

his

aunts married

of his uncles achieved the

highest rank in the navy, vice-admiral, and served as

\

commandant

incenl

..in

Amsterdam navy

the

yard.

one of them,

cessful art dealers, and a fortune. "I rule

firm of Goupil

&

No fewer than

three other uncles were suc-

named

also

\

incent, accumulated

Cent," as he was called, was a partner

Cie.,

which

in

addition to

in

headquarters

its

the French

in Paris

had

branches in The Hague, London. Brussels and Berlin. (The well-known

\ew York

art gallery,

M. Knoedler

&

man who

Co., was founded by the

-

father, the

Reverend

I

heodorus

ol

was Goupil's American agent.) Uncle Cent was not only rich; he was

Gogh, was a handsome man,

photograph shows. 15m

Ik- \\;i-

.1-

eloquent preacher, and spent his 36-year ministry in out-of-the-wa) villages. Vincent

drawing (belou

),

done

uncompromising!) shows the effects (in Ins father.

and -mi

and there was reason for the family

one day make young

A,sa

V

to

suppose that he would

".1- not intimate.

incent his heir.

bo) Vincent displayed a good deal of charm. Red-haired, freck-

with pale blue eves that sometimes deepened to green, he was fond

led,

of collecting beetles

for inventing

and vacant birds nests, and had an amiable knack

games. His younger brothers and sisters loved his com-

pany; alter one particularly pleasant day. they formally made him present of a rosebush that happened to be growing den.

I)ii

1

\

in

incenl was also stubborn and hot-tempered, given to

contrary behavior. He once modeled a small elephanl a

when

striking sketch ol a cat, hut

mediately destro) ed them. \t

12

was sent

fie

to

It

hoarding school

15 miles away. His father could

become con\ meed

thai his

ill

in (lav

his parents praised

likel) thai

is

t

fie

in

a

their father's garst

ranged

and made

them, he im-

praise embarrassed him.

the village of Zevenbergen.

afford the

expense hut seems

to

have

son was getting too "rough"" through his

as-

sociation with the peasant boys of Grool Zundert. The separation from his famil) lie

tle

known

is

such an age doubtless

at

wrote touchingly of his JO)

years

of his

emerged from

it

education

at

mark on Vincenl.

In later

reunion with his father.

V er\ lit-

left

at

its

Zevenbergen, beyond the

fact

thai he

with a vast appetite for reading, for the remainder of

\ incent's

ol

The relationship between

Reformed minister r.m

-

in 1881.

.1

I

disciplined

renegade beha\

father

he stolid Dutch

household, and often disapproved

childless,

his

not an

i>>r.

ol

his life

many

he was fascinated by books. They appear, with legible

of his paintings, and he read

them with what may

thought that La Case de VOncle lorn

(I ncle

to

but also

Tom's Cabin) was a noble

Homer, the French moralist Ernest

piece of literature. Keats, Voltaire,

historian Jules Michelet had V incent's utmost respect

but he rated their w ritings no

more highly than he

Carol. \ incent's taste in art

was equally

would give 10 years of

did Dickens" Christmas

He once

startling.

said that he

his life for the privilege of being allowed to

two weeks with a loaf of bread

for

seem

at first

He admired Shakespeare,

be a curious lack of discrimination.

Renan and the

titles, in

in front

sit

of Rembrandt's magnificent

number of long-forgotten hacks who A common denominator can be found, how-

Jewish Bride, but he also revered a

made magazine

illustrations.

ever, in most of the writers and artists Vincent admired: thev dealt

with the destitute and downtrodden.

It

did not matter that the treat-

ment was often oozily sentimental and patronizing; what moved him was the subject.

A,

16 Vincent

t

school, probably because of financial pressure.

left

Through the influence of Uncle Cent V incent's

of nature

mother, Anna, expressed her love

m

needlework and

the flower stud) below,

in

draw ingS

which she did

1

&

a place

1.

Vincent's pencil drawing o£ a plant (above),

headquarters also dealt

is

noncontroversial

was found

The Hague. Goupil's was

Cie. at

artists.)

contemporary

in

for

him

in

the of-

a conservative house,

famous paintings. (The Par-

specializing in well-made reproductions of

like

in IK

of Goupil

fice

onlv

but

originals,

At Goupil's he went to work with a

b)

will, dis-

probabl) copied from a book, suggests ln>

mother's influence, \saboj Vincent wasnol thought artistically gifted, but here he reveals fine

draftsmanship for an

1

1

-year-old.

playing none of the "eccentricities" that would later

wretched.

He enjoyed his job and was apparently in The Hague for about three

Vincent had been

and soon thereafter the two brothers

visit,

began

to

exchange

successful at

years

life

W

hen

it.

— they were then

for a

19 and 15

letters.

Only 36 of Theo's

letters

have been preserved, but 661 of Vincent's

bers of the family and to friends, also exist.)

The

to other

superb autobiography. The

mem-

letters are so vivid in

and so revealing of V an Gogh's innermost feelings

stitute a

his

Theo came

were carefully kept by Theo. (Another 135, addressed

style

make

that they con-

few items in the correspondence

first

are short and simple: Vincent dispenses brotherly advice, suggesting that

Theo take up pipe smoking "as

he study the work the letters art.

Many

become of

the) span an

July 1890.

a

remedy

full

of intimate explanations of

them are thousands of words l8-\ear period, beginning

The

for the blues."

and

that

of various writer- and painters. In time, however,

last letter to

in

in

\

an Gogh

length, and

VugUSl

1

87l2

Theo, unfinished, was found

s life

and

together

all

and ending in \

in

an Gogh's

pocket after he had shot himself.

When he was 20 Vincent was to the 4

.

/S44

ransferred, with a fine recommendation,

1

London branch of Goupil's. He was sorrj i<> leave Holland, but can unlie w rote, would "be splendid lor m\ English, |w hich]

London,

I

derstand well enough, hut

.

.

.

cannot speak as well as

I

should wish."

He lou ud a room in tin' home of a w idowed Frenchwoman, \lr». Loyer, who with her daughter rsula kept a small da\ school lor boys, and for a time his letters to Theo were lull of cheer. \\c planted a flower garden I

for the Lovers,

the

roamed happily through London, enjo\ed boating on

Thames and went

so,

far as to

buy a top

hal

"you cannot be

in Lon-

don without one." He

made

also

his landlady's daughter.

rsula,

I

a grievous miscalculation in regard to

and thus hegan the

first

of hi> several

women. He fell in love with the girl, hut e\ tell her. Throughout his life Van Cogh was

disastrous encounters with identlv did not hother to

given to weaving dreams

he wanted

girl

to be;

which he saw the world not

when he exposed

as

was but as

it

dreams he was devastated

his

to

no one shared them. In the case of Ursula he assumed that

find that

the

it

in

-

returned his love, or,

soon as he stated his

feelings.

at

the least, that she would return

When

at last

it

as

he did, after about a year,

he discovered that the thought of loving him had never entered her head.

Although others may

find

the childishly optimistic

congruous hat and Vincent was

to

something

comic

faintly

young Dutchman with

in

the picture of

his thick accent, his in-

blow

his lack of perception of the girl's feelings, the

terrific.

In the

wake of

his rejection he

moved

to other

quarters where he lived alone, rarely seeing anyone and writing

dom.

When

sel-

he did communicate, his letters contained enigmatic Biblical

quotations and fragments of melancholy poetry copied from whatever

book he happened his health;

one of

to be reading.

His parents became concerned about

his uncles visited

London, and apparently returned

The word "peculiar" began to be Cent arranged for him to be transferred

with a gloomy report.

applied to him.

In 1875 I ncle

to the Paris of-

fice in

the hope that his spirits might be revived by a change in scene.

As he departed London, well aware that

his familv

and employers took

This photograph shows

shoulders

ol a

dim view of

his behavior,

Vincent closed a

from Ernest Renan that was to become

his

merely to be happy, nor even

this earth

letter with a

own

credo:

to be

quotation

"Man

is

not on

He

simply honest.

is

there to realize great things for humanitv. to attain nobility and to survulgarity in which the existence of almost

all

individuals

drags on."

In

Paris

.~-

1

1

^

l>\

religious brooding increased.

holida\ -i-ter-

s at

home, teasing

well.

at

hymns.

\

incent

at

Young Gladwell had

in

Montmartre

named Harry Glad-

religious leanings too, but

seems

have

to

been overwhelmed bv Vincent, who was well on the way to becoming a

fa-

Of nights. Vincent read the Bible aloud ("We intend to read it the way through"). He became increasingly careless in his work. He

natic. all

dissuaded customers from buying pictures of which he did not approve, and at the height of the Christmas buying season in 1875, he

went his

off to

own

swered

Holland to

visit his

parents.

W

hen he returned he provoked

dismissal by asking the manager a question that could be anin

only one way: were there any complaints against

was given three months* notice, perhaps

in

He

him'.''

deference to his

ncle

I

Cent's status, and thus six years of training as an art dealer came to an end. There was no visible regret on Vincent's part: he was not yet a rebel, but a dropout. a soft breeze

makes

it

To Theo he wrote fall

from the

tree;

only,

"When

the apple

ripe,

is

such was the case here.

.

.

|>la\lul

at

during

for

them

and

in

the

school, \ incent gave no inklinn

of later artistic genius, and

Theo, who by that

roomed

Goupil's, a British youth

hu<l

ÂŤ heat held- and pine forests of Brabant. In

ployed by Goupil's in Brussels, was bombarded with more verses from the Bible and the full texts of

He

.'<.

his brothers

and inventing games

time had also had the benefit of Uncle Cent's intercession and was em-

with a fellow-employee

I

an arresting,

made no

friends anions his classmates.

Van Gogh's

at

and h ithdrawn

boarding school, he was more

four year-

mount the

incenl

countrj youth, but these

features wen- dominated

melancholy gaze.

a

\

the touted hair, rutlch complexion and broad

.

II

la-tuiL

He was almost

unemployed, and had not the

23.

panying illustrations

to his letters,

ously of becoming an

Through want ads

in

boarding school

Ramsgate.

at

\

some way of persuading Ur-

find

incent decided to return to England.

was a place that Dickens might have

It

room with the

from

a

"window with broken

room and board, but no

salarv.

months he

German and

arithmetic, and

mv

altered

though scarcely

it.

time

was an impossible situation and

It

.

is

at a

pret-

few

in a

money

for the better as far as

concerned. He took another teaching job

a-

v.

."" .

panes.""

and worked hard. Dur-

hours he kept an eve on the bovs. "so that

well taken up.

t\

rel-

rotten floor" where the bovs bathed at

light

ing the day he taught elementary French. after school

>eri-

the British press he found a job as a teacher in a

washstands under the dim

incent was given

\

accom-

have thought

wrote of numerous insects, of dark stairways and

\ incent

passages, of "the -i\

to

as

arti-t.

sula Lover to change her mind.

ished.

he seems not

hoping perhaps that he mi^ht

Still

what he

slightest idea

would do next. Although he had frequently made sketches

school in Isleworth.

near London, where the pav was verv low but his duties were closer to Ii

he taught Bible classes and was occasionallv allowed to preach

heart

i>

at a local

mons.

It

sent

Theo the

speaks of the hardness of man's

"we

of Cod. and concludes that

In

He

Methodist chapel.

December 1876.

after

are

all

text of

one of

brothers."

months of genteel semistarvation.

went home for the holiday. His parents, who now lived ish in Etten, It

may

would be pointless

it

not know."" said

natural thim.'-. I

small par-

in a

for

him

to return to

Eng-

once again Lncle Cent was called upon. Lncle Cent, a hard-

headed businessman, was disappointed I

\ incenl

were appalled by his distraught and emaciated appearance.

wa- decided that

land, and

his ser-

on earth, of the benevolence

lot

\

incent "Supernatural things

in \

:

nele Cent, "but

I

I

incent. for his part, had

know evervthing about some reservations about

rule Cent and quoted the French writer Sainte-Beuve in regard to

whom

him: "In most men there exists a poet who died voung.

the

man

survived.

Nevertheless, the uncle used his influence once again.

tin-

time

Vincent a job as a clerk

But his

to get .-pirit

ua> not

bookstore

employment; the job

his

in

in a

Dordrecht.

in

lasted

than

less

four months.

some

\lan\ years later the son of the bookstore manager offered

He

teresting recollections ol Vincent as a bookseller's clerk. thai

Vincent spent hi- "working"" hours surreptitiously translating the

Bible into French, ol

German ami

English, and that he also

which the bookseller did not approve

a little tree with a lot of

when

in-

recalled

\

incenl

old desk,

warded.)

"silly pen-and-ink drawings,

branches and side branches and tw

became famous, the bookseller's

hoping

to

made sketches

find

a

lew

such

sill)

-ÂŤ>n

ilt -.

ransacked

sketches, bui

i

\

later,

incenl

was not

s

re-

Vnother acquaintance from the Dordrecht days was

schoolteacher,

P. C. Corlit/.

boardinghou.se. Corlit/ remembered thai

V incenl because

a young room in a with Vincent a Fellow hoarder- made fun ol

who shared

"at table he said length)

itent Iriar: for instance,

prayers and ate

he would QOl take meat. ura\\.

1

etc.

1

ki-

a pen-

\ml then

12

-

'

had an abstracted expression

his face always

— pondering,

deeply

se-

rious, melancholy."'

Bv the time it

employment

his

the bookstore had been terminated,

in

was plain that Vincent's destiny was

to

become

clergyman

a

Vincent thought. His family questioned whether,

least.

at

or so,

he

at 24,

could apply himself to the rigorous studies that were required; nevertheless, they rallied

the ministry in

around him.

was arranged that he study

It

Amsterdam, and he went

to live with

tor

his uncle Jo-

hannes, the admiral. The family engaged a tutor, Mendes da Costa, a

who was only

fine scholar

began lessons

in Latin

order to prepare himself for theo-

in

The two young men

examinations.

logical-school

and Vincent

a few years older than Vincent,

and Greek

along well,

got

although there was a certain incongruity in their relationship: Da Cosreadying his pupil for the Christian ministry, was a Jew.

ta,

V

Costa noted

in a

came too much

memoir

of 1910. "After a short time the Greek verbs be-

for him.

However

might

I

might invent to enliven the lessons, sav a

Da

incent studied diligently, but the effort was foredoomed. As

.

.

.

you seriously believe

"do

man who wants

to

and reconcile them

The tutor

do what

1

it

set

about

it,

whatever trick

I

was no use. "Mendes,' he would

that such horrors are indispensable to

want

to do: give

to their existence

peace to poor creatures

here on earth?'

secretly agreed, but could not say so aloud. V incent

would

try again, "but before long the trouble would start afresh, and then he

would come

to

well,

"Mendes,

night

I

me

in the

last

night

morning with an announcement I

used the cudgel again,'

got myself locked out again.'

continued,

""that this

.

.

.

W henever

had strayed farther than they should

have, he took a cudgel to bed with him and belabored his back with

it;

and whenever he was convinced that he had forfeited the privilege he slunk out of the house [and

spending the night

in his bed,

the floor of a

wooden shed, without bed or

to

do this

A,

.fter

in

little

the winter.

more than

.

.

so

last

should be observed," Da Costa

was some sort of self-chastisement.

that his thoughts

V incent felt

It

knew

I

"Mendes,

or,

blanket.

He

ol

on

slept]

preferred

."

a year of study with

Da

he did not even attempt the examinations.

Costa, Vincent gave up; It

was not

in

Latin and

Greek, he thought, that he would find the necessary knowledge to help

him

in

comforting mankind, but

"'at

versity of misery." In August 1878

the free course in the great uni-

— he was then 25 years old — he en-

rolled in a training school for lay preachers in Brussels.

the school were not full-fledged ministers, but received tion to enable

them

to spread the

Graduates

enough

ol

instruc-

Gospel and do missionary work among

the poor. The school accepted Vincent on a probationary basis. He was

given to understand that sion

somewhere

in

if

he performed well he might be assigned a mis-

One of his felwhen V incent was

Belgium. But he did not perform well.

low students recalled that during a

grammar

lesson,

asked whether a word was nominative or dative, he replied. "Oh. I

really don't care." At the

sir.

conclusion of the probationary period, no

mission was offered to him. Instead, with such small support as his father could gi\e.

Van Gogh went unsponsored

to the

grim coal-min-

13

ing region in southern Belgium called the Borinage, hoping thai

work was satisfactory, he mighl I

his

il

Formal assignmenl

receive a

later

rom he school. i

Van Gogh

from the Borinage arc vividly descriptive. "Ev-

letters

-

erywhere around one sees the coal

chimneys and the immense heaps

liijz

the entrance to ihc mines.

at

.

.

Mosl

.

ol

miner- arc thin and

ol itic

pale from lexer anil look tired and emaciated, weatherbeaten and pre-

women

mature!) aged, the

whole laded and worn. Round the mine

as a

are poor miners huts with a few smoke-blackened dead

working

cubicles

in little

the

dim

lighl of

at

dance

last

lamps "reflected as

appoint |{ui

was

Brussels

men

|

a

lav

-

at a

\ in cent

Vccordingl)

rective.

fie

He gave awa\

cave."

lor a lime

-Inrl.

lie

six-month

a

soon began

II*'

tor an injured

him ciel

lor

him

to

a

v

H

man

in a

room

wretched shack where he

dismissed

in

own

to

I

hi- time,

\

di-

in a

baker's

slept

on the

had Outfitted

lest

he seem

he needed bandages

linen. Ills superiors

incent's brother

had done well

whom

\incent mighl

in

t

reproached

incent thai he

become an

Theo was

-cut to reason

Goupil

On

ol

hi- parent-

indeed.

artist.

re-

he firm

Theo had

listen.

Vincent and recognized his potential \

thai

he paid no heed. Finally, the missionai

-ound voung man. the mainsla\ of

a

Van Gogh gested to

When

'"Sell

homemade sack-

lace.

his

in

the Borinage, living on 'crusts. Vpparentl) as the

conference,

with him. Theo. In

and was

trial

film.

eremained

sult of a famil)

remain on

he lore up his lÂťui

so-

straightforward

out of his comfortable

the begrimed miner-.

"excessive zeal,"

an

had

tO lake the pre-

though the) wen- Gospel.

the COal dust

conspicuous among

in

fie

$10 a month.

the clothing with which his farnilv

lei

nursed

lie

thought

him, replacing it with a secondhand military tunic and a cloth

or like the par-

.

coal on horse-drawn carls

was given

lie

salarv of

as

moved

house and look up lodging floor.

.

and disease. He preached

poor" seemed

to the

it

.

read In- Bible with too literal an eye

New Testament

and give

horn hedg-

had been born. The missionary

lie

impressed;

prcaclicr

unfortunately,

thou hast,

beehive

a

in a stalactite

fires

the opinion ol the missionary society.

cepts ol the

m

school and

hall, -tailed a Bible

found the work lor which in

ciety

t

mile, lo waleli the miners

a

liall

the cells

'"like

the victims of explosions, cave-ins, old

rees,

.

He saw children loading

titions in a crypt." in

.

wenl deep undergrnij nd. almost

lie

i

."

dunghills, ash heaps, slag.

es,

&

great affection lor

heo had alrcad\

I

tin-

V

Cie.

and the only

i-il.

sug-

however, Theo

was obliged to carr) out the family's wishes and presenl Vincent with various helpful idea-.

Might

it

carpenter, bookkeep \

\\ as \

incent nol too loud ol In ing in "idleness"?

not be well to consider sr

a

i

areer as

incent was hard-pressed to reply.

wrote Theo. "that this

what

difficult for

er or later,

art

engraver, perhaps, or

is

"Ma)

I

observe,

me to defend myself, but

vou could not -ee

ii

I

Ii

should be ver) sorrj

differently."

submerged, withdrawing into an obscurit)

I

he subsequentl)

a rather Btrange -ort ol 'idleness ?

is

Borne-

if,

soon-

Soon afterward Vincent

thai

etrated, lie did not write to hi- hrolhcr lor nine

I

a

or baker?

has never been pen-

month-, during which

—

—

he seems sis.

have passed through

to

He remained

ter of four

the Borinage, hut precisely

in

and clothe himself

not

is

know

human

newed, hut

One can

beings.

stay in

to Iced

surfaced again,

in a let-

must not be done

it

.

.

hi- anal-

t

and

in public

is

.

one can also emerge

.

not

is

it

be

.

.

re-

amusing;

at all

to hide oneself. Well, so

is

in

adversity or misfortune it

cri-

how he managed

at last lie

to hirds. so

i>

therefore the onl\ thing to do

When

hen

n. \\

thousand words, he wrote Theo of his withdrawal

ogy: "\\ hat molting time for us

fearsome menial and emotional

a

it."

he emerged from this "'molting time," Vincent's religious

fa-

naticism had disappeared, to be replaced by a burning wrath against the organized Church.

same

must

*"I

There

as with artists.

you

tell

that with evangelists

men who wear

tyrannical, the accumulation of horrors, steel

armor of prejudices and conventions.

Church establishment.

way

to

."

.

.

But

a cuirass, a

in rejecting the

incent only drew closer to the heart of Chris-

know Cod

to

you

like

knowing more about Him:

that

is

something

many

to love

is

— whate\er

friend, a wife,

the

\

way

'"The best

tianity.

the

is

it

an old academic school, often detestable,

is

Love

things.

a

[and] you will be on

what

1

say to myself. But

one must love with a loft) and serious intimate sympathy, with strength, ."

w ith intelligence.

I

t

was during

his decision to

.

his

.

"molting time"

in

the Borinage that Vincent reached

become an artist. He began by making sketches of the

miners and their surroundings, but realized that he was

needof instruction. a

man "would

If

hecould

an established

get

be as one of God's angels to me.

I

artist to

say this in

in

coal-

desperate

help him. such all

seriousness

and without exaggeration." Accordingly he tried to make contact with

someone whose work appealed

him, Jules Breton, a French poet and

to

painter he had met during his days at Coupil's. Breton lived in Courrieres.

many

miles from the Borinage, and Vincent, with only 10 francs in his

pocket, had to in

make the journey on

foot.

He

slept in the

open

"once

air.

an abandoned wagon, which was white with frost the next morning

rather a bad resting place; once in a pile of fagots; and one time that was

where

a little better, in a haystack,

comfortable berth

my

— but

I

succeeded

making

in

more

a rather

then a drizzling rain did not exactly further

well-being."

Upon

reaching Breton's studio,

pearance

to

"a Methodist regularity." ing Breton, and arrived

\

incent was too intimidated by

the building had what

knock on the door

He walked back

\

its

ap-

incent called

to the Borinage without see-

home, he wrote Theo, "overcome by

fatigue,

with sore feet, and quite melancholy." But in the depth of his miser\

he

felt his

energy revive, "and

shall rise again:

I

great discouragement, and

I

said to myself, in spite of everything

up my

will take I

will

pencil,

which

go on with

ment everything has seemed transformed

I

have forsaken

my

drawing.

From

for

me, and

I

will

in

that

I

my mo-

go on."

Theo. as he always would do, offered to help. Although today there are

many

altruists-after-the-fact

unteered their aid they would have as ever

came

if

who imagine

that they too might have vol-

they had only been present, the likelihood

fled at

straggling

the mere sight of Vincent.

down

the highroad of

art.

He was

as

is

poor

that

a risk

A,

.s

a

young man Vincent van Gogh's strongest

The

compulsion was to love and help mankind. The son of a

up

minister, he chose quite naturally to take

he had been successful as an for several years, he might

religion. If

evangelist, as he tried to be

have drawn and painted as a

Eye

hobbv but he almost surely would not have become an artist.

His evangelical mission, however, was a disaster.

anything, he tried too hard. At the age of 25,

Compassionate

If

when he

went out to serve the peasants and coal miners of the Borinage, in southern Belgium, his

and

his

manner was

devotion to Christ's teachings so

so intense, that he

literal,

antagonized his clerical superiors and probablv frightened the people he wanted to help. Although he loved

humanity, he could not communicate with individuals and. at 27, he turned to art to

was

a logical choice.

communicate

for him.

From childhood, he had made

It

little \

sketches

<>l

ferns, flowers

and things around

his

home. He

occasionally illustrated his letters will) rough drawings.

Furthermore,

was

art

a respected

occupation

in his family;

an Gogh's

was

artistic heritage

Dutch. Like the Lowland painters of two centuries earlier, he infused

commonplace scenes

Holland

ol

w ith a ureal sense of their reality

various uncles

and

were

But

(niii

art dealer-.

later his I

he major reason

his

\

an Gogh

mi ted himself to being an artist was that through art

a qualit)

beyond accurac)

tradition

is

drawing al

apparent

.

I

lu-

the

in

reminiscent of a

right

I

he could pour out his feelings. hard

younger brother Theo

life

<Âť|

in this

he could not

the poor Dutch peasant,

compassion

was his wa)

II

to

a

m

at least

alle\ iate the

he could show

draw ingsand paintings. Perhaps this

communion with Cod.

crucible thai his

art

was formed.

In an) case, ,

it

was

landscape b)

Hobbema

in

the figure of a peasant

is

securelj rooted

flat

in

the

countryside as arc the

tall,

trees that line hi- road.

{venue o) Poplars. March

:

which

as

bare

17

-*•<

"/ sometimes flunk there

nothing so delightful

drawing. This .

.

.

is

M

( j

is

(is

a fragment

of a church bench

.

.

I

.

sate in a little church in the

Geest,

where the people from

the workhouse call

go (here they

them very expressit

el)

r

'orphan men and 'orphan

women

uttttmtiit'uiai.iLi/rn frx*A

)."

built,

6-OM^U^v

•"•

" //us

ii

n7,

H atenolol little

s

/

fail e

(/one a /en

»»/ »/ doors, a

cornfield

and

l«ui ol a potato

a small

field,

and

I

^li tt

have also limn n a /en landscapes ns studies

t.

**«^M» Vt*~

.V<

V

»^>,

/<" the

surroundings oj a feu figure limit nigs

These are

/ iiiii

i

e/

1

n/ those figure

topmost a

ceils,

!

planning hast) sketches

limn

ingS.

the burning

I

aii *v^

he

A

t>!

the oihci one, the

/*

I

-it

return from the potato field."

v».,-*

18

I

J

V«M

/

^7

/^v

**»

•»/!

V •'»!«»-

•

e\Ji

*>

VM*.

>

I n his short letters,

life \

an Gogh

\\

rote nearlv a

word.- were not as

thousand

often several a day. Most were written to his

he once wrote

who

brother Theo. possibly the one person

in

understood him. Onlv to Theo could

an Gogh describe

\

the world

the impressions and feelings that boiled within him. letters are extraordinary: literary critics

them

to the

The

ha\e compared

works of the great 19th Century Russian

masters of "confessional"" writing. But even as he was writing so expressively \ an

n

Gogh apparently

<f iÂť<>/\.

yx^u

felt

that

V(A<^l*i

I

\ i\

heo,

id "'I

a- pictures. "Strangel)

almost againsl m\ will."

showed up

in his letters.

Man)

of these -mall sketches

\t lir-t

the) were mostly raw

and amateurish, but by 1885. after working

artist for five years, the)

miniature letters to

art.

jyo

\

an Gogh had been a

had become powerful

Excerpts from some of the later illu-trated

Theo appear here and on the next two

The accompanying caption-

fi**

KlLV Ku^u

enough,"

sometimes make -mall -ketches

*tr+wl *V0M*J

pages.

are \ an Gogh's.

t*.

"

I

he Utile sketch

uhnt

rtl :>

today.

I stiu

/

don't think

enough by the

ilrau

it

it

In

rif>e

as to light

was

indi

lor YOU here. 7 is

.

was

effect, anil

at the bottom little

m\ study

yet. but I

and shade,

.

.

mu

reality, that earth

he one

a ten.

cornfield in the .ml.

ami

u

it'

. behind the cot

two pili glimpse

t>

11/

light sky."

19

e

:m a

heath, and

am up

"I

work.

to

my ears

Today

almshouse

in

the

man again

posed for a thing that suddenly fell

make

before

I

I

had

started

anything

else. I

must

you that

went

to the

I

I

to

tell

visiting

Then

I

day after

all.

sau the small

-^

<

~W»

^

J

him from the window. ell. I

and

go.

could not I

-

c

I

I

fixed on paper

//'"/

t (*v*»*NVli Ks\S*

t

J

v

W

that

can remember.

"/ (AinA a

let

have got as

much of it «.s I

f-V»

I

and hare drawn

gardener,

II

cj.^ ^^;- ^' ^f

„, U^l <^

almshouse again on a

.,

,

i<-

~?

^cl

vo v k

Crv*-i

i

c

,U.f'

fuvv") 5

vimi' people

ho are good obsen

era oj

nature might like (my bird's nests) because "I the ,

olors id the moss, the drj

leal ei

and

the grasses 5

20

; Iu/I.m ,y

.'<

kLl

'••

***•«

« >t

(.<

.

.

c

i

'

—

IbV^ V,

l~*

^^ *-t*A

"I painted a stud)

.

on

.

.

tome

the beach. There are

sea dikes or moles, piers,

and

jellies,

er)

i

picturesque ones, loo,

modi' oj weather-beaten stones

and

vit lion

u ickerwork.

and painted until I

had

m i

it

the rising

came

to

I

on one oj them

it

so

near that

move m\ things

a hurrj

Between the

.

Mage and

the beat h an'

bushes ol n deep bronzed green, tangled b) "

u tnd. ...

streetcar

I

running then- nou

.

one

/c/v

equipment or net

studies to carry

"This path

tin-

it

when

within easy reach

is

t^

so

home.

j sketch}

a

is

of

lo the heath.

\/v

thoughts were with you

during the walk."

all

'

.

\J !j

V

.

t <>

t

|

-

VUs^

"Ifyou hear a

voire

within mhi saying,

'

)ou

are not a iminler.' then

hv

all

and

means

paint, bor.

that voire will be

silenced.

.

.

.

One must

undertake [nor,. confidence, with a certain

assurance thai

doing a reasonable thins, like the

his

farmer who drives

plow, or

like

our friend

who

in

the scratch below,

is

harrowing, and even

lt

one hasn't a horse, one

is

one's

_

21

the

harrow

own

hi-

horse.

r

Peasant "

I n choosing his earlj subjecl matter, Van

scorned the gloss) and the show receptions April

thing and

make

22

in I'ari^." as

IHH."). IkI

he pui

the "Cardinal

\

it.

In a letter to

w role. "Painting peasant

should reproach mj

Gogh

self

il

I

I

life is a

did not

result nl thai feeling In a

s

heo

in

serious

trj

pictures which will arouse serious thoughts,

fne

as

in

Gogh

I88.1

the two figures on these ol straw

emphasized the massive hips, the

as strong as an old tree, the difficult

uncomfortable posture.

to

,

drawing of the woman tying a shea!

(above), \ an

arms

shows

oman Tying a Shea] summer 01

The woodcutter

and at right

tough and weathered as his crumpled pant-.

\

seems an Gogh

The

was intrigued by the clothes of working peasants, for he felt

that their faded

homespun garments were

of their characters; he had no interest in their

"Sunday

,

best.*

even particularize their

human

in

revealing

seeing peasants

In these draw ings he did not faces.

He wanted

to

condition, not portray individuals.

show (heir

Van Gogh was aware ol thewa) these

II

oodcuuer, 1885

attitudes

separated him from his illustrious Dutch predecessors

who had

also

chosen commonplace subjects

lor their

paintings. " The figures in the pictures of the old masters

do not work," he action.

.

.

is

said.

"To draw

a peasant's figure in

the very core of modern art."

23

A,

.fter

pursued all

Van Gogh decided on

it

art as his career,

experience converged. The people in

he

single-mindedly. Basically self-taught, he did

the necessary exercises to perfect his technique and

He drew hundreds of detailed studies, like the hands below. He also applied himself to the disciplines

stvle.

of

still-life

drawing and painting until he could produce

stunningly realistic work, like the basket of potatoes

upper

right.

shapes

is

Van Gogh's control

of textures, tones and

so sure that the inert subject

alive. (Indeed,

one

art critic

at

somehow seems

wrote that the potatoes

'"seem to crawi over each other like blind puppies.") It

was

after five years of

such work that

\

an Gogh

created the masterpiece of his early period. The Potato Eaters

(

Ion er right,

and

this painting, all his

detail on the following pages). In

newly developed technique and

of the

manv

his years as

picture

is

are a composite

an evangelist and

a beginning artist. But the

no generality. In dark, earthen colors he gives

witness to the grim

life

of people to

whom dinner

consists of stabbing at boiled potatoes in a as a stable. In details like the gnarled,

and coarse features, the tenderness

but thoroughly

human

attests to a

reality. In years to

Gogh's subjects would change

room

as

crude

work-worn hands

in the eves of the girl

and the glow of orange lamplight, he

come.

harsh \

an

— he would seldom again

paint such graphic descriptions of the peasant's and the

workingman's sorrv still lifes

state.

But even

in his landscapes,

and portraits he would demonstrate

his

continuing dedication to a heightened expression of

Stud) ÂŤl Three Hands,

2\

it

peasants he had seen so compassionately in

Two Holding a

Fork, January-Februar)

life.

l<SH.">

Still Life

with Potatoes,

September 1885

The Potato Paters. April-Ma

"'

-J

»r

%

*

\-

>

d^

&M

1»H

II

A

Mission in Art

Having decided

at

come an

Van Gogh established

art ist.

long

He

of a Borinage coal miner. ther and I

commenced

at

last

that his mission in

27

jiaid

The Hague the manager

Goupil

of

in

the cottage

the rent w ith .-mail .-urn- sent b) hi-

From

-

him

to

branch

was actuall)

his '"studio""

miner'- children

textbooks on anat-

office -cut

bedroom

became apparent

it

other lodgings. Theo suggested that

work outdoors. With

that he

incent join

\

dim and

thai he shared with the

that he was often obliged to

autumn

the onset of

a

la-

Pari-.

study and copy, and from

perspective. But Vincent soon found his quarters so

cramped

to be-

life v\as

"studio"

fir-i

his education in a "rage of work."

'heo forwarded -heave- ol prints for

omy and

his

would have

him

in Paris,

to

find

but

\ in-

cent seems to have been reluctant to venture into what was then the center of the art world. Instead, in the fall of 1880. he

and mov ed into the cheapest hotel he could "\lv chief food,"

to Brussels

he wrote Theo, "is dr) bread and some potatoes or

chestnuts which people to his diet

went

find.

-ell

here on the street corner-.

may have merely been intended

not living in luxurv. hut

it

is

to assure

he reference

I

Theo

worth note. During mo-t of

that he

was

hi- adult life

Vincent was severely undernourished. Even when he had mone) lor food, he preferred to spend \

an Gogh painted (hi-

Pari-

from

a

apartment he -hand w the

iew of

\

window of the

Montmartre

se<

ith

tion oi

heo

I

i

he

in

cil

that he had ""lived mainly for four dav itablv

He ma) have

.

suffered

liluc

which he had studied

war. The red shutters,

rooftops, pale yellow buildings

gray-green -k\ hues mark a

Dutch

palette

brilliant color-

and

In- 'lark

foretell the

\

ii-ii

acrou

Room.

incent remained

in

for in his earlv thirties his teeth to

wear

n.

per-

to

Theo. At the time

in

the reorganization

I

ol

began

to

a false set.

Brussels during the winter of 1880-1881.

boriously struggling with his draftsmanship and reporting hiheo. a rising

la-

pr<'_

young businessman, was involved

Goupil's Pari- Âťallerv and failed to answer

cent'- letter- by return post. \ incent after several

\ in-

months became angT)

of his future work.

Paris, from

Paris, 1887

I

incent's

must -av.

he wrote,

""it

accountable that you have not w riiten

me

on mv arrival here. ... In thinking

ol

and I

dow

f.

Seurat's

permanent departure from

re-

on 23 cups of coffee,"

-

from one of the vitamin-deficiency diseases

haps a mild form of pellagra

atnl

He once

despite his powerful constitution, his health broke

break off and he was obliged

Pointilli -m.

art supplies.

marked

-how- the influence

•luring the

on models and

and inev

Hi- use ol -liorl liru-h strol ol

it

spiteful.

"'I

seems rather strange and un-nice the one letter

vou.

I

I

received

unconsciousl) ask mv-

2Q

W

self.

hv doesn't he write?

sition w

it

this

if

ed until

I

afraid of

is

by keeping

in

compromising himself touch with

me — is his

h those gentlemen so shaky and unstable that he

be so careful? Or

But

he

If

& Cie.

the eves of Messrs. Goupil

that he

is it

afraid that

is

was the reason for your

you might

silence,

at least

something out of you, as the saying

tried to squeeze

obliged to

is

ask him for

will

I

in

po-

money?

have waitgoes.*'

Theo did not reply in kind, and within a month the truth emerged. The money ostensibly coming from home was actuallv being supplied bv Theo. "I hear from Father."' wrote

vou have been sending me money

ing

it

mv

heartfelt thanks.

firmly believe

I

you

for a long time. will

mv know-

"that w ithout

\ incent.

not regret

.

it."'

.

Accept

.

\ incent's

gratitude and his agonized sense of dependence on his brother were later a

constant theme in his

letters.

him, and he lashed out bitterly

at

Occasionally the dependence galled

the mild, hard-working Theo. But in

time he reached the view that his brother should receive partial credit for his paintings, as

though he had shared

in their creation.

And when

incent committed suicide, one of the precipitating factors seems to

\

have been

he had somehow

his feeling that

Theo. and could no

failed

longer accept his support.

In

Brussels, through an introduction supplied by Theo. \ incent

the acquaintance of a wealthy

pard. an amiable but insignificant artist. \ an Rappard was at

by

\ incent,

the so

fields,

who was

and

startled

first

inclined to stop and stare at peasants laboring in

to shout.

"How

shall

I

ever manage to paint what

I

love

much?" But \ an Rappard soon realized that he was dealing with an exman and offered such help as he could although his

—

traordinary

teaching was limited largely to fundamentals.

other artists and

at

was

\ incent. in fact,

es-

Even though he occasionally sought help from

sentially self-taught.

times even attended formal art classes, he could

ne\ er abide for long the discipline of established authority. This to

made

young painter named Anton van Rap-

implv that he was a "primitive.*"

On

is

not

the contrary, the distortions in

perspective and the exuberance of color in his mature paintings are not in

the least inadvertent: they are the exquisitely calculated departures

from long-accepted ideas of a man solidly grounded Despite Theo's help.

proved

to be too great.

In

his parents'

"I

am

house

\

incent's

living

To save money he decided

at

in his cralt.

expenses to

willing to give in about dress or anything else to suit

because relativel) few people know win an

But

in

general, he

spots or figures

of \ i

Brussels soon

Etten, but he was uncertain of his reception.

wrote Theo. Even so, he expected to be misjudged: it,

in

spend the summer

who searches

all

*'I

art

i>t

\

kinds of places to find picturesque

I

is

accused

illainies thai have never entered his head.

peasant

here for an hour, thinks

lor

acts as he does.

holes and corners that another passes b\

many had intentions and who sees me draw an

them," he

blame no one

old tree trunk, and sees

have gone mad and

.

.

.

Iaugh>

at

me

sitting

me." Nev-

ertheless in \pril 1881. a lew weeks alter his 28th birthday, he went to

Etten w \t

ith

firsl

modest hopes. all

went well, and

the ferocious energ) thai

:ÂŤ)

\

mcenl hurled himsell

marked

into his

his entire career. "I

work with

have drawn

five

.

man

times over a

twice.

on

tatoes; a shepherd leaning less before nature, as

Among

slow.

...

with a spade

broom

twice, a girl with a

Then

positions, a sower

different

in

woman in a white cap, peeling po... now no longer stand help-

a

his staff.

I

used to do." Nevertheless, his progress was

I

the drawings from this period one of the most memorable

that of The

Sower

— memorable not

but for

its

air of im-

minent explosion. The wooden-shoed peasant, his head too

large, his

is

arms too short, and on

major

angry desperation, seems

motion of spastic convulsion.

in a

of The Sower doubtless

came

Vincent from one of his

to

Jean-Francois Millet. But unlike the French paint-

artistic idols,

who ennobled and

er,

its skill,

his face a look of

about to scatter his apronful of seed

The theme

for

sentimentalized peasant labor, Vincent was already

groping toward an expression of kinship, anger and ruthless reality that Millet never attained. In the

tures like

it

hope that The Sower and other

pic-

might be salable, Vincent around this time indulged in one

of his few small vanities

— he signed some of his drawings "Atelier Vin-

cent." But he soon enough found out that there was no market for pictures of peasants that were not, as he put

Vincent had been

home

it,

for only a few

the second of his catastrophic affairs with ferred to her only as Kee.

Her

women.

In his letters he re-

name was Kee Vos and she was his Amsterdam preacher named Jan Striek-

full

cousin, the daughter of an

first

"perfumed."

months when there occurred

Recently widowed, accompanied by her four-year-old son, she had

er.

come rale.

to

spend a vacation

Vincent soon

by befriending her centric relative.

Van Gogh parsonage

in the

deeply in love with her.

fell

little

When

boy, and

Kee came

to recover her

He courted

to regard

him

mo-

her obliquely

as a gentle, ec-

he suddenly announced his passion for her, she

was dumfounded. No doubt

in the belief that

reply she could give him, she told

him

it

was the most charitable

that she never intended to

marry again. But Vincent could not accept

this,

and pressed

his case

with such frightening intensity that Kee in a panic cried out, "No, never, never!"

\

an Gogh's second disastrous

heart

was with Kee

Etten

in

that she

1881.

\ os,

Kee had

a

affair of the

widow he met

so loved her

in

husband

was overcome with unci when he

died. \ incent's effort:- to

amuse her young -on

while she was mourning touched her. but -he

V,incent

was quite unprepared

refused to believe that the "No, never, never!" was

He would,

with anatomizations of love.

filled

he wrote, clasp Kee to his breast as though she were a block of melt her, "for love as impossible for

own

for his ardent ad\ an> es.

Kee \ .."He was so kind to my little bo) said. "He fancied that he loved me." \\ hen .

His letters to Theo were

his

final.

is

something so positive, so strong, so

one who loves

Kee, for her part,

life."

her, refused to

open any of

tration against his parents.

\

incenl blurted out his feelings to the ÂŤ idon

real that it is

it

fled

home

to her parents.

is

to take

Amsterdam and, when he wrote

his letters. Vincent then turned his frus-

"As you know," he wrote Theo, "Father

and Mother on one side and

must be done or not done

fled to

and

Kee

back that feeling as

to take

ice,

I

on the other do not agree about what

in regard to a certain 'no, never,

never/

Well, after hearing the rather strong expressions 'indelicate' and 'untimely' for called

some time

(just

imagine that you were

in love

and they

your love indelicate, would you not have proudly resented

said, Stop!),

I

used any more.

Theo

it

and

emphatically requested that these expressions not be .

.

.

Now

they say

I

am

"breaking family

tried to discourage Vincent, without success.

love, Vincent solicited the help of his

ties."

Bursting with

covey of aunts and uncles, but suc-

31

ceeded only

in

alarming them. At length Theo sent him the money for

Amsterdam and Vincent journeyed there to confront the frightened young widow. Her parents do not seem to have been equipped to cope with the visitation, and Kee was even less so. Hearing or glimpsa ticket to

ing \ incent as he appeared at the front door, she dashed out the back

one.

\^

hat followed

the subject do not

is

not wholly clear: Vincent's existing letters on the whole story. Apparently he insisted on see-

tell

when he was told that this was impossible, thrust his hand demanding to speak to her for only so long as

ing Kee, and

into the flame of a lamp,

he could endure the pain. Horrified, the Strickers blew out the lamp,

and Vincent may have fainted erything became a blank."

\S

most

that rings so true to life that

cent in charge.

^

ith

—

at all

events, he later told Theo. "ev-

hen he came

Kee's parents,

to,

fiction writers

would

reject

in a gesture it.

took V

in-

every reason to fear and dislike him. they insisted

on finding him good lodgings. "And. dear me. those two old people went with me through the cold, foggy, muddv streets and they did

me

deed show

R

.ee's rejection of

him only increased

warmth and companionship. to the

depths of

my

"I

.

.

.

felt

V

soul," he wrote Theo.

through and through,

"And

I

did not want to be

was

illogical,

Kee and no

in

other, but

view of his vehement insistence

"W

He admitted

ho

will

not live without love.

go to a woman, otherwise

I

I

upon having

the master, the logic or I?" In any

is

do otherwise. "I need a woman.

case, he said, he could not

am

he de-

to Etten.

toured briefly to The Hague and found himself a prostitute. it

human

incents desire for

chilled

stunned by that feeling." Instead of returning directly

that

in-

a very good, cheap inn."

man and

a

man

a

I

cannot.

with passions.

shall freeze or turn to stone."

W

I

must

I

hen he got

back to Etten he remained for only a short time. The misunderstandings

and quarrels with

his father

break off relations and

to

became more frequent. Soon he resolved

move

to

The Hague, where he might stud) who had marMauve to guide him he could learn

with Anton Mauve, a prominent Dutch painter of the dav

one of

ried

incents cousins.

\

more about

arl

in

a

country parsonage. His de-

he chose Christmas Dav to denounce the organized

parture was bitter

Church

V^ ith

than he ever could

to his father, saving "straight out that

I

considered the whole

system abominable."

Theo was shocked. He thought Vincent's decision to settle in The bul could not approve the manner of his going.

Hague sensible enough, He wrote

\

incent a blistering letter: "That you could not bear

any longer

is

have lived

all

modern

with

possible,

and

thai

you

differ in

not unnatural: but.

life is

opinion with people

and have not come

their lives in the country

confound

it.

in

in that

wax?"

\

who

contacl

what made \ou so

childish and impudenl as to embitter and -pod Father's and life

there

it

incent replied in a long, defensive essaj

he admitted thai Ins "diplomacy" had been swepl awa\

in

Mothers in

which

the heal

ol

moment. \s to a reconciliation with his lather, he merel) sent the old man a \ew Year's greeting in which In- said thai lie hoped the) would have no more trouble in the next months. i

In

'2

I

\t

32

lust

Mauve was sympathetic

to \ incent.

He gave him some

paints

and brushes, helped him

up

to set

introduced him into an

a studio,

art-

association where he could draw from models, and was generous

ists'

with technical advice. But Mauve, although he was a skilled and sen-

whose work was distinguished

sitive painter

for its delicate color, could

not long abide so unorthodox a pupil as Vincent.

and advised him

cent's drawings

to practice

Vincent responded by smashing the casts

casts.

claiming that

was

it

life

him

to see

for

in a

coalbox and pro-

Mauve

he would be too busy

\ incent

two months.

of his art-dealing uncles, Cornelius van Gogh, visited him and

bought a few of

his

He promised

to

buy more

able subjects

—

same

offer.

drawings for the equivalent of one dollar apiece. if

\

incent would only concentrate on sal-

branch of Goupil's came to him with much the

local

Vincent

work did not

tried, but the

him

interest

in

the

and he was very soon attacking these men as unfeeling creatures

least

with no conception of true

He was

art.

right, but his inflexible prin-

brought him only posthumous benefits and paid no rent and

ciples

purchased no bread or coffee

modern

saint,

mind

in this world.

and the idea may not be too

Vincent has been called a far off the

mark

men who

own martyrdom.

an Gogh's view of his profession, which he formulated in fact a saintly one. "I

want you

ception of art.*" he wrote Theo. "\X hat difficult,

— bearing

that saints are frequently unbending, infuriating

invite their

was

The

pretty views of tourist attractions, for instance.

manager of the

V

m-

\

incents experience with other would-be benefactors was similar.

One

in

he criticized

he wanted to draw, not cold plaster. To

such behavior was unacceptable; he told

\

When

by sketching from plaster

and yet

I

do not think

I

want and aim

aim too high.

I

which touch some people. ... In either

in

The Hague,

mv

understand clearlv

to

at is

want

I

con-

confoundedly

to

do drawings

figure or landscape

I

should

wish to express, not sentimental melancholy, but serious sorrow. ...

want

to progress so far that people will say of

he feels tenderly

even because of

— notwithstanding

it.

.

.

.

What am

or an eccentric and disagreeable in society

well

.

.

.

and never

then

I

I

in

my

work, he feels deeply,

so-called roughness, perhaps

most people's eyes? A nonentity,

man — somebodv who

my work

to

show what

such an eccentric, of such a nobody. This

founded

less

is

my

on anger than on

has no position

Mauve and Uncle Cornelius and

is

in

the heart of

ambition, which

is.

in

made

this charcoal

rejected him.

ith

preachments of

years. cigars,

lo\ e.

Her name was Christien

goaded

\

incent to Haunt his contempt for

and outward form." But alter a \ear and

it.

for a mother.

in coarse,

the countryside: -he returned to a brothel.

Unfor-

The Hague.

her profession for about 15

raucous accents and had

She had already borne one

a

to alcohol,

smoked

scheming procuress

illegitimate child,

a hall.

an Gogh and Sien parted: he went to paint

— nicknamed Sien

Smallpox had pitted her face; she was addicted spoke

("Bad connections

often arise from a feeling of loneliness") onl\

accounts she would have struck fear into the heart of a drunkin

nj;

gonorrhea. \nd the

his father

the branch manager of Goupil's

en stevedore. She was 30, and had been

1

an Gogh rhapsodized Sien to hi- brother,

\

Vincent had resumed his contact with the prostitute he had sought out

all

draw

people "w ho attach importance to refinement

had seen this side of Vincent they might have understood

when Kee had

an Gosh found

mistress and her 11 -year-old daughter.

pregnant, he w

tunately they saw something else. Soon after his arrival in

and by

\

even when hoth were hospitalized, -he

in

f

him.

\ os rejected

sprins of 1883 he ot In-

\

I

Kee

solace with a streetwalker called Sien. In the

will have, in short, the lowest of the low. \ erv

should want

spite of everything,

my

After I

was preg-

nant with another, and appears to have had gonorrhea into the bargain.

33

Vincent made several studies of her with the

— the most arresting

a lithograph

is

written boldly on the page.

title Sorroic

Although he informed Theo that he had found some inexpensive models

— the prostitute, her mother and her daughter, aged about 11 — Vin-

cent did not at

reveal the nature of his relationship with them.

first

may have

This lack of candor, exceedingly rare in his

letters,

from Vincent's anxiety not to lose his only

life line

(about $20) a

month

Theo

that

sent

him from

derestimated Theo. At length, however,

— the

100 francs

Paris. If so, Vincent un-

became necessarv

it

arisen

to bring

the affair to light. Vlauve, Uncle Cornelius and others

knew about

and were accusing Vincent of "betraying"'

and

"You have

class:

Aware

his family

Mauve.

a vicious character," said

word would soon reach Theo, Vincent

that

it,

his social

seized the ini-

"Which is more delicate, refined, manly," he wrote his brother, "to desert a woman or to stand by a forsaken woman? Last winter I met a pregnant woman, deserted by the man whose child she carried. A pregnant woman who had to walk the streets in winter, had to earn her tiative.

bread, you understand how. ...

model, but that did not prevent far

I

have been able

my own

by sharing

could not pay her the

I

my

paying her rent, and thank God, so

and her child from hunger and cold

to protect her

bread with her. ...

seems

It

worth a straw would have done the same

woman

now attached to me marrv once, and how can do is

I

to help her; otherwise

which end

wages of a

full

like a

in

me

to

my

tame dove. For

better than

that every

such a case.

marry her?

part,

It is

.

.

.

man The

can only

I

the only

way

misery would force her back into her old ways,

in a precipice."

Theo argued strongly against the marriage, but Vincent insisted on it to wed Sien as soon as her baby was born. However, sev-

and planned eral

weeks before the child arrived,

to be treated for

again,

and although

in a sparsely

his

her.

gonorrhea. in

It

himself entered the hospital

\ incent

was months before he was wholly well

time he did

install

Sien and her child

— a boy

furnished apartment, and wrote rapturously to Theo of

"house" and

his "family." he

never took the

final step

Perhaps Theo's arguments had begun to take

of marrying

perhaps

effect:

cent himself had begun to see the difficulties of marriage with a

whose conversation

did not extend

though he continued peared

M to

much beyond oaths. In any case, almany months, her name ap-

to live with Sien for

in his letters less

and

less

.eanwhile he continued

to

frequcnth

.

make progress with

izontal,

one

a

vertical

ening

to

render spatial effects

more convincingly. "The

lines ol

.)

to

pa)

Placing

made

one hor-

ii

Ubrecht t

he frame

easier tor

"'like

and gutters now come

arrows from

serious heed to experiments

spoke of these more eloquently than artists ordinarily do.

34

it.

perspective and foreshort-

lines ol roofs

shooting forth powerfully," he wrote,

was also beginning

help him mas-

and two diagonal. (The idea was not new

before Ins subject and sighting through the threadincent

to

frame with four threads stretched across

Diirer had used a similar frame in the loth Centur)

\

his art. In a letter

Theo he described an ingenious device he was using

ter perspective

\ in-

woman

a

how.

in oil,

He

and he

—

"In the woods, yesterday toward evening," he wrote Theo. "I was

busy painting

a rather sloping

ground was

leaves. This

ground covered with dry. moldered beech

light

and dark reddish-brown, made more so

by the shadows of trees casting more or

less

dark streaks over

it,

some-

—

The problem was and I found it very difficult to get the depth of color, the enormous force and solidity of that ground and while painting it I perceived for the very first time how much times half blotted out.

—

light there still

brownish-red

was

soil,

in that dusk. is

.

.

.

Behind those saplings, behind that

a sky very delicate, bluish-gray,

... A few

warm, hardlv

wood gatherers are wandering around like dark masses of mysterious shadows. The white cap of a woman bending to reach a dry branch stands out suddenly. ... A skirt catches the light. ... A white bonnet, a cap, a shoulder, the bust of a blue,

aglow.

all

woman molds poetry.

.

.

itself against

the sky. Those figures are large and

it

I

said to myself,

something of an autumn evening

in

I

must not go away before there

it,

thing serious. But as this effect does not

The

figures

brush.

It

of

full

.

"\& hile painting is

figures of

were put

struck

in at

me how

ed in the ground.

something mysterious, somelast,

I

had to paint quickly.

once with a few strong strokes of a firm

sturdily those

little

[sapling]

stems were root-

began painting them with a brush, but because the

I

surface was already so heavily covered, a brush stroke was lost in

it

squeezed the roots and trunks in from the tube, and modeled

then

I

little

with the brush. Yes

strongly rooted in

it.

... In

a certain I

way

I

am

glad that

I

it

a

have not ef-

as

an aid to composition (belou

meadows one can look through

was Vincent's

it

he drew

letter,

his

(below, right).

a

like a

diagram of the waj

"You

will

understand that

limited mvself to the simple color-,

instinct, in his haste to get great quantities of paint

I

he

Prussian blue. Naples yellow, -ienna. black I

refrained from cho

'nice' colors. ...

work

palette with healthy colors."

is

often so thick that the paintings, in profile, seem

1

believe thi-

is

a practical

)

Tv*4>-*-A

I

used

"In the

pigments on the palette

onto the canvas, to squeeze colors directly from the tube. In his later impasto

it

).

enables one to draw quick as lightning." In

another

and white. ...

his

left

.

frarii'-.

lie

wrote, "ocher (red-yellow-brown), cobalt and

fects as this." It

an Coati described

rigged with four taut string.-, which

he arranged

might have learned to pass by such

\

wooden "perspective

window. Long and continuous practice with

— now they stand there rising from the ground,

learned painting, because then

In a letter to In- brother, his design for a

JUJ.. «-« v^-J

... ^i-A^v-j,j tA,

p»,

'

\

an Gogh drew this view of his family's home

in

Nuenen

after he returned to live w ith his

The laundry room he was

parents in 1883.

using as a -tudio

had put a stove

is

in

at

it

the right. His parents

and had covered the stone

floor with planks to protect

him from the

winter damp. They even talked of cutting a large

window

lighter this

and

in

one wall

airier.

done and

a studio of his

it

But

to

make the room

\ incent did not

want

was not long before he found

own elsewhere

in

Nuenen.

like

topographical studies, the ridges of pigment rising almost half an

inch above the surface. vases in prodigious

these

little

And

when he produced

in his last years,

numbers and thev were stacked together

can-

for storage,

mountaintops of paint were sometimes accidentally flattened

where parts of one painting had pressed down on the face of the one below.

Although to

\

incents description of the evening scene shows his

cope with color

the fact

is

effort

— the dusk, the brownish-red earth, bluish-grav sk)

that his earlv color

harmonics were

all

subdued,

the man-

in

ner of the standard dark Dutch palette of his time. There was nothing in

Holland to compare with the

colorism ot the French Im-

brilliant

pressionists. Vincent, thinking himself daring, spoke of being unafraid

"of a bright green or a soft blue." but then denied this boldness by

marking that "there

is

scarcely any color that

low-gray, green-grav. bluc-grav. This

is

not grav: red-grav.

re\

el-

the substance of the whole color

is

scheme.'" In a short time he would think otherwise.

Despite the strides he made in his

relationship with Sien.

in his

work.

He would

not

\

incent remained trapped

abandon her

she and her

children were indeed his family, and beyond that were the symbols poor, helpless

human it)

on

whom

saints have their difficult side, \

to 150 francs,

tervals in the

and had begun

hope

that

good stead) job

in a

to

send

it

in

installments

Vincent might manage

enough. Sien's mother began

if

so do the poor. Sien wanted more than

\lthough Theo had increased his monthl)

incent could provide,

pend

ot

he could not turn his hack. Hut

to

it

better,

pressure her to leave

bordello.

There was

when

-lie

it

lie

ha- never

asked, lb- blamed himself lor tailing to uplift her

was not

incent and gel a

a briel tug-of-war

Sien's mother and \ incent: he lost. Nevertheless,

fend Sien. '"How can she he good

\

sti-

10-da) in-

at

between

continued

to i\c-

known good? he he had somehow

been inadequate. Iii

the up- Ik it he decided to leave

The Hague and go to Drenthe, a prov-

ince in the peat-bog region of northern Holland

;,,

where he

felt

he might

"This garden

sets

me dreaming,

incenl

\

wrote from the Nuenen parsonage 188

ami

1.

shows

m

In- feeling for the family

this

most

in

ol his

March

home

drawing oi the "round-,

background -land? Nuenen landmark

in

the

-

in the

old tower, a

little village. \

incent -pent

da\- making such sketches

surroundings and the village

folk.

ol his

He dined

with his family, but during meals he would often crouch in a corner w

ith his plate

balanced on hi> knee-, -taring silent!)

draw ing he had propped on

deepen his

art

bv drawing closer to the peasants and the earth. Before

his departure he gave Sien the only gift he could

— a piece of painter's

canvas from which to make clothing for her children. He also wrote

Theo.

in a matter-of-fact

of survival and thought that he might years, he estimated the

curate.

He had

.

.

number "between

—

I

debtedness and duty toward

it

because

ty years, and. out of gratitude,

shape of drawings or pictures

want

— not

human

but to express a sincere

art.

six

and

much whether

don't care

The world concerns me onlv

.

own chances

little

while. As to

and he was

ten,*'

ac-

seven. "I do not intend to spare mvself. nor to avoid emo-

tions or difficulties time.

count on a

still

to

his

manner, that he had estimated

He was

live a I

longer or shorter feel a certain in-

have walked this earth for to leave

made

some souvenir

thir-

in the

to please a certain taste in

feeling."

His sojourn in Drenthe was brief tably productive.

I

I

insofar as

— only

two months

— and

not no-

tortured by guilt for having ""abandoned"

Sien, he lacked painting materials, and he found the peasants unwilling to

pose for him. Late in 1883 he decided to make one more attempt to with his parents. His father

live

despite

all

past quarrels,

spent his limited funds to

at

the time was serving

in

Nuenen, and

was more than willing to take him

make

a small studio for \ incent in an

in

— he

unused

laundry room. The quarrels of course resumed, but a kind of armed truce was established, and \ incent worked furiously on landscapes, still lifes

cal

and pictures of the Nuenen peasants

weavers

their

in their cottages,

who seemed

heavy looms, but victims caught

in

to

to "soft [green] soap

still

and the brass color of

dark a

of the lo-

to be in control of

spiderwebs or

quisitional devices of torture. His colors were

them

— particularly

him not

in bizarre, In-

— he compared

worn-out 10-cen-

time piece." In

March 1885,

in a letter to

Theo. Pastor van Gogh spoke of an-

other of his failed attempts to establish communication with

and added philosophically. "May he meet with success no matter what."

Two

davs

later,

in

\

incent.

something,

returning from a long walk, the pas-

37

a chair.

at a

tor collapsed at his front door and died.

not pretend what he did not

and went on

briefest of terms,

He was

63. Vincent,

who could

referred to his father's death in the

feel,

to tell

Theo

of his plans to start a com-

position of "those peasants around a dish of potatoes in the evening."

"Those peasants" was a subject

that stirred Vincent deeply; a worn-

out, conservative preacher, fallen dead

only the pathetic, not the tragic

on

his doorstep, represented

— what Vincent had earlier called "sen-

timental melancholy" as opposed to "serious sorrow."

The Potato Eaters (pages 25-27) "masterpiece"

— whatever

is

ordinarily called \ an Gogh's

word may now mean.

that threadbare

first

It

the statement and the indictment toward which he had been tending his life, to

and

his

own comments

is

all

best describe his intent: "I have tried

emphasize that these people, eating their potatoes

have dug the earth with those very hands they put

in the lamplight,

in the dish,

and so

it

how thev have honestly earned their food. the impression of a way of life quite different

speaks of manual labor, and "I have

wanted

from that of us eryone to

like

to give

civilized people.

or admire

it

a conventional

is

con, smoke, potato steam

—

all right,

There are no references

at

it

is

once a vision of

and an accusation; ilized

people"

who

anxious for ev-

am convinced

I

roughness than by giving

—

all

.

.

.

If a

a ladv, in her dustv.

peasant picture smells of ba-

right, that's not

unhealthy;

that belongs to a stable;

odor of ripe corn or potatoes or of guano or manure

tato Eaters, yet

at all

personally

more beautiful than

patched blue skirt and bodice.

dung

I

in their

not

charm.

"I think a peasant girl

smells of

am

I

once. ...

at

by painting them

get better results

them

it

Therefore

to religion in Vincent's

a religious painting of the a

sacrament

it is

if

the

if

a stable

field

has an

— that's healthv.'"

remarks about The Po-

most powerful

sort. It

— the communion of those who

is

toil

among "us civhuman degradation. Although

intended to arouse guilt and wrath

tolerate, or profit from,

he never put his political views into a formal statement. \ incent was a

man

In the tir^t

seven months of 18H1.

did 10 paintings

watercolors

seemed

|>ii

loom

enmeshed their

m\ stud) next

i

b) a

man who

draftsm inship,

would

men who

weavers

worked inside

the)

you

ol

literally

\

an

Gogh

and 17 drawings and

to

in their

him

to

looms as

gloom) cottages. t

"II

he draw ing of a

specializes in

Van Gogh wrote, "m\ work

shorn thai the oak ol the

loom

hail

become ding} and aged-looking from sweat) hands.

mine

.

Compare

.

weavers

-till

w iih a real loom and

it

creak more!

will

The miners and

other laborers and artisans, and ^\

mpath)

almost

a

the

constitute a ran' apart from

for

I

feel a great

them. With his dream)

sleepwalker

:w

that

is

air

.

.

the weaver."

of the

left,

deeply

moved by

the novels of Emile Zola and \ ictor

a

Hugo and by his own observations in the slums, the coal mines and peasOne of his lifelong dreams was to establish a commune of art-

ant hovels.

where painters could share their

ists

commune

He

theory.

homes print

having more

and their fortunes

lives

to

also proposed a plan for bringing fine

works of

more than

of the poor, through lithographs, at no

— and

—

do with early Christianity than with Marxist art into the

a few cents a

he saw this not as a commercial enterprise, but as a duty.

Art for him had primarily a social function, although to be sure

it

was

which he could plead for the love that was oth-

also the only language in

erwise denied him.

E,

months

light

He went

return.

Holland, never to

remembered him

as a

in

formal art

country clod who dressed

rough peasant clothes and used a board from a packing crate for a

When

ette. I

left

Antwerp, where he again enrolled

to

classes. His fellow pupils in

Vincent

after his father's death first

am

him

his instructors asked

He

Vincent, a Dutchman."

yond the reinforcement of

name, he replied simply "Well,

his

derived very

little

conviction

that

his

pal-

from

his classes be-

academies are an

abomination. The principal benefit of his three-month sojourn in Ant-

werp was an increased exposure thought about

Van Gogh, who was soon was by no means oblivious period.

He was

er Delacroix

more accurately, increased

to color, or,

it.

to be the

most intense colorist of

his time,

to the possibilities of color during his

Dutch

familiar with the color theories of the great French paint-

and seems even by

this period to

have begun

to

develop

the almost mystical ideas about color that are reflected in his late

He

art.

sensed that color has meaning that transcends mere visual impres-

— indeed

sions. Yellow, red, blue

that lies

may be

beyond the reach of is

complex matter

a

not yet penetrated, but

it

any color

— can

rationality. Precisely

that scientists

is

a

it,

what the connotation

and cultural historians have

commonplace

are interrelated; without thinking of

connote something

that colors

and emotions

one speaks of a red

rage, a blue

mood, or being green with envy. Vincent himself, before he land,

went so

far as to relate colors

piano lessons. "Prussian blue!" or

and music

left

Hol-

— and even took a few

"Chrome yellow!" he would

cry as

he struck a chord, no doubt alarming the piano teacher, although he

was merely experimenting with

a

phenomenon

that artists

and musicians

have always known about. In Antwerp Vincent studied the bright colors of Rubens in the mu-

seums and

in the city's

and emerald green

own paintings cadmium vellow

churches, and was impressed. His

began to take on lighter tones, and he added to his palette. After a

scarlet,

few months he seems to have

sensed that his art was about to undergo a great change, and that he

was

at last

ready to go to Paris.

He

suggested the idea to Theo.

apprehensive and tried to discourage him.

February 1886 Theo was handed cent was waiting for

him

who was

was no use. One dav

scrawled

in the magnificent

in

in

black chalk; Vin-

Salon Carre of the Louvre,

— Leonardos, Rembrandts and that best in the realm of painting — confronted one another. Would Theo

where the wonders of the world is

a note

It

please meet

all

him there?

39

Wh.hen morning

\

an Gogh arrived

in 1886.

on a brisk February

in Paris,

The Impact

he was eager to learn and ready to be

stimulated by new experiences. Paris in that year was the place to be. literature,

the

first

The

citv

bubbled with innovations

in science,

music and. most excitingly perhaps,

time. \ an

Gogh was exposed

to the

in art.

of Paris

For

world of

Manet. Degas. Cezanne, the Impressionists, the Pointillists. the Symbolists.

else of interest

Japanese

around town that

incent nevertheless

—and everything

his brother

vounsart leaders could show him. \

art

Still

Theo and the

shy and reclusive.

became friendly with

Pissarro.

Ioulouse-Lautrec. Signac. Gauguin and other avant-garde painter>.

examining their work and their ideas intently. In \ incent's portrait, the art

\t

his easel, he filtered all his sensations

through

his

supply dealer Pere Tanguy, painted in deep blues and brow n?.

vibrant brush. In two vears he went through a complete

metamorphosi> as a painter. He had described himself as

a

sits

asainst a bold background

composed mostl)

"shagg) don" when he was

in

Holland doing the somber

Potato Eaters; in Paris he turned into what one critic has called a "singing bird." Brightness

and lightness flooded

ol \

an Gogh

s

copies of Japanese \%nrk-. \ an

Gogh's affectionate portrayal also include- a touch ol whimsy.

Although the kind Tangu) his

work. He painted serene cafe interiors and breeze-

swepl landscapes.

were replaced himself at

b)

rest.

he dark figures

I

\ i\

The

world did nut alter

\

id

"I

Pan-

10

trait-,

work

at

close-ups of friend- (right

t

and of

ol

unrecognized

and stimulation of Pan-'

an Gogh's basic personalit)

and he kept them

:

art

he had

and disturbing

all

through

liberated In- massive creative power.

In- life. Hut

arti-ts.

apparent!} his wife did not appreciate the fact that most ol

them owed him mone) gaiet)

arrived from Holland with eccentric

character

laborers

champion

erupting volcano

above

direct!)

be \

ai

In-

.

The

the painting

head

is

-an! to

rnmenl on

'

Tanguy's married

IfCUV.

in

1887

life.

41

V_^oming from Holland, where less to traditional

looking

techniques,

at pictures like these.

painters

Van Gogh

New

still

confined themselves more or

in Paris

suddenly found himself

through Theo's descriptions now became excitingly quite familiar with most of the paintings art dealer,

known only He probably became

painting styles that he had

shown

real.

here. Theo, a forward-looking

had already begun collecting "modern" works. At one time he

owned many

— those by Manet, Seurat, Gauguin, — and Vincent lived surrounded by

of the pictures in this group

Toulouse-Lautrec and Emile Bernard

them when he shared Theo's apartment. Also

close at

hand were the

galleries

where the Impressionists held their exhibitions; equally accessible was Pere Tanguy's shop, where many pictures, including the Cezanne shown here,

were for artists,

sale.

As he became a member of the group of progressive young

Vincent not only observed

sometimes joined them

many

of

them

at

work

in their studios but

in painting expeditions out of doors.

Edouard Manet

Paul Cezanne: Mill on the Couleure near Ponloise.c. 1881

Georges Seurat:

12

I

Cafi-Concert, 1887

:

Portrait, c.

Edgar Degas: After the Bath.

Claude Monet:

I

c.

1880

1885

Field of Poppies, 1873

Camille Pissarro: Landscape at the Chaponval, 1880

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec:

Woman at a

Table, 1889

Paul Signac: The Dining

Emile Bernard: Portrait

of the

Irtist's

Room

(Breakfast). 1886-1887

Grandmother. 1887

13

/

II

II

oman

in \ht

Cafi

/.<•

Tambourin, 1887

V-an Gogh absorbed many he was exposed

in Paris

own work. Below

is

of the

new techniques

to

which

by deliberately imitating them

one of

in his

his exercises in Pointillism: for the

cafe interior he painted the walls and, to a lesser extent, the floor in distinct dots of

pure color. In his copy of a Japanese

wood-block print

he practiced painting with solid areas

(left),

of color, hard outlines and flattened perspective. At the far is

a

left

his version of one of the traditional Impressionist subjects,

woman

alone in a cafe. His model

the Italian

technique

who owned is

may have been La

Segatori,

the cafe Le Tambourin; his borrowed

revealed in the short, slashing brush strokes of

pure color that make the table, the chairs and the model's hat especially vivid.

painted

some of

It

was to decorate

this cafe that

his Japanese pictures,

and

it

Van Gogh

was here that he

exhibited a collection of Japanese prints.

Japonaiserie: Trees in Bloom. 1887

Interior

old Restaurant. 1887

45

*****

'y/iKMJfij II

I

n Paris.

Van Gogh freed

his palette of the dark, earth

tones he had used in most of his early work in Holland. refined his technique of

modeling forms

in light

and

earlier work.

The

painting above, for example, owes

colors to Impressionism. let

heal Field with a Lark, June-Julv 188'

It is

an Impressionist de\

the brush stroke itself plav a part in the object the

Van Gogh does with the

shadow, and painted portraits. Bower studies and

stroke represents, as

landscapes instead of depressed peasants. These were

wheat and the red

revolutionary changes for him and he worked vigorously

the main elements of the picture

to

lifes

and

hall a

hundred landscapes.

these new methods,

\s

some of the earth)

Dutch peasant paintings began

si ill

he progressed

in

reality of his

to reassert itself.

The two

landscapes show n here demonstrate his absorption 3sionism but the) also earn overtones "I thai

flecks of the flowers.

shafts of

But by placing

grass, ÂŤ heal

and skv

— in strong horizontal bands, he seems to plant the

master them: 9ome 200 paintings Bowed from his

brush inside two years, about 50 of flowers, some 35

its

ice to

in

delicate scene as solidl) in the earth as the thick trees he painted

|>n-\ iousl)

right, the figure with the

.

is

in

the

Dutch

in the picture at the

spade echoes the Dutch

peasants of his earlier work,

windmill he found

And

just as

the subject

Montmartre section

—

ol Paris

a reminder of the w indmills of his native laud.

II

indniill

on Moiilniurlrc. 1887

48

Ill Pilgrimage to Paris

Although Vincent was 32 when he came

to Paris in 1886,

and Theo

only 28, the roles of the two brothers had long since been reversed.

Theo was the senior

in all

but years. In appearance he

much resembled

manner he was quite the opposite: a gentle and selfman who moved softlv in the world of Parisian art. Even those

Vincent, but in effacing

with good cause to

remember him

Paul Gauguin, for

whom Theo

to master the spelling of his

failed to

develop a sharp impression.

did substantial favors, never bothered

name, writing of him as "van Gog." The

French poet Gustave Kahn saw him as "pale, blond and so melancholy

seemed

that he

to hold canvases the

way beggars hold new

bowls. His profound conviction of the value of the

without vigor, and thus without great success.

But this salesman was an excellent

er's gift.

He

critic

their art

wooden

was stated

did not have a bark-

and engaged

in dis-

cussions with painters and writers as the discriminating art lover he

was." Neither

Kahn nor Gauguin made note

of Theo's unspectacular

courage. In his 13 years with Goupil

&

Theo had

Cie.

risen to the

of one of the two galleries the firm maintained in Paris. er gallery, but

cretion. For

Theo was authorized

to

buv and

sell

It

managership

was the small-

paintings at his dis-

sound business reasons the pictures he put on prominent

display were recognized masters, such as Corot. But upstairs and in his \

an Gogh,

sitting at a cafe table,

was portrayed

in pastel

bv Henri

de Toulouse-Lautrec the year after

Dutchman

he met the

in Paris.

Although the younger Lautrec was already an accomplished artist on his

own. he seems

to

ha\e been

influenced by \ an Gogh's power

and intensity, the

effect of

ists

number

whose work he admired.

breakdown

W

after Vincent's suicide

to replace him, they

of paintings by less well-known art-

hen he collapsed with and

were outraged

his conservative

a

nervous

employers had

to discover the extent of his ex-

traordinary purchases. "Theo van Gogh."" one of them told Theo's suc-

modern

paint-

them and don't bother

us. or

cessor, "has accumulated the most appalling stuff bv ers.

.

.

.

Just do the best vou can with

which

can be seen here

in

and closely

hatched strokes.

knit,

storage racks he kept a large

the bold colors

we'll be obliged to close the place down.""

The successors inventory

dis-

closed what would today be regarded as a priceless art collection

works by Gauguin, Degas, Pissarro. Daumier. Redon and ToulouseHenri de Toulouse-Lautrec: Portrait

<>/

1

Pan<. 1887

incent van

Gogh,

Theo also bought canvases from Monet. Renoir who have since been installed in the pantheon ot

Lautrec. At various times

and

Sislev. painters

19

P

modern

Few

art.

who could

Vincent,

made room

create squalor with a

Theo paid

collapse.

begun

rented a larger apartment on the

and

As soon

Rue Lepic

a dentist,

and did

he was able, he

as

Montmartre, with an

in

that could serve Vincent as a studio. Thereafter he wrote op-

timistically to their

new

to repair \ in-

all

to drink heavily, years of

for the services of a doctor

his best to point out the advantages of food.

room

of

first

had brought Vincent to the brink of physical and nervous

self-neglect

the

eye.

wave of the hand. But he

for his brother, and undertook

cent's health. Although he had not yet

extra

more discerning

dealers in history have had a

did not relish the prospect of sharing his small apartment with

Theo

flat;

and other people says that he

mother

"We

Holland:

in

are getting along well in

you would not recognize Vincent, he has changed so much,

is

find

now

it

even more striking than

hale and hearty again.

progress in his work and

He

I

is

do.

.

.

.

The doctor

making tremendous

is

beginning to succeed. He

is

very well liked. For example, he has some

cheerful than before, and

also far

is

more

who each week send him a nice consignment of flowers for him to paint. He paints mainly flowers, above all in order to freshen up his colors for future paintings. If we can keep it up, then I think he has the worst behind him; and he is going to come out on top."' friends

Although Vincent's temperament prevented him from being "well liked" for very long ion

—

is

it

— he had a calamitous habit of shouting out his opin-

true that in Paris, for the

did associate with a

them he met

of

number

in art class

first

and only time

His teacher was Fernand Cormon. an

academic painter of minor talent who had

built a reputation

tures of prehistoric lake dwellers and cavemen. Thin

Theo van Goph. four vears

\

incent's junior,

looked more the artiM than his brother.

"He

much

Many

where, surprisingly, he enrolled almost im-

mediately after his arrival.

a sparrow's face,

he

in his life,

of other artists on a friendly basis.

Cormon was

on

large pic-

as a sparrow, with

held in awe by his pupils, perhaps not so

for his paintings as for the fact that he kept three mistresses at

one time.

Was more dclicatelv limit." Theo's wife recalled, bill

"and

his features

were more

he had the same reddish

and the same darkened

Theo.

light

fair

refined,

complexion

blue eves which sometimes

to a greenish blue." In a letter to

\ incent

once asserted

reddish-haired people ÂŤ

ith

that "certain

square foreheads

are neither only thinkers nor only

action, but usually

.

.

.

men

of

both." Vincent's

conclusion was that Theo should renounce his business and become

a

A

Cormon's, Vincent worked hard

t

to perfect his technical skill. Al-

though he had previously expressed his contempt for making studies

from plaster

he now proceeded

casts,

drawing and erasing with such

He was

do precisely that, drawing,

to

zeal that

he rubbed holes

re-

in the paper.

considerably older than the other pupils and his perception was

unlike theirs

in his

new-found fascination with color he saw an

or-

painter like him.

dinary nude against a dull background

No one was

blue.

inclined to ridicule him. however, possibly because

of his touching earnestness but

ening.

more

likelv

Archibald Hartrick, a British painter

recalled thai

he got

as golden-yellow against bright

because he seemed

who knew him

-ketch

fright-

the time,

"he had an extraordinary wa) of pouring out sentences,

started, in

Dutch. English and French, then glancing hark

von over his shoulder, and hissing through hi> a

at

teeth."" (Hartrick

il

at

made

ol \ incent in this attitude.)

Like main of Vincent's enthusiasms, his desire to stud) with Cor-

mon

quickly burned out.

intended efil

50

to staj for

He entered

three years but

left

the class

announcing

alter a few weeks.

The

that

he

chiel ben-

of hi> sessions there' seems to have been lu> introduction to a

num-

ber of young French artists, notably Emile Bernard and Henri de

Toulouse-Lautrec. Both Bernard and Toulouse-Lautrec became friendly with him and continued to admire him for the rest of their lives. Lautrec, indeed,

on hearing another

paintings, challenged the \

man

artist

made the acquaintance

incent also

art-supply shop of a remarkable old grizzled, with a look of traits of

him

speak disparagingly of Vincents

to a duel (fortunately forestalled).

deep kindness

had been exiled and

later

called Pere

in his eyes

— Tanguy

shown on page 41

is

of several other painters in the

man

pardoned for

— one of Vincent's por-

was

a

former soldier who

his part in the Paris

Though he seems

the popular uprising of 1871.

Tanguy. Stubby,

to

ucation, he did have an instinctive appreciation of the in art.

Because then as now

tracted

some formidably

money

lacked

to

buy

men

gifted

little

to his shop.

ed-

new and daring

was a rare commodity, Tanguy

this

his supplies,

Commune,

have had

When

his

at-

customers

he would trade canvas and colors for

finished paintings. In time he accumulated a notable collection of

works

by Pissarro, Gauguin, Seurat, Guillaumin and Signac, to which a number of \ incents paintings were soon added. For a while, Pere Tanguy's

cubbyhole shop was the only place zanne could be seen

— and

in

where paintings by Ce-

Paris

purchased for as

little

as $20.

(Cezanne

apparently once met Van Gogh in Tanguy's shop, but the encounter

was not like a

a

happy one

— Cezanne

madman." There

w.

hen Tanguy's

is

is

reported to have said, "Sir, you paint

no record of Vincents

artists

reply.)

were depressed he soothed them; when

they were hungry he shared his meals with them: his shop was both a

He also tried to sell their paintings, in a low-keved manner reminiscent of Theo's. An American critic wrote that the old man "had a curious way of looking down at his pictures with the fond

Archibald Hartrick. a young British painter,

love of a mother, and then looking up at you over his glasses, as

met most of the promising

club and a gallery.

ging you to admire his beloved children."

When

if

beg-

Pere Tanguy did find

including \ an Gogh, (above).

a buyer, his profit was not large.

example, another cent. said,

When

critic

Some time

after

Van Gogh's

wandered into the shop and saw

a

death, for

still life

bv

V in-

he asked the price, Tanguy consulted an old ledger and

"Forty-two francs." The

critic

bought the painting and inquired,

is it

died.

It

was forty-two francs.

Now

I

have got

it

Although Vincent haunted Tanguy's shop, he made

many

He was more impressed w

his art: he suspected that \

"cracked

"

off opinions.

As

\

me when he

of his most important connections with other artists.

50s, the descendant of Sephardic Jews

Then

who had been driven

Of

in his

out of

Spain by the Inquisition, Pissarro was bald and had a long white beard that gave

him the look of

a patriarch,

which

in fact

he was.

V\ ith

Claude Monet and others, Pissarro had pioneered some 15 years before

—

new style Impressionism. It was a style about which Vincent knew almost nothing, and Pissarro, the kindest of men, was glad to explain it to him. Soon Vincent began to produce colorful, light-filled canin a

vases that are virtually indistinguishable, at of the Impressionists.

It

first

glance, from the

a bit

an Gogh himself admitted.

was through Theo that

these he was perhaps most impressed by Camille Pissarro.

the

an Gogh was

cannot alw ays keep quiet."

back." it

ith

and found him too quick to spout

exactly forty-two, and not forty or fifty?" "Well," said

Pere Tanguy, "I looked up what poor Van Gogh owed

Pan-,

he sketched

Dutchman's unpredictable behavior than with

""I

"But why

artists in

whom

work

was also Pissarro, perhaps more than anyone

51

I

who saw

\

incents death he

is

save Theo.

in Paris

edy. After

\

incents potential and sensed his

trag-

have remarked that he had been

said to

Gogh "would either go mad or leave all of us far behind. know then that he would do both." Among other painters who thought highlv of \ incent. the most in-

sure that \ an I

didn't

triguing

is

surelv Toulouse-Lautrec

— intriguing

of his rank as an artist, although that his personality

and

his incandescent

very nearly as opposed in manner,

not so

\

life.

mind and

incent and Lautrec were artistic intent as

very perceptive portrait of

\

an Gogh (page 48). and

was fascinated with Lautrec's marvelously precise

Tooulouse-Lautrec — .

louse-Lautrec-Monfa its

pos-

is

it

each recognized the other's qualitv. Lautrec made a

sible to be. yet

could trace

much because

high enough, but because of

is

his full

turn

\ incent in

line.

name was Henri Marie Raymond de Tou-

— sprang from a

vigorous, aristocratic family that

ancestry back in an unbroken line to the davs of Charle-

magne. Counts of Toulouse, viscounts of Lautrec and Monfa. thev had been closelv related

to the

were ferocious fighters

column

sault

that cut

its

expected their

women

way

had been

to

in

of

them

the van of a Crusaders" as-

into Jerusalem in 1099: another, the Mar-

won fame

quis de Lafayette, had

Manv

medieval kings of France.

— one

in

America. Fiercely proud. thev

Count Alphonse de

bear sons, not daughters

Toulouse-Lautrec, the artists father, had once observed, before his son was born: "It

The line,

is

better to be a male toad than a female Christian."

turned out to be a toad, possiblv the ugliest man of his

artist

but this was not apparent in his childhood. As a voung bov he was

ordinary

appearance,

in

if

a trifle frail,

small deficiency. His fontanel his skull

was an unusually long time

as he

is

have only one

in closing.

Not until Lautrec

it

weakness that affected

genital

a polished floor

to

become obvious that he had a tragic ailment. He often called, a dw arf. He seem- instead to have had a con-

reached pubertv did

was not.

and seemed

— the skin-covered aperture in the top of

and

in the

his hones.

W

hen he was 13 he slipped on

"inconsequential tall" broke his

Several months later, while he was ditch and broke his right thigh.

I

li>

still

legs

convalescing, he

never matured

to

thigh.

lelt (ell

into a

normal

lengl h.

At about the time of these disasters his features changed alarmingly his

nose became large and his

lips

gross and purplish. Later, through

the use of dumbbells and a row ing machine, he was able

ann- and

In- torso

one

ot

blacksmith wearing pince-nez" pearance.

He was four

him

his friends described

feet eight

t<>

de\ elop his

a- "a tin)

little

but he could do nothing about hi> ap-

inches

tail

and had onl) one redeeming

physical asset: glowing brown intelligent eyes, into which most people

were reluctant

Had lowed ing,

it

to look.

not been lor his incapacit) l.antree

his father, w

hom

would \er\ likeb have

he great 1) admired, into a

horsemanship and lechery. The elder

\

igorous

l.antree.

life ol

fol-

hunt-

although he was

a

graduate of the French mil i tar) academy, Saint-Cyr, and had served brief!)

in

did not.

the

52

the army, was not constrained to follow an arm) career, and

The

laniijv

income from

had more than ample resources

their estates in a large chest,

stewards deposited

from which each took

—

whatever he needed. Lautrecs father, an eccentric on the grand spent his

money on hounds, hawks,

scale,

horses, weapons and costumes, lie

often appeared in public wearing a Scot's

a Caucasian helmet or

kilt,

the chain-mail tunic of a Crusader. Frequently he walked abroad with a falcon on his wrist; he gave his birds holy water to drink

as he

lest,

they be deprived of the benefits of religion. In protest against

said,

what he claimed was the inefficiency of Parisian laundresses he once scrubbed his shirts

in the gutter.

When

he went picnicking

in the Bois

de Boulogne, he did not bother to carry his food with him but instead rode a mare that had recently foaled, and milked her.

jumped

On

a bet he

and won. His son was

his horse over a high-roofed cab,

much

hero worship, but Count Alphonse unfortunately did not think of the boy

— he

took

an affront that

as

it

fate

once

lost in

had provided him with

such an heir.

Young Lautrec very

early revealed a keen and irreverent mind. At

seven he was studying Latin and Greek. At 13 he could draw and paint animals, birds

and the human

scape too, but without

figure with considerable skill.

much

success

— his interest, he

He

said,

tried land-

was not

in

nature for "nature has betrayed me." At 17, convinced that his future lay in art,

he enrolled

His father did not

in studio classes in Paris.

together approve of having a painter in the family; he feared

it

al-

might

cause gossip. Accordingly Lautrec signed his early efforts with a pseud-

onym, "Treclau"

— an anagram

of his

name

— or

he did not sign them

at all.

Lautrec was abused or ridiculed by his fellow art students, there

If

no record of

He was

it.

quently forgot his appearance

mind them of

friends, "it required rest

—

at

times he even found

who

'"To those

it.

and witty a companion that others

so vital

enormous

it

is

fre-

necessary to

re-

loved Lautrec," wrote one of his

effort to see

of the world." The famous night-club

him

as he appeared to the

singer, Yvette Guilbert,

whom

I

oulouse-Lautrec

many

times, once remarked unthinkingly as she glanced

through an album of his drawings, "Really, Henri, you have a genius for distortion." At this he

Such

bitter outbursts,

wheeled on her and cried, "But

however, were

naturallv!""

outrageously eccentric

chain-mail helmet, tunic and dasher and

in a

he sketched

s

Count Alphonse, once draped himself

father,

strutted lor the camera. The for hi> for

ou

con \cn

Count

lived life

amusement and cared not

n i

H

m.

\

few days after his

he deserted his bride

to join

-ume

at all

wedding

old

rare. regimental cronies tor a frolic in Pari-. Later his onl\

excuse «a- that he had completeh

forgotten he « a> on hi- hone) moon.

I

n Paris Lautrec studied successively with two academic painters, Leon

— the

Bonnat and Fernand Cormon

Gogh

also attended.

same Cormon whose

By 1886, when he was

classes

Van

22, Lautrec had absorbed

all

and never again bothered with formal

that they could teach him,

times during their married left

himself

occasionally visited at

him

in

studio

a

there.

in

to

chase some young

m rl

« ho caught his eye.

in-

in the Parisian art world. In addition to

model

(for Renoir,

others) and a

mother

among

(at

rived, carrying a

left

a

young

in

lady well established

being a painter.

\

aladon was

among who later

others), a mistress (for Lautrec.

16 she bore an illegitimate son.

gained fame as a painter himself

Suzanne Valadon

\ incent

Another of the painters who dropped

Lautrecs studio was Suzanne Valadon,

also a

Montmartre, and

— Maurice Ltrillo).

a brief account of \ incent's visits.

heavy canvas which he stood

in a

"He

corner where

it

other

the Countess stranded on rail»a\

be pigeonholed in any school. Soon after Vincent's arrival in Paris Lauestablished

\t

he impulsi\el\

platforms, » ithout a sou in her purse, perhaps

struction. Like Vincent he was largely self-taught, and his art cannot

trec

life

ar-

got

53

a

good

and then waited

light

one bothered. He glances, taking

for

part in the conversation,

little

shown. But no

to be

and

finally

he

left,

wea-

work with him. But the next week he came back

ried, taking his last

and began the same pantomime

all

was ever deliberately rude

trec

some attention

opposite his picture, scrutinizing the others'

sat

Dutchman was simply out

over again."

It is

unlikely that Lau-

The intense, humorless the gay company with which Lau-

to Vincent.

of place in

surrounded himself, and eventually Vincent ceased his hopeful ex-

trec

peditions to the studio.

Lautrec,

years younger than Vincent, discovered alcohol at a

1 1

"Of course one should

earlier age.

not drink

much,"

much

said Lautrec,

"but often," and he would sample anything that gave him the sensation, as he put

it,

of "a peacock's

tail in

the mouth." Lautrec also dis-

covered the world of dance halls and

Boulevard de Clichy and

i'S? NTT

night

Montmartre's

clubs.

Place Pigalle were then great centers of am-

its

ateur and professional sin, affording almost every diversion

man.

If

known

to

there was anything the customer wanted that was not in stock,

the Montmartrois would gladly improvise

The

it.

steep, crooked streets

teemed with cutthroats and pickpockets, pimps, prostitutes, drug ped-

t

dlers

and homosexuals of both persuasions. Most of them had come

there fairly recently. As late as 1860 Montmartre was a quiet country

on the outskirts of

lage

were

trec there

— the Chat

among

the steaming cabarets

ruins of a few of Montmartre's celebrated windmills

hall that replaced

them supplied the name

of

the Moulin de

it,

la

for the

famous dance

Galette (Mill of the \^ heatcake).

Vincent's paintings there are some that show Montmartre as

pleasantly rural, and

inner circle of

among

the works of Lautrec

lautrec was at his happiest in

one cabaret

some

that suggest an

hell.

L

Montmartre

to another, gesturing with the

at

was fond In the a

oi practical

centricities

photograph above

Japanese shogun, the

a part) at

al

|irank

posing

in.

I

model

In- is

robed

in silk

costume he adopted

home of a

montage li\

.1

as

for

for a

make an

talking and drinking at least until

studio a* both painter

him

to

and

v\as

double self-portrait.

postpone mosl

in

1

he day.

need

anyone

else's.

whom

As

a

rule

own

ec-

he was

he bullied without

insisted that they stay

up

dawn, sharing another bottle with

Often Lautrec would

aristocratic.

up

in

Other

fat,

Is

to

swathed

hour haul

for

mam

the clientele,

rec

became deeply depressed

to

hours

m

the Moulin Rouge, Study-

which ranged from low -brow

in

no

lo

time Edward, Prince of Wales, would turn

while away an evening, and was treated like

aging bachelor.

ine, thighs nil

sil

From lime

Montmartre

\t thai

ol friends.

ing the dancers and

:>l

of

issue

too preoccupied with their

\o matter how weary they became he

mercy.

hat?"

rich dilettante. In tin'

top Lautrec plays a photographic in In*

to

who were

accompanied by one or more companions,

jukes and dressing up.

W

democracy of deformity, accepted without ques-

lived in a kind of

tion by the Montmartrois, Like his eccentrii father, Toulouse-Lautrec

from

night, waddling

miniature cane he called a

boothook, constantly spluttering, "Eh? What? Fantastic, eh?

He

vil-

days of Vincent and Lau-

in the

gardens and cottages

still

One

also survived.

Among

and even

Noir, the Mirliton, the Divan Japonais and the Cabaret des

The

Assassins.

Paris,

\t

the Moulin

less

than

(>0

Ins hat with a high kick, while the

your mot her buying the drinks?

Rouge

a

am

dancer called La Con-

yards of foaming lace, knocked

manager bawled. "Hullo.

\\ ale-!

Lautrec sketched the dancers and their customers constantly, with pencil, charcoal or

even a burned matchstick, trving

economy

tions and expressions with greatest

a caricaturist and had to struggle against ing one particular feature of his subject

—and One

his finished

.

.

.

Frequentl)

liberately try 'to

Cormon's wrote

that Lautrec

_et Ye,

make something

pretty" of a

"was always

— without ever,

ha\e known him de-

I

model

my

in

even

opinion, being able

Lautrec seldom intended satire. Bitterness and mockery in his pic-

life

as he saw

love or outrage, of

all

of his pictures

Lautrec

is

is

Lautrec, indeed, was so detached that his

no greater or

less

little

that does not

his

most men would prefer not (Sewer Grate), \alentin

the

last

to be sure, but

He

he pro-

provoke thought, often melancholy. As

to see.

membered todav only because It

often-reproduced post-

bowler hat pushed back on his head, he saw what

sat in cabarets, his

lue (The Glutton).

in

as a lighthearted or shallow artist.

was neither. His colors and designs are gay.

he

— lesbians

than Lautrec actually saw.

sometimes regarded, because of

Montmartre entertainers,

duced very

\ f~

to re-

example. But the grossness or weariness or disillusion

in bed. for

ers of

was

without any of the personal involvement, the

it.

Van Gogh.

choice of subjects might ordinarily be found disconcerting

many

t

a portrait

off."

tures are rare, and he never moralized. His intention above port

e w ished.

but in spite of himself he would exaggerate certain typ-

which he was being paid it

began by draw-

lie

or even the general character of the figure, so that he was

ical details,

for

mo-

instinct

— an eve. a mouth, even a nostril

apt to distort without even trving or wanting to.

to bring

He was by

work had more exaggeration than he may ha\

of his fellow students at

sincere in art

it.

to capture their

of line.

le

Among

the dancers

who

are re-

of his art are Jane Avril, Grille d'Egout

Desosse (Valentine the Boneless). La Gou-

may be worthwhile

(page 65) and measure

it

to look at Lautrec's picture of

against what

known about her

is

life

and death. La Goulue was only 16 when Lautrec Alsatian girl

named Louise

Vi

eber.

first

portrayed her. She was an

who seems

to

have been called "The

Glutton" because of her habit of draining the dregs from glasses on the cabaret tables.

A superb dancer, filled with animal pride, she delighted men who competed for her favors. But her beautv at 25 she could no longer find work in Montmartre, and

in humiliating the

faded quickly

began

—

to tour fairgrounds in outlying cities as a sideshow.

trec to paint a pair of panels as an advertisement, his earlier friendship with her.

about nine

(gratis)

to

two huge canvases

He did not. however, confuse friendship with senHe portrayed La Goulue as almost frighteningly jaded, and

was the cafe singer^ vette Guilbert, for

endow ed w

oil

ith a

-ketch

at

Oscar

robust figure tor a chanteuse,

Mile. Guilbert nevertheless had a sharp, acid

voice that pierced smok) cabarets and earned

her the

title "'-tar ol

the end ol the

W ilde.

Lautrec went to see La Goulue perform in her show, and

over

lifted his cane to her in salute

again. Like a character in

when

it

was

and turned away. He ne\er saw her

some time-condensing morality

plav. La

lue descended from dancer to lady wrestler to lion tamer.

Gou-

\^ ith

whom

the top. Hardlv

her imaginary audience he put a relentless caricature of himself and

a slack-faced likeness of

ol the great

entertainers in Paris, hut perhaps his favorite

he made the

feet square.

timentality. in

produced

She asked Lau-

and Lautrec. loval

Toulouse-Lautrec knew most

a

menagerie of tired animals she toured the provinces, but went bankrupt

55

centun

."

when one

arm

of her beasts tore off a child's

turned to Montmartre

to

Rouen. She

at a fair in

re-

peddle candv and flowers outside the Moulin

Rouge, scene of her youthful triumphs. No doubt she hoped to be recognized by the old customers, but she was scarcely noticed. By 1925

La Souris

she was a grotesquely obese and vein-faced alcoholic, trying to make a

where she

living in small-town carnivals

La Goulue."' Her

"the celebrated

billed herself as

employment was

last

as a servant in a bordello. In

1929. age 59. she sensed the approach of death, called for a priest and

asked him. "Father,

will

God

me?

forgive

I

am

La Goulue."

managed

In the year of La Goulue's passing, the French state

to as-

semble and restore Lautrec's large panels for her show (La Goulue had

who had cut them up into pieces). Luxembourg Museum and were later transferred with reverence to the Louvre. Still later thev were moved to the exquisite little Jeu de Paume. where they now hang close bv the long since sold them to a dealer

Thev were kept

L'Escargot

for a time in the

works of Lautrec's friend

van Gogh.

\ incent

L

lautrec himself had his premonitions of death, but

that thev disturbed him. self a

"moral

He continued

suicide."" but

it

is

doubtful

to drink disastrously, calling

he also worked with

a furv that

was

him-

at least

equally responsible for his early end. Relatively late in his short career

he became fascinated with lithography, and

at

the end of a night in Mont-

martre he would refresh himself with a few

Le

Cochon

workmen's

bar. then go directly to the print

raphy he found an

art

form peculiarly suited

are his posters, of

means were created

of wine in a

work. In lithog-

to

to his talents: few

men

The best known of his works in this which he made about 30. Not all of them by any

have been more successful field

glasses

shop

at

it.

for the proprietors of

dance

halls

— he also filled or-

ders from book publishers and manufacturers, including an enlightened

American

firm,

by the Ault It

& W

which engaged him iborg

was not unusual

Company

at

promote the printing inks made

to

of Cincinnati. Ohio.

the time for a fineartist to take on commercial as-

signments. As early as 1862. Honore Daumier had designed a poster for a coal to In

IH98 Toulouse-Lautrec produi ed 22

lithographs for a Saturelles, a

lÂť><>k

modern

entitled Hisloires

bestiar) written b) ln>

merchant, and

in

1868 Edouard Manet had created a poster

plug a newly published book. By 1890. Jules Cheret, the most pop-

ular poster designer of the day, had been accorded two

one-man shows

and had received the Legion of Honor. Lautrec began b) following the trend, but he soon outdistanced

it.

\\ ith

his extraordinary

control of

friend Jules Renard. Lautrec, ÂŤ ho loved

animals and was zoos,

ilnl

a

Frequent

\

i~ii

nr

al

I'.in-

charming, sharpl) observed

charai terizations

"I

domestic Fauna, including

line

and

his use of bold areas of

color, he

flat

portant a form of graphic art as an\

one ilnnk

ul

sausages!"

He

the poster as im-

also gained

public

recognition: Parisians saw his work everywhere and were captivated bj

those shown above. Renard enthusiastically

exclaimed thai Lau tree's |hl "already makes

made

other.

it.

to the extenl of peeling the posters

off for their collections. Lautrec b\ lii-

work, or used his characteristic

pressed.

I

Uphonse asked, "W

scarcel) notice the \

II.

monogram. His

drunks over

h)

I

\

made

to

lather was not imin

there.

there, lie oil en took

up residence

in bordello-,

in

and were

the maisons closes be-

cause he was loud of their inhabitants. "The professional model,

56

them

own name

doesn't he go to England? The)

good man) of Lautrec's works depict scenes

actual

cam ing

pon hearing thai Lautrec had man) times been seen drunk

Count

Paris,

from the walls and

tln> time signed Ins

he

said, "is

always

like a stuffed owl.

These

madam

their dinners, seated opposite the

girls arc alive."

in a place ol

Hue d'Amboise, Lau-

vided the wine and flowers. In one maison, on the

became

trec

fine old

so friendly with the

Louis

XV room

for

that he decorated her salon, a

which he painted 16 panels, each nearh

feet high, filled with garlands girls, for

madam

He shared

honor, and pro-

and

girls.

He was

also a

>i\

customer of the

from Suzanne Valadon and one or two others who

aside

ac-

cepted him as a curiosity, no "lady" would have an affair with him.

Once, when one of the prostitutes on her day

him

a

bunch of

ers for weeks,

violets,

went out and bought

off

he was reduced almost to tears. He kept the flow

showing them

to his friends as

though they were the

-

gift

of a countess.

When

he was 34

—

it is

remarkable that his health endured that long

Lautrec suffered a physical and nervous collapse. His family arranged

him

for

to be admitted to a

for several weeks.

On

sanatorium

his release

where he remained

in Neuilly,

he was provided with

a

companion,

who actually served as a guard to prevent Lautrec from The companion accompanied him everywhere, but with

ing.

success: Lautrec

managed

to get

small

drunk whenever he pleased, and

places where no liquor was available. Eventually

it

he had bought a hollow, glass-lined cane, which he

a

drink-

friend

in

was discovered that filled

with brandv

in

the morning and from which he drank whenever the guard's back was

turned. In 1901, aged 36, Lautrec ily

estate near Bordeaux, the

left

alyzed, almost deaf, and suffering last

hours his family

sat

home

Paris and went

to die

Chateau de Malrome. He was

from

a half

on the fam-

partially par-

dozen ailments. In his

by his bedside. His father got bored, and to

break the monotony suggested that he cut off Lautrecs beard.

he

said,

was,

It

an old Arab custom. Dissuaded from that. Count Alphonse con-

tented himself with removing the elastic from his boots and snapping

on the counterpane. Lautrec glanced up

at flies

smile,

"The

old bastard!"

ied, his father,

These were

at

him and

his final words.

W

said with a

hen he was bur-

thinking the pace of the funeral coach too slow, whipped

up the horse so that the mourners walking behind were obliged to

to

run

keep up.

^-7oon

after Lautrec's death,

one popular French

critic,

writing in Le

Courrier Frangais, expressed an opinion that was to be shared by several

others: "It sort.

is

Lautrecs

fortunate for humanity that there are few artists of his talent, for

it

would be absurd

to

deny him one, was an im-

moral talent of pernicious and unfortunate influence." For more than a generation this critical hostility in the popular press continued, the

burden of the complaint being that Lautrec was a wicked man. or limited in scope, or both.

To the charge

must be agreed that he found many of dance

hall,

that he

the theater and the brothel

small a world.

To the charge

that his

was limited

in scope,

it

his subjects in the world of the

— but

this

is

not. after

all.

talent was "immoral." time

so

itself

who have managed to survive the 20th Century, thus far, know by now what immorality really is and it is not to be found in Lautrec. He is no more immoral than a mirror. has provided the reply. Those

—

T

he Paris where Van Gogh painted

a lightheaded city of gaiety

and

man

the late 1880s was

sin. Little

scene was reflected in \ an Gogh's of another

in

own

of the social

art,

but the work

— Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec —

of that giddy time.

When Van Gogh

is

a mirror

and Lautrec met

artists.

Demimonde

in

Paris in 1886, the 32-year-old Vincent had just arrived

was barely known, even among

Lautrec's

and

Lautrec, the son of

a French aristocrat, was just 22, but had a reputation as a skilled draftsman.

young man who

He was

also

becoming known as a wild

tried to forget his physical

the bawdy Parisian night

Due

life.

handicaps in

to improperly healed

fractures that had stunted the development of his legs,

Lautrec as an adult was only four feet eight inches

Dwarfed and hobbled as he was painfully with a cane

w heelchair life

and

at

tall.

— he often walked

times was pushed

he nevertheless avoided

in a

self-pity.

He viewed

with intellectual detachment. "I've tried simply to

tell

the truth, not to idealize." he once said about his art.

Lautrec loved parties, and a joke. This lithographed in\ itation to a gathering

Lautrec plunged into the Parisian night world with reads:

abandon: he frequented dance

halls, brothels

and cafes,

drinking copiously, talking and sketching until dawn. \i

t

racted

l>\

people

in

action, he also haunted circuses,

will lie iireatU

him

join

studio in 1900

at his

"Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

lor a

honored

Saturday, Ma\

15, al

past three in the

sporting events and theater-, existence

in

lie

captured this frantic

paintings, draw ings. engra\ ings, watercolors

and lithographs

and

in

the po-icr^ that

made him

died

:>h

al

life

took

its toll.

Like \ an Gogh, he

the age of 37, hi> career brilliant and brief.

you

will

around half

afternoon."

Lautrec shows hmi-cll as an

animal tamer with -pur> and a riding crop confronting a huge

row

Famous. But the wild

if

cup of milk

.

Milk

hui hard

w.i- -cr\eil al the part)

li<|u<>r

was available

in

quantit) from a well-stocked bar.

.

O

0U*L<i«UL.

f^Wfi/t^f

i

59

'*&ÂŁ&*-

fifâ‚Ź..

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec:

A,

.11

I

during

nableto

rule

Lautrec had

his life

because

enjoyed the race-,

the lithograph

I

line

al

who was

sleepless,

boyhood

-till

visits to

equestrian. In

n^ln his dynamic sense of composition

he sketch above,

-

fondness for horses

a -killed

charges horses and ruler- w "I a

clown, was executed lor Lautrec

a

physical handicap, he

a habit cultivated In

tracks with his father,

and

"I his

a

iili

power.

circus horse ridden

l>\

a

Female

rejoiced

at

Some

felt

to

them

In- art

had

himself imprisoned and begged to be released. Parti)

prove thai In- drinking Had nol damaged his mental

acuity, Lautrec completed a -eric- o| circus draw inn-

done from memory, an arduous worked from

triumphs thai the) helped the

60

:

oul\ glorified the seam) and sordid. Lautrec, lor In- part.

health was suffering under the pressures "I

was persuaded

unfriendl) critics openl)

lautrec"- confinement

drunken nights and

his famil)

the hciiiatr (limit

doctor friends to commil him to a sanitarium lor

lÂť\

treatmenl of alcoholism.

to

ver) specific purpose.

(hat Kan.

direct observation.

task since I

lie

artist

lie

results

usuall)

were such

win In- freedom.

I

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: The Jockey, 1899

61

Photo graphe Hi

v<!f

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec:

D fairly

uring the

final

two decades of the 19th Century, Paris

9,

Place Pigatle, P. Sescau Photograph, 1894

<a.

revue

blossomed with bright posters and magazine covers.

was

Chiefly responsible for this flowering of the graphic arts

the revival of lithography by artists who, like Lautrec, partly

blanche mensuelle

influenced by Japanese art, worked to perfect bold designs in

strong colors and stark outlines.

When

Lautrecs vibrant

posters and covers appeared on street corners and kiosks

IZ

they invariably attracted attention for their striking design

I

francs

An

pjr

r„.L*ffi

He

and their wry humor. In the advertisement above he gently caricatured a photographer, his client, at work. For the

cover as a

nl a

bimonthly

model the wife

poster for

a

oi

literary review (right)

he slyly chose

one of the magazine's founders. In

a

struggling music hall called Le Divan Japonais

(far right), Lautrec focused on the sensitive beauty of the

then iiiiknou u dancer Jane \\ in tin-

ril,

v\hom he showed seated

audience. \n elderly roue, the music critic Edouard

Dujardin, eyes Jane appreciatively, while the star of the

show, the popular Yvette Guilbert, offal the neck. I.ai'trn

music

hall,

'-

is

which soon closed

stage

cut

lor lack of patrons. Hut this

andothei Lautrei portrayals of Jane "like a delirious orchid"

shown on

clever poster could not save the

helped

I"

\\ril

who danced

launch her as

a star.

Henri de foulouse Lautrec: La Revue Blanche, 1895

62

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: Lc Divan Japonais. 1892

63

II. Tin clc

I n the •

me

this:

at

(Âťl

is

ine\ itably linked with

the Moulin Rouge. There

place

Mm

1

1

11

1.

hi

n\

ol In- paintings.

.mil

he used

ii

good reason for

1-

he was a regular patron oi the new

hall in .H()

minds of many, Lautrec

I

\

built

some

Lautrec understood the nature 01

the Moulin Rouge, and in his work

In-

on

its

life

Ionised closel)

Femak

Kno. the

inhabitants. \bo\e

(down. Cha-l -Kao,

who

adjusts her costume

dance

a- the Betting oi

Toulouse-Lautrec: Cha-l

in a

i-

Clown, 189o

a portrayal of the

private room, the reflection oi

an older man. perhaps her lover,

i>

seen

mirror. In another candid portrait (righi called la

Coulue

is

performing

often worked there. \- she

m I

the wall

the -tar dancer

seen haughtily entering

tin-

Moulin

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: La Goulur Entering the Moulin Rouge, 1892

Rouge with two other

entertainers, the beefy La

Mome

Fromage and another, younger dancer. La Goulue appears

in action in

one of Lautrec's

paintings ( following pages). She

is

scene as she does a frenzied, yet

somehow

finest

the vital focus of the

with her long-legged partner Valentin

le

background

at right is

Lautrec's white-bearded father: at

the center rear in a black cape

elegant, dance

Desosse. In the

is

Jane Avril. This

command line

is

is

obvious: the figures are placed skillfully, the

animated, the colors interact excitingly. Such

work marked Lautrec

as a first-rank artist of his time.

65

,

is

Lautrec's largest painting of the Moulin Rouge, and his

Ii ~-/s

I

1

.

#»

&

S ...

.^

I

1 ***

'

-v

•

s

w-

1

,

\

Ji

X I

If

I \

'.

I

Henri de ToulouseLautrec: The

Da me at

the Moulin Rouge.

1890

IV Friends and Influences

Vincent found more stimulation

than just the work of the Im-

in Paris

pressionists and Toulouse-Lautrec.

The

city

was booming with

activity,

and

particularly in art, and Vincent did his best while there to see similate

all

that

bombardment too

much

work

for

was good among the new and the

as-

old. Before long, the

of sensations, experiences and influences would prove

him and he would have

in peace.

to retreat to the countryside to

But for a while he immersed himself

have found a new mistress for a time; he continued his

he may

in Paris:

visits to

guy's shop to see what his contemporaries were up to; he

Pere Tan-

came

to

know

the important and influential young painters, including the inventor of Pointillism, Georges Seurat,

and the stockbroker-turned-artist. Paul

Gauguin. He was also particularly intrigued by the work of the great Japanese print makers,

among them Hiroshige and Hokusai, whose

brightly

colored woodcuts had been imported to Europe in large numbers in

re-

cent years. Like the palette of the Impressionists, the art of Japan

would greatly influence him. It

was only

"opened

who Gauguin intended girl in

you

this portrait of a

Breton costume as

to the girl

a thank-

and her husband

extending him generous credit

for

on a flower-strewn

ground, did not look to them

like

Angele; furthermore, Angele's short,

homely husband thought

that the exotic figurine at the

was a caricature of him. The bewildered couple rejected

Gauguin's

gift

poked

was time

his

Commodore Matthew

Perry,

cannon into the Japanese eve and sugge^ed commercial exchange. A few years

later the

that

it

first

Japanese prints reached London and Paris. In 1867 and again

for a little

1878 they appeared

in

in

the Paris world exhibitions, and were so popular

that in 1883 Parisian collectors put together a

left

to

them.

It

show devoted exclusi\el\

was not only the picturesque subject matter

ures, animals, birds, exotic

found fascinating, but the

costumes and landscapes style as well.

The

legendary

fig-

that the collectors

prints, with their Hat pat-

terns of color and lack of shadow, their strong design and decorative qualities, were unlike any then generallv known in Europe. \ incent, in company with many other Western painters, happily adopted and adapted the Japanese manner himself, and often acknowledged his debt to it.

of gratitude.

In Paul Gauguin:

La Belle

politely

year of V incent's birth, that Japan had been

by the American,

to the \^ est

at

their cafe. But the portrait, set like a medallion

in 1853, the

,,

Ingele, 188')

one of

his finest self-portraits

f/w^r

/

78) he seems to be seeking an in-

tensely religious feeling, but the thought of Japan was not far from hi?

mind. As he wrote Theo, "1 aimed

at

the character of a bonze [Oriental

69

monk], as a simple worshiper of the Eternal Buddha. ...

have made

I

the eyes slightly slanting like the Japanese."

Although he had become acquainted with Japanese was

in Paris that

had

literally a

he

warehouse

own

out to form his

art in

full

Antwerp,

it

— one dealer

saw the prints in large quantity

first

of them. Enchanted. \ incent soon set

collection and in time accumulated several hun-

dred items, which he valued so highly that he compared the Japanese masters

— in

permanence,

It

was the

anv

at

countrvmen Rembrandt and

rate

— with

the Greeks. Hals, and his

ermeer.

\

and clear outline of the prints that most

brilliant color

stronglv caught his eve as he emerged from the dark tonalities of his

Dutch period. But

was

his constant regard for the social function of art

involved too. The prints, even after the cost of transporting them half-

way around the

earth, could

be sold in Paris for onlv one or two

still

francs and thus were within the reach of people to w horn he addressed

own work.

his

show up pen I

\

>r

In the I'Mli

iit

f

i\ -<>

j

r\

arh-i Hiroshige

impressed

painters.

1

\

an Gogh and man)

he power

In

expressive

ol

oi his fellow

cloudburst,

ol a

conveyed

e, is

series ol parallel lines.

in a kitchen."

shows up well

Such de\

ices

were

basic tmil

i-

boldness

in

which the artist

a -har|> knife. \

he Hiroshige print i.

a

who

ies

of fine works of art available to

artists

workingmen

on

hap-

I

something

is

his

own

make copnow in

low cost, and

at

would arrange an

ex-

where the general public would be

His efforts on behalf of Japanese

effect

mav

he wrote, "and then

in a parlor too. but this

Paris he approached the idea from another angle: he

expected

will

might, through lithographv.

an association of

it.

my work

head about." He had long since sketched out an idea

for

likelv to see

that

art

career, for in a strange

were

to

have an un-

way the Japanese

ex-

Japanese restraint; the) were

wood-block medium,

i

mv

never bother

it

hibition of Japanese prints in a place

l>>r

nothing more than

also parti) imposed b) the limitations of the

(belou

good advantage

to discover that

way

best to paint in such a

the Japanese simplicity of style that

pifies

instam

< -<- ti 1

to

mv

do

""I

although ol tin-

in a

In-

first

public show ing of

\

incent's paintings.

s

an Gogh copied

painting of his ou n

brush softened the

Japanese »

hibition was related to the

I<

ut.

E,or some time

\

incent had been dining in a caie called Le Tambourin.

not far from the apartment he shared with

Theo

in

Mont mart re. The

tablishment- the tables were drum-shaped and the walls hung w

bourines bearing pictures and poems contributed by the patrons

woman. Agostina Segatori (page \outh had served as a model for Corot. The details

run by an

lationship with her are cloudy, but

was called,

it

to allow

anese prints. There

him

to

fill

ol

\

incent

her s

re-

l.a

Segatori, as -lie

the restaurant with a collection of Jap-

no record of the success or failure

i>

was

in

appears that for a while she wa-

any event he was able to .persuade