Spirituality of Vincent van Gogh
1
This is certainly not an exhaustive account of the life or
works of Vincent van Gogh. We simply hope to remember with understanding a man who though tormented and incentthough Van Gogh was the and son of a Dutch pastor. rejected, despondent depressed, though He wanted to follow in hisand father’s footsteps and become sometimes confused too much impassioned, hoped. a He pastor. He became a missionary in Belgium as a admired the good, true, and beautiful. He mourned stepping stone into the careerthrough of being pastor only the world’s turmoil. He hoped hisaart, which weto be rejected - byand his father his mentor, uncle, as a have inherited ought and to treasure, for it his is great art. viable candidate for pastoral ministry. Ouch.
V
This booklet is an expansion of a talk given by Rev. Martin Ban, President of Redeemer Seminary. References for his talk and this booklet include At Eternity’s Gate: The Spiritual Vision of Vincent van Gogh, by Kathleen Powers Erickson. Martin Ban
“The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.” Self portrait, 1886 For more information, contact: Redeemer Theological His vocation as anSeminary artist, in essence was the backup 6060 N. Central Expressway, Suite 700 | Dallas, Texas 75206 | 214.528.8600
plan and the response to being rejected as a pastor.
2
3
Imagine walking through the Museum of Modern Art
in NYC. Now head upstairs, turn the corner and there it is, Van Gogh’s famous ‘Starry Night.’ The painting shows no light on the church or emanating from the church. The landscape is brightly moonlit. Some art critics say, ‘Look, he’s done with God altogether, the light is extinguished in and on the church…’
The Sower, 1888
True, he’s done with the church, but not with Jesus and not with his Christian faith. I don’t think he’s done with telling the story of redemption either. (He just uses brush and canvas instead of paper and ink and his arena for his story telling is the public square and museums, not churches.)
Starry Night, 1889
In fact, the last 90 of his paintings were almost exclusively religious and/or biblically themed. The Sower and the seed, the Pieta, The Good Samaritan were all major works during his last two years.
4
But before glancing into van Gogh’s life, why
consider art in the first place? Let’s do a little theology of God and art. God’s first act in Scripture is to reveal Himself as an artist and creator. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Creation is a gratuitous expression of God’s grace and beauty. The human desire to make stuff (from nachos to patios and paintings) reflects the glory of our Maker in our human fabric. We are all made in the image of God. We make art because we are made in the image of an Artist Extraordinaire.
5 Joseph Brodsky, a Russian poet, says,
“Art is a form of resistance to the imperfection of reality.”
Let’s tease this idea out a bit. Art does two things - art resists against the Fall (the imperfection of reality) and hopes for redemption (reconciliation with God and others). All good art is expressive of these desires.
Flowering Garden, 1888
6
Art may not be pretty, but all good art is beautiful.
And beautiful art resists against the ugliness of this world. It shows the ugliness for what it is and wants us to move away from it. Not all art does both, some art just does one or the other.
7
Art and theology merge in the stories of Jesus. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is in the house of Simon the leper and a woman barges in, falls at his feet, pours an expensive vial of ointment on Jesus and washes his feet with her hair. The guests are aghast and expect Jesus to chide this woman. Instead, he defends her and says that what she has done for him is in fact, “a beautiful thing…” and every time the gospel is spoken, what this woman has done will be told in remembrance of her. The gospel of Jesus is good news and this woman said yes to God’s forgiveness in Christ and was bold enough to cross over the room full of incredulous men and demonstrate her gratitude. Jesus calls this revolutionary act- beautiful. Love is beautiful and revolutionary. Vincent would agree. Van Gogh says in one of his letters to his brother Theo,
“The more I think about it the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.”
The White Orchard,1888
In 1875, Vincent had a profound and Jesus oriented experience. He believed in Christ and read the Bible, was deeply influenced by the preaching of Charles Spurgeon and the American evangelist, Charles Moody. Van Gogh became a devout and evangelical Christian. In a sense, Vincent crossed over the room and did a beautiful thing by worshipping and following Jesus. And just like the men at Simon the leper’s house, this annoyed Vincent’s father because the devout evangelical tone of Vincent’s faith veered far from the faith of his father.
8
9
At the age of 23, Vincent wanted to be a missionary.
Vincent returned home to live with his parents. It is also during this time that Vincent’s father took ill and died of a heart attack. Vincent turned to painting with vigor.
among them. This annoyed the middle class sensibilities of his father. Vincent was assessed by the missionary agency that supported him and they rejected Vincent for ordination as a pastor. Even worse, his father and uncle concurred with the agency and prevented Vincent from pursuing a pastoral career.
‘The Potato Eaters,’ Vincent’s first critically recognized work, was produced at this time. ‘The Potato Eaters’ is an homage to the miners in Borinage, and Vincent’s solidarity with them. A beautiful (in a Jesus sense of the word) and unremarkable family was eating together in the painting. The meal is a motif of The Last Supper. Vincent liked to insert himself in his paintings and the male with the flare of red resembles Vincent.
His father was not supportive. Vincent enlisted as a missionary to the poor miners in Borinage, Belgium. He dressed like the miners, ate like the miners, and lived
The Church at Auvers, 1890
The Potato Eaters, 1885
10
‘Still Life with Open Bible’ is another great work from this period and he completed the painting in a single day! In the painting the Bible is open to Isaiah 53, the story of the suffering servant. The Bible is his father’s Bible and the book
Back to ‘Starry Night’ for a moment.
11
Vincent painted this from his room, in an asylum. Vincent committed himself to an asylum after his well-documented argument with his friend and artist, Paul Gauguin. After the argument with Gauguin, Vincent mutilated a portion of his left ear, handed it to a prostitute and then committed himself to convalesce at an asylum. What happened?
Still Life with Open Bible, 1885
under the Bible is by Emile Zola. The name of the book is, ‘The Joy of Living.’ The book is about a young girl whose parents die and then she is adopted by her uncle who treats her cruelly. Vincent found this story similar to his own life.
Starry Night, 1889
12
The original diagnosis, was, ‘acute mania with
13
generalized delirium.� A young physician, Felix Rey suggested that Vincent had episodes consistent with epilepsy. This diagnosis was further confirmed by Dr. Peyron (Vincent’s physician) who called his condition temporal lobe epilepsy. When experiencing these epileptic seizures Vincent displays erratic behavior that mimics schizophrenia, lapses of memory, hyper-religiosity and hypergraphia. Vincent underwent epileptic seizures and resulting behaviors at various times the last four years of his life. Between 1889 and 1890 Vincent suffered an attack lasting two months and moved back home with his brother Theo. Because of failing health and struggling finances, Theo was no longer able to take care of his brother. Vincent then moved to a hospital north of Paris. In these last months he painted over 90 paintings. Self Portrait with ear bandaged.1889
The Pine Trees with the Figure in the Garden at the Hospital of San Pablo, 1889
14
Most of these paintings were religious in nature with
themes of death, resurrection and specifically-union with
15
E arlier in is his painting career, Van Gogh did a pencil
drawing called, ‘At Eternity’s Gate.’ The drawing is a man slumped, praying in his chair. Van Gogh revisited this lithograph (drawing) near the end of his life and painted the same picture. This time with blues and pathos and power. This is among my favorite paintings. I imagine Vincent, beset with epilepsy and digoxin toxicity (from the foxgloves prescribed to battle the epilepsy) painting this as his story from beginning to the end. Vincent hanging onto his only comfort in life and in death. Prayer and union with Christ.
At Eternity’s Gate, Charcoal, 1882 Pieta, 1889
The Raising of Lazarus, 1890
At Eternity’s Gate, Oil, 1890
16
This is certainly not an exhaustive account of the life or works of Vincent van Gogh. We simply hope to remember with understanding a man who though tormented and rejected, though despondent and depressed, though sometimes confused and too much impassioned, hoped. He admired the good, true, and beautiful. He mourned the world’s turmoil. He hoped through his art, which we have inherited and ought to treasure, for it is great art.
Crows Over the Wheatfield, 1890
This booklet is an expansion of a talk given by Rev. Martin Ban, President of Redeemer Seminary. References for his talk and this booklet include At Eternity’s Gate: The Spiritual Vision of Vincent van Gogh, by Kathleen Powers Erickson. Martin Ban
Wheatfield with a Reaper, 1889
“The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.” For more information, contact: Redeemer Theological Seminary 6060 N. Central Expressway, Suite 700 | Dallas, Texas 75206 | 214.528.8600