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A Unique Plan for a European Tour Tracing the Life and Art of Painter Vincent Van Gogh
A Unique Plan for a European Tour Tracing the Life and Art of Painter Vincent Van Gogh AuverssurOise, France, May 5, 2015 By Axel Krause Why is it that less than an hour’s drive or train ride from Paris, this small, rural town nestled on the banks of the scenic Oise River, attracts well over 200,000 tourists a year, with Americans and Japanese topping the list of foreigners? The answer: primarily because of one of the world’s greatest painters – Vincent Willem van Gogh, who lived and painted here during the last few months of his life before killing himself at the age of 37. The date: July 29, 1890 around which Auvers and some thirtyodd other European towns, museums, cultural sites and institutions are this year celebrating its tragic 125th anniversary with an array of exhibits, films and related tourist activities, dubbed “In the Footsteps of Van Gogh.”. Energetic, poor, moody, alcoholic, battling mental illness, van Gogh’s works shunned by collectors at the time, include several thousand, postImpressionist paintings, drawings and like that today are housed mainly in European museums. But if one wants to buy, for example, a single oil painting, best to have deep pockets; as those in private hands easily fetch upwards of $80 million, which puts van Gogh in the same league with Spain’s Pablo Picasso and top French Impressionists, like Claude Monet and Pierre August Renoir. Capitalizing on his stay here during the last few months of his life – where he captured in dazzling, colorful portraits Auvers and its scenic surroundings – the town’s and regional leaders have organized a range of visits and cultural events for tourists in what they describe as an “openair museum.” Reproductions of his important paintings are prominently displayed, even on the town’s narrow back streets. Featured on the tourist agenda, beyond displays and reproductions of his work, are a guided visit to the towns’s museum devoted to his favorite, highlyalcoholic spirit absinthe; plus showings of several, popular films of depicting his life, notably the 1956 American blockbuster “Lust for Life,”starring lookalike Kirk Douglas, directed by Vincente Minelli, also well known for his “American in Paris,” and “Gigi.” Guided tours also include the small, austere, attic room van Gogh rented at the downtown Auberge Ravoux where he died from a selfinflicted bullet wound; and that is still going strong as a cozy, reasonablypriced bistro; as well as the municipal cemetery just outside the town where he and his brother Theo, who devoted his life to helping Vincent, are buried sidebyside, a regular stop for visitors and bikers. What struck me during a recent press visit to the town, was printed material on all the other, related – but scattered – sites in Europe, notably in the Netherlands, Belgium, Britain and elsewhere in France, primarily in the southern Provence region, containing references to efforts underway to “Europeanize” van Gogh’s heritage being http://transatlanticmagazine.com/auniqueplanforaeuropeantourtracingthelifeandartofpaintervincentvangogh/
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A Unique Plan for a European Tour Tracing the Life and Art of Painter Vincent Van Gogh
done through the work of a fledgling – and unique European alliance called “Van Gogh Europe.” Any tourist can of course – if he or she have the time and means – to visit these sites: the Brabant region in southern Holland where he was born and grew up; a quarter of all his works are in the town museum at Neuenen, including his first masterpiece “The Potato Eaters.” To the north in Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum houses the world’s largest collection of his paintings, drawings and letters, folllowed by the KrollerMuller Museum in Otterlo with the secondlargest collection as well as a popular, attractive de sculpture garden. In Paris, after passing through Belgium’s former mining town of Mons, where in near by Borinage there are exhibits recalling his early life there and works there is the Orsay Museum with the world’s largest collection outside of Holland; south in Provence, similar to what is going on here in Auvers, the towns of Arles and Saint Remyde Provence have etablished programs of exhibits and walking or biking tours depicting his life and work where he lived – and just outside the latter town treated for recurring mental illness, reportedly psychotic epilepsy – prior to moving back north in May 1890. Pulling these sites together into an organized, coordinated package deal for tourists and particularly foreigners, will be no easy task, assuming that a market of this kind can be developed for European and American artloving visitors, particularly those interested in a detailed, indepth exposure to van Gogh’s past, and want to learn more firsthand. Yet this is what is being attempted by Holland’s Frank van den Eijnden, director of the Van Gogh Brabant museum, and chairman of Van Gogh Europe, a foundation created under Dutch law. “We are starting cooperation – between the Amsterdam, KrollerMuller, our and the Mons museums plus various institutions; including contacting the Orsay museum, plus Auvers and the other French towns,” he said in a phone interview, “and it’s true for the time being there are no combined (museumsite) entrance (price) possibilities, or wellcovered information packages about all van Goghrelated locations, but this our main goal.” Indeed, Mr. van den Eijnden said, he and his colleagues are “convincing partners, tour operators, museums and governments that the life of Vincent van Gogh needs a European approach in business development and (digitalized) promotion.” And he adds, “we are collecting the budget to make that possible in coming years.” A supporter and consultant to the Dutch Board of Tourisdm&Conventions, Max Schreuder, cited an example of a venture now underway – the Liberation Route Europe Foundation, commemorating with events and exhibits the route USled allied forces took in Western Europe and Poland between June 6, 1944 to May 1945 in defeating Nazi Germany; and which is cofounded by the European Union. I asked one of France’s leading art experts, Pierre Rosenberg, former president of the Louvre Museum in Paris, what he thought about the project. He noted that it sounded unique; and that several leading towns and regions in Italy have organized such tours, built around leading artists, going back to the early Renaissance, but they do not extend outside Italy. “This one sounds possible, as a unique European tourist venture, he said. Agreeing with a caveat, is a leading, seasoned, oneman American tour operator based in Paris who specializes in the US tourist market – Terrance Gelenter, who was on the press tour to Auvers. Building a European tour based on one wellknown painter “might work,” Gelenter said, but that to succeed on a large scale, it should aim at satisfying a major demand among savvy Americans considering a European tour. “Americans might well be attracted to van Gogh this way, but the paintingculture attraction it not enough, he said, describing himself as “an elevated concierge.” Americans also want “good food and entertainment.” In short, Van Gogh Europe, promising as it may be, still has a way to go. The European Commission, which has a long time mandate to promote tourism may eventually be able to provide funding, as it did for the Liberation project. And though the EU is still a long way from a unified market when it come to digital content ecommerce and and online services such as those related to tourism, a new, related initiatve has surfaced. According to the http://transatlanticmagazine.com/auniqueplanforaeuropeantourtracingthelifeandartofpaintervincentvangogh/
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A Unique Plan for a European Tour Tracing the Life and Art of Painter Vincent Van Gogh
International New York Times, Brussels lawmakers are introducing legislation Wednesday to create a single digital market for products and services across the 28nation bloc. That will take time to become reality, however, and gettng EU cofunding for a lot of projects requires the support of at least five member states. While Mr. van den Eijnden can count on his native Netherlands, Belgium, France and Britain, he is looking at others. “Unfortunately,” he commented, “Vincent didn’t ever move to Spain or Italy.” The following are some links to leads for those interested in learning move about the project: www.vangogheurope.eu www.vangoghmuseum.nl www.maisonvangogh.fr www.surlespasdevangogh.eu www.chateau.auvers.fr www.saintremdeprovence.com www.vangoghbrabant.com www.krollermuller.nl heidi@bureauheidvandamme.nl www.terrance@parisexpat.com Axel Krause is the Parisbased contributing editor of TransAtlantic Magazine, who previously over several decades covered Europe, the Soviet Union and the United States for Business Week Magazine and the International Herald Tribune. © 2015 TransAtlantic Magazine (http://transatlanticmagazine.com)
http://transatlanticmagazine.com/auniqueplanforaeuropeantourtracingthelifeandartofpaintervincentvangogh/
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