4th February 2022 Dr Beena
Hello guys. This painting by Vincent Willem van Gogh is world-famous. I have always been fascinated by his paintings as they appear ethereal. Of course, mine is a class artwork, and it is personalised with Zara, Mika and me enjoying Starry Night by van Gogh.
Let us move on to van Gogh. He came from an upper-middle-class family but faced considerable challenges in life. He was an art dealer before venturing into being an artist. In a decade, he painted 2,100 art pieces. His earlier work was more of an impressionist style. But later, he adopted Pointillism into his work, which became his signature style. Very few artists admired or endorsed his art when he was alive. As he was not successful commercially, he went into depression, alcoholism and altercations with fellow artists. He cut his ear after an argument with Paul Gauguin. Gauguin believed in abstractions, while Van Gogh believed in painting from nature. His depression continued, and he ended his life by shooting himself at 37. His last words to his brother Theo were, ” The sadness will last forever”.
He painted many of his most famous paintings, including the Starry night series when he was in a mental asylum in Saint Remy de Provence. It was the view from the basement studio window. The brightest star to the right of the cypress tree is Venus. He was fascinated with cypress trees and brought them to life. He considered this painting as a failure! Many historians have made certain conclusions about this painting and his mental health.
I want to discuss this further. Unfortunately, van Gogh never knew what the future would be. If only a crystal ball would tell his fortune, his art would one day be the most expensive in the world, and he would have a museum dedicated to his art in Amsterdam. Then maybe, he would not have produced such art😊. Of course, his psychiatric treatment may have been inadequate for him to lead an everyday life in those days. He was called the red-headed madman and a failure.
Even after a century, it is not very different. You don’t fit in with the expected norm; you are labelled. Such labels cause prolonged psychological trauma and may need psychological support. I did not know much about van Gogh till I was asked to do this painting. I have now realised that time has stood still since then. Vincent van Gogh will have the last laugh😊. That was heavy stuff, but I felt the need to write about the unfairness in the world, which never ceases to surprise me.
4 thoughts on “van Gogh”
Don’t paint too many originals Beena – create supply chain problem for your work 😁
Hi don’t think I did many originals:). I have no worries about supply chain issues too:).
Dear Beena,
First of all, I want to let you how that I really like you and the girls entering the painting. I push the thought further saying that you did not quite enter an imaginary world, although it was Vincent’s vision; you somehow sat yourself where I spent so many school days off. I do love Camargue and I feel so much for this man to have spent his time there in an asylum cell with left only the power (however extraordinary) to imagine and paint his beautiful visions. I will have to check if the asylum is still there, in St.Remy.
Annie, thanks for sharing your experience. I so badly wanted to write this story as I felt Vincent’s pain being there in his basement with only the view from his window. Yea, life is never easy for those whose work never gets appreciated and that was my main intention to write this piece. It will be great to know if that asylum still exists at least for history, not anything else. But his creativity flowed due to his confinement there. Not sure if he could have produced such pieces otherwise:(.