Conversations with Van Gogh by Vincent Van Gogh & Simon Parke

Author:Vincent Van Gogh & Simon Parke [Van Gogh, Vincent]
Format: epub
Tags: L'Arlesienne, Absinthe, The Sower, Still Life with Absinthe, Anton Mauve, Sunflowers, The Potato Eaters, Goupil and Cie's gallery, Portrait of Pere Tanguy, Ramsgate, Dutch painter, Joseph Roulin (The Postman), Dordrecht, Daubigny's Garden, At Eternity's Gate, Irises, Nuenen, Art Institue of Chicago, Cuesmes, The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Modern art, Portrait of Dr Gachet, White House at Night, The Round of the Prisoners, Emile Bernard, Van Gogh's Chair, Paul Gauguin - The Painter of Sunflowers, The Hague, The Starry Night, Bedroom in Arles, Theo van Gogh, Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, at Night, Post Impressionaist art, Vincent William van Gogh, Arles
Publisher: White Crow Productions Ltd
Published: 2010-02-26T00:00:00+00:00

EIGHT

Paris

According to Theo, Vincent’s stay in Paris was a frustrating time. He met many fine artists; but also felt thwarted. ‘In Paris,’ said Theo, ‘Vincent saw many things he wished to paint, but was always denied the opportunity. The models wouldn’t pose for him; he was forbidden to work in the streets and because of his violent temper, there were continual incidents. In time, he became completely unapproachable and in the end, became heartily sick of Paris.’

So this was Theo’s verdict. But would Vincent’s memories be the same?

SP: What was your experience of Paris?

V: The first time I saw it, I felt, above all, the miseries that one cannot wave away, any more than the smell of the sickness in the hospital, however clean it may be kept.

SP: Not a pleasant image. Is the smell that bad?

V: I think the country air has an enormous effect. In this very street in Auvers, there are youngsters who were born in Paris and were really sickly – who, however, are doing well now.

SP: But you also saw another side to the city?

V: I later gained an understanding of it as a hotbed of ideas, and saw how the people tried to get everything out of life that could possibly be in it.

SP: So how does it compare to other cities, for you were well-travelled by this time?

V: Other cities shrink by comparison, as it is as big as the sea.

SP: And you didn’t miss the countryside?

V: One always leaves a whole piece of life behind there. And this is certain: nothing is fresh in Paris!

SP: The ideas were fresher than the vegetables?

V: That’s why, when one comes from there, one finds a mass of excellent things elsewhere. But Paris is beautiful in the autumn. And Notre Dame is absolutely beautiful in the evening among the chestnut trees.

SP: I agree.

V: There’s something in Paris that’s even more beautiful, though, than the autumn and the churches.

SP: And what’s that?

V: The poor people there.

SP: Ah.

V: I sometimes think of many a person there, London and Paris. I’ve loved so much about those two cities. I think back on them with a feeling of nostalgia.

SP: But in Paris your attitude to marriage changed.

V: I felt myself losing the desire for marriage and children, yes, and at times was quite melancholy to be like that at 35, when I ought to have felt quite differently.

SP: And did that affect your painting? It seems you began to be more adventurous with colour at that time.

V: The year before, I’d painted almost nothing but flowers, so as to get used to colours other than grey – colours like pink, soft or bright green, light blue, violet, yellow, orange, glorious red.

SP: But why the change then?

V: Regarding myself as a deteriorating little old man, I suppose I attempted pictures in which there was some youth and freshness, even though my own youth was one of the things I’d lost.

SP: So there you were, a fit man of 35, suddenly feeling old and a man beyond love – what was happening to you?

V: I sometimes blamed this damn painting.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.