The Van Gogh Gallery Blog

I recently received another inquiry about some drawings owned by a Van Gogh Gallery visitor. The four drawings shown were sent to me with the following inquiry:

“I purchased 4 pencil drawings some years back at a flea market. They aren’t signed but 3 different museums have said that they are late 1800’s and look to possibly be Van Gogh. I wanted to send you three pictures. Two are pencil drawings and one is a faint sketch on the back of a drawing. “

Our reader would like to get any feedback on these drawings, so if you recognize any of them as being drawn by a particular artist, whether it is Van Gogh or someone else, please share your expert opinions with us. We would love to learn more about these pieces. Please comment and share your thoughts.
 
  

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Recently, a photo of Vincent van Gogh has been the topic of many discussions surrounding Van Gogh.  The photo can be seen on VanGoghFoto.com where it states that it has been proven to be a photo of Vincent van Gogh from 1886.  The photo is also in the book by Ken Wilkie The Van Gogh File, the Myth and The Man.  While there are known images of Van Gogh’s family members, there are very few of Van Gogh himself especially as an adult.  Since this is thought to be one of the few photos of Van Gogh, we would love to get your opinion about the photo and whether or not you think it resembles the likeness he captured in so many of his self portraits such as these.  Comment and share your thoughts.

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We have had some recent inquiries about Van Gogh’s vision and how it influenced his art work. Van Gogh’s vision problems could be attributed to several factors. It is thought that Van Gogh suffered from lead poisoning from all of the lead-based paints that he used. One of the symptoms of lead poisoning is swelling of the retinas which can cause one to see light in circles like halos around objects. This can be seen in paintings like The Starry Night.

Van Gogh also suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy and was thought to have been treated by his doctor, Dr. Gachet, with a drug called digitalis. Digitalis comes from the foxglove plant and can be seen laying in front of Dr. Gachet in Van Gogh’s Portrait of Doctor Gachet. This drug can cause one to see in yellow or see yellow spots which could explain Van Gogh’s consistent use of the color yellow in his later works.

To learn more about the different theories on Van Gogh’s vision and how it influenced his work check out “Colored visions? – The pharmacological history of Van Gogh” from New Science Magazine or learn more about Van Gogh’s health.

We recently received a request for more information about Van Gogh’s painting La Mousmé, Sitting and the specifically the meaning of La Mousmé in English. According to The National Gallery of Art website, La Mousmé “came from a character in a popular novel set in Japan. ‘A mousmé is a Japanese girl-Provençal in this case-twelve to fourteen years old.’” For more information please see the National Gallery of Art’s description of La Mousmé. If you have more information about this painting, or a question about another painting, please feel free to comment.  I will do my best to help you find out more about it. I will also share any items of interest that I come across, so that everyone may benefit.

We have had several inquiries recently about the paintings described in the first stanza of Don McLean’s hit song “Vincent.”  The Van Gogh Gallery has a Starry, Starry Night page that breaks down the lyrics and names paintings that are referenced in the song.  However, we have not broken down the song line by line and associated each with a particular painting.  With almost 900 paintings in Van Gogh’s collection, it may be hard to say which paintings, if any in particular, are being referred to specifically in the song.  If you would like to offer your ideas on which paintings are being referred to, you can access the complete Van Gogh Catalog on the Van Gogh Gallery, or view the interactive Van Gogh Book which chronicles some of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings.  We would like to thank Unidev for doing the custom software development for these sections of the site.  After you have had a chance to view his vast collection, please feel free to comment with your thoughts on which paintings you think best match the lyrics.