Van Gogh Blog » Van Gogh Letters

The Potato Eaters

Sonya — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:57:14 +0000

One of Van Gogh’s famous earliest works is The Potato Eaters. What many people do not realize, though, is that not only did Van Gogh do more than one painting of The Potato Eaters, but he also did studies, drawings, sketches and graphic works of this subject. Van Gogh spent a great deal of time working on perfecting The Potato Eaters as he hoped it would be his breakthrough painting.

In April of 1885, Van Gogh was living in Nuenen and was working on The Potato Eaters when he wrote the following to his brother Theo,

“I want to tell you that I am working on the potato eaters, and I have painted new studies of the heads; the hands especially are greatly changed.

What I am trying to do most is to bring life into it.”

Later in the month he again wrote to his brother Theo about the painting stating,

“Though the actual painting will have been completed in a comparatively short time, and largely from memory, it has taken a whole winter of painting studies of heads and hands.”

Van Gogh experimented with color and was still learning painting techniques. His goal was to not only improve as a painter, but in this work in particular to capture the true peasant life. In the same letter he went on to say,

“The point is that I’ve tried to bring out the idea that these people eating potatoes by the light of their lamp have dug the earth with the self-same hands they are now putting into the dish, and it thus suggests manual labour and – a meal honestly earned.”

Today one of Van Gogh’s paintings of The Potato Eaters can be seen at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The other painting of The Potato Eaters is located at the, Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, The Netherlands.

Find more information about The Potato Eaters.

View more of Van Gogh’s Potato Eater works below:

Letters Source:
http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/15/404.htm

http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/15/403.htm

Van Gogh’s Harvest

Sonya — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:37:27 +0000

This time of year, we celebrate the harvest and reap the benefits of the year’s hard work. Van Gogh frequently wrote about harvest time in his letters, and he often compared the harvest season to his own work and how he would someday get back all that he put into it. In a letter to his brother Theo from September 9, 1882 he wrote:

“I wish you could walk here some evening in this splendid autumn wood. What I bring back from it this year will be just a scanty harvest. However, I hope to bring a few things, and in time it will grow more and more.”

Van Gogh also appreciated the beauty of harvest time and became wrapped up in nature and absorbing the changes taking place around him. On September 19 of 1882, he wrote the following to his brother Theo,

“Sometimes I long for harvest time, that is, for the time when I shall be so imbued with the study of nature that I myself can create something in a picture.”

By the spring of 1883, Van Gogh was referring to his studies as the seeds from which he would grow great works. He used this metaphor in a letter to his brother Theo when stating,

“Well, the main thing for me to do now is to see to it that the quality of the seed (namely the drawings themselves) improves; it may take more time, but if the harvest is better for it, I am satisfied – I always have my eye on that harvest.”

Van Gogh did master drawing and, it was this skill that in turn helped him to produce great paintings as well such as the ones below which he harvested only a few years later.

Letters Source:

http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/11/229.htm
http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/11/233.htm
http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/12/277.htm

The Legacy of Van Gogh

Sonya — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:20:33 +0000

On the anniversary of his death, we remember Vincent van Gogh and the impact that he has had on the world. From giving us a wealth of masterpieces like his sunflowers, irises and wheat field paintings, not to mention Starry Night, to shaping the world of art, Van Gogh’s impression is a lasting one. Little did the artist who only sold one painting during his lifetime know that he would go on to inspire countless other artists, to be immortalized in hit songs and have his life story made into numerous films. Continuing to create works of great beauty even when it may have seemed that few were interested in seeing them took passion, courage and dedication. Although often inspired by other painters, Van Gogh was more interested in capturing the world around him as he saw it. In a letter to his brother Theo from July 21, 1882, Vincent wrote,

“It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to…. The feeling for the things themselves, for reality, is more important than the feeling for pictures.”

In addition to depicting his world in paintings and drawings, yet another reason that so many feel connected to Van Gogh today is in the pictures he painted with words. The hundreds of letters Van Gogh wrote that have been preserved act as a window into the life of an artist and a period in history when art was changing dramatically. His letters not only catalog the day to day, but are also filled with poignant passages on life. Knowing his story though his words gives even more meaning to the work that he created, his development as an artist, and who he was as a person. Vincent van Gogh remains one of the most recognized artists in history and undoubtedly his legacy will continue to inspire generations for years to come.

Letters Source:
http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/11/218.htm

Dr. Gachet

Sonya — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 20:37:08 +0000

Dr. Paul Gachet was Vincent’s doctor during the last few months of his life. Gachet treated Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise the small town just outside Paris where Van Gogh was living. Working in Paris, Gachet knew many of Van Gogh’s contemporaries including Renoir, Manet, Cezanne and Pissarro. In fact, it was Pissarro who recommended Gachet to Vincent’s brother Theo. In a letter from March 29, 1890, Theo wrote to Vincent:

“I am very happy to be able to tell you that I met Dr. Gachet, that physician Pissarro mentioned to me. He gives the impression of being a man of understanding. Physically he is a little like you. As soon as you come here we are going to see him; he comes to Paris several times a week for consultations. When I told him how your crisis came about, he said to me that he didn’t believe it had anything to do with madness, and that if it was what he thought he could guarantee your recovery, but that it was necessary for him to see you and to speak with you in order to be able to make a more definite statement.”

Two months later after meeting Gachet in person, Vincent wrote to Theo with his impressions of the doctor, and seemed concerned with Gachet’s own mental stability:

“I have seen Dr. Gachet, who made the impression on me of being rather eccentric, but his experience as a doctor must keep him balanced while fighting the nervous trouble from which he certainly seems to me to be suffering at least as seriously as I.”

In the same letter he later wrote:

“I really think that I shall go on being friends with him and that I shall do his portrait. Then he said that I must work boldly on, and not think at all of what went wrong with me.”

In the new book Leaving Van Gogh: A Novel, recently published by Spiegel & Grau, author Carol Wallace writes about the last two months of Van Gogh’s life and his time with Gachet. The novel is narrated by Dr. Gachet and explores the connection between Van Gogh and Gachet. Read more information and news about the book Leaving Van Gogh.

Letters Source:
Letter from Theo to Vincent, March 29, 1890
Letter from Vincent to Theo, May 20, 1890

Van Gogh Book – Conversations with Vincent Van Gogh

Sonya — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 14:07:09 +0000

If you could ask Vincent van Gogh one question, what would it be? Author Simon Parke takes this approach in his recent book Conversations with Vincent Van Gogh as he interviews Van Gogh asking questions about his family, his life and his work. We recently had the pleasure of reading this book as well as listening to the audio book Conversations with Vincent Van Gogh. Unlike other Van Gogh biographies, this book is unique in that Van Gogh’s responses in the conversation are taken directly from passages in the letters he wrote to his brother Theo and others throughout his life. And although Van Gogh died 120 years ago, the dialogue between Parke and Van Gogh make it feel as if he were alive today. The book brings the reader’s attention to not only the talent, as is common, but the humanity of the man who lived his life “sorrowful but rejoicing.”

The audio recording, narrated by Andy Havill and Simon Parke, puts the listener in the same room with both Van Gogh and Parke and gives life to Van Gogh’s words. Hearing the voice with Van Gogh’s Dutch accent, as created by the reader, makes the conversation seem even more realistic as if it was taken from one of today’s talk shows. Both informative and entertaining, this book provides unique insight into the life of one of the greatest artists who ever lived. Conversations with Vincent Van Gogh is available from White Crow Books; read more about it here:

http://whitecrowbooks.com/books/page/conversations_with_vincent_van_gogh/