Monday, April 17, 2017

Van Gogh at St. Remy - A Sampling

Vincent Van Gogh, one of the most famous Post-Impressionist painters of all time, spent one year at the Saint-Paul Asylum in St. Remy, France towards the end of his life in 1889. After cutting off his own ear and suffering a mental breakdown, he admitted himself to the Asylum in hopes of recovery and newfound creative genius. During his time there, he painted over one hundred works of the landscape, buildings, and local residents, sometimes looking out from his asylum window, in “plein air,” and even inside. His year there proved to be one of the most successful time periods for him as an artist, creating many works that are still considered famous to this day. 
The following curation is a collection of six of these paintings, inspired by a study of his famous Wheatfield with Cypresses, and it demonstrates both the productivity and vibrancy of his time in St. Remy. The objects in this curation lend towards Van Gogh’s fond, pleasant feelings regarding the outdoor landscape, as well as his inclusion of the vibrancy of these feelings in his indoor paintings. One may think that his impression of the Asylum would be stark, lonely, and trapped, but instead Van Gogh ingeniously carries over the same bright color pallet, liveliness of brush strokes, and sense of movement with which he displays St. Remy’s landscapes. The following pieces go in order from outdoor landscapes (broader to a narrower perspective) and then to the final indoor piece from Saint Paul’s asylum. 

Artwork of Inspiration:
Wheatfield with Cypresses by Van Gogh (September 1889) 
Oil on canvas, Met 1993.132


This painting is one of Van Gogh’s most famous pieces, and it is part of a series of paintings on cypress trees. In this work, he displays the fluidity and vitality of the natural world through his broad sweeping brushstrokes in the sky and the small, bending details in the wheat. Even the mountains in the background appear to be transient and bubbling up from the ground, further highlighting Van Gogh’s interest nature as living and active. This piece is the central inspiration for the following curation, because it nicely frames Van Gogh’s paintings at St. Remy and provides as piece to return to throughout the process of viewing the curation.


Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh (June 1889)
Oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art


Painted in the heat of summer, this famous work displays the dramatic movement and beauty of the French night sky. Van Gogh mirrors the swirling movement of the stars and clouds with his short, quick brushstrokes and layered paint, and he highlights the vitality of nature, even in the dark of night, through his use of bright color pallet. Starry Night contributes to the theme of vitality in this curation, as well as further displays Van Gogh’s fascination with landscapes and his series on cypresses.



Mountainous Landscape Behind Saint-Paul Hospital by Van Gogh (June 1889)
Oil on canvas, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark.


Van Gogh draws the viewer’s eyes towards the activity of the wind in this painting by making the grass look like it is bending and twisting, and the clouds as if they are coming forth over the mountains. Through this, he again highlights the vitality and dramatic beauty of nature, specifically through the field and clouds. He also stabilizes this painting with the strong, firm mountains in the background, though they, too, appear to be simply sketched onto the canvas, as compared to the detailed brushwork of the field. This landscape is located directly behind the Asylum and was a common location for many of Van Gogh’s paintings.



Field with Poppies by Van Gogh (June 1889)
Oil on canvas, Kunsthalle Bremen Museum


This piece displays less movement in the natural world than Van Gogh’s other works and more variation in his color pallet. The parallel rows of crops create a sense of eternity in the landscape, and the small shrubs and tall cypress trees provide a sense of boundary and grounding around the fields. Van Gogh emphasizes the importance of the small yet colorful poppies that are spread throughout the painting, revealing that even the smallest parts of nature are vital for life and beauty. This painting also goes along with his theme of cypresses while at St. Remy, and further reveals his interest in nature as being something that is productive through agriculture.



Olive Trees by Van Gogh (1889)
Oil on canvas, Met 1998.325.1


While at first this work may not appear to be displaying the vitality of the natural world, at second glance it does. The olive trees look as if they are shimmying up into the seemingly polka dotted sky, and the earth appears to be wrinkling upwards from the foreground. Van Gogh’s unique use of small, dot-like brush strokes gives this painting a different feel than his others that are typically painted with broad brushstrokes, yet it still displays the same theme. The light contrasts in the sky bring out the more stark contrasts in the olive trees, just as with his cypresses against the night sky in Starry Night. Van Gogh painted another series on olive trees, paralleling his series on cypress trees, and this is one of the first of that series.


Cypresses by Vincent Van Gogh (1889) 
Oil on canvas, Met 49.30


This work is one of the most prominent in Van Gogh’s series on cypresses during his time at St. Remy. The focus of this painting is clearly the two twin cypress trees, as they take up the majority of the picture plane, yet they are supported in their starkness and firmness by the contrasting wispy, insubstantial, twirling clouds. Though the cypresses are symbols of death, the brightness and visible movement in the surrounding landscape bring a sense of bold life to this painting, going along with Van Gogh’s theme of nature’s vitality.


Corridor in the Asylum by Van Gogh (September 1889) 
Oil color and essence over black chalk on pink laid paper, Met 49.190.2


When first looking at this work, the viewer may feel somewhat trapped and claustrophobic because of the narrow tunnel vision perspective in which Van Gogh is painting. However, with further examination, the viewer will actually begin to feel more free and alive, almost as if he is no longer indoors, because of the warm and bright color pallet Van Gogh uses. As well, the diagonal lines and high arches, though stone and concrete in reality, create a sense of dynamic movement and shifting inside this hallway of the Asylum. Van Gogh brings in the drama, vitality, color contrasts, and beauty of the outdoor world inside in a unique and inspiring way.

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