In The Footsteps Of Van Gogh In Provence

There are corners of the world that have been put right here to be painted. Bali. Greece. Tuscany. And south France. 

Wanting on the works of the artist Van Gogh in Provence, he clearly agreed.

Van Gogh stayed in Provence, France for a complete of 444 days in Provence, throughout which he would paint higher and
greater than at another time in his life: 187 work in Arles, and 142 in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. 

One in every of a number of “Sunflowers” painted by van Gogh. His first set was painted in Paris, however this can be a fourth model, painted in Arles in 1888

The story of Vincent van Gogh in Provence

Regardless of his planetary fame, Vincent van Gogh was not instantly predestined to be an artist. In actual fact, he got here dangerously near not turning into one.

When he lastly did begin portray, he was a dismal failure – or a minimum of that is how he noticed himself. He could not, in any case, even promote his work…

His eventual transfer to Provence would propel him into one in every of his most prolific phases, throughout which he would develop his brush strokes and use of color, bringing even larger mild to a area already graced with a lot. 

The 900 van Gogh Provence work would grow to be world-famous.

Vincent van Gogh – life earlier than Provence

Born within the Netherlands in 1853 to a superb household, he was a quiet little one who grew right into a looking younger man, attempting his hand as an artwork vendor (a typical occupation in his household), a Protestant pastor, a bookseller, and numerous odd jobs. 

He had at all times been occupied with artwork nevertheless it wasn’t till 1880, aged 27, that he took it up significantly, briefly attending artwork college. 

Discovering his love of portray did nothing for his private life, which might at all times be unsettled. The few occasions he did fall in love, the relationships have been both not possible or did not final. He was extra of a vagabond, unable to help himself, typically returning to reside at house together with his mother and father.

Even in his youth, he would exhibit the beginnings of the psychological points that will plague him all through life.

By 1883 he was portray extra commonly, however you’d have a tough time recognizing his work – darkish, gloomy, and bereft of the brightness and fervour we have come to like. His sole help was his brother Theo, with whom he would keep a wealthy correspondence all through his life.

Two Ladies on the Moor, a van Gogh painted in 1883, in colors vastly completely different from the late van Gogh type he would develop in Provence France

In 1886 he moved to Paris and his work grew to become brighter as he befriended different artists of the Belle Epoque. His type rapidly advanced – he was, in any case, surrounded by the likes of Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Pissarro, Signac…

A nasty cough – presumably linked to the overuse of alcohol and tobacco – demanded a greater local weather.

In February 1888, he deserted the greyness of Paris in winter and stepped foot on the soil of Provence, headed for Marseille.

However he fell in love with the Arlesian landscapes and by no means continued his journey.

It was a brand new starting. He would heal. He would paint. He would begin an artwork colony and collect all the perfect painters of the time. His artwork vendor brother, Theo, would promote all of the work, and every part can be advantageous.

TOUR PROVENCE IN VAN GOGH’S FOOTSTEPS

This glorious half-day tour begins in Avignon and visits the excessive factors of van Gogh’s life by the Provençal villages and cities of Arles, Saint Rémy de Provence, and Les Baux de Provence, to not point out passing by among the area’s most beautiful surroundings. Discover out extra right here!

Van Gogh in France: the Arles years

If you go to Arles, you will see van Gogh all over the place, whether or not you search for him or not.

You will see him within the café he immortalized in his portray, the Evening Café, now renamed Cafe van Gogh. You will see him on avenue names and outlets, museums and galleries. I could have even noticed a chocolate store bearing his identify.

The one factor you will not discover right here is an precise van Gogh portray. He could have painted Provence below all its kinds, however his work went elsewhere, to the Orsay, the Hermitage, the Met, the van Gogh museum in Amsterdam…

Van Gogh settled in rapidly and as soon as the unseasonably chilly spell had handed, he started portray, first at evening, after which, as spring took maintain, he captured the blossoming timber and peasant farmers, all below the Provençal sunshine.

He visited different painters. They visited him. And his dream of an artwork colony would possibly, simply would possibly, be inside attain.

Van Gogh and Gauguin in Arles

After which there was Paul Gauguin.

It seems brother Theo could have twisted Gauguin’s arm however regardless of the motivation,
van Gogh persuaded Gauguin to return.

He agreed to go to van Gogh in Arles and grow to be concerned in his artist colony scheme.
Develop into its dean, in reality.

Van Gogh started working adorning a room for Gauguin within the Yellow Home the place he lived,
producing a set of “Sunflowers”, modest then, however among the many world’s most coveted and
costly work as we speak.

All of it went completely. They positioned their easels facet by facet, portray their means by
Arles and environs. They impressed each other, ate and drank absinthe collectively, explored brothels collectively. 

Van Gogh rented 4 rooms on this “Yellow Home” at 2, Place Lamartine, the place Gauguin additionally lived throughout his keep in Arles. The home not stands, badly broken throughout World Conflict II and finally razed

However this idyll solely lasted two months.

It might have been that Gauguin was domineering and unwilling to deal with van Gogh as an equal, and after a couple of peaceable months, their friendship went irretrievably downhill. It might have been attributable to rising variations of their inventive kinds and visions, or an excessive amount of absinthe, recognized to provide hallucinations. Add van Gogh’s self-doubt to the combo and the concoction was certain to grow to be explosive.

Which will get us to the ear.

How did van Gogh lose his ear?

It is a story we have all heard, however there are many gray areas.

Nobody actually is aware of what occurred, and we now have many conjectures – and clues.

What’s possible is that Gauguin had determined to depart Arles, and van Gogh was distraught. He might really feel his dream of an artwork colony ebbing…

Or there could have been cash concerned, maybe a mortgage from Gauguin to brother Theo.

Or but once more, van Gogh could have been knowledgeable of Theo’s impending marriage and feeling the ache and worry of abandonment.

What IS recognized is that simply earlier than Christmas, on 23 December, van Gogh had a psychological breakdown.

He and Gauguin fought after an absinthe-fuelled night on the café. A glass was thrown and van Gogh could have gone after Gauguin with a razor. What’s recognized is that Gauguin rapidly disappeared, quickly leaving city.

When van Gogh returned to his room, he apparently heard voices, grabbed a razor (except he nonetheless had it from his earlier altercation) and minimize his ear off. Or his earlobe, nobody is aware of for positive.

Or perhaps he did not. Possibly Gauguin did it accidentally and van Gogh coated it as much as shield Gauguin from going to jail.

It’s even mentioned van Gogh severed his ear by accident whereas shaving, throughout an epileptic seizure.

Van Gogh painted this self-portrait a month after he minimize his ear. He harm his left ear however his proper one is portrayed right here – he painted from his picture within the mirror

Regardless of the trigger, the ear (or a part of it) got here off, and van Gogh inexplicably appears to have given it to a cleansing girl in a brothel, asking her to “guard it”. He then returned to his rooms and promptly fainted, maybe from blood loss, earlier than being found by a policeman the following morning, his head wrapped in a bloody towel, presumably arrested, and eventually taken to hospital.

His neighbours have been satisfied he was loopy.

He remembered nothing.

The ear would by no means be reattached, van Gogh would undergo a extreme psychological breakdown, and Gauguin would get out of city as quick as he might. They by no means noticed each other once more, though they did be in contact.

The following few months noticed an alternation of lucidity and hallucinations, with a number of extra breakdowns so carrying that van Gogh finally checked himself (some say was introduced) into what was then known as a psychological asylum, Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, within the close by city of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.

However earlier than we run off to Saint-Rémy, we now have a little bit of unfinished enterprise in Arles.

Areas of probably the most well-known van Gogh work in Arles

Many of those occasions in van Gogh’s life have been punctuated by work, his moods and inspiration sweeping excessive or sinking low together with his feelings.

Strolling round Arles in his footsteps is a sluggish discovery of the artist, an unwrapping of kinds. Put together to be enchanted. However first, drop by the Vacationer Workplace to seize a map (or obtain it in PDF from their web site).

You will be guided to those stops, and plenty of extra. 

Café “Le Soir”, The Evening Café

The identify of this café is complicated. It has been known as the Café du Discussion board, or the Café de la Nuit, or the Café Terrasse – the final two in all probability being fallacious and easily referring to translations of the identify of the portray.

Through the Nineties it was renovated to look identical to his portray, and has since been aptly renamed Café van Gogh.

Van Gogh cherished portray at evening: “I typically suppose the evening is extra alive and extra richly colored than the day”, he mentioned.

What’s uncommon right here is the preparatory drawing, which he typically skipped, preferring to color what he noticed straight. Typically, his drawings can be included within the letters he wrote to his brother.

He additionally averted utilizing the color black, believing the evening had loads of colors he might use as an alternative, richer colors than the day, even.

Starry Evening over the Rhône

We’re all aware of his portray “Starry Evening”, which might quickly be painted in Saint-Rémy, however earlier than it got here Starry Evening Over the Rhône, which he painted in Arles.

My very own not-very-well-lit shot of Starry Evening Over the Rhône from its place on the wall of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris

Van Gogh cherished to color at evening, and the clear skies of Provence did not deny him that pleasure, however his love of color made portray at evening more difficult.

Additionally, merely put, it was more durable to see.

He apparently devised some ingenious work-arounds. Some say he lined the brim of his straw hat with candles, having modified his hat to take action (undoubtedly not one thing we should always attempt ourselves). One other account has him writing to his brother about utilizing a “gasoline jet”, so whereas he did handle his masterpieces below the starlight, we’re not fairly positive what assist he had.

For those who observe the van Gogh path map, you can also stand the place Vincent painted this, the spot marked by one of many many explanatory metallic easels arrange by town to assist information you.

That is the view, as we speak, though the pink lights have been there just for the Arles photograph pageant and are actually gone. 

The Area

Van Gogh was fascinated by the Arles Area, or Amphitheater, one of the vital spectacular remnants of the Roman civilization that dominated Provence two millennia in the past. 

The Area was used for blood sports activities then, and it’s now, the principal venue for the bullfighting that is still a convention on this a part of France.

However van Gogh was extra within the within the folks than within the bulls… So that is what he painted.

Watching a bullfight within the Area would depart an enduring impression on him – some even say his ear incident could have been prompted by witnessing the customized of reducing off a bull’s ear after the competitors.

Simply one other chance…

Les Alyscamps

The Alyscamps is a Roman necropolis, crammed with sarcophagi the place they as soon as put the lifeless to relaxation.

As I walked down the tree-shaded path, I might see how van Gogh would have been taken by his environment, and the way not that a lot would have modified since he walked by right here.

This portray is one in every of a set of Les Alyscamps, and likewise one of many earliest works he painted after the arrival of Gauguin to go to him in Arles, a masterpiece he thought of the product of a deep collaboration.

Right here is Gauguin’s imaginative and prescient of Les Alyscamps

The Alyscamps, as we speak

Langlois Bridge, aka Van Gogh Bridge

The bridge is not the place it was when he painted it – town moved it to a different location, however it’s utterly seen, a few kilometers from city, as you head in direction of the Camargue and the salt flats, trying very very similar to the bridge painted by van Gogh.

The bridge because it was when van Gogh was in Arles

The bridge as van Gogh noticed it

The bridge as we speak

Different van Gogh places in Arles

The map will take you to a lot of different spots the place van Gogh painted, a few of them well-known, a few of them stunning.

Past his portray venues, there’s extra to see in Arles for van Gogh aficionados.

The Vincent van Gogh Basis (Fondation van Gogh Arles) displays a number of works of the artwork of van Gogh annually as a part of its non permanent displays, however equally vital, it explores – by different artists – the painter’s affect on the world of artwork. It isn’t fairly the colony van Gogh had imagined, however a homage and becoming tribute.

The Espace van Gogh (Arles) is the place the artist was dedicated after the well-known ear episode. He painted the courtyard gardens which have been restored to look precisely how they did when he painted them in “Le Jardin de l’Hôtel-Dieu”. One of many many factors alongside the route stops right here. Nowadays it homes municipal places of work, an exhibition venue and a memento store.

And now, on to Saint-Rémy, the place he spent the remainder of his time in Provence.

Van Gogh in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence

Van Gogh would keep in Saint-Rémy for a 12 months, a turbulent interval of alternating genius and psychological relapses that will gasoline ever extra spectacular artwork.

He was allowed out to color, so he mined his environment with a vengeance, first his room, then the view from the window, and shortly the canvases would rapidly succeed each other – wheat fields, cypresses, olive timber, the Alpilles hill past.

A few of the most well-known work of van Gogh would come from his keep in Saint-Rémy.

Irises

Starry Evening, presumably among the many most well-known work by Vincent van Gogh, Saint Rémy de Provence

In a wierd bout of synchronicity, as van Gogh’s days in Saint-Rémy wound down, his fame would develop. He nonetheless felt a failure and ideas of suicide could have been frequent, however the remainder of the artwork world was starting to take observe.

Nonetheless, his fame and fortune would solely be posthumous, and he wouldn’t reside to understand it. He finally left in Might 1890, transferring to Auvers, close to Paris, nonetheless below medical supervision and nonetheless struggling.

Exhausted and pushed past his limits, he wandered off into a well-recognized wheatfield on 27 July and shot himself within the chest. He survived two days earlier than succumbing, a tragic finish to one of many biggest inventive geniuses of all time.

A visit to the asylum

Visiting Saint-Paul-de-Mausole offers a tiny glimpse into van Gogh’s life and later years by his work of Provence.

A small museum has tried to seize a few of his day by day sights by reconstructing his bed room to look precisely because it was when he was a affected person right here.

It is all right here: his bed room, the view from his window, the backyard behind the hospital, the fields and Alpilles mountains past.

Van Gogh’s bed room at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole

The day I visited, I might hear screams within the distance. At first I believed they have been the grinding of some electrical machine, however they have been human, and it took me a second to understand the institution nonetheless acquired psychological sufferers, and that I used to be in all probability witnessing a tough episode.

It is simply that generally, the work of van Gogh eclipses his psychological imbalance and we virtually overlook that his genius got here at such a excessive value.

I used the monastery as a place to begin for the Van Gogh Route the city of Saint-Rémy has arrange, with prints of his work and explanations alongside a 1.5km path that leads from the monastery to the middle of city, or vice-versa. (You possibly can obtain the van Gogh itinerary in PDF from the Vacationer Workplace right here.)

Following in his footsteps, I attempted to see the environment by his eyes, however the surroundings appeared far flatter and fewer energetic than his work depicted.

That is to be anticipated: I haven’t got his eye, and the place I noticed an on a regular basis panorama, he noticed brilliance and vitality and scintillation. I additionally visited in winter, when the wheat fields hadn’t grown but and the greenery was nonetheless ready to blow up.

For instance:

Olive Timber

Additionally in Saint-Rémy

As was the case in Arles, the city of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence has accomplished its greatest to spotlight the artist’s legacy.

After which begin following the trail that takes you thru the van Gogh easels, all 19 of
them.

Past the route of his work you’ll be able to observe, cease by the Musée Estrine, with an interpretation middle designed that will help you higher perceive the work of van Gogh.

Your go to by Arles and Saint-Rémy can be suffused with the spirit of van Gogh, however
as his work unfurl earlier than you, you would possibly simply marvel, how can a lot mild and
magnificence burst forth from such an sad soul? 

FAQ about Vincent van Gogh

The place was Vincent van Gogh born?

In Groot Zundert, Netherlands, within the southern a part of the nation close to the Belgian
border. 

Was Vincent van Gogh French?

The nationality of Vincent van Gogh was Dutch, however he lived in France a number of years. 

Did van Gogh go to artwork college?

He could have briefly attended the École des Beaux-Artwork in Brussels, however that is still
unsure. He additionally studied, fairly informally, with a widely known painter, however no, he’s
principally self-taught. 

What number of work did van Gogh paint?

Greater than 900 work, and a few 1100 drawings, for a complete of greater than 2000 works
of artwork. 

How lengthy did van Gogh paint?

Just for 10 years. He began on the age of 27, and died at 37. 

Did Vincent van Gogh have a spouse?

No, he was by no means married, though he proposed to 3 girls, who all turned him
down. 

The place did van Gogh reside?

In 4 completely different international locations: Netherlands (the place he was born), England, Belgium, and
France. This cool interactive map has all of it. 

The place did van Gogh paint Starry Evening?

In Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, whereas he was a affected person on the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-
Mausole. 

Did van Gogh minimize his ear off?

Sure he did, or a minimum of a part of his ear. The circumstances round it have at all times remained
murky. 

How did van Gogh die?

After leaving Provence, van Gogh moved to Auvers, a village close to Paris. Sadly, he was In
the spring of 1890, Van Gogh left Provence for a village close to Paris known as Auvers. Sadly,
his keep in an asylum hadn’t cured his psychological sickness and in July, he shot himself, dying
two days later. 

The place are you able to see van Gogh’s work?

They’re held in museums everywhere in the world, in addition to in personal collections. Here’s a record of the prime 10 van Gogh work and the place you could find them.

You may as well delve extra deeply into the artist and his works at vincentvangogh.org

—Pictures of France ©OffbeatFrance; pictures of Van Gogh’s work courtesy Wikipedia.

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