Famous Paintings Reviewed

More Famous Paintings by van Gogh

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An art history blog post from Famous Paintings Reviewed.

Crowds swarmed around the Hermitage's famous paintings by van Gogh -  and with good reason.  Many of these art paintings seldom leave this art museum, and they are jewels in its collection of European paintings.

Unlike famous paintings in most art museums, the Hermitage's are

seldom behind plexiglass or glass, and proximity to them isn't impeded by alarms, ropes, or stanchions. Or even guards.  This seeming breach of security would be disquieting in any museum, but it's particularly so in the Hermitage -- in 1985 Rembrandt's Danae was slashed with a knife and splashed with sulfuric acid by a man later deemed insane; traces of the acid still lightly mar this famous artwork.

Nonetheless, it is remarkable to have such unfettered access to art paintings like Memory of the Garden at Etten (Women in Arles), one of the art paintings van Gogh made after relocating to Arles. Remarkably,he was prolific there in spite of his untreated mental illness.  Memory of the Garden is a patchwork of decorative areas of color; the frenzied, hurried brushwork is jarring against the stoicism of the women, but simulataneously appears intentionally applied.  The paint is applied in varying densities across the canvas -- on the white and yellow mums it is 3/8" thick - making a rolling, rippling texture.  It's an extraordinary painting to view so closely.

Vincent van Gogh.  Thatched Cottages, 1890.  Oil on canvas, approx. 22" x 27".  Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

In the spring of 1890, van Gogh relocated to Auvers-sur-Oise, a town north of Paris, and began treatment with the psychiatrist Dr. Paul Gachet (who became a model for van Gogh, like so many others close to the painter). Van Gogh enjoyed his most prolific period during what would become the final months of his life, completing an astonishing 70 art paintings in as many days.  From Auvers, he wrote to his sister:

Vincent van Gogh.  White House, June, 1890.  Oil on canvas.  Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

There are some roofs of mossy thatch here which are superb and of which I shall certainly make something.

And make something he did, painting Thatched Cottages and White House in his instantly recognizable style of furiously energetic brushstrokes.  Still struggling with mental illness and for recognition from the art community, van Gogh died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the latter part of 1890.  Tragically, he didn't get to read a favorable review of his art paintings by the prominent art critic, Albert Aurier, whose early praise initiated recognition of van Gogh as one of the most famous painters in art history.

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