The Van Gogh Museum

When I was in Amsterdam, I went to the Van Gogh Museum.  Mostly because it was near where I needed to be and because I could get in free with my Museum Card, not because I am a particular fan of Van Gogh.  In fact, I would probably say that I wasn't  a fan of Van Gogh at all.  But (and I kind of hate to admit this) I saw the Doctor Who episode where they meet Van Gogh (and Van Gogh has a Scottish accent) and it was pretty entertaining.  And the museum was free.  Well, to make a three-hour wander through the museum short, Van Gogh may still not be my favorite artist of all time but he has definitely moved a long ways up the scale.

To start with, I thought that the Museum was really well put together.  It is three stories high (plus a basement), with the story of Van Gogh's life and the progression of his art in chronological order as you ascend.  On the first floor, they had a lot of paintings, and some sculptures, by people with whom Van Gogh had worked or by whom he was influenced.

This was my absolute favorite painting in the whole museum. It is by Léon-Augustin L'hermitte, a contemporary of Van Gogh, and is called La Fenaison or The Haymakers.  He represented a school of art which focused on idealized visions of country life and activities, characterized by sweeping open spaces and small, intimate groupings of people, in reaction to the increasingly urbanized and fractured life of the Industrial Age.  It was the same kind of response that made Thoreau's Walden so popular.

The Haymakers, 1908

This picture reminds me a lot of Grandpa.  His equipment was a little newer, but not that much.  And I don't think I can count the number of times I've seen Grandpa sitting there, under the mower, pounding away at the sickle bar, trying to get all of the teeth straight and all of the arms going where they ought to go.  This guy here is thinking, you can just tell, "Why does this thing always have to break just when things get going?  Do I have time to run out to Fleet Farm to get another piece before it closes?  Will I ever get this hay down before the dew comes?"  The only difference is that none of the other folks is trying to run him over with the tractor while he does it.  (I'm talking to you, here, Ben.)

If you click here, you can go to a page about Léon-Augustin L'hermitte, which includes a lot of his pictures.  (Please ignore the really hideous font color and just scroll down to find the pictures.)

In the two basement floors of the museum, they had a display on early photographers, called "Snapshot".  Apparently a lot of painters started using photographs, either as "sketches" to paint from or as art in their own right, in the midst of a lot of controversy over the legitimacy of photography as "art".  They had really old pictures, as well as really old cameras, on display.  One of the cameras was set up so that you could see how the mechanisms worked and another so that you could look through the view finder and see what it would have been like to use (modern cameras are easier).  One interesting aspect to the exhibit was the little glimpse it gave into the commune type living that some of these artists partook in.  There was a surprising number of photos that these fellows (mostly they were guys) were taking of one another's wives in, shall we say, a significant state of undress.  There was no indication, really, if this was a result of the ladies acting as models for everyone or if it was a result of behind-the-scenes shenanigans.  It was peculiar.

The top floor of the museum has an installation on Japanese art.  Vincent Van Gogh and his brother Theo, with whom he was very close, had made a collection of this kind of art and you can see the influence it had on some of Van Gogh's later work.  The display shows parallels between different aspects of Japanese art and the way in which those things began to change European art.

There was also a display on the restoration of The Bedroom, one of Van Gogh's most memorable paintings.  The paint colors have changed a lot and have been restored at various times and then, apparently, there are aesthetic ethics to worry about as well.  Is part of the "art" the impact of time on the colors and canvas?  Does restoring a painting to the "original" destroy the "art"?  It was interesting if somewhat esoteric.  What was especially interesting is that they were able to use external resources--letters that Van Gogh wrote to his brother about the kinds of paints he was using and the kinds of things he was drawing--to get a better understanding of what the painting ought to look like.

The Bedroom, 1888

Van Gogh was a prolific writer and his most frequent correspondent was his brother Theo.  After Theo's death, his wife kept all of the letters and started a campaign to make Van Gogh's art famous.  If you want to read Van Gogh's correspondence, you can buy a massive 5 volume set of books.  I looked through them in the museum bookshop and they were fascinating but also quite, quite expensive.

There was also a really interesting video about Van Gogh's life and death. (He shot himself in the chest, in the middle of a field, was found and brought home, and died 3 days later.  Not a good plan.)  And, to top it off, the museum has a really excellent website about the artwork in the permanent collection.  If you click here, you can go to the English language site which includes background information about all of Van Gogh's paintings, plus some of the other paintings in the museum, divided by category and by period.  It is really quite good.

My favorite Van Gogh paintings are his landscapes and scenes of peasant life.  I especially like his pen and ink drawings.  Unless otherwise specified, all of the picture are from the Van Gogh museum's online permanent collection list.

Almond Blossom, 1890
This is one of my favorite pictures and was also one of the most popular paintings to decorate coffee mugs, purses, pencils, playing cards, and other purchasable things in the museum bookshop.  It was painted for his little nephew (one of Theo's sons, who was named Vincent), shortly before he died.  Incidentally, it also shows a clear Japanese influence.

Wheat Field with a Lark, 1887
This picture is from a catalog of many of Van Gogh's paintings which are arranged chronologically and which are convenient to browse through.  

Pollard Birches, 1884

Wheatfields under Thunderclouds, 1890
This picture reminds me of the big north field, for some reason.

Rock and Ruins, at Montmajour, 1888
This picture is from Wikipedia Commons.