Van Gogh's Chair

My New Blog!

2011-04-28T15:30:00.002-04:00

Followers of Van Gogh's Chair may have noticed I have not posted in quite a while. Not sure how to explain, except that I got a bit blogged out. How to inject a little life in one's online writing? Start a new blog! This one, dedicated to Italy and things Italian (art and travel especially), is called The Raving Italophile. Hope to see you there -- Ciao!

"The Bedroom" Is Back!

2010-09-03T14:34:00.003-04:00

The first version of "Vincent's Bedroom in Arles" -- painted in Arles in October 1888 -- returns to display today in the Van Gogh Museum, following an intensive and successful six-month restoration. A special display, "Bedroom Secrets," reveals the conservation process and complicated history of the painting for visitors. But hurry: the mini-exhibition of "The Bedroom" will only remain in Amsterdam until September 19th; after that, the picture heads to Japan for a Van Gogh retrospective co-organized by the VGM and Kröller-Müller Museum.

More details, including before-and-after photos and an account of the conservation process, can be found on the Van Gogh Museum's website and on the conservators' blog, Bedroom Secrets. My hat's off to the conservators for a fantastic job: even in photographs, one can see how much brighter the colors are after cleaning, details previously obscured now more visible. Most importantly, this painting, which was in a very fragile condition prior to restoration, is in a much safer state. The fact the VGM is sending it to Japan shows how confident the museum is; it almost never traveled in recent years because of its condition. I enjoyed reading the conservators' updates throughout the process and their interesting discoveries. Congratulations to the VGM on what must be a very exciting day!

Have You Seen This Painting?

2010-08-22T10:01:00.003-04:00

The only van Gogh painting in Egypt has been stolen...again. An 1886 still-life of poppies and viscaria (F324a, JH1137 for those keeping score in the catalogues raisonnés) disappeared yesterday from the Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo and contrary to early published reports, has NOT yet been recovered. (Note to CNN on tv: update your crawler.) This particular painting, valued at about $50 million, was purloined in 1978 but recovered in Kuwait a decade later; nine different paintings were taken from this same museum last year, so something is clearly amiss with security. Easy to see what: reports this morning are that only seven of the museum's 43 security cameras were working, and that none of the individual alarms on the museum's paintings worked, either. The museum's records show only ten visitors to the museum yesterday. Police tracked and arrested two of them, a young Italian couple, at the Cairo airport yesterday afternoon...but the painting is still at large. If you see it, call the cops immediately! (Wild speculation: could it be an inside job, with the Italian couple used as a diversion à la "The Thomas Crown Affair"? Someone who knew the alarms and cameras were not working? Hmm...)

I've noticed a couple of the news stories have illustrated the wrong painting with their reports: the one pictured here is the correct canvas. It is one of a series of floral still lifes produced by Vincent while he was living in Paris and thought to date from summer 1886 (some of the stories have the wrong date, too). They are 'practice pieces' -- studies Vincent did to explore his ideas about color theory. Friends and obliging local florists provided him with blooms to paint.

Caravaggio Update

2010-07-27T17:39:00.003-04:00

News from Caravaggio's world...the painting an art historian from the Vatican thought might be a Caravaggio, announced in L'Osservatore Romano last week? Um, not so much. The Vatican's chief art historian, Antonio Paolucci, admits in the latest L'Osservatore that the painting is likely a copy of an original by a follower of Caravaggio, although he was careful not to disparage his colleague who had suggested otherwise.

In other news, attendance figures have been released for the Caravaggio show at the Scuderie del Quirinale this spring...try 600,000 visitors. For a show that featured only about 25 paintings, that is downright amazing. Vincent draws that many at some venues (often more, granted). But Caravaggio? Told you he was HOT. As for the all-night opening of the Galleria Borghese and Caravaggio-owning churches in Rome last week, an estimated 20,000 visitors followed the trail. WOW!!

Run, Pheidippides, Run!

2010-07-19T17:46:00.004-04:00

I'm going to put on my classicist hat for blogging today and say that I can't BELIEVE I haven't realized next week is the 2500th anniversary of the Battle of Marathon (490 B.C.)! I'm serious, I can't. Today Reuters has a news story about two Greek long-distance runners who plan to recreate one version of the Marathon legend: that Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Sparta (where he couldn't get help), back to Marathon, and *then* from Marathon to Athens. (The modern marathon race was inspired by the Marathon-Athens leg of Pheidippides' trek. p.s. He died.) Maria Polyzou and Panayiotis Skoulis will run the 325 miles from Athens to Sparta to Marathon in six days' time, from July 26th to August 1st. The route begins at the Akropolis and ends at the Tomb of the Marathonomachoi (Athenian dead at Marathon, who received hero-cult in the Classical period). Polyzou has not only run marathons for 23 years, she's also director of the Marathon Museum and trumpets the historical significance of the anniversary. Apparently this run will be like a double marathon every day for a week, and apparently Skoulis has done it before (!!). Celebrations in Greece will continue and will culminate in the Athens Marathon on October 31st, which is expected to have about 20,000 participants this year.

Shout-out to my sister and brother-in-law, themselves marathon runners, who plan to take on the Disney Marathon (again) in January 2011. Being closer to a library cat than a cheetah, I won't be joining them. But I may have to re-read Aischylos' Persians next week for the anniversary...

Chasing Caravaggio

2010-07-18T11:01:00.002-04:00

It's the 400th anniversary of his death this year -- this week, in fact -- and Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (aka my second favorite painter) is hot hot hot. Record-attendance exhibition in Rome at the Scuderie del Quirinale, other exhibitions in Florence and elsewhere...check. Stolen Caravaggio recently recovered...check. A group of scientists announcing they've found Caravaggio's bones and are installing them with honors in Pont'Ercole, where he died...check (although on this one I'm tempted to say, Isn't that conveeeeenient?). And now this morning, none other than Vatican officials are speculating whether they've "discovered" a new Caravaggio. What would Caravaggio himself think of all this fuss? Well, unlike my friend Vincent, who I believe would be embarrassed and bewildered over the modern attention paid to him, I suspect Caravaggio would guzzle it like a good Chianti. Caravaggio was anything but shy!

I went to Rome earlier this summer (for the fourth time) and followed my own Caravaggio trail. The Scuderie exhibition was *amazing,* to say the least. By the time of my visit, about four of the paintings had already gone home or on to other shows, but the twenty or so that remained -- all securely attributed paintings by the master -- were knockouts. Even with massive crowds, Caravaggio's work has the power to smack you around and call you chump. The Scourging of Christ (from a Vienna museum) was the one that affected me the most, not having seen it before in person. The Taking of Christ (in Dublin) was another powerful piece. A special treat was seeing the first version of The Conversion of Saul (or The Conversion of Saint Paul): that version was rejected by its patrons, and Caravaggio's second version is the one hanging in Santa Maria del Popolo today. The first version is in a private collection and is seldom displayed in public. (Mille grazie, by the way, to the nice guard who pitied short little me and led me to the front of the pack for a good look-see!) In Florence, before coming to Rome, I had just missed by three days (THREE DAYS?!) a big show on Caravaggio and the Caravaggisti, which means I also missed the Uffizi's Bacchus and their works by Artemisia Gentileschi. Caravaggio's Medusa, though, was on view all by itself in a spotlit room, watched over by a bored guard filing his fingernails. Three trips to the Uffizi, and I'd never seen the Medusa. She's fabulous.

Other stops on my Caravaggio trail in Rome: the churches of Santa Maria del Popolo (Conversion of Saint Paul, Crucifixion of Saint Peter), San Luigi dei Francesi (the three Saint Matthew paintings), and Sant'Agostino (Madonna of the Loreto). Also paid a visit to the Chiesa Nuova to see the original site of the Entombment, although the painting now hangs in the Pinacoteca of the Vatican Museums. The Galleria Borghese to see their paintings they hadn't lent to the Scuderie. The Galleria Doria Pamphilj (Mary Magdalene). And just for pure atmosphere, a swing through the creepy little backstreet the Vicolo del Divino Amore, where himself lived during his last and most turbulent months in Rome. I didn't see any plaque commemorating Caravaggio's time there, but once I entered the almost-alley, I didn't exactly stick around!

Last night, to commemorate the anniversary of Caravaggio's death, the Galleria Borghese and the above-mentioned churches stayed open all night -- with free admission -- for his devotees to pay their respects. I bet there were a lot of them. The first time I walked 'the trail' in 1996, I had the churches to myself. Now you jostle with hordes of admiring fans. Oh he's hot, all right. And somewhere he's smiling.

Go(gh) Netherlands!

2010-07-09T20:28:00.003-04:00

You know the World Cup Final is serious business when a city's museums post huge banners in support of the national team. This photo comes from the Van Gogh Museum's Twitter page; apparently the Rijksmuseum has a banner too. The Museumplein will be hopping on Sunday!

Tiffany in Florida

2010-04-18T10:28:00.003-04:00

This weekend I was in Orlando for the inaugural University of Central Florida Book Festival (a big thank-you to the organizers for the invitation and the hospitality), and I took advantage of the proximity to the town of Winter Park to visit the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, which I've wanted to visit since I moved here nearly nine years ago and somehow just never made it. Boy, have I been missing out! The Morse is an absolutely delightful museum, specializing in late nineteenth-early twentieth century American art, and in particular on the art of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The museum claims to have the most comprehensive collection of Tiffany in the world, and it certainly seems to be true: from famous household items like the Wisteria Lamp (pictured) to stained glass windows, glass vases, pottery, mosaics, jewelry, even architectural elements. The museum's founders, Hugh and Jeannette McKean, were ardent collectors of Tiffany artworks and other American decorative arts and paintings; indeed, it was the McKeans who rescued elements of Tiffany's Long Island estate, Laurelton Hall, from certain ruin after a devastating fire in the 1950s. (They donated or loaned some of their collection to the Metropolitan Museum in New York, so we can thank the McKeans for some of the Tiffany artwork there, too.) At the Morse Museum you can see the famous Tiffany Chapel, conserved and reconstructed in its own gallery, and room after room of beautifully displayed Tiffany glass. A selection of the museum's painting and print collection is also on view, featuring work by Sargent, Henri, Mucha, and Parrish, as well as furniture and decorative arts from the European and American Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts Movements. What a treat! Construction is underway on a new wing set to open in fall 2011, dedicated solely to Laurelton Hall; here, guests will enjoy among other things the reconstructed Daffodil Terrace. (Visitors to the Metropolitan Museum's Tiffany & Laurelton Hall exhibition in late 2006-early 2007 will remember the restored Daffodil Terrace -- well, it belongs to the Morse and soon will be in Winter Park for good. I happened to see that show and remember gasping at the Terrace's beauty. I also remember seeing Tim Gunn from Project Runway there!)

Visitors to the Morse will learn about some of the new research surrounding Tiffany and Art Nouveau. For instance, due credit is given here to Clara Driscoll, one of the Tiffany Studios designers who actually designed some of the most famous Tiffany lamps, including the Wisteria Lamp, the Dragonfly, and the Pond Lily lamp, all of which won international design awards. In spring 2011, Susan Vreeland's new novel, "Clara and Mr. Tiffany," will be published, which explores the career of Clara Driscoll and brings this artist even further into the spotlight.

Renovating "The Bedroom"

2010-03-14T15:32:00.003-04:00

Visitors to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam between now and August will be looking in vain for one of the VGM's most beloved paintings, "Vincent's Bedroom in Arles" from October 1888 (click image to enlarge). That's because "The Bedroom" is receiving much-needed conservation work, the last major campaign of restoration on the painting having taken place in the 1930s. But leave it to the very plugged-in Van Gogh Museum to bring virtual visitors into the process: the museum has launched a blog wittily titled Bedroom Secrets, in which head of conservation Ella Hendriks will post week-by-week progress on the project. Presumably the team will not only be restoring the "The Bedroom" but doing some research on its pigments, canvas, etc., continuing ongoing study of Vincent's painting materials.

Some of the damage to "The Bedroom" that the current conservation will seek to stabilize dates back to Vincent's own day. In a letter to Theo before leaving for the hospital of Saint-Rémy in spring 1889, Vincent explains that during his most recent stay in the hospital at Arles, flooding from the Rhône River and the spring rains had created a damp atmosphere in his house and "The Bedroom" was particularly affected. "There's one which is flaking onto which I've stuck newspapers," he says, and at another point tells Theo he believes "The Bedroom" will need to be relined or recanvassed completely. Vincent must have been distressed at the damage to this painting, for his letters to both Theo and Paul Gauguin from mid-October show he was very proud of it. "Looking at the picture ought to rest the brain, or rather the imagination," he says in a letter to his brother and crows about the effect of simplicity he had sought to attain. After Vincent's initial breakdown in late 1888 and his first return to his house, he wrote to Theo (January 1889): "When I saw my canvases again after my illness, the one that seemed the best to me was my bedroom." Once Theo received the painting in Paris in May 1889, he was concerned enough himself about the damage that he sent it back to Vincent in Saint-Rémy to copy (this copy is today in the Art Institute of Chicago and dates from Sept 1889). Still proud of "The Bedroom," Vincent of his own accord made a second, smaller copy as a gift for his mother and sister; this version hangs today in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Vincent created the Amsterdam version of "The Bedroom" during a period of hard work, when he says to Theo he had been exhausted and in need of deep rest. For him, the bedroom scene evoked calm and tranquillity; he also used the composition as an opportunity to explore complementary color pairs and a flatness of tone that he felt was Japanese influenced. It is interesting to note in all three versions the peculiar shape of the room: it would be easy to think Vincent was "off" in his perspective or that the distortion was somehow due to his mental state (yes, this has been claimed)...except that his room really was shaped that way. The so-called yellow house no longer exists, having been damaged by Allied bombing in World War II and later torn down, but surviving ground plans make the trapezoidal shape of the bedroom very clear. Some have also noted the dual chairs and dual pillows in the room, as if Vincent imagined a second occupant (i.e. the wife he always wanted); however, he does not explain that detail in his letters. There is no doubt that "The Bedroom" and the pride Vincent felt in this painting echo the love and pride he felt for his little yellow house. He had moved all his possessions into the house in September, and judging from the detailed letters he sent his brother, put much thought, care, and money into the house's decoration and upkeep. Even though rented, the yellow house was the first home Vincent had that was completely his--it was his refuge, the locus for all his hopes and dreams. It's no surprise he immortalized one of its rooms on canvas.

Southwest Florida Reading Festival

2010-03-10T11:30:00.002-05:00

Got a couple of "Sunflowers" events on the horizon in late March and April...the first coming up is the Southwest Florida Reading Festival in lovely Fort Myers on Saturday, March 20th. At 10:30 am, I will be sharing the stage with the groovy and talented Johanna Moran, whose historical novel "The Wives of Henry Oades" was just released a few weeks ago. (I'm halfway through it now: it's terrific!!) Knowing Johanna already -- we share the same literary agent -- I can guarantee a good time as we relate our debut-novel experiences. There will be a book signing afterward, so come on down (or over, or up, as appropriate) and join the fun. The place to go for more information is the festival website at readfest.org. Hope to see you there!

A "New" Van Gogh

2010-02-24T19:26:00.004-05:00

It's not every day the world gets a new van Gogh painting.

Oh, sure, there are folks who *think* they have an original van Gogh, but thinking you have one and having one are two different things. These days, the official imprimaturs come from the good scholars of the Van Gogh Museum, and although they probably get many, many authentication requests, only once in a blue moon do they hit the jackpot.

Dutch art collector Dirk Hannema thought his "Le Blute-Fin" (AP Photo/Fundatie de Zwolle, click to enlarge) was a real van Gogh -- he thought so for 35 years. And finally, for the first time since 1995, the VGM has authenticated a never-before-catalogued van Gogh. Louis van Tilborgh, research curator at the VGM, did the honors. According to the Associated Press article published today, van Tilborgh cites the stamp on the back of the canvas, from a Paris art store Vincent frequented, and the types of pigments used in the painting as evidence for authenticity. Research on pigments is relatively new business, new enough that a forger working long enough ago for Hannema to acquire the painting wouldn't have known what to fake. Van Tilborgh dates the painting to Vincent's Paris period and more specifically to the year 1886. This is not a surprise, for not only does the painting show a Parisian landmark -- the Blute-Fin windmill in Montmartre -- but Vincent painted this windmill several times. This image of "Le Moulin de Blute-Fin" (F273), for instance, is dated to summer 1886. The one closest in composition to the "new" painting is this one (F271),which (alas) was destroyed by fire in 1967. The big difference between the latter painting and the new picture, though, is the amount of figures. Rather uncharacteristically for van Gogh's work, especially at this point, the stairway in the new painting is crowded with people. Not only that, but the people are shown closer in than was typical for him: compare for instance this painting (F272, in the Art Institute of Chicago),where the figures on the observation deck of the Blute-Fin are standing at some distance from the artist. In the 'new' painting, no doubt it was the figures that kept this canvas in the "doubtful" category for so long, until the technology evolved for the examination of the pigments. In fact, while I don't claim to be nearly the expert as the VGM curators, if you'd shown me this picture and asked "Real? Not real?" I would have voted "Not Real" because of the figures.

So what was Le Blute-Fin? In Vincent's day, three windmills still stood on the hill of Montmartre, nostalgic leftovers from the days when the landscape was peppered with them. One of them was actually nicknamed the Peppermill (aka the Debray), then there was le Radet and le Blute-Fin. Vincent's early Paris canvases show many views of Montmartre and his new home, but as a Dutchman, no doubt he had a particular attraction to the windmills. Le Blute-Fin was built in 1622 and was perhaps better known in Vincent's day as "Le Moulin de la Galette," a nickname it shared with Le Radet. Together these two windmills anchored the famous dance-hall painted by Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Vincent himself [van Gogh only painted the exterior though]. The Blute-Fin was also noteworthy for its "point de vue," its panoramic view down to Paris from its belvedere, or observation deck. In the foreground of Vincent's 'new' picture we probably see a stand for buying a beer or lemonade, and the figures crowding the stairs are beautifully dressed in seemingly Sunday best, enjoying a walk on a pleasant afternoon.

The new van Gogh is on view at the Fundatie de Zwolle in Zwolle, the Netherlands.

A Snowy Day

2010-02-14T10:00:00.003-05:00

No snow on the ground here in Tampa Bay, of course, but since much of the rest of the country -- including my hometown in Georgia -- has at least a few inches lying around, seems a good time to introduce one of van Gogh's rare snowscapes. "Snowy Landscape with Arles in the Background" (click image to enlarge) dates from late February or early March 1888, just after Vincent arrived in Arles. He'd stepped off the train on February 20th to a surprising sight: about 12 inches of snow covering the Provençal landscape. The irony? Well, firstly that Arles rarely saw that kind of snowfall, and secondly, that van Gogh had come south seeking the sun and a warmer climate. In a letter to Theo after his arrival, he expressed surprise at the weather but then added optimistically that the snow-blanketed landscape reminded him of some Japanese prints.

"Snowy Landscape" shows a view of Arles that Vincent would later depict in summer: the city's skyline distant on the horizon, a vast, flat field in between. We can spot the towers of the various churches, including Saint-Trophime, as well as smokestacks of the PLM railway workshops. Appropriately for the wintry day, no figures can be seen, although footprints dot the snow...the artist's own? The composition of this painting recalls seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painters such as Jacob van Ruisdael, whose work Vincent admired, although Ruisdael's landscapes tend to show a more expansive sky. Lest we think this snowy landscape is too melancholy, van Gogh includes hints of green, suggesting some plants have survived the snowfall and wait eagerly for spring. Just like Vincent himself must have done!

Casting "Sunflowers"

2010-02-07T17:33:00.004-05:00

"What if your book was made into a movie? Who would you want to play Vincent and Rachel?"

I've been asked that many times since "Sunflowers" was released, and believe me, I've thought about it. "Daniel Craig for Vincent," I say without hesitation, "you know, James Bond." If my listener is a woman, the reaction is always "Ohhhh" with an appreciative smile and nod. Those ice-blue eyes, the craggy face filled with character...oh yeah. He's the right age, and before he became Bond he was an intense indie-film actor. He could do it. He'd be perfect. He even looks good with a beard--here he is in "The Golden Compass."

Rachel is harder. I'd want a French actress in my imaginary movie, and so far I hadn't found just the right one. But last week I caught the charming film "Faubourg 36" on cable, and debut actress Nora Arnezeder (pictured) seems ideal for Rachel. She's a little taller than I've imagined, and currently a blonde, but in "Faubourg 36" she had the vulnerability, inner strength, and sense of innocent-in-the-big-city that would totally fit the character.

What do *you* think of these two? Have your own ideas?

Gogh-ing to the Nelson-Atkins

2010-02-07T09:44:00.003-05:00

The Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City -- a gem of a museum with a very fine collection -- just received quite a 75th birthday present: 400 new artworks as gifts from some of its patrons. Among them: a treasure trove of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist pieces donated by Henry and Marion Bloch, longtime friends of the museum (Henry Bloch as in founder of H&R Block). The Bloch donation includes works by Manet, Monet, Cézanne, Degas, and van Gogh. The van Gogh in question is pictured here -- "Restaurant Rispal at Asnières," dating from 1887 and Vincent's Paris period. It is one of a series that van Gogh did at the suburb of Asnières and shows the influence of Divisionism and his friend Paul Signac. This painting was included in the landmark "Van Gogh à Paris" exhibition held at the Musée d'Orsay in 1988.

The Nelson-Atkins already owns two van Goghs: "Head of a Young Peasant" from 1885 and Vincent's time in Nuenen, and "Olive Grove" from 1889 and his time in Saint-Rémy. (The Nelson-Atkins "Olive Grove" is one of my favorites of the olive tree series.) Congratulations to the Nelson-Atkins on 75 years of excellence and on their splendid new acquisitions.

Auction Results

2010-02-03T14:00:00.003-05:00

For those dying to know what happened with the two van Gogh works on paper up for auction last night at Christie's London..."The Iron Mill in The Hague" (1882) sold for 505,250 British pounds ($803,348) and "Six Pines Near the Enclosure Wall" (1889) sold for 769,250 British pounds ($1,223,108), including the buyer's premium. Both fell within estimate, "Six Pines" on the high end. Congratulations to the (I'm sure) happy new owners!

Up for Auction

2010-02-01T14:03:00.005-05:00

Christie's London has its Impressionist/Modern Evening Sale tomorrow night, Feb 2nd, and there are two van Gogh works on paper up for grabs.Lot 11 is a charcoal and pencil drawing done during Vincent's time at the asylum of Saint-Remy, "Six pines near the enclosure wall" (F1564 in the de la Faille catalogue). More specifically, this drawing is conventionally dated to a period after one of Vincent's attacks when he was still unwilling to leave the walls of the asylum to paint. Instead he did drawings inside the asylum's walled garden. The provenance can be traced back to Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, and the estimate is 600,000-800,000 British pounds.

Lot 17 is of historical interest because, dating to June 1882 and Vincent's time in The Hague, it's one of his earlier works. "The Iron Mill in The Hague" (F926) is gouache, watercolor, wash, pen and ink, and pencil on paper and has an estimate of 450,000-550,000 British pounds.

Thanks to former van Gogh seminar student Michelle for letting me know about this auction!!

L'anno di Caravaggio

2010-01-31T10:40:00.006-05:00

Just as 2010 marks an anniversary for Vincent van Gogh (the 120th anniversary of his death), it's also a key anniversary for my tied-for-#2 favorite artist, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (the other tied-for-#2 is Michelangelo Buonarroti). Caravaggio died 400 years ago this year, and the art world is predictably commemorating the occasion. Last month the famed Taschen publishing house released a brand-new catalogue raisonné of Caravaggio's work incorporating all the newest research (must get, must get...), and museum exhibitions have also been happening. The Art Institute of Chicago's show revolving around Caravaggio's "Supper at Emmaus" (normally at the National Gallery in London) has its last day today, and visitors to Rome can enjoy a Caravaggio-Francis Bacon dual exhibition (there's a combo to make your head spin) at the Galleria Borghese for another few weeks. The pièce de résistance, however, will be a show at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome opening February 20th and running through June 13th. This exhibition will bring together securely attributed Caravaggio paintings from throughout European and American collections into one place, including the two paintings 'rediscovered' in the 1990s: "The Taking of Christ," from the National Gallery of Ireland, and "Cardsharps" from the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth. In my opinion, the organizers have been especially clever in focusing on paintings not in Roman museums/churches (with the exception of "David Holding the Head of Goliath" from the Galleria Borghese and "Deposition" from the Vatican), so that Caravaggio lovers can enjoy the exhibition, then traipse merrily to the churches and museums elsewhere in Rome that hold his work. Result: an overwhelming proportion of Caravaggio's oeuvre in the same city at the same time. Rapture!! Visit this website for a list of the paintings expected in the Scuderie show (in Italian) and some pictures, and the official website of the Scuderie del Quirinale for more information about the show and the venue.

Did I already mention that I LOVE Caravaggio? I'd never heard of him until spring 1989, when in the large auditorium hosting Art History 102, Emory's then-professor of Baroque art, Dr. Crelly, unleashed the painter's "Conversion of Saint Paul" (click image to enlarge) on the gathered students. I'd never seen anything like it. And the more Caravaggio paintings I've encountered, the more I've admired his dramatic use of light, his unconventional approach to very conventional religious subjects. And let's not forget his raucous personal life: Caravaggio has a likely deserved reputation as the bad boy of Baroque painting, working hard in his studio by day, prowling the backstreets of Rome with a sword on his hip and a gang of friends by his side at night. He used prostitutes as companions and models, got arrested more than once for incidents involving his legendary bad temper, and finally had to flee Rome to four years in exile after accidentally killing a man during a fight over a tennis match. Everyone wonders how such a "sinner" can create such sublime religious images -- but perhaps a sinner like that understands more than anyone the struggles and fears that actually underlie many of the stories. Not for Caravaggio the often-saccharine smiling figures of many Baroque altarpieces: his Christ, his saints, his Virgin Mary are REAL. So real that it sometimes got him into trouble. The first version of his "Saint Matthew and the Angel," for instance, intended for the Contarelli Chapel of the church of S. Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, was rejected by the patron because Caravaggio showed the saint with a laborer's tunic and dirty feet. The second, more decorous version hangs in the church today.

Caravaggio died in a small town on the coast of Italy of probably yellow fever, although the circumstances of his death remain murky. He was on his way back to Rome seeking a formal pardon for the accusation of murder, having spent time down south in Naples, Sicily, and Malta. He was almost thirty-nine years old. The face of Goliath in his alleged last painting, "David with the Head of Goliath," is said to be his own.

The Real Van Gogh

2010-01-08T11:00:00.003-05:00

"The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters" opens January 23rd at the Royal Academy in London -- the first van Gogh retrospective exhibition in Britain for quite some time -- and buzz is starting to build. Check out the excellent articles by Martin Gayford in the Times Online and by Mark Hudson in the Telegraph.

2010 also marks the 120th anniversary of Vincent's death in 1890. The newest issue of the New Yorker apparently has an article entitled "Van Gogh's Ear," which re-examines theories of his illness and suicide. I've not seen this yet but will soon.

I'm pleased that the republication of Vincent's letters this past October and the accompanying exhibition in Amsterdam, the new exhibition in London, and the anniversary are prompting reconsideration of van Gogh's place in art history and his identity as an artist. Let's put those mad-genius clichés to rest, already! The real van Gogh is far more complex and far more interesting.

The Venus Fixers

2010-01-06T11:21:00.003-05:00

Anyone who loves Italian art and cares about our shared cultural heritage needs to read Ilaria Dagnini Brey's "The Venus Fixers: The Remarkable Story of the Allied Soldiers Who Saved Italy's Art During World War II." Italian-born journalist Brey follows first the attempt by the Italians to protect artworks in the face of oncoming war -- everything from bricking up "David" to hiding paintings in Tuscan villas -- then the valiant efforts of the "Monuments Men" to keep them safe during and after the Allied invasion. The Monuments Men were a band of artists, art historians, architects, archaeologists, archivists, etc. who served in the British and American armies and used their expertise to look after monuments and artworks in time of war. Brey focuses on those who served in Italy: we learn about Yale art professor Deane Keller, who had the artworks of western Tuscany as his responsibility, and for me a familiar name was art history professor Frederick Hartt, whose landmark "Italian Renaissance Art" textbook I knew from university but I had no idea he'd served as a Monuments Man. So too John Ward-Perkins, a prominent Romanist in his day: again, I know his work but enjoyed reading about his Italian service. As a card-carrying professional art historian, I couldn't help but feel proud as I read this book; it was like learning one's great-uncles or second cousins or whatever had been war heroes.

There are heartstopping moments in this book -- the American bombing of the Florence railyards for example, which through the skill of the pilots and the maps provided by the Monuments Men left the Duomo, Santa Maria Novella, and everything else unscathed. There are also heartrending moments: the Nazi bombardment of the Florentine bridges, the Allied bombardment of the monastery of Monte Cassino, the accidental near-destruction of the frescoes of the Camposanto in Pisa. Not being a specialist in Renaissance art, much of the story was new to me, save what I'd seen in the documentary "The Rape of Europa." Although I *knew* Michelangelo's David, Botticelli's Birth of Venus, and any number of treasures are safe now in their museum homes, Brey kept me in suspense throughout her account.

In recent years, the effects of World War II on the artistic heritage have gotten increased attention (e.g. Lynn Nicholas' book "The Rape of Europa" and the excellent documentary of the same name, plus the books of Robert Edsel, including his newest, "Monuments Men"--which I now HAVE to read). There are lessons for all in studying this time period, especially since artworks and monuments continue to be imperiled every day in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Read this book!!

Painting the Wind

2010-01-02T10:13:00.003-05:00

"I've already had an opportunity to find out what this mistral's like too. I've been out on several hikes round about here, but the wind always made it impossible to do anything. The sky was a hard blue with a great bright sun that melted just about all the snow -- but the wind was so cold and dry it gave you goose-pimples." -Vincent to Theo, 9 March 1888, writing from Arles

It came in the middle of the night. BANG! I sat up with a start in my room on the top floor of a hotel in Arles, then scurried to the window to secure the shutters. Oh yes, it was...

The MISTRAL!

I was very excited. Unlike many visitors, who'd rather not have their Provence vacations disrupted by a cold northwest wind, I was eager to feel the mistral for myself, because I was writing about it in "Sunflowers." While in Arles, Vincent hated the mistral, because it made it difficult to paint outdoors. By summertime he had concocted a solution, as he explains to painter friend Émile Bernard in a letter from June 1888: "My easel was fixed in the ground with iron pegs, a method that I recommend to you. You shove the feet of the easel in and then you push a 50-centimeter-long iron peg in beside them. You tie everything together with ropes; that way you can work in the wind." Even so, he had plenty of complaints, calling the mistral "a very nasty, nagging wind" (letter to sister Wilhemina, 31 July), "the devil" (letter to Theo, 18 August), and any number of other adjectives...aggravating, pitiless, violent. The mistral is mentioned many times in the Arles letters. Although there was mistral in Saint-Rémy as well, Vincent had fewer problems there. "The mistral (since there are a few mountains here) appears far less annoying than in Arles, where you always get it at first hand" (letter to Theo, ca 6 June 1889).

There is plenty of wind-lore in Provence: the climate is governed by winds, and every wind from every direction has its own name in the Provençal language. Folks in Vincent's day believed the mistral could bring about a nervous condition or at least headaches. I began to understand that during my trip: the mistral blew for three days straight, and the novelty quickly wore off. It whips through the plains around Arles with great strength, and it is COLD, blowing as it does from faraway mountains. The city itself seems designed to fend off the mistral, as the old medieval streets wind and turn and never go completely straight. This does help. But once you get by the river and into the open...brrrr.

The mistral was still going strong the day I went to Saint-Rémy. As I walked around the asylum and through the ruins of the Roman town of Glanum, I noticed the wind felt different than in Arles. There at the foot of the Alpilles, with the mountains to partly block the mistral (as Vincent observed), the wind was ... swirly. You couldn't tell what direction it was coming from. It was almost dancing.

I thought immediately of the painting seen here, "Wheatfield with Cypresses" (Met. Museum, image from Wikimedia Commons, click to enlarge), done in June 1889 while Vincent was staying at the asylum. The Saint-Rémy paintings are filled with swirly skies (think "Starry Night" from the same month), and many have suggested it says something about Vincent's mental condition. No, it doesn't. He was painting the wind! Notice how the wheat bends one way, the bushes another. Only the mountains and the cypresses barely move. Farmers in Provence still plant cypresses in strategic rows to buffer their fields from the mistral's force. Although the cypress can also be a symbol of death (and is often interpreted as such in Vincent's pictures), it's equally a symbol of strength, of protection. And those lavender mountains? The Alpilles are bare limestone peaks that pick up the colors of the clouds and sky. The day I visited Saint-Rémy, they were almost purple. Vincent certainly changed what he saw to suit his vision for the picture, but there's more "reality" here than meets the eye. It took a trip to Provence and a firsthand experience of mistral for me to understand that.

Art History Reading Challenge!

2009-12-30T11:30:00.002-05:00

The blogosphere is rife these days with 'reading challenges,' wherein bloggers commit themselves to tackling X number of books in a certain amount of time with a certain theme. The Art History Reading Challenge began in 2009 but is continuing for 2010: you can find information about it here at the Challenge blog. To participate, simply subscribe to the blog and provide a link to your own blog. Then choose a level of participation (3, 6, 9, or 12 fiction or nonfiction books about art to read) and have fun!

I've never participated in an online reading challenge before, and I admit it's kind of cheating for me to do this one. After all, it's my job to read nonfiction art history books! But my personal challenge is to remember to blog about some of them, 'cause I usually forget. I'm very excited that the subgenre of art historical fiction will be busy in 2010 and plan to make that a continued focus too. This new year we can look forward to Elizabeth Kostova's The Swan Thieves, Kathryn Wagner's Dancing for Degas, Stephanie Cowell's Claude and Camille [about Monet], and Susan Vreeland's Mr Tiffany and Clara. (If anyone knows of others, post a comment here.)

My first Challenge-oriented review will come this weekend: the promised yet delayed review of Ilaria Dagnini Brey's "The Venus Fixers." Happy Art History Reading!

Mining for Clues...

2009-12-27T12:38:00.005-05:00

I was all set to blog today about the superb book "The Venus Fixers," until I read this article in today's Times Online: a teaser piece about a forthcoming article in January's Art Newspaper by art critic and van Gogh enthusiast Martin Bailey. In 2005, a superbly researched article by Bailey in Apollo magazine argued that van Gogh may have learned about his brother Theo's engagement the morning of 23 December 1888 and that this news may have been the 'final straw' that led to Vincent's breakdown and self-mutilation that night. (I was so convinced by his theory that I used it in "Sunflowers." Merci, Mr. Bailey!) Bailey's forthcoming article produces additional evidence to support this theory, via a new reading of the one of the first paintings Vincent produced after leaving the hospital early in the new year. "Still Life with Onions" (click image to enlarge) from January 1889 has been seen as a "demonstration piece" (in the words of Douglas Druick and Peter Zegers, in their "Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South" exhibition catalogue, p. 168) to prove Vincent's continued ability to paint and as a form of self-portrait, much like van Gogh had done in his famous Chair painting not long before. On the table we see onions (which Vincent in fact added in the background of his Chair painting), Vincent's pipe and tobacco pouch (also in the Chair painting), a lit candle (which appears in the Gauguin's Chair picture), a book about health, an empty bottle of wine, and a letter. (This painting makes a cameo appearance in "Sunflowers," by the way.)

Bailey's new article, of which the Times piece gives only a taste, evidently focuses on the letter depicted in the painting. The envelope is addressed to Vincent and must be from Theo. Bailey demonstrates that the "67" you see on the envelope indicates a post office in the Place des Abbesses, not far from where Theo lived. (Readers of "Sunflowers" know that by coincidence Rachel gains a connection to someplace in the Place des Abbesses late in the book. I can't help but giggle.) He also learned through his research that the special New Year's Day postmark seen on the envelope was placed on Paris mail from mid-December onward. Bailey argues that this letter in the painting is the very one Vincent received the morning of 23 December containing the news of Theo's marriage.

The Times article states, "It is known from a letter he [Vincent] wrote to Theo at the end of January 1889 that he had received what he called 'the much-needed money' on December 23." I scratched my head at this at first, because I didn't remember that detail from Bailey's 2005 article--because it's not there. Up until now, there's been no proof Vincent received a letter that day. That part of Bailey's original theory had to remain speculative. So I ran to my Brand New Shiny Set of Van Gogh Letters (I still need to do a proper review of this masterpiece set of books), and by golly, there IS a new piece of evidence, in the new translation of the letter Vincent sent Theo on 17 January 1889. A crucial difference in the new translation of one sentence in this letter versus the old translation we've all seen in English up until now. Clearly the Times article is leaving out this neato tidbit so as not to steal the fun from the Art Newspaper article, so I'm not going to give the game away either. But heehee hoho, Bailey's theory from 2005 seems poised to be right. Bravo!

I wait with eagerness for the full article...

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T10:17:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas to the readers of Van Gogh's Chair!

Van Gogh never painted any pictures of baby Jesus, so to mark the holiday I've chosen my hands-down-favorite Renaissance Madonna & Child image, the gorgeous "Madonna of the Magnificat" by Sandro Botticelli (1480-81, click to enlarge, image from the Web Gallery of Art). Here Mary is Queen of Heaven, quill in hand, writing the verses of the passage of the Gospel of Luke known as the Magnificat. Mary as writer, I love it!

This painting resides today in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, in the Botticelli room together with the more famous "Birth of Venus" and "Primavera" (among others). I first visited the Uffizi in 1996, and I remember being pulled up short by the "Madonna of the Magnificat" while beelining toward "Birth of Venus." Nobody, but nobody, paints angels like Botticelli in my opinion, and Mary's face is the ultimate in beautiful serenity. Naturally I bought a postcard in the Uffizi giftshop to remember the afternoon, and Mary the authoress watches over me from the bulletin board in my university office.

Happy Holidays to all & many blessings for 2010!

ps. Speaking of Botticelli...I've just finished reading Ilaria Dagnini Brey's nonfiction "The Venus Fixers: The Remarkable Story of the Allied Soldiers Who Saved Italy's Art During World War II." Fantastico! Review to come after Christmas.

This Day in History...

2009-12-23T09:36:00.005-05:00

On 23 December 1888 at 11:30 pm, Vincent van Gogh walked into the brothel at no. 1, Rue du Bout d'Arles in the town of Arles, asked for the prostitute named Rachel and handed her a piece of his ear, wrapped in newspaper. (Click here for a post about our sources for the incident and here for a post about my visit to the Rue du Bout d'Arles in 2007.) Against all odds and expectations, Vincent recovered from his injury and the accompanying psychotic episode, returning to his yellow house in the Place Lamartine just after the new year. The self-portrait pictured here (click to enlarge) was one of the first paintings he made after leaving the Arles hospital. He does not hide what he has done; the bandage is there for all to see. To me this painting is an affirmation -- I am still here, the man in the picture seems to say. I can still paint.

The "ear incident," of course, appears in my novel "Sunflowers." It had to -- Rachel is my narrator. But it proved to be one of the most difficult scenes to write, for two reasons. First, readers' expectations. Most people reading the book know that it's coming. I build up to it for a few chapters; the tension escalates, Vincent becomes more and more unsettled at events in his life. The scene needed to live up to what readers would expect -- it needed to be dramatic, it needed to be a true turning point in the story and in Rachel's character development. But -- the second reason it was difficult -- it had to be told in a convincing way. Think about it: he gave her his EAR. How do you write that in a way that's not too gory or worse, too campy? Tell it badly, and the reader's going to snicker: popular culture makes enough jokes about Vincent's severed ear. The scene underwent a few drafts before I reached a tone and narrative I was happy with. I aimed for spare prose, using as few words as possible, and I decided to use the fact that readers already know what's in that package. How? Read the book and find out! :-)

Parlez-vous provençal?

2009-12-18T11:10:00.002-05:00

Readers of “Sunflowers” will notice the occasional word/phrase in French sprinkled in for flavor, but also the occasional word/phrase in Provençal — a separate language that today is spoken by a minority but in van Gogh’s time was experiencing a virtual renaissance. Provençal is a dialect of the language termed Occitan by modern linguists and known in French as la langue d’oc. Gascon and Auvergnat are likewise dialects of Occitan, but there are many others throughout southern France, as well as parts of northern Italy, Monaco, and Spain. Historically there were two major languages in France: the langue d’oc (spoken in the south) and the langue d’oïl (spoken in the north). Both are Romance languages rooted in Latin and the Roman occupation of Gaul. In the sixteenth century, the Edict of Villers-Cotterets decreed that the Northern langue d’oïl should be used for all administration; modern French thus derives from one of the oïl dialects. In fact, the closest linguistic cousin of the southern Occitan language is not modern French, but Catalan! The Provençal dialect of Occitan is native to southeastern France, and within it are variant sub-dialects. Two of these are the Rodanenc or Rhodanien sub-dialect, found around the Rhône River in cities such as Nîmes, Arles, and Avignon; and the Maritim or Centrau sub-dialect, found in the area of Marseilles and Aix-en-Provence.

In van Gogh’s time, the Provençal language was gaining increased attention thanks to the efforts of writer Frédéric Mistral and the Félibrige movement he founded in 1854. The Félibriges sought to revive Provençal literature and culture after decades — even centuries — of oppression by the French government. During and after the French Revolution in particular, Occitan and its dialects were forbidden in all official capacities. Young boys and girls (like Rachel) growing up in Provence in the nineteenth century would have learned only French in school, although they most likely spoke Provençal at home. Mistral aimed to counteract these developments, as he and other authors published books and poems in Provençal and worked to revive traditional customs and dress. Under the direction of the Félibriges, new dictionaries and grammars of the Provençal language were created. In Arles, Mistral founded the Museon Arlaten — which still exists today as a celebration of traditional Provençal culture — and a statue of him stands prominently in the city.

Van Gogh was fluent in French but knew no Provençal upon arriving in Arles. He claimed in his letters to Theo that his deficiency in the language caused problems and that many Arlesiens could not understand him. He was aware of the Félibrige movement, however, and mentioned it in his letters, while in January 1889, he attended a performance of a traditional Provençal pastorale (Nativity play) in the native language. It is unclear whether Vincent learned any spoken Provençal during his two years in the south of France, although it’s likely he picked up a few words and phrases given his flair for languages. He did very much admire the traditional Arlésienne dress promoted by Mistral and his colleagues...more on the the lovely Arlésiennes another day!

A Flaming Soul

2009-12-12T10:36:00.002-05:00

The first ever Van Gogh exhibition organized by a Mandarin-speaking country opened yesterday at the National Museum of History in Taipei, Taiwan. "Van Gogh: The Flaming Soul" features 77 drawings and 21 paintings, most from the collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, a few from the POLA Museum of Art in Japan. The show is organized chronologically to give museumgoers a sense of Vincent's stylistic development over his ten-year career as an artist. The exhibition will be on display until 28 March 2010, and as always, is sure to break some attendance records.

Fun at the Library

2009-12-10T13:13:00.003-05:00

This Saturday, December 12th, at 2pm I will be speaking at the Safety Harbor Public Library in lovely Safety Harbor, FL. I'll be presenting about "Sunflowers" (with pictures!) and signing books afterwards. The library will have books for sale at the event.

Hope to see you there!

G'day, Vincent

2009-12-05T10:25:00.003-05:00

While the Musée d'Orsay in Paris undergoes renovation, its caretakers are sending some of its masterpieces on the road: a great way to share beautiful art with audiences around the world while raising needed revenue for the museum. Tomorrow an important show of 112 Post-Impressionist paintings from the Orsay opens in the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, where it will remain until 5 April 2010. Artists featured in the exhibition include Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cézanne, Seurat...and of course Vincent. Once more the Orsay has sent van Gogh's "Starry Night over the Rhône" (Sept 1888) out on loan -- that painting never stays in Paris for long, it seems -- and it is joined by the Orsay version "Vincent's Bedroom at Arles," painted in September 1889 while Vincent was in residence at the asylum of Saint-Rémy. Readers of "Sunflowers" know that "Starry Night over the Rhône" is one of my absolute favorites, so much so that I gave its creation a whole chapter. Here's hoping that Vincent's Australian fans enjoy the exhibition...and here's guessing the show will break Australian museum attendance records!

Voted Most Popular for 2009...

2009-12-04T15:09:00.004-05:00

Each year Overstockart.com -- a company specializing in oil-painted knockoffs of art historical masterpieces -- releases its Top Ten list of paintings sold. Last year, Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss" was #1. But this year, VIncent's "Starry Night" reclaims the top spot, with "Café Terrace in the Place du Forum" at #2. Klimt drops to #3, while the rest of the list includes works by Monet ("The Poppy Field at Argenteuil" is #4), Renoir ("Luncheon of the Boating Party" = #5), Picasso, O'Keeffe, and Kandinsky.

David Sasson, CEO of Overstockart.com, comments that "Van Gogh consistently remains the most popular artist in the world, his total sales numbers have left everyone else behind." Ah, the irony...not just because of the large sales figures, but because, as I've said before, Vincent did not consider "Starry Night" an important work at all in his own oeuvre. Sasson adds, "In the business world especially, where image is everything, many companies strive to keep up with the latest interior décor trends to maintain a modern appeal that will impress customers and clients." What would Vincent think about that, I wonder, or how would any of these painters feel about their work being essentially mass-produced as "authentic hand painted canvas art"? (You can, by the way, choose from a copious list of van Gogh works beyond "Starry Night" and "Café Terrace.")

Read the full article about the Top Ten here. In 2009, Overstockart.com sold approximately 45,000 paintings.

Vincent the Blogger

2009-12-02T16:00:00.002-05:00

The Van Gogh Museum once again shows their keen interest in twenty-first century technology/media by introducing a blog authored by...Vincent. At Van Gogh's Blog, VGM folks provide an excerpt from one of Vincent's letters accompanying a certain date. The most recent entry, from November 28th, gives a portion of one of Vincent's Antwerp letters...from 28 November 1885. A fun and creative way to introduce online audiences to the new translation of Vincent's letters.

While you're there, don't forget to download the IPhone App of van Gogh's letters...too bad I neither own an IPhone nor have the first notion how to work one...

Travel as Pilgrimage

2009-11-29T13:38:00.004-05:00

The fall semester is winding down. That means a whole lot of grading, plotting syllabi for next semester, planning projects for Christmas break, and in my case, thinking ahead to summer travels. About this time every year, the road starts to call, and the wanderlust kicks in. I look at maps and think, where do I want to go this summer? What destination is whispering to me? My last three trips abroad have all featured Paris, and one of them (in 2007) included the Netherlands and Provence...my van Gogh research trip for "Sunflowers." But where to next? Ma sì, ho già deciso...andiamo!

I believe in meaningful travel. I don't choose my voyages on a whim; often there's a project linked to a trip, but not always, sometimes it's about where I am in my life and thinking, and where my footsteps are leading me. For me, travel is a pilgrimage. I become a seeker of ideas as well as things, I open myself to new experiences and people, I plan my way but also allow for the wind to blow as it will. And I've been rewarded: sure, not every destination has yielded sublime moments, but many have. Some have brought outright inspiration -- as I keep saying, I never would have written "Sunflowers" if I hadn't gone to Auvers-sur-Oise that May day in 2006. It's just a fact. That place and that day spoke to me.

How to make travel meaningful? Once I choose my destination, the planning begins. I don't mean a rigid itinerary on a clipboard that tracks every minute of the journey; I mean mental preparation. This can include brushing up on language skills -- I'm already wandering the apartment reciting Italian verb conjugations -- reading up on the art and history of where I'm going, listening to music related to the place, reading novels set in the place. And studying maps. I *love* maps. The Streetwise series of maps is my favorite; they're easy to use and discreet, so you can peek at them without holding a big I'M A LOST FOREIGNER sign. I like to feel familiar enough with the city in question so that on arrival day, I'm ready to jump right into things without wasting a second. Other advance planning includes creating a small notebook with lists of opening hours for places I want to see, timetables for trains and buses if I need them, as much practical information as I can get in advance (nowadays, so easy with the internet). I choose my accommodations as far out as I can; I might note some good restaurant recommendations, but with restaurants I prefer to choose what looks good when I'm actually there.

During the trip, I see what I'm in the mood for on a particular day. I may wake up in a museum mood, or on a beautiful morning, I may want a day that has a lot of walking outside. Do I journal? Um...no. I try. Every trip, I try. With the best of intentions, I leave plenty of blank pages in my trip notebook, but it seldom happens. I find myself mute at the very moments I'd like to have words of wit and wisdom to record. Nothing I say seems to really capture what I'm feeling and seeing. It's ironic, I know that, but I guess I'm just not a journaling kind of person.

I do keep relics of my pilgrimages. Ticket stubs, restaurant receipts, funny this-and-that often dumb things that nonetheless have the power to conjure up a time and place. Just the other day, I reached into the pocket of a jacket I hadn't worn since May to find a used Paris Metro ticket. It made me smile. To give another example, in one of my 'reliquaries' -- boxes wherein reside the relics of many journeys -- lies a pair of sunglasses held together by a safety pin. I dropped and broke those sunglasses in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence in October 1996, while trying to shift a cone of the best gelato I've ever tasted from hand to hand. I only have to pick up the glasses to remember the magic of seeing the Piazza for the first time. From the van Gogh trip in 2007, of course, I've got any number of postcards, brochures, and photographs. I've even got sugar cubes in a Musée d'Orsay wrapper -- I remember when I stashed them and how I felt that afternoon, giddy with too much caffeine and too many fabulous paintings.

Ah yes, the road is calling. Will I drop my sunglasses in the Piazza della Signoria this summer too? What relics and ideas and inspirations will I bring home this time?

For good reading on meaningful travel, I recommend Phil Cousineau's "The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker's Guide to Making Travel Sacred" and Joseph Dispenza, "The Way of the Traveler: Making Every Trip a Journey of Self-Discovery," both available on Amazon.

Meet Monsieur Roulin

2009-11-21T09:26:00.003-05:00

One of Vincent's closest friends in Arles -- and a critical character in "Sunflowers" -- was Joseph-Etienne Roulin, an entreposeur des postes (postal agent) who worked at the railway station. We first learn of Monsieur Roulin in a letter to Theo from the end of July, when Vincent enthusiastically describes the subject for a new painting (the painting seen here, click to enlarge). We're not sure when the two men actually met, but the place was likely the Café de la Gare, where Vincent was living at the time. Both men were habitués of the café, Roulin living only a short distance from Vincent; van Gogh would later say that Roulin accepted drinks as payment for modeling. Over time Roulin would be the subject of several paintings and drawings by Vincent (so would all the members of his family), but this first painting remains my personal favorite. Today in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the canvas shows Roulin proud in his uniform, cozied up to a table as if ready for a mug of beer. Roulin posed a bit stiffly for it, Vincent would complain to Theo, but still, the face shows the calmness and wisdom that would serve Vincent well in the months to come.

We know from surviving letters -- Vincent's letters and those of Roulin himself -- that Roulin and his wife remained supportive of Vincent throughout his time in Arles. According to the memoirs of Johanna van Gogh-Bonger (Theo's wife), Roulin was in the brothel the night of 23 December 1888, when Vincent appeared with the piece of his ear, and helped Vincent out of there. While Vincent was in hospital during that first breakdown, Roulin and his wife Augustine both went to see him; Roulin in turn sent letters to Theo and Vincent's sister Willemien updating them on his condition. It was Roulin who apparently met with the head of the Arles hospital and persuaded him to release Vincent, when debate was being held about committing Vincent to an asylum. Even after Joseph Roulin was transferred to Marseille in January 1889 (one of the few chronological changes I made in "Sunflowers" was keeping him in Arles until August 1889), he still kept contact with Vincent. The rest of the Roulin family remained in Arles until October 1889, when Monsieur Roulin was able to move them to Marseille, and they too seem to have kept contact until Vincent left for Saint-Rémy in May 1889. Conspicuously absent from the signed petition of March 1889 -- in which many of the Arles townspeople tried to have Vincent forcibly committed -- are any names from la famille Roulin. In his letters, Vincent speaks of the Roulins as a model family, praising Joseph Roulin in particular for his wisdom, his politics (he was an "ardent republican," according to Vincent), and his fatherhood. "A good soul," Vincent calls him, and elsewhere says Roulin as an artistic subject is "in the manner of Daumier."

One of the treats of the Van Gogh Museum's new translations of Vincent's correspondence is the publication in English for the first time of more Roulin letters: four letters sent to Vincent by Joseph Roulin while the former was in the asylum at Saint-Rémy and the latter was in Marseille. These letters not only reveal that Vincent maintained correspondence with his friend during this time (unfortunately Vincent's letters to Roulin do not survive), but also the depth of their friendship. "Monsieur Vincent," Roulin calls van Gogh with respect, his words leaving no doubt of his high regard for the painter. We learn from these four letters that Vincent must have had good relations with Roulin's children, for Roulin gives newsy accounts of their activities, especially the then-toddler Marcelle. Roulin's notes to Vincent are reassuring, telling him that he is in beautiful country at Saint-Rémy, encouraging him to paint. Indeed, these letters suggest that Roulin and Vincent talked about painting quite a bit. Vincent certainly gave the Roulins paintings; Roulin talks about the portraits Vincent had given them and the pleasure the pictures give his family.

In the last letter surviving from Roulin to Vincent, dating from late October 1889, Roulin says, "let us hope that one day again we shall have the happiness to shake hands and to tell each other in person such good things and to cement our friendship once more; I am confident and am full of hope to see you again one day." Unfortunately for the two friends, it never happened.

SOLD!

2009-11-04T16:13:00.003-05:00

I feel kinda silly: the auction I posted about yesterday and said was tonight -- was actually last night. Chalk it up to my frequent habit of having no idea what the date is on a particular day!

At any rate, Vincent's Weaver, up for auction at Christie's New York, did sell above estimate, at a final price of $818,500 (including the buyer's premium). As Allie the Hist-fic Chick pointed out in a comment to yesterday's post, that was a lowish estimate (and it turns out, a lowish final price), but that can be explained by the economic times. All the estimates seemed conservative to me. Also, one of the Dutch-era weaver paintings was not going to fetch as much as a van Gogh Dutch-era landscape picture, and no Dutch-era paintings would fetch as much as the post-Paris canvases (from Arles, Saint-Remy, or Auvers-sur-Oise). There's definitely a 'market hierarchy' when it comes to van Gogh's work.

I hope the Weaver's new owner enjoys the 'good deal' they got. ;-)

Up for Auction

2009-11-03T13:27:00.004-05:00

The art market must be trying to rebound, because a van Gogh painting is up for auction this week in New York. In November 2007, van Gogh's "Fields" (from the Auvers period) shockingly failed to sell at auction, leading the pundits to proclaim the art market in recession. Since then, the auction houses of the world have kept Vincent on the back burner aside from the occasional minor work.

Tomorrow night (3 November) Christie's is including one of Vincent's 1884 weaver paintings in the evening Modern & Impressionist art sale: this one (F162). The estimate stands at $400,000-600,000, which is fairly standard for one of the Dutch-era pictures. (The later Arles/Saint-Remy/Auvers canvases command much more.) This painting, along with the other weavers in the series, was made just after Vincent left Drenthe (before that he was in The Hague) and settled in Nuenen with his parents. Van Gogh was fascinated by the village weavers and their machinery, completing a whole series of paintings and drawings during his first months in Nuenen.

If the van Gogh doesn't sell, what will the pundits say? I'll be watching! Go here for the write-up in the Christie's online catalogue.

Traipsing through the Blogosphere

2009-11-03T12:23:00.002-05:00

Last night I took part in a live internet-radio interview, courtesy of Bookclubgirl.com and Blogtalkradio.com. It was fun! Readers phoned or emailed terrific questions -- very insightful questions that I was happy to tackle. What do I really think about Dr. Gachet? Did I "know" the ending of the book when I started writing? What sort of research did I do to craft the character of Rachel? Thank you to all those who submitted questions and/or listened to the show. If you haven't heard the interview and would like to listen (warning: there might be a spoiler or two), tune in here!

Elsewhere in the blogosphere -- lately I've been doing a lot of 'traveling' -- Sarah over at Reading the Past is hosting a guest-post today on "Van Gogh, Reader of Novels." Did you know Vincent was a fan of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Charlotte Bronte? My post explores Vincent as avid reader of novels.

Who Was Rachel?

2009-10-29T13:14:00.004-04:00

Elizabeth over at Scandalous Women is hosting a guest post from me on the topic of Who Was Rachel? Thank you, Elizabeth, for your hospitality!

Elizabeth is also providing a giveaway of one copy of Sunflowers, courtesy of Avon Books. The contest is open until 12pm, 5 Nov 2009 -- details at the end of the guest post. Good luck to all!

Onward Ho!

2009-10-25T14:04:00.004-04:00

The St Petersburg Times Festival of Reading yesterday was a terrific success. Had a full house of about 70 people for my talk, a respectably sized line for my book signing, and the copies of Sunflowers available for purchase at the venue sold out! My family came down from Atlanta, which made the day extra special. Thank you to everyone who turned out on a beautiful Florida morning!

The next event is coming up this Thursday, 29 October, at Inkwood Books in downtown Tampa. At 7 pm, I'll be giving a presentation and Q&A about Sunflowers and signing books. Hope to see you there!

The Newspaper Article

2009-10-22T11:36:00.003-04:00

Since this weekend's Festival of Reading is sponsored by the St. Petersburg Times, it only seems appropriate to post about THE newspaper article that best records the notorious "ear incident" and that inspired the writing of Sunflowers.

Pictured here is a clipping from Le Forum Republicain, the Sunday newspaper of Arles. The article is from the 30 December 1888 edition, one week after Vincent's self-mutilation. The article begins, "Last Sunday at 11:30pm, one Vincent Vangogh[sic], painter of Dutch origin, presented himself at the maison de tolerance no. 1, asked for one Rachel and gave her...his ear, saying 'Guard this object very carefully.' Then he disappeared." The article goes on to explain that the police went to Vincent's house and found no sign of life in the patient, then that he was taken to hospital.

The clipping as pictured here is misleading, as I discovered in my research for the book. I'd always seen the article photographed this way--the same picture appears in all the van Gogh literature--so I assumed it was the 'top story' in the paper that week. It wasn't. The "Chronique locale" (local news) section is actually on the back page. The news item about Vincent was not as prominent as it appears in this photograph; the original photographer cut and pasted the newspaper for the picture. Even so, it's easy to imagine shocked faces around the breakfast table that particular Sunday. All the more so considering that Le Forum Republicain had featured multiple editorials in the past about the prevalence of brothels and unregistered streetwalkers in the town. Even though prostitution was legal in the sense that it was regulated by the government (with strict laws), many townspeople did not approve. Of especial concern, it seems, were the number of prostitutes illegally frequenting the cafes around the Arles train station, in other words, the area where Vincent lived.

The article is noteworthy as the only known historical document that calls Rachel by name. The observation that Vincent asked for her specifically at the brothel reveals he knew her, and my question is, How much and how well? That question inspired the story that emerges in Sunflowers.

Festival of Reading

2009-10-20T10:57:00.002-04:00

This weekend is the St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading, held on the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus (aka my workplace). I am presenting Saturday morning about "Sunflowers," and I'm looking forward to it a great deal. I've never presented at the Festival before. My talk is called "Writing Van Gogh's World" and will be at 10:15am in FCT 118 (aka my teaching classroom). A book signing will follow at 11am at the "Authors' Alley." I am hoping the weather is good so we have a nice turnout at the Festival. Many interesting authors will be taking part, in both fiction and nonfiction, local and internationally known. The schedule, list of participants, and all necessary information is online at the Festival website: www.festivalofreading.com. Hope to see you there!

Why First Person?

2009-10-14T09:39:00.004-04:00

"Sunflowers" is here! Yesterday was release day, and even though I had to work/teach rather than play, it was still a special day. My parents sent me a beautiful bouquet of sunshiny sunflowers for my office, and my mom emailed camera-phone shots of my book on the shelves and tables of assorted Atlanta bookstores. I learned something very interesting: in a comprehensive bookstore, on a regular shelf, "Sunflowers" is shelved next to John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." One of Vincent's favorite books!

Now that the book is released, I'll be blogging about things related to it -- avoiding spoilers -- and if I'm asked a good question that I'd like to share with the whole class :-), I'll blog about that. I've been asked a couple of times, for instance, why I wrote "Sunflowers" in first person. I never consciously made a decision; I knew all along it would be first person. Why? First of all, I enjoy reading books written in first person. Recently, for example, I read Kathleen Kent's "Heretic's Daughter" and Michelle Moran's "Cleopatra's Daughter": both are terrific, both are written in first person, and they would have been different stories if the POV had been otherwise. I wanted readers to engage with Rachel in the way I like to engage with characters in first-person stories. Second, as a writer I thought I would "become" Rachel more easily in first person narrative. This turned out to be true!

Third, writing the story from Rachel's point of view allowed me to preserve some mystery around Vincent. If I had written the story in say, alternating third person point of view, then I would have been forced to show more of Vincent's actions and possibly inner thoughts. I wanted to maintain a certain distance rather than 'commit' to things we can't know for sure. The Vincent in "Sunflowers" is Vincent *as Rachel sees him,* and of course, she has an agenda!

First person does have limitations. There were many things about van Gogh's life and art I would have liked to include, but Rachel could not have known about them. First person *did* allow me to talk about Vincent's paintings from the POV of someone seeing them for the first time, which was fun. But she would not have known details about the symbolism or the artistic influences unless Vincent told her. Luckily, the historical van Gogh was quite pedantic about his own work, so the character could be too, when he was in the mood.

The first person viewpoint also allowed me -- or I should say, Rachel -- to choose how the story would be told. A non-spoiler example: Rachel is a prostitute. She has many customers. But she rarely talks about them, aside from an unpleasant encounter we learn about at the beginning. Why? Because it is a part of her life that shames her, that she'd rather forget. In a third-person story, I would have approached this differently, but in first-person, if Rachel wanted to downplay that or something else (eg events from her past), I let her. In this, I took a cue from the historical Vincent's letters to his brother. As detailed and thorough as the letters appear to be, Vincent *chooses* what to tell Theo and what to omit. There are many painful things in Vincent's life that he downplays, dismisses, or just does not mention, probably because they were painful. So it is with anybody recounting events in his/her life: two participants in the same incident can tell the story very differently, highlight some details, leave out others, according to how they wish to communicate what happened and who their listener is.

A rather long answer to a very good question!

T-minus...ONE DAY!

2009-10-12T10:44:00.002-04:00

"Sunflowers" makes its big debut tomorrow! It'll be an ordinary workday for me -- teaching class, meeting with students -- but I'll be grinning nonstop. I hope readers enjoy the book!

Writing friends Catherine Delors and Julianne Douglas have posted interviews (tough questions!) and will have reviews of the book up later this week. Both are also offering giveaways of copies of the book. Please check my website for reviews of the book as they come in, as well as links to guest posts and information about upcoming events.

This Thursday, October 15th, I'll be speaking at the Nelson Poynter Library of the University of South Florida St Petersburg (my home campus) at 4pm. Books will be available for purchase at the Barnes and Noble on campus (10% off on the 15th), and I'll sign any that folks bring to the talk. A big THANK YOU to the staffs of the library and the Barnes and Noble for organizing this event -- we're going to have fun!

The Coolest Website EVER

2009-10-09T14:23:00.002-04:00

The Van Gogh Museum has unveiled their landmark website Vincent van Gogh: The Letters. Holy cow, this is one heckuva site! Free of charge, visitors can access the new and updated English translations of all van Gogh's correspondence, as well as annotated footnotes, pictures of the artworks associated with each letter, the texts in their original language, and scanned facsimiles of each page. It's much, if not all, the same content as the beautiful yet expensive bound volumes due to ship to stores and customers (me!!) any day now. With one notable exception: on a website, you can have search engines. Yesterday one of my seminar students was looking at the new site with me during an appointment to discuss her upcoming presentation, and for fun we typed "olive" into the keyword search (her presentation is on two of the Saint-Remy olive grove canvases)...presto! We found like magic all the letters in which Vincent discussed olive trees, and lots of other information she'll be able to use. Visitors can further sort the whole cache of letters by period, correspondent, and place.

I've been trying not to play with the new site too much, because a) I should be working; and b) I don't want to spoil the fun of opening the books when they arrive, but I've seen enough to say this is an invaluable resource for any van Gogh lover, student, or scholar. The design is beautiful -- the Dutch are known for their graphic design panache, and this site is no exception, with its clean lines, harmonious colors, and easy navigation. And the content, the product of 15 years' research by the Van Gogh Museum curators, is simply a treasure trove. Bravo!!

Meet Van Gogh's Doctor

2009-10-08T16:56:00.003-04:00

Holly over at Wonders and Marvels very kindly invited me to contribute a guest post about Sunflowers -- I opted for "Meet Van Gogh's Doctor," since W&M often has medical-themed posts. Holly, aka Prof. Tucker of Vanderbilt University, is a historian specializing in things scientific and medical. She is also offering a giveaway of Sunflowers -- click on the bookcover to enter. The giveaway closes on October 14th.

Stop by Wonders & Marvels to learn more about Dr. Felix Rey, the physician in Arles who treated Vincent after the "ear incident." Seeing his portrait at an exhibition in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2007 inspired an entire subplot in the novel!

Thank you, Holly, for the invitation to post, and thank you, Tina, for getting it up there.

Van Gogh's Montmartre

2009-10-04T13:59:00.003-04:00

Over the next few weeks surrounding the release of "Sunflowers," several bloggers will be kindly hosting me in a mini-blog-tour, some with interviews, some with guest posts, with blogger-authored reviews of the actual book as well. The first guest post, "Van Gogh's Montmartre," is freshly available at the French-themed blog of novelist Catherine Delors, author of "Mistress of the Revolution" (a terrific book) and the forthcoming "For the King" (which I can't wait to read). Catherine is also hosting a giveaway of one signed copy of "Sunflowers" (details on her blog) and will be posting an interview and review. Merci bien, Catherine, for the blog-hospitality!

Gauguin Exhibition at the CMA

2009-10-02T15:17:00.005-04:00

Alas, no van Gogh exhibitions opening this fall in the U.S., but opening Sunday October 4th is "Paul Gauguin: Paris 1889" at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The museum website describes the show thusly: "This landmark exhibition gathers about 75 paintings, works on paper, woodcarvings, and ceramics by Paul Gauguin and his contemporaries to explore how the artist created his signature style during the year 1889. Co-organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Paul Gauguin: Paris, 1889 re-creates on a smaller scale the radical independent exhibition that Gauguin organized with his artistic disciples on the grounds of the 1889 Exposition Universelle—a display of about 100 paintings now recognized as the first Symbolist exhibition in Paris."

The "radical independent exhibition" is the so-called Volpini show, which Gauguin organized together with fellow avant-garde artists Émile Bernard, Émile Schuffenecker, Charles Laval, Louis Anquetin, and a few others. It was conceived as a reaction to the French art exhibition at the Universal Exposition, which was limited only to Salon painters and similarly well-established artists. Gauguin chose as a venue for the exhibition the Café des Arts -- run by a Monsieur Volpini -- on the actual grounds of the Universal Exposition, thus thumbing his nose at the establishment. The exhibition ran from May through July 1889, included a small catalogue, and was seen by contemporary critics.

At this time, Vincent had just entered the asylum of Saint-Rémy. His brother Theo did not submit any of Vincent's work to the show, believing it to be an upstart and unseemly enterprise, and in fact did not tell Vincent about it. However, somehow Vincent did learn of it and mentioned it casually in a letter to Theo of early June. Theo responded, "At first I had said you would exhibit some things too, but they assumed an air of being such tremendous fellows that it made one sick...It gave one somewhat the impression of going to the Universal Exhibition by the back stairs" (T10). In his reply, Vincent agreed that it was probably best his work not be shown ("My not yet being recovered is reason enough") but defended Gauguin and Bernard: "It remains very understandable that for beings like them...it would be impossible to turn all their canvases to the wall until it should please people to admit them into something, into the official stew. You cause a stir by exhibiting in cafés" (LT595).

Gauguin himself learned of Theo's disapproval via their mutual friend Émile Schuffenecker. Writing from Pont-Aven in Brittany on June 10--where he'd gone after the show's opening--he defends the show and states, "I organized this little exhibition at the Universelle to show what can be done together and to demonstrate the possibilities." Unfortunately, we do not have Theo's reply to Gauguin.

"Paul Gauguin: Paris 1889" will be at CMA until 18 January 2010, after which it will travel to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

My Favorite Self-Portrait

2009-09-27T10:45:00.003-04:00

This week in the van Gogh seminar I'm teaching, one of our topics was the self-portraiture Vincent created while living in Paris from March 1886-February 1888. Although he'd been an artist for five years by that point, only then did he experiment with this genre. Twenty-eight self-portraits he made during that time! And each one is different: we see Vincent the city-dweller in stylish hat and fine suit, Vincent the working man in craftsman's jacket and yellow straw hat, Vincent the artist with easel and palette. The series reminds us of the malleability of self-portraits; they are constructs, not necessarily attempts to represent the person as they actually are. In van Gogh's case, we have no photographs of him as an adult (except for one, where he's shown seated from the back) to make a comparison.

I asked the students to write their weekly response paper about the vagaries of self-portraiture and to pick their favorite. It's only fair that I reveal my favorite, too, so here it is: a version that belongs today to the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. Painted earlier in the sequence rather than later, this portrait maintains the neutral palette of Vincent's Dutch days and possesses a more naturalistic style than some of the others that reveal strong pointillist and other avant-garde influences. It's one of the least innovative and experimental in the series.

So why do I like it? The eyes. In all his self-portraits, Vincent gives the eyes special expressiveness, and here I see (emphasis on *I* see, since others may see something different) a wistfulness behind the gaze. For all the tidiness of the suit he wears and the well-trimmed beard, there's an almost lost feeling, as if the sitter doesn't feel entirely at home in his clothes and his surroundings. At the point when Vincent painted this picture, he was still finding his way in Paris, in a sense seeking his true identity as an artist. Some of that seeking to me lies behind those eyes. When I was writing "Sunflowers," I kept a decent-sized reproduction of this picture (from an old calendar) close by, because the Vincent of my story is a seeker too. When I traveled to The Hague in 2007, I went to the Gemeentemuseum specifically to see it in person...but alas! It was not on view that day. I had to content myself with a bookmark from the gift-shop and a consolation slice of gooey cake from the cafe.

Goodreads Giveaway!

2009-09-20T20:58:00.002-04:00

Avon Books/HarperCollins has five copies of "Sunflowers" up for grabs in a Goodreads.com giveaway! The contest opened for entries this morning and will remain open through November 30th. Click here for more details and to enter.

Van Gogh the Writer

2009-09-20T10:46:00.003-04:00

Buzz is starting to build about the publication next month of the new English translation of van Gogh's correspondence, the first comprehensive English translation since 1958 and the product of 15 years' work by the curators of the Van Gogh Museum. Today's Financial Times features a review of the six-volume edition, while the The Sunday Timesincludes a chatty review/commentary by Waldemar Januszcak, himself no stranger to things van Gogh. So far only the British press is jumping on this particular bandwagon, which is not surprising, given that the Royal Academy will be presenting a major exhibition on the theme of van Gogh's letters in spring 2010. Nearer in time will be the opening of the Van Gogh Museum's own exhibition on the letters, which takes place on 9 October. I expect van Gogh coverage will be steadily increasing in the next few weeks as the new edition of the letters gets more exposure. (Which as far as I'm concerned is awesome yet coincidental timing, but that's another story!)

Initial remarks about the new edition suggest that those looking for Big Revelations and Big Scandals in the inclusion of previously-omitted passages from van Gogh's letters are going to be disappointed. I admit, I would have loooooved the new research to have uncovered Dramatic Information about the prostitute Rachel, but I never really expected that! Rather, the new edition of the letters confirms what the Van Gogh Museum curators and other mythbusters (including me, in my small way) have been saying for years: that the solitary mad genius of van Gogh-ian mythology is not the Real Vincent. Disciplined, hard-working, well-read, knew-exactly-what-he-was-doing Vincent, that's the real Vincent. It's the Vincent I've come to know, and I'm looking forward to the six volumes showing up on my doorstep in a few weeks so that I can get to know him even better. I'll be posting my own review of the new edition once I've thoroughly checked it out.

My New Cyber-Home

2009-09-16T16:30:00.003-04:00

Fewer than four weeks until the debut of Sunflowers! Hard to believe the big day is almost here. Everyone is invited to visit my new website at sheramybundrick.com, where I have posted information about the book, links for purchasing (naturally), tips for book clubs, and information about upcoming events. I will be updating the website regularly, and I will also continue posting on this blog. Expect chatty posts about people, places & paintings related to the book leading up to and after the release on October 13th!

Vincent Travels to Taipei

2009-09-06T11:15:00.004-04:00

This week the National Museum of History in Taipei (Taiwan) announced a new van Gogh exhibition to be held from 11 December 2009 through 28 March 2010. The show will include 77 drawings and 21 paintings, many loaned from the collection of the Kroller-Müller Museum. Given the record-breaking attendance at, well, every van Gogh exhibition, I don't doubt for a second this will be another blockbuster.

A New Semester

2009-09-06T10:41:00.003-04:00

The fall semester has just begun, hence the lack of posts the last few weeks as I got things underway with my teaching and various administrative this-and-thats. This semester, in addition to my usual Ancient-Medieval art history survey, I am teaching an upper-level seminar devoted entirely to Vincent. I have fifteen undergrads (a mix of studio art and art history students, mostly, with a psych major and anthro major for good measure) and four art history graduate students, and so far we are having a great time reading Vincent's letters and examining the phases of his artistic career. Last week we discussed his time in The Hague and focused in particular on his relationship with Sien Hoornik and his drawings of her and her family. This Wednesday we'll be in Nuenen and discussing "The Potato Eaters" in depth. Our reading list is a nifty (if I do say so myself) mix of primary sources (mostly letters), general-audience readings (eg excerpts from exhibition catalogues), and hard-core scholarly articles. The last three weeks we'll be exploring Vincent in popular culture (films, novels, children's books, advertising), but my "Sunflowers" is conspicuously absent from the syllabus. I didn't want to put students in the awkward position of critiquing their professor!

Yesterday three of the seminar students (plus one brought a friend) joined me to see "Van Gogh: Brush with Genius" at the Museum of Science of Industry in Tampa before this Imax film leaves the city on Monday. (Most of the others had to work, alas.) I saw the film back in March, as I reported here, but it was wonderful to see it again, this time with company. It's such a visual feast, and the extremely magnified details of the paintings show the texture and impasto in a way my classroom slides just cannot.

On this viewing, I found myself particularly drawn to the footage of Auvers-sur-Oise. I've now had three visits to the village, the most recent this May, and each time I find it a special and almost magical place. The film spends far more time in Auvers than in Arles and Saint-Rémy, and beautifully captures its tranquillity and serene landscape. If I ever had a financial windfall, I'd happily buy a little summer cottage there! Apparently the Swissborn filmmaker, Peter Knapp, has his own home in Auvers, which probably explains why it is given such a loving portrayal.

Seeing the movie again was an inspiring way to kick off the new semester. Between the classes, the admin work, and "Sunflowers" making its debut in October, it's going to be a very busy one!

Holy Smokes! A Starred Review!

2009-08-17T14:32:00.004-04:00

I learned this morning that "Sunflowers" has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly! What a nice surprise and a wonderful way to start the week. Here is the text (the star didn't copy/paste...). Needless to say I'm positively giddy!

Sunflowers: A Novel of Vincent Van Gogh Sheramy Bundrick. Avon, $14.99 paper (432p) ISBN 978-0-06-176527-8

In a knockout debut novel, art historian Bundrick (Music and Image in Classical Athens) brings Vincent Van Gogh's paintings and personal story to vibrant life. While Bundrick takes many liberties (recorded in an author's note) in her fictionalized account of Van Gogh's affair with her narrator, fille de maison Rachel Courteau, she gives Rachel such a believable voice that the proceedings seem genuine. At 35, Van Gogh meets lovable spitfire Rachel while surreptitiously sketching her in a garden. Having taken refuge in an Arles brothel after the death of her parents, Rachel greets Van Gogh as a customer not long after, and soon feelings blossom between them. Visiting friend Paul Gauguin and the cloud of Van Gogh's madness undercut the couple's bliss, as do financial troubles and Rachel's life at the maison, where she's kept a virtual prisoner. While infusing well-known historical moments (like Van Gogh's infamous self-mutilation) with vivid details, humanizing Van Gogh and putting his famous works in context, Bundrick generates an impressive volume of suspense, delight and heartbreak. (Oct.)

A Van Gogh Mystery

2009-08-13T20:27:00.003-04:00

Police in Santa Fe are asking for the public's help with a burglary from an artist's home of about $750,000 worth of artworks, jewelry, and artifacts, including an alleged charcoal drawing by Vincent van Gogh. The Santa Fe New Mexican posted an article today about the heist but unfortunately provides no photographs of the drawing. The homeowner describes the drawing as a 14-by-17 inch charcoal preliminary sketch of the "Night Café" painting in the Yale University collection (the same painting that currently is entwined in its own legal battle) and says it is identical to the painting except that it lacks VIncent's signature.

This story intrigues me, and not because of the theft. This drawing -- if it is indeed by van Gogh -- is unknown in the canon, as far as I've been able to find out. It is not in the de la Faille catalogue raisonné, and it is not mentioned in the scholarship surrounding the Night Café painting. The homeowner says that his great-grandfather bought the drawing and it has been in his family ever since: how can van Gogh experts not know about it? And another point ... when Vincent was living in Arles in September 1888, at the time he did the Night Café painting (and the watercolor version of the painting today in a Swiss private collection), his drawing materials of preference were pencil and/or ink/reed pen. Not charcoal.

I would really like to see a photograph of this drawing. According to the article, experts at Yale have been brought into the case. I would also really be curious to know what they have to say.

UPDATE (20 Sept 2009): On 9/11 the Santa Fe New Mexican reported that the alleged van Gogh drawing was discovered, along with the other artworks allegedly stolen from the home, at a consignment shop in Raton, on sale for $250. The whole thing smells odd to me: to quote John Turturro in "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" -- "That don't make no sense." Among the comments on the article about the recovery (which are otherwise pretty silly), David Brooks from the online Van Gogh Gallery (www.vggallery.com, the best non-museum Van Gogh site there is) rightly points out that "There is no such known van Gogh drawing. Saying it's a van Gogh doesn't make it a van Gogh." He's got that right.

Helen of Troy

2009-08-13T10:38:00.002-04:00

I've been 'into' Greek mythology for about thirty years now (gasp! I'm old!), and I have to say, I never liked Helen of Troy much. She always struck me as the kind of person I would not like being around, and she always struck me as being enormously selfish. But reading Margaret George's "Helen of Troy" this summer has given me a different perspective into this character, and for that I have to thank Ms. George and her terrific storytelling. I hadn't read "Helen of Troy" before now because I feared it would annoy me as much as the movie "Troy" had done -- but Ms. George's keynote speech at the Historical Novel Society conference convinced me to give it a whirl. I'm glad I did!

Ms. George had a lot to contend with in crafting this story. The Iliad only covers one small part of the Trojan War saga; there are many other tales woven into the mythological tradition, and unfortunately, we know about several epic poems that no longer exist. Ms. George admirably brings together all the threads of the story: she even brings in the Amazons (readers may think she made up the Amazons coming to Troy for her novel, but she did not--a now-lost epic poem called the Aithiopis detailed this episode). At the same time, she introduces enough of her own flourishes to create a cohesive tale and flesh out the narrative. The Bronze Age isn't my academic specialty, but I've read enough of the scholarship to recognize that Ms. George has read it too. She captures the spirit of the times and introduces some of the latest archaeological findings while avoiding the dreaded 'research dump.' Those who are familiar with the mythological tradition will find plenty of places to smile, appreciating the way Ms. George deftly incorporates this or that detail.

Ms. George's Helen is a complex character. The novel is told in first person, which allows the reader to engage closely with Helen and understand her choices a bit more (even if the reader does not agree with them). For Helen, her beauty is a curse, and while there is a bit of "don't hate me because I'm beautiful" here, it works with the story. The scenes of the Ilioupersis (Fall of Troy) are particularly moving.

The one quibble I have concerns Achilles. True, in the Iliad Achilles acts like an arrogant jerk, but in Ms. George's novel he is the one character who is basically two-dimensional. Also true that Helen does not have an opportunity to 'get to know' Achilles, but Ms. George changed something that troubled me, the only time in reading the entire book that I went "nooooo!" In the Iliad the so-called Ransom of Hektor scene, when king Priam visits Achilles in his tent to retrieve his son's body, is the turning point of the entire poem. It is Achilles' redemption. (In fact, it's the only episode that the movie "Troy" got close to right.) But Ms. George adds a 'postscript' of sorts to that scene -- something Achilles demands of the Trojans the morning after -- that is not in the Iliad. And I have to say, that 'postscript' spoils the character of Achilles as we know it from the Homeric tradition. Most readers might not notice or care, but it disappointed me. For all Achilles' faults, I love that guy!

That one quibble aside, I loved this book, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys Greek myth and seeks a retelling that is faithful to the spirit of the original stories.

At The Bookbinders!

2009-08-10T13:13:00.003-04:00

The Van Gogh Museum announced on Facebook today that the six volume new edition of Van Gogh's letters is now at the bookbinders. They've posted photos of the stacks and stacks o'manuscripts at Flickr. (Photo of a sample set from Amazon.com.)

Somewhere in those stacks is the set that will come to ME in October, preordered months ago from Amazon. I'm totally geeking out here.

:-) :-)

On This Day...

2009-07-29T18:47:00.002-04:00

On 29 July 1890, not long after midnight, Vincent van Gogh breathed his last in an attic room of the Auberge Ravoux at Auvers-sur-Oise, the victim of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the abdomen. His brother, Theo van Gogh, was with him.

Rest in peace and sunlight, mon ami.

Keeping Up Appearances

2009-07-23T19:47:00.003-04:00

I am happy to announce my first appearance/book-signing: Saturday 24 October at the St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading, to be held at my lovely waterfront campus, the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. I'll be giving a 30-40 minute illustrated talk on "Writing Van Gogh's World" and signing books (available for purchase at the venue). I've asked if I can speak in my teaching classroom for maximum comfort and convenience! The Festival of Reading is in its seventeenth year and is the largest such event in the Tampa Bay area. Each festival features an array of Florida and national authors, a special series of kids activities (including a storytime with local celebrities), and in general is a fantastic event to promote reading and literacy. The final schedule and lineup are not yet posted on the Festival of Reading website, but some of the author bios are (including mine), and more information will appear as the day draws close.

Especially for USFSP students, I'll be giving a talk on "Why (and How) I Became a Historical Novelist" on Tuesday November 4th as part of the Faculty In Residence lecture series. I'll sign books if students bring 'em, and I'll be giving away a copy as a door prize.

I've been invited to another Florida book fair in spring 2010, but since it's not a signed-sealed-delivered deal yet, I'd better not say which. I'll be part of a panel on debut novelists.

Luckily for me speaking in public and giving lectures is my job ... and more than that, my passion!

The Elusive Vincent

2009-07-18T10:00:00.003-04:00

The Clever Pup -- who commented on my last blogpost, thus inspiring me to go immediately to her blog -- has a good post about this alleged photograph of Vincent van Gogh. I ran across the claim myself a while ago, and for the record, I don't think it's him (neither does The Clever Pup). The person in the photograph is too old, for starters (Vincent was only 33 in 1886, the date claimed for the photograph); two, Vincent didn't like photographs in general, he didn't like his own appearance, and I can't see him posing for a professional photograph; and three, as The Clever Pup points out, Saint Hyacinthe, the home of the photographer, is in Canada. Vincent never went to Canada. For most of 1886, from March onward, he was in Paris living with Theo.

The only confirmed photograph of Vincent as an adult -- there are two of him as a teenager -- shows him from the back, sitting on the banks of the Seine at Asnières with Émile Bernard.

Summer of Love

2009-07-17T11:22:00.004-04:00

The summer of 1888, spent in Arles, was one of the most productive times of Vincent's career -- and one of the times when he was most happy. Harvest time in June resulted in a bevy of paintings and drawings, and even when the harvest was done, Vincent roamed the countryside around Arles looking for new subjects under the sun. He loved summer "like a cicada," he told his brother Theo, and the locals must have wondered at the foreign redhead painting for hours in the heat. It was the colors of the Provençal summer that inspired him: the rich golds and greens, bright flowers in a rainbow of hues...it's no wonder that the Arles paintings today tend to be the most popular among art lovers.

In July 1888, Vincent tried painting a new subject, one that he would intermittently return to for the rest of his time in Arles. The painting shown here depicts a corner of the public garden in the Place Lamartine, the square near the railway station where Vincent lived. (In July he was still living above the Café de la Gare, although already using the lower rooms of the Yellow House for studio space.) Scholars have even identified *which* corner: on this map, look for the sliver of park just north of where it says "Roubine du Roi canal." The entire square lay outside the medieval city walls and was part of the town's expansion around mid-century; according to Arles city records, the garden was planted in 1873. Vincent describes this painting to his sister: "I have also got a garden without flowers, that is to say a lawn, newly mown, bright green with the gray hay spread in long streaks. A weeping ash and a number of cedars and cypresses, the cedars yellowish and spherical in form, the cypresses rising high into the air, blue-green. At the back, oleander and a patch of green-blue sky. The blue shadows of the shrubs on the grass." (W5)

Vincent did another series of four paintings of the garden in the autumn, and a number of drawings spread over the time until he left Arles in May. He came to call this place "a poet's garden," associating it with the poetry of Petrarch and Boccaccio...love poetry. Is it a coincidence that just on the other side of the canal and the city wall lay the brothel district, the place Vincent called "la rue des bonnes petites femmes," the street of the good little women? Rachel's brothel, for instance, was located at the north end of the Rue du Bout d'Arles (marked on the map). Did Vincent somehow associate this lush garden with the women he met in the brothels? One can only speculate.

Unless one is writing fiction. In which case, you can make it so!

The Real Van Gogh

2009-07-12T10:27:00.003-04:00

There's been talk for a while now about a 2010 Van Gogh exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London -- and this week they made the formal announcement. "The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters" will run from 23 January to 18 April 2010 and is being described as the largest van Gogh show in Britain since 1968. A selection of 35 original letter manuscripts, lent by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, will be featured along with 65 paintings and 30 drawings from not only the VGM's collection but others in Europe and the United States. This seems to be a different exhibition than the VGM's "Van Gogh's Letters: The Artist Speaks," appearing in Amsterdam this fall, although both shows are intended to celebrate the VGM's long-awaited new edition of Vincent's correspondence.

The new exhibition is discussed online in articles in the Telegraph, the Guardian, and Bloomberg.com.

Here Comes the Chimaera

2009-07-10T16:56:00.003-04:00

Visitors to the Museo Archeologico in Florence -- in my opinion one of the most overlooked and underrated museums in Europe -- will for the next six months miss one of its treasures: the spectacular Chimaera of Arezzo, an Etruscan sculpture from around the early 4th century B.C. The Chimaera is off to the Getty Villa in Malibu for a chimaera-themed exhibition from 16 July through 8 February, starring among other artistic representations of the ancient monster and its conqueror, the Greek hero Bellerophon. The "Chimaera of Arezzo" show is the first in a series of planned collaborations between the Getty and the Museo Archeologico di Firenze; it's no secret (I don't think) that the Chimaera and other long-term loans are part of the deal worked out between the Getty and the Italian government, when the museum agreed to return close to forty ancient objects on suspicion that they were looted.

I have a mental list of the top ten artworks I would happily install in my home if given the opportunity, and the Chimaera of Arezzo is one of 'em. He is a beautiful thing. Photographs do not capture his elegant lines or the luster of his bronze surface, the ferocity of his snarl, the arrested power of his pose. Unfortunately his installation in the Museo Archeologico is less than flattering; at least in 2004, he was perched on a pedestal seemingly stuck in the center of a corridor, no real room to step back and admire him as he deserves. I hope while he is in Malibu his owners are making him a new home.

In antiquity the Chimaera was a dedication to the Etruscan equivalent of Zeus, placed in a sanctuary. We know this from the inscription on his right foreleg: TINSCVIL, or gift to Tinia. He was discovered in Arezzo in the mid-16th century, and when word of his beauty reached Florence, none other than Cosimo de'Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, made it his business to acquire the statue. But at first everyone thought the Chimaera was a lion -- his snaky tail was missing when first discovered. Renaissance-era artist and historian Giorgio Vasari tells us that fragments of the tail were later recovered and the Chimaera's true identity revealed; however, the tail itself was not restored until the 18th century. Earlier restorations done soon after the Chimaera first came to Florence are said to have been done by renowned sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, including perhaps part of the left foreleg.

Some scholars wonder if the Chimaera was originally part of a group sculpture which included Bellerophon vanquishing the beast -- he would therefore be snarling at a specific figure and aiming to pounce. But I don't think the Chimaera needs another figure. Certainly in antiquity everyone would know the myth, and without a second statue, the viewer him/herself "becomes" Bellerophon and faces the monster. To me that is the emotional impact of encountering this statue, having it threaten YOU.

Admission to the Getty Villa (not be confused with the Getty Center in Los Angeles) is free but requires an advance, timed ticket. See the Getty website for more information about the Chimaera of Arezzo exhibition and how to visit.

Happy Fourth!

2009-07-04T11:18:00.003-04:00

Let's celebrate Independence Day with one of the most iconic of all American artworks: "The Declaration of Independence" by John Trumbull. There are actually two versions of this painting: a 12x18 foot version (pictured--click image to enlarge) in the Rotunda of the US Capitol in Washington, and a smaller version that hangs in the Yale University Art Gallery along with other paintings and drawings bequeathed to the university by Trumbull. Even in its day, this was a celebrated picture, its popularity spread through engravings done by artist Asher Durand in cooperation with Trumbull.

John Trumbull is an interesting figure. He was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, a witness to the Battle of Bunker Hill, and after the war he traveled to England to further his artistic education with painter Benjamin West. (In those days, England was still the place for American artists to study.) The initial "Declaration of Independence" painting (the Yale version) was begun with none other than Thomas Jefferson as a historical consultant and with many of the figures posed from life. The fame of the painting led to the commission of the larger version for the Capitol in 1816. Trumbull painted many other scenes associated with the Revolutionary War, including images of the Battle of Bunker Hill, and portraits of notable political figures, among them George Washington and Alexander Hamilton.

The truly amazing part? Trumbull lost the use of one eye in an accident when he was a child, and so painted his pictures half-blind. But he did not let this hinder his drive to create and desire to celebrate the new United States. His achievements are a lesson for us all.

Happy Fourth!

East of the Sun

2009-06-29T19:46:00.002-04:00

Summer is the time for reading. So it was when I was small and joined the Vacation Reading Club each summer at the Woodstock (GA) Public Library -- so it is now when I am not teaching and can steal a lazy hour (or two, or three) stretched out on the sofa in the balm of Florida air conditioning. There's nothing like discovering a Wonderful Summer Book (WSB). Personally, I find myself drawn to stories set in hot climates these days: it's just too weird reading something about a cold place when it's 95 degrees out! So I was excited to learn of Julia Gregson's "East of the Sun," set in 1920s India, which already from the vivid-hued cover looked like it was going to be a WSB. First I spotted it at Target, then we got copies in our goody bags at the HNS Conference. It was fate.

And it's wonderful! "East of the Sun" follows three young British women as they make their way from England to India: Rose, the shy pretty girl hastily engaged to a soldier she barely knows and en route to be married; Tor (Victoria), the a-bit-plump, desperate-to-be-married girl happy to escape her overbearing mother; and Viva, the mysterious would-be writer with an enigmatic past, hired as their chaperone. The first part of the book takes place on the ship, where the trio meet other intriguing characters that you know will be important later in the story; the rest in India as each girl struggles to make her way in a new land. Their stories separate, come together, separate, come together, and the reader is taken to such places as Bombay, Poona, and Simla high in the mountains. While "East of the Sun" has romantic elements, it is not solely a romance story; Viva's story in particular brings more than a little mystery to the plot.

I appreciated most the careful attention to setting. At the HNS conference, "Setting as Character" was one of the panels...although the author panelists warned *against* making setting a character. I respectfully disagree. While one must be careful not to let setting overwhelm or overshadow the "real" characters, Place can be a player in its own right. "Gone With the Wind," for instance -- arguably, the city of Atlanta is very much its own character. So too in "East of the Sun," India seems to become a character as much as the three girls and similarly undergoes a form of character development. As the girls prepare for their voyage and experience their sea-crossing, we have only hearsay of India: Viva's childhood memories, Rose and Tor's imaginings what it must be like. But as the book unfolds, the reader sees more: first the India of the Raj as the British experienced it, then, slowly, the India beyond the Raj, through Viva's work in a slum orphanage. Gregson gives enough detail for us to know India as her characters do, but does not indulge in information dumps or purple prose. The way she uses setting is a superb writing lesson!

I highly recommend "East of the Sun" for anybody's summer reading fun. Enjoy it with a chai latte by your side for extra spice. (I'm hooked on David Rio Tiger Spice Chai myself...)

The New Acropolis Museum

2009-06-20T11:31:00.002-04:00

Today is a special day for all lovers of ancient Greek art: the opening of the new Acropolis Museum in Athens. The New York Times has an article and slideshow, as do other news sites online. It is exciting to see the objects installed in their new home! Their old home was a cramped 1874 building wedged in a corner of the Acropolis, an environment that was not very safe for them given the massive number of visitors. I was always amazed something didn't get broken right in front of me during my visits, the way tourists sometimes paid no heed to what stood right behind them. No longer a problem -- from the pictures it is clear that there is ample room for the objects and for visitors to circulate and enjoy them.

Slide 2 on the NY Times slide show particularly made my heart go pitter-pat. At the top of the staircase in the photo are the remnants of a large painted limestone pediment, part of what scholars refer to as the "H-building" or "Hekatompedon." Dating from about 560-550 BC, that building predates the Parthenon that still stands today, and in fact, most scholars now are in agreement that it stood on the same site as the later structure. In the old Acropolis Museum, the H-building sculptures were tucked into rooms too small for them, too narrow for visitors to get a good look or a good picture. And yet, despite the lacunae in the sculptural composition, these are archaeologically very important objects. Finally! Now they are displayed to their best advantage. The bit you see there in the center shows a lion savaging a bull, an apotropaic power symbol appropriate for protecting a temple. In the other slides, you can see the beautiful new display of the Erechtheion caryatids (who also used to be cramped), some of the sculptures from the so-called Old Temple of Athena that predated the Erechtheion, assorted Archaic statues, and the famous Kritios Boy. The Archaic sculptures' smiles seem to indicate happiness with their new home! I wasn't sure how good the pieces would look in such a modernist building, but if the photos are any indication, the place is a knockout.

The top floor features some of the Parthenon sculptures, the ones that remain in Athens after various pieces were taken away in the nineteenth century. The Greeks are hoping that the museum's completion will re-energize debate about the ownership of those Parthenon sculptures missing from the new museum, namely those owned by the British Museum. Just last week, the British Museum offered a three-month loan of their sculptures in exchange for Greece formally acknowledging British ownership; not surprisingly, the Greeks refused. (In my opinion, the British knew they would say no. Because the three-month loan period seems ridiculous for some of the most important sculptures of the ancient world--to put it another way, I think it would be terrible to risk the safety and integrity of the sculptures by moving them for a three-month period. It was all politics, folks.)

The Acropolis Museum is conveniently located just south of the Acropolis. To get there, take the Metro to the -- guess what -- Acropolis stop. The museum is very near the station. I look forward to getting back to Athens and checking it out for myself...sometime!

My New Neighbors

2009-06-19T15:47:00.002-04:00

For those wondering what happened regarding the visit by the Critter Master, here's the deal. He came today. And yes, I have bats. About 15-20 of them, he guesses, living in the attic and roosting above my bathroom. Families they are, with babies. But here's the problem.

He can't get rid of them until mid-August.

Why? Because bat colonies are protected by law; the babies cannot fly, and so at night when Mommy and Daddy go out to eat twice their weight in insects (I learned this today), the babies stay home. If the Critter Master performs what's called an exclusion -- seals up the openings while the bats are gone for the evening -- the babies will be left without Mommy to feed them. And they will die. This is animal cruelty under the law. By mid-August, baby bats are grown and can follow their families outside to feed. And then the critter control folks can safely exclude the bats without harming any of them. They will then find a new home...probably in one of the other apartment buildings, I was told today. I support not harming these animals -- they are not dangerous to people (we're talking the 'Mexican free tailed bat' also known as the 'Brazilian free tailed bat'), rarely carry rabies, and eat gnats, mosquitoes, all the flying things that can be very annoying. They should be able to live freely.

But I wish it wasn't two months away. I hear them, you see, moving around sometimes. And it's FREAKY! The one route into my apartment is sealed up with duct tape (and the critter man said I did a good job), they can't get in, but it's FREAKY.

I did learn something else very interesting today: the bat last week did not run into my living room wall because of the lights. He ran into the wall because all electronic devices when plugged in emit signals that interfere with his 'radar.' The computer, tv, microwave, phone, lamps, all that stuff threw off his sense of direction. And that's why he crashed. But the nice man reassured me that they run into things all the time and odds are the bat was not hurt. In fact, he probably found his way safely back to my attic.

Great.

Internet Treasure Hunting

2009-06-19T09:45:00.006-04:00

At the Historical Novel Society conference last week, whenever the subject of research came up in a panel, the Internet was not far behind. All the authors agreed: the Internet brings a whole new dimension to novel research (or any research), not to mention convenience. And it's true -- as much as I stress to my students the importance of libraries and 'real books' for their essays and pooh-pooh Wikipedia, there is plenty of value to be found online, information that can be trusted and used. For "Sunflowers," I found many scholarly articles online via JSTOR (a subscription only site that I get through the university), and sites like the Van Gogh Gallery saved a lot of time. Google Books has a number of out-of-copyright nineteenth-century goodies scanned into its database, including old French guidebooks and even Salon catalogues. Museum websites nowadays tend to be very informative and provide bibliographic and provenance information for their collections. You can even access nineteenth-century New York Times articles online!

But sometimes what you need can be found in unexpected places. To give a couple of examples: I found a short but helpful video on an absinthe distributor's website demonstrating the nineteenth-century way of mixing absinthe. I had read a description, but seeing the video made a big difference (at that time absinthe was still illegal here, so there was no buying some to mix it myself). Another example: I wanted to describe a Spanish-style bullfight (corrida) in the amphitheater of Arles. When I went to Arles, I saw the amphitheater, I walked up to the top, but no bullfights were scheduled during my trip. Nearby Nîmes has a gallery of toreador costumes in its amphitheater, so I saw those, but had missed by a few days their sequence of corridas for the city's yearly festival. Reading a description wasn't giving me the vividness I sought: what to do? One word--YouTube. I searched 'bullfight Arles' and found amateur videos that helped fill in missing details.

There are even ways to help you get inside a character's emotions using the Internet. In "Sunflowers," Rachel experiences things that I have never come close to experiencing myself -- one event in particular (and I don't mean the 'ear incident') made me wonder how 'real women' cope. So I went online and found a forum dedicated to it. I read real women's stories, and while I didn't use any specific one as inspiration for Rachel's experience, reading the posts helped me understand and capture what she would be feeling.

Not everything on the Internet can be considered a reliable source, of course, and this is the skill I stress to my students: learning to discern what's good and what's not. But there's no shortage of places to look, and who knows what you might discover?

We Are Watching

2009-06-18T19:22:00.002-04:00

Once in a while I have an Iranian visitor to this blog; I'll see 'Tehran' or 'Isfahan' and the Iranian flag on the Sitemeter. It always makes me smile when I have visitors from so far away, because it reminds me not only of the power of van Gogh's art, but also the power of the Internet, which helps bring our world together.

This is not a political blog, but it is impossible to watch the images coming from Iran and not be moved to speak. For me as a woman and a university professor, the particular sight of women and students -- thousands of them -- peacefully marching for freedom and change, at great peril to their own safety, fills my heart with great emotion.

We are watching you, friends, and we pray for you. You march in silence, but your footsteps echo around the world.

Bats in the Belfry

2009-06-17T12:15:00.003-04:00

I think I have a bat colony living in my apartment building.

Clue #1: An actual bat emerged from my laundry room one night last week and flew like a, um, bat out of hell across my living room. BAM! He ran into my bookshelf and fell to the floor. (That blind as a bat business is no lie.) I crept close to see if he was dead; he didn't move. I poked him with a broom--he squeaked--NOT DEAD! Ahhhhh! I opened the balcony door, and once he had recovered from his daze, I persuaded him to crawl outside. (Translation: I beat the floor beside him with a broom and yelled "Get Out Damn Bat!" à la Lady Macbeth at the top of my voice until he inched his way out. This barefoot and in me nightie at 11pm.) In the morning, he was gone, having I assume recovered and flown away. And I cardboarded and duct-taped the place where I think he came from, a crevice around the washer hook-up. Told the nice lady in the leasing office as a heads-up, thought he was probably a loner, and went to HNS, forgot the whole thing.

Until...

Clue #2: Just now I went into my bathroom and switched on the light. Commotion behind the wall that sounds a lot like squeaking bats. Ahhhh! They can't get in, I know that (thank you duct tape), but it's freaky deaky! I have called leasing office and nice lady is getting the Critter Master (yes, that's his name) out here asap to check it out. I'm on the third floor, so it is possible bats got into the attic somehow and have taken up residence. My complex abuts wetlands, and apparently loads of fruit-bats live in the mangroves. Nice. Am hoping they go back to sleep and do not squeak any more.

So what the heck does this have to do with van Gogh? Why, he painted a bat once (click on image to enlarge), and I've been looking for an excuse to post this fairly well-known picture. It's actually a stuffed bat that he might have seen in a fellow artist's curio collection in Holland. The painting, known as "Flying Fox," dates from autumn 1885 based on the style and color palette. I was intrigued to note while finding an online image that the CDC used this painting on the cover of a 2002 journal on infectious diseases involving, you guessed it, bats. Luckily -- despite the array of prehistoric wildlife that live in my adopted state of Florida -- this is NOT the kind of bat currently co-habitating with me. Wee three-inch fuzzy critters is more like it. But they need to bat it, um, beat it. Asap!

Hearing Voices

2009-06-17T10:44:00.003-04:00

At one of the Historical Novel Society conference panel discussions, an aspiring writer in the audience asked Margaret George how to handle questions about a character, for example, if one is not sure how a character should look. "Ask her," Ms. George said calmly. "She'll tell you."

Once I would have tittered at this and thought it rather loopy-lou, but now it seems natural, as it probably did for many writers in the audience that day. Characters DO talk to you once you've gotten to know them, and while at first it seems rather scary and schizophrenic, if you let them have their say, you'll have your story. While writing "Sunflowers," I would wake up in the middle of the night and have somebody's lines ready to scribble down, or in the shower, or driving in the car...at a certain point, it was like being a scribe for Imaginary Friends. At lunch one day during the conference, a fellow author asked me did I ever have dreams with my characters. She had, she admitted, experienced a dream recently with a character in her current project where he was quite grumpy with her and urged her to keep working on his story. (He's a historical person, this character, not fictional.) Yes, I answered, but only once. Vincent appeared in one dream about six months into my writing, when I was finally getting the swing of it and really starting to hear the characters. What did we talk about? I don't remember, but I remember he hugged me, and I woke up feeling very peaceful and cozy inside. The author I was speaking with nodded her head. "He was happy," she said. "Happy you were telling his story."

So how does one reach this state of total connection with one's characters? Margaret George, in her keynote speech at the Saturday night banquet, discussed some of her methods: obtaining clothes, jewelry, objects somehow related to the characters and keeping them near; traveling to the places they were; playing music from their time period to create a mood; keeping pictures of relevant artworks nearby. While writing her book on Cleopatra, she even obtained perfume that she felt evoked the character and wore it while she worked. For "Sunflowers," I wallpapered my writing corner with van Gogh paintings cut-out from old calendars, and while I can't listen to music while I write, I did play something from Debussy or other composers from Vincent's time just before starting to work. Getting into his head, though, was easily done through reading his letters. That's how I really started to hear him speak. As for Rachel, she appeared quite naturally, and once she did, I couldn't keep her quiet! There's something magical about it, really, when your creative mind is so active and engaged that the characters' voices flow without prodding. (Writing arguments, I found, is especially fun--suddenly somebody lets loose a real zinger, and you think "Ho! She did NOT go there!" and chuckle with glee as you type the line.) And in some ways, it can't be forced, no matter how many tricks you use. Relaxing and *listening* is the key. They'll talk. Just give them time.

Boy, oh Boy!

2009-06-16T15:20:00.002-04:00

Further musings about HNS are officially interrupted by the Van Gogh Museum's announcement today about the exhibition "Van Gogh's Letters: The Artist Speaks," which will be held at the VGM from 9 October 2009 to 3 January 2010. *120* of the original van Gogh letters from the museum's collection will be exhibited alongside paintings and drawings he wrote about. An additional three letters written to artist Emile Bernard will be on loan from the Pierpont Morgan Library. 340 total manuscripts, paintings, and drawings will be on view in the show, the largest devoted to Vincent's correspondence. Holy cow. The Plot to Get to Amsterdam After Fall Term Ends is now underway...

In other VGM news, the museum announced that a whopping 530,000 people visited the "Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night" exhibition during its Amsterdam showing. That's half a million people in three months, one of the best-attended shows in the VGM's history. Again I say it -- Holy cow. Vincent kicks attendance butt AGAIN!

Blast About the Past

2009-06-15T11:11:00.004-04:00

The Historical Novel Society conference this past weekend was FABULOUS!! So much fun, meeting fellow writers and readers, putting faces to names. Panels on everything from fact vs fiction in historical novels to marketing/promotion were interesting and helpful, as already-published authors shared their ideas and experiences. I came away with a lot of ideas and thoughts on the craft...and very jazzed up about promoting "Sunflowers" and working on my new project!

I roomed with Julianne Douglas over at Writing the Renaissance, who's been my online buddy for over a year but I'd never met her in person. It was a giggly girly slumber party! I was happy to spend quality time with Catherine Delors, another online friend: now I want to reread her marvelous "Mistress of the Revolution" so I can hear her lovely French accent in the words. And so many other folks I enjoyed meeting and chatting with, whether it was only for a few minutes or for longer: Lucy Pick, Laurel Corona, Christine Blevins, Vanitha Sankaran, Michelle Moran...the list goes on and on. Everyone was so nice and friendly, and so excited about books and history, that everybody you met became an instant friend. The networking was as good as the panel discussions, if not better. The organizers deserve great big kudos for their hard work in giving attendees a well-run and enjoyable experience.

And yes, it was very different from academic conferences, as I suspected the other day. Academic conferences do not have costume contests or late-nite sex scene readings, and they sure don't come with tote bags of free books!

I'm still mulling over things I heard and saw at the conference, so I'll be posting more thoughts, I'm sure...

Off to HNS

2009-06-11T10:57:00.003-04:00

This weekend I'm heading to the Historical Novel Society conference up in Schaumburg, IL. It's my first writers' conference -- yeah, I wrote a book then went to a conference, how backwards is that? -- and I'm really looking forward to meeting other authors and readers. Some I've already met online in the blogosphere, and it will be fun to put faces to names. It's going to be a fun gathering, generally: some of the authors attending are Sharon Kay Penman, Diana Gabaldon, Michelle Moran, Catherine Delors, and Laurel Corona. It's also going to be chilly, from my Florida POV, with highs only in the low 70s and lows in the 50s. Considering it's over 90 here today, I'd better excavate a sweater and rethink my wardrobe!

I'm curious to see how different a conference like this is from the academic conferences I'm accustomed to. The 'big' conferences of the professional organizations (I belong to College Art Association and Archaeological Institute of America) can be daunting, especially to a newbie. I only go to those when I'm presenting a paper, because I don't find them much 'fun.' It's nice when they're held in cool cities, but otherwise it's a lot to take in and more than a little hectic. Smaller, themed symposia and conferences to me are much more enjoyable; I've been lucky to present at a few of those in the past few years. Since I'm not presenting anything at HNS (or interviewing for a job, another aspect of the big academic conferences), I'm free to relax and have fun. Mix, mingle, network. And get free stuff, evidently! Organizer Sarah Johnson (who blogs on Reading the Past) has promised tote bags of goodies. Yippee!! Am leaving room in the suitcase...

I'll report back on my HNS experience next week. Here's hoping it's a fabulous weekend!

Happy Birthday, Monsieur Courbet

2009-06-10T13:35:00.003-04:00

June 10 is the birthday of Gustave Courbet (1819-1877), easily one of art history's most groundbreaking and controversial painters. Audiences in his time either loved his work or loathed it, and now, of course, he enjoys a special place in textbooks as the founder of the French Realist movement in art. "Show me an angel and I'll paint one" is one of his famous quotes, making the point that painting should celebrate all that is real and modern. In the textbook I use for art history survey, "The Burial at Ornans" (1848) and "The Stonebreakers" (1849) are featured; it takes some explaining to demonstrate why those particular examples were so scandalous back at the Salon of 1850, but they were. Requiring no explanation -- and maintaining their shock value -- are other of Courbet's canvases, most notably "L'origine du monde" ("The Origin of the World"), an up-close-and-WAY-too-personal painting of a woman's hoo-ha. (I don't show that one in class!) Today "L'origine du monde" hangs in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and it's one of those artworks where it is really, really fun to watch people come around the corner and encounter it.

Van Gogh was a great admirer of Courbet and mentions him several times in the letters to Theo. In December 1888, van Gogh and Gauguin traveled from Arles to Montpellier to see the Bruyas collection housed in the Musée Fabre (still there), including the pictured painting, "Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet" (1854--click image to enlarge). Courbet stands at the right with walking-stick; he's come to the south of France on a painting expedition. Collector Alfred Bruyas is the redhead in the center (van Gogh muses in his letter to Theo that he somewhat resembles Bruyas). Perhaps the most tame and least controversial of all Courbet's paintings, "Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet" was one of the most famous canvases of its day.

Meet My Bookcover!

2009-06-04T13:16:00.004-04:00

At last, I have a jpeg of the final cover art for "Sunflowers" to post and share -- and here it is! (click image to enlarge)

At the risk of sounding like I've been drinking the kool-aid in the graphic design department (as it happens, I'm the chair of that program...boy, is that a long story), here's a little discourse on my cover. First of all, I didn't realize how important book covers actually were until we got into the drafts and discussions: with my Cambridge Univ Press scholarly book, it was important, but not quite in the same way. This one needs to appeal to not only readers but the 'gatekeepers'...the folks representing bookstore chains, the independent booksellers, etc, etc. It needs to grab attention and make everyone want to pick up the book--because people DO judge a book by its cover. I really wanted a van Gogh original image, and said so from the beginning. The design team had other things to consider, too, namely the "Sunflowers" title, which automatically limits the image somewhat. (As in, people would expect to see a flower or two.) I also suspect the one-word title vs five-word subtitle vs fifteen-character author name came into play when it came time to do actual typographic layout. Everything needed to fit nicely and look good.

I wish I could post the two previous drafts and share details about the discussions, but I bet that wouldn't be very diplomatic. Sufficient to say, there *were* discussions, and this is the final result. I'm pleased myself! Not only is a van Gogh original being used -- this is a detail from the August 1888 Sunflowers now in Munich -- but I particularly like the typeface for the subtitle and my name, which looks rather 19th-century. Choosing this particular detail of the painting lends a certain turbulence that hints at the emotional turbulence present in the story itself -- the crowding of the flowers, the lines of the petals. And a 'zoom-in' like this reveals the texture of van Gogh's brushstrokes, which is always hard to convey in a photograph.

Hope everyone likes! Feel free to share your thoughts...

Another Ear Theory

2009-05-05T15:07:00.006-04:00

Two German art historians are proposing another possibility for Vincent's mutilated ear: that Gauguin did it (see the Guardian article). The book "Van Gogh's Ear and the Pact of Silence" suggests that Gauguin injured Vincent with one of his fencing swords during a fight, either accidentally or intentionally. The two artists, according to this hypothesis, agreed to keep the incident a secret. Now, I am not a big fan of Gauguin and think Vincent's life would have been very different had he not come to Arles, but I am not persuaded. First of all, given that Vincent's ear was sliced only partially, that would have been quite a feat with a fencing sword. Especially 'by accident.'

The Guardian also published a rebuttal blogpost by art and design critic Jonathan Jones.

UPDATE: The Daily Mail also has an article about the new book (thanks for the link, Julianne!) and reveals more of the theory: that the alleged fight between Gauguin and van Gogh was about Rachel. I still am not persuaded Gauguin wounded Vincent with a sword, but otherwise the connection with my novel is really fun...and that's all I'm saying...

UPDATE 2: Wow, this story is being picked up by a lot of news outlets. It's not every day Vincent winds up on TMZ. Martin Gayford, author of the book "The Yellow House," has a rebuttal at Bloomberg.com that I think is spot on (although I think he favors Gauguin more than I do...).

Opening in Basel...

2009-04-23T16:17:00.008-04:00

Opening Monday 27 April is "the most important European art event in 2009" (according to the website)...the exhibition "Vincent van Gogh Between Earth and Heaven: The Landscapes" at the Kunstmuseum Basel. Focusing on Vincent's approach to landscape through his artistic career, the exhibition brings together 70 (!!) of his paintings with 40 by his contemporaries. Among those pictures included in the show: the Saint-Remy Cypresses from the Metropolitan, one of the Saint-Remy olive groves (MoMA, so yes, the Olive Grove and the Starry Night are both in absentia from MoMA right now), some of the Arles harvest landscapes, and early landscapes from Vincent's time in Holland. It promises to be quite a show, and I for one am sorry to be missing it. The exhibition runs until 27 September.

For Americans who would like to purchase the catalogue but won't be making it to Basel, the English-language volume will be available via Amazon.com in September.

ps. If that exhibition logo isn't classic Swiss graphic design, I don't know what is!

"Sunflowers" in Romania

2009-04-14T11:53:00.003-04:00

I am delighted to announce that "Sunflowers" will be translated into Romanian and published by the Humanitas publishing house, based in Bucharest. At right is the Humanitas logo (courtesy of Wikipedia). In looking up Humanitas online, I learned that the house was founded in 1990 by the philosopher Gabriel Liiceanu, after the Romanian Revolution. At first Humanitas focused on Romanian authors, in particular those whose works had been censored under the former Communist regime; now the house translates and publishes works from around the world.

I am proud that "Sunflowers" will be published by a firm with such an interesting history, created as a forum of freedom for writers.

Lamentation

2009-04-11T12:41:00.003-04:00

On this Easter weekend, as Christians the world over ponder the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection, it seems appropriate to post perhaps the most famous image of the Lamentation in the history of art: Giotto di Bondone's Lamentation from the Arena Chapel (Cappella Scrovegni) in Padua, Italy, dating to the beginning of the fourteenth century. This image (click to enlarge) comes in a series of panels presenting the life of Christ, and this particular panel is the one that appears in all the art history survey books. I teach it every year, and every year we discuss the emotion Giotto created in the scene, the way he draws the viewer into the story. John the Evangelist flings back his arms in despair, Mary Magdalene cradles Jesus' feet, his mother cradles his head. It is a moving and powerful image.

I first studied the scenes of the Arena Chapel nearly twenty years ago in an undergraduate Italian Renaissance Art class at Emory University. My professor was Dr. John Howett, a kindly, gentle man who in his calm and quiet way unveiled the stories behind Renaissance art and inspired many a student during his 35 years of teaching, myself included. We spent two lectures on the Arena Chapel, as I recall, and in discussing the Lamentation, he told us something that to a college sophomore was rather shocking: that our textbook author was *wrong.* (Whether he put it that bluntly I honestly don't remember, but in my class notes, which I still have, it says "Hartt is wrong.") The textbook said that the tree standing in the background was dead, thus reflecting the death of Christ. That's not right, Dr. Howett told us: if you look closely, at the top of the tree especially, there are small green buds. The tree only looks dead. It is waiting for spring, and it will become green again, just as Christ will be resurrected. Giotto has put a note of hope in the otherwise sad scene. I have not forgotten Dr. Howett's lecture, and every year when I teach my survey students, I tell them that their textbook -- a different one, but one which still says the tree is dead -- is wrong. "My professor at Emory, Dr. Howett, always said..." I tell them, and I show them a blown-up image of the tree so they can make out the buds. The students nod their heads, and if I'm lucky, some of them remember and mention it on the test. If I'm really lucky, they'll remember it twenty years from now.

I learned last night that Dr. Howett passed away a few days ago, unexpectedly at the age of 82. My heart is heavy today, as I'm sure everyone who knew and loved him must feel sad too. He was the soul and spirit of the Emory art history department -- quite literally, since he was one of its founders. He retired while I was in graduate school there, but he came to the department for lectures and receptions, to the library to do research, and sometimes he'd stop by just to say hello, always with a friendly word and smile. He won several teaching awards during his career, and he was about to be awarded the 2009 Woolford Baker Award for lifetime achievement in the arts from Emory's Michael C. Carlos Museum, another place where his longtime influence is still felt. He will be missed by all whose lives he touched. But his ideas will live on.

Happy Birthday, Vincent!

2009-03-30T12:55:00.006-04:00

Vincent van Gogh was born today in 1853, in the village of Zundert in the southern Netherlands. To celebrate his day, here is one of his floral still life paintings from the Paris period: "Frittilaries in a Copper Vase" (April-May 1887), currently in the Musee d'Orsay.

Among his floral paintings, Vincent is most famous for his sunflowers and irises, but his repertoire contains much more than that. We know from a letter Theo wrote their mother that Vincent accepted flowers from acquaintances while living in Paris and painted them as a way to experiment with color harmonies. Before moving to the French capital, Vincent's palette had been earthy, but his time there led to explosions of color. This work, painted after Vincent had been living over a year in Paris, reveals his particular interest in complementary color pairs (here, blue and orange). One can also clearly see his exposure to pointillism and divisionism, mainly through his friendship with artist Paul Signac. He seems to have been proud of this picture, for unlike most of the Paris period floral still lifes, he signed it. Vincent hoped Theo would be able to sell the flower paintings, but unfortunately, that did not happen. We do know Vincent hung his floral still lifes in the Cafe Le Tambourin on the Boulevard de Clichy, an establishment owned by his then-lover, Agostina Segatori.

Happy Birthday, Vincent!

Yale Fights for the "Night Cafe"

2009-03-25T11:00:00.004-04:00

Yale University filed a lawsuit in a Connecticut federal court yesterday to assert its ownership of van Gogh's "Night Cafe in the Place Lamartine," the Associated Press has reported. Yale's move is intended to counteract possible legal action by Pierre Konowaloff, the great-grandson of Ivon Morozov, who owned the painting in 1918. As the AP report explains, Morozov's estate, including the "Night Cafe," was nationalized during the Communist Revolution. Konowaloff claims that the Soviet government did not have legal title to the painting and therefore had no right to sell it. In contrast, Yale's lawsuit claims that no international laws were violated when Russia nationalized Morozov's and other art collections, and that Konowaloff has no ownership rights.

Art collector and Yale alumnus Stephen Carlton Clark acquired the "Night Cafe" from a New York gallery in 1933 or 1934, then included the painting in a bequest to Yale in 1961. Recently an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum celebrated the Clark brothers' art collection; the "Night Cafe" was a highlight of the show. The Yale lawsuit points out that neither Morozov's widow nor Konowaloff's parents made any claim on the painting at the time it was acquired by Yale University and the bequest highly publicized. The university argues that Konowaloff can recover neither the painting nor its equivalent value since he failed to take action during the three-year period following Yale's acquisition.

A fascinating case to watch!

Hello, Spring

2009-03-21T11:27:00.004-04:00

Living in Florida -- where there are really only two seasons, summer and not-summer -- it's easy to forget the first day of spring. Even the television weatherpersons announce the day in a blasé, bemused way, as if it's only a formality after weeks of temperatures hovering around 80.

But still, the arrival of spring deserves a special tribute, and what better than one of van Gogh's flowering orchard canvases from Arles? He painted over a dozen of them in late March-April 1888, pear, plum, apricot and peach trees, explosions of blooms and colors. Subconsciously they likely reflected his feeling of rebirth, arriving as he had in February after two difficult years in Paris. Quite consciously, they reflected Vincent's fascination with Japanese art: artists like Hiroshige made flowering trees a key motif in their ukiyo-e prints. Vincent knew these well, for many beautiful examples formed part of his and Theo's Japanese print collection. Vincent may also have been thinking of one of his heroes, Jean-François Millet, whose lovely "Spring" canvas had entered the Louvre in 1887, while Vincent was still in Paris. (Today "Spring" is in the Musée d'Orsay: see Catherine Delors' blog for a tribute.)

I saw the Van Gogh Museum's collection of flowering orchards in 2007, but I chose my favorite at the Kröller-Müller Museum during that same trip to the Netherlands -- this one, "Peach Trees in Blossom," also known as the "Souvenir de Mauve" (click image to enlarge). I know I say this all the time, but a photograph cannot capture the colors and texture of this picture. It was easily my favorite painting in the entire Kröller-Müller. I could not tear my eyes away. The graceful arc of the tree trunk, the way the flowers stretch to the sky...lovely. Vincent himself thought it the best of the paintings he had done up to that point in Arles, and for that reason, he chose it to send to Jet Mauve, the widow of Dutch landscape painter Anton Mauve, when he learned of Mauve's death. Vincent had known Anton Mauve in The Hague; Mauve had been a mentor and teacher before the two had a falling-out over Vincent's relationship with prostitute Sien Hoornik. It is fair to say that Mauve's work and guidance helped shape Vincent's approach to landscape painting, and Vincent wrote to Theo that he was "choked with emotion" after hearing of Mauve's passing. In typical Vincent fashion, sending the painting to The Hague had a pragmatic angle too: he confided to Theo that the gift "might really break the ice in Holland," in other words, help gain exposure for his work in the brothers' homeland.

After choosing the painting to send, Vincent inscribed it "Souvenir de Mauve" (Remembrance of Mauve) together with "Vincent & Theo." But Theo's name is no longer there, and it is thought Vincent removed it at his brother's request. The painting has never been restored, but the colors are still fresh, whereas in some of the other orchard paintings Vincent's pinks have faded to white.

Happy Spring!

Brush With Genius

2009-03-20T11:13:00.003-04:00

I made it to the IMAX Dome of Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry to see "Van Gogh: Brush with Genius," and as promised, here are some thoughts. If this film is playing in your area and you have any interest in van Gogh at all: SEE IT. It is a visual feast. The Imax format immerses you in the paintings; many times the filmmaker gives you the closest details of pictures, so you see individual brushstrokes blown up to thousands of times their actual size. Interspersed with the paintings themselves is superb footage of Auvers-sur-Oise, the asylum at Saint-Remy and its environs (the olive groves), and Arles, together with footage shot in Paris and Amsterdam. In Paris, we see inside the Musée d'Orsay, and in Amsterdam, inside the Van Gogh Museum. Noteworthy in the latter is a look inside The Vaults where the letters and drawings are stored, safe beneath the museum.

The accompanying commentary is fairly lightweight, but it works: the filmmakers knew you'd be so busy gawking at the visuals that you wouldn't be listening to anything dense or detailed. It also makes the movie more 'kid-friendly.' An actor portraying Vincent provides first-person narration as voiceover, and onscreen we follow two 'characters' of a van Gogh researcher and a filmmaker (the latter is one of the actual filmmakers) around Vincent's world. The voiceover commentary gives the basic timeline of Vincent's life, explains some key events, and gives "Vincent's" thoughts on his fame today. Two moments in particular made me smile -- in the first, "Ellen" the researcher is carefully examining a letter fragment in which all the words are crossed out, trying to work out what Vincent had originally written. Those well versed in van Gogh studies will recognize the letter fragment as one recently deciphered by VGM curators and published in the 2000 issue of Van Gogh Museum Journal. "Vincent" complains about the researcher trying to read what he had carefully made sure no one would ever read and proclaims "Who cares?" Kind of an in-joke, it seemed to me, since the film was made in collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum.

The second made-me-smile moment was a shout-out to my girl Rachel (pronounced correctly in the film as Rah-shell). "I liked Rachel," Vincent says in voiceover. "She was close to me. She had a warm heart." I wanted to clap.

Another interesting tidbit about the film concerns the choices of the paintings. I found it striking that an entire van Gogh documentary did not once show Starry Night or Sunflowers. The filmmakers were strategic in choosing a broad range of work that demonstrates the diversity of Vincent's subject matter. They did not stick to the paintings everyone knows. The most 'famous' works to make an appearance are the Orsay version of the Bedroom at Arles and the Cafe Terrace at Night. Paintings and drawings depicted are nearly all from the collections of the VGM, the Kröller-Müller Museum, and the Orsay, which partly explains the absence of Starry Night, but even so, the filmmakers clearly made an effort to expose moviegoers to artworks they might not have seen before.

"Van Gogh: Brush With Genius" recently won a major European award for large-screen format films, and deservedly so. SEE IT!

For Sale in Maastricht

2009-03-16T16:54:00.002-04:00

March brings The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) to Maastricht, a grand display of Old Masters, modern art, antiquities, you name it, not to mention hundreds of collectors, curators, dealers, and assorted art glitterati.

It also usually brings at least one van Gogh: last year, it was "Child with an Orange" from the Auvers period, this year it's "The Park of St. Paul's Hospital" (F640, JH1800), painted in October 1889 on the grounds of the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole at Saint-Rémy. This landscape, on offer from Dickinson for 25 million Euro, has been in a Swiss private collection since 1963 and has only been exhibited three times since that acquisition. Its provenance can be traced directly back to Johanna van Gogh-Bonger.

The painting is one of a series Vincent did in the hospital garden in the autumn, when he was fascinated by the changing colors of the landscape. The particular detail depicted here is part of the terraced garden lying in front of the former men's wing; today, this area of the hospital remains closed to the public because of the patients residing there. The painting includes one of Vincent's favorite subjects at Saint-Rémy, the cypress, which he considered a quintessentially Provençal motif. Also typical of the Saint-Rémy period is the somewhat subdued color palette compared to the Arles paintings, here with touches of red to suggest autumnal foliage.

Van Gogh Goes Imax

2009-03-10T11:52:00.003-04:00

Color me happy! The new IMAX documentary "Van Gogh: Brush with Genius" is coming to Tampa Friday, and I'll be able to see it next week. Huzzah! The documentary had its first US screening back in the fall, in New York to accompany the "Colors of the Night" exhibition at MoMA. It is now opening at other American IMAX venues. The Tampa venue is the IMAX Dome at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI); information and showtimes are available at the MOSI website.

The website for the documentary itself includes a trailer and other information about the film. It was shot on location at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and places where Vincent lived and painted (including Arles, Saint-Remy, and Auvers-sur-Oise). The cinematography looks amazing even on the trailer; I can't imagine how it's going to be in IMAX format. Oh boy! Review to come...

Van Gogh in South Carolina

2009-03-07T18:20:00.003-05:00

Van Gogh doesn't often get to my birth-state of South Carolina (neither do I, for that matter, I haven't lived there since I was two). But he's there now, with a single painting included in the exhibition "Turner to Cézanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales" at the Columbia Museum of Art (through June 7th). The most expensive show ever mounted at the museum, with a price tag of $550,000, the exhibit also features works by Monet, Renoir, and Manet -- and of course Turner and Cézanne.

The Van Gogh painting in question is this one, "Landscape at Auvers in the Rain," done in July 1890, not long before Vincent's death at Auvers-sur-Oise (click image to enlarge). Scenes of rain are uncommon in his oeuvre, and that alone makes this painting interesting. It's one of a passel of pictures done of wheatfields while Vincent lived in Auvers, pictures that he believed showed the vitality and vigor of the countryside. It's also in the so-called "double-square format" (50 x 100 cm), a canvas size/shape that Vincent began newly working with while in Auvers. Note in particular the strong use of the complementary color pair blue and orange, which makes the landscape seem vibrant even in the rain.

If you visit Auvers-sur-Oise, look carefully at the cemetery wall as you are walking up the hill en route to paying homage to Vincent and Theo. You will find a poster of this canvas, marking the exact spot where Vincent stood as he painted it, near the edge of the cemetery, gazing out over the Oise river valley.

"Colours of the Night" in Amsterdam

2009-02-21T11:10:00.004-05:00

The exhibition "Van Gogh and the Colours of the Night" (Van Gogh en de kleuren van de nacht) opened at the Van Gogh Museum 13 February and will run through 7 June 2009. Most of the same pieces on view in the New York showing are included in the Amsterdam venue, with a few additions/subtractions. Particularly noteworthy is the return of "Starry Night" to Amsterdam, the painting's first visit to the Van Gogh Museum since 1990.

Timed tickets are being sold for the exhibition, available at the VGM website (see link at left). Can't get to Amsterdam? The VGM has plenty of exhibition-related goodies in its Online Shop, including the pictured poster.

"Sunflowers" Available for Pre-Order!

2009-02-14T12:16:00.003-05:00

How exciting -- "Sunflowers" has appeared for pre-order on Amazon. My Mom spotted it first: thanks, Mom! After some fighting with Blogger (it's being quite temperamental with me today), I have started a link-list to the left of places to find "Sunflowers" online.

Not much information is posted on Amazon yet aside from the release date (13 October) and the pagination (320 pages), but I'm sure it will be coming soon, including the cover design. I've seen the draft version of the cover, and I love it! I'll just say that a detail of the Munich version of "Sunflowers," painted in Arles in August 1888, anchors the initial design, and the font choices are very elegant. When the cover gets the final sign-off from all the necessary parties, I'll post it here.

ps. "Sunflowers" is available at Target.com too!

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T11:48:00.003-05:00

I know, I know, I've been a wayward blogposter lately (three words: "acting department chair"). But I can't let Valentine's Day pass without a suitably romantic van Gogh painting to put everyone in the mood. Here is one of Vincent's pictures of the Voyer d'Argenson park in Asnières, a Parisian suburb, which he populated with courting couples (Van Gogh Museum, click image to enlarge). It is one of several views of Asnières that van Gogh painted, dating from May-June 1887, a little over a year after he arrived in Paris to live with his brother Theo. It's also one of the largest paintings Vincent ever did, at 75.5 x 113 cm (not quite 30 x 44 1/2 inches).

Motifs of parks and couples recur in Vincent's work from this point on -- in Arles, for instance, he would paint many views of the public gardens near his home. In this picture, the courting couples are recognizably working class, in keeping with van Gogh's thematic interests, and the style is quite neo-Impressionist. He was close friends with painter Paul Signac, he would have seen the work of Georges Seurat (including the famous painting of the park at La Grande Jatte), and their influence shows here. But notice that Vincent is no slave to pointillism -- he's too impatient for that -- he has more dashes than dots in his scene. His interest in color theory peeks through; the red-green complementary color pair is evident. That in itself has a romantic element, for in a letter to his sister Wilhemina, Vincent compares complementary pairs to human couples, saying that certain colors 'complete each other like a man and a woman.' Was Vincent thinking of a lady-love of his own as he painted this work? Unfortunately, we know little about his love life while in Paris, except for the likely affair with café owner Agostina Segatori. Vincent does say in a letter to his sister, "I still continually have the most impossible and highly unsuitable love affairs from which, as a rule, I emerge only with shame and disgrace." Many interpret the recurring theme of happy couples in Vincent's work as a poignant sign of his longing for affection.

This picture is noteworthy for being one of the first (if not the first) paintings van Gogh ever exhibited publicly. While living in Paris, Vincent hung his work regularly in neighborhood cafés and other venues. This piece was displayed at the Théâtre-Libre d'Antoine. His careful finishing of the painting and its size both indicate its importance to Vincent--he clearly intended it to be a show-piece in his oeuvre.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A Sunflower Quilt

2009-01-23T16:04:00.004-05:00

It's amazing sometimes what you find by accident. I've been updating lecture sheets for this semester, and I've decided to include a Faith Ringgold quilt in one of my post-WW II lectures for art history survey. A little Googling on Faith Ringgold, and voila! A beautiful work I wasn't familiar with, a story quilt dedicated to noteworthy African-American women of history and none other than Vincent van Gogh.

"The Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles" (private collection, 74" x 80", click here for an image*) dates from 1991 [the year after the 100th anniversary of Vincent's death, I can't help but notice] and is part of Ringgold's "French Collection." Here, women work together to create a quilt outside the Provencal town of Arles, and the story around the picture tells who they are: Madame C.J. Walker (who invented a hair straightening comb and became a self-made millionaire), Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells (who made an expose of the horrors of lynching in South), Fannie Lou Hamer (who braved persecution to register people to vote), Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Mary McLeod Bethune (who founded a college and served as advisor to Truman and FDR), and Ella Baker (who worked to improve housing for poor, jobs, and education). Vincent stands shyly to the right, clutching a bouquet of his beloved sunflowers. In the story, the women aren't sure if they want this white man nearby; they are afraid of him. But ultimately Ringgold makes a connection between the tragic life of van Gogh and the challenges faced by African-American women in history. I personally think Vincent would approve: throughout his life he had great empathy for those in need and a strong sense of social justice.

He'd like the quilt itself too, I think: rich saturated colors reminiscent of van Gogh's work, and if you look closely, that's the Yellow House in the background and to the right, with its distinctive green shutters. The theme of community, of artists working together, was another motif in Vincent's life, although in his case, the desire to create a community of artists in Arles ended sadly.

I'm happy to have 'discovered' this quilt today -- and this week especially, when the book of American history has found itself a brand new page.

*Why am I sending you someplace else to see the picture? Faith Ringgold's work is protected by copyright, as she is a living artist. Mechanically I could put the picture here, but ethically I should not, because I have not received permission from her. I'm assuming the site where I'm sending you has permission to post the image. Better safe than to offend Ms. Ringgold.

Running Through History

2009-01-13T12:30:00.004-05:00

Many, many congratulations to my fabulous sister Chantel for running the Disney World Marathon this past weekend! (And happy birthday to her today!) This was her first marathon -- what an achievement!

You'll never catch me running a marathon, but as a classicist, I can appreciate the roots of the race in ancient history, specifically the battle of Marathon, which witnessed an overwhelming and surprising victory of the Athenians over the Persians in 490 BC, after the forces of Darius I invaded Greece. According to legend, Pheidippides, the swiftest of foot among the Athenians, ran from Marathon to Athens (26 miles) to announce the victory. "We have won," he said and dropped dead from exhaustion. (He hadn't trained.) Today you can still visit, and I have, the burial mound of the Athenian dead at Marathon.

The marathon was not an event in the ancient Olympics or other festivals -- it was instituted for the 1896 Olympics in Athens -- but ancient games did have footraces, both sprints and longer runs. Women were not allowed to compete in the games in which men competed, but they had their own festivals. The festival of Hera at Olympia, for instance, included footraces for unmarried girls. The winners received olive crowns and the right to dedicate statues with their names on them (a big honor). And in Sparta, athletic training for girls was considered natural. The lovely bronze figurine here (image from the British Museum website, click to enlarge) was probably made in Sparta. She's about 11 centimeters tall, dates from ca. 520-500 BC, and probably decorated a bronze vessel. Her short tunic was the costume for competing female runners, with one shoulder bared to the breast.

Today when people think of ancient Greek athletics, they tend to think of male athletes. But modern running girls share in that history too!

Happy New Year

2008-12-31T09:45:00.005-05:00

Happy New Year to everyone (and a happy birthday to my Mom today!). Here is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's Dance at the Moulin Rouge, 1890 (in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, click to enlarge) as a suitably festive image.

Speaking of Toulouse-Lautrec, here's an exhibition to add to the Spring Roundup below: "Toulouse-Lautrec and Paris" at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, MA) from February 1st through April 26th. The show will include nearly all of the Clark's holdings on the artist, along with works by some of his contemporaries (e.g. Degas and Steinlen). Over eighty oil paintings, posters, photographs, drawings, and lithographs will be featured.

A Nativity at Night

2008-12-27T12:30:00.004-05:00

This post comes a few days late for Christmas, but it is always a good time for a beautiful painting. In honor of the season, I give you one of my favorite (if not very favorite) Nativity scenes in European art, the lovely late 15th-century "Nativity at Night" by the Netherlandish painter known as Geertgen tot Sint Jans (image courtesy the National Gallery website, click to enlarge). This small (34 x 25.3 cm) oil painting on wood panel today is in the National Gallery in London and is one of the earliest nighttime Nativity images. I first saw it in an undergraduate Northern Renaissance art history class about twenty years ago and have loved it ever since.

Geertgen tot Sint Jans is thought to have been born in Leiden and to have been a pupil of the Haarlem painter Albert van Ouwater, one of the first Netherlandish oil painters. Geertgen, however, had a short career; he was associated with the monastery of the knights of Saint John in Haarlem (hence his nickname) and died there in his late twenties. Only about a dozen to 15 works attributed to him survive today (some are disputed). We do know that some of his paintings were destroyed by iconoclasts during the Reformation.

This peaceful Nativity is partly inspired by the visions of the 14th-century mystic Bridget of Sweden, who envisioned the dazzling body of the infant Christ at the Incarnation. The Virgin Mary, angels, and even friendly animals gather around the manger; Joseph stands in the shadows, hand to his chest in awe. In the background, a hovering angel gives another point of light, announcing the good news to the shepherds on the hillside. Throughout, Geertgen tot Sint Jans uses the medium of oil paint to its best advantage, in his rendering of light and shade, and careful detail. Photographs do not do this piece justice -- in the museum, faced with its small size, one can appreciate even more the delicacy and virtuosity of Geertgen's hand, as well as the moving nature of the subject.

Happy Holidays to all and a belated Merry Christmas!

Showcasing Women in Ancient Athens

2008-12-19T10:05:00.002-05:00

Today's New York Times includes a review of the new exhibition at the Onassis Cultural Center, "Worshiping Women: Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens." This important new show, which runs through May 9th, was co-curated by Nikolaos Kaltsas, director of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, and Prof. Alan Shapiro of Johns Hopkins University, a mentor of mine who served on my dissertation committee. It includes objects from several Greek collections, not only those of the National Archaeological Museum but from smaller national museums like that at Brauron.

What makes this exhibition important is its challenge of the notion that women in ancient Athens lived lives of strict seclusion and restriction. While women could not participate in political life, it's true, one arena where they played a very important role is the religious life of the city. The exhibition explores the festivals and rituals in which women took part, as well as the representation of female deities in Athenian art.

This is a topic close to my heart -- my dissertation focused on images of female musicians on Athenian vases -- and I encourage anyone heading to New York or living there to check out this show. The Onassis Center is located at 645 Fifth Avenue, near 52nd Street; their website is www.onassisusa.org for more information.

Banner Year for Van Gogh Books

2008-12-18T11:50:00.005-05:00

The Van Gogh Museum has just released their 2009 publications programme (download it at their website), and I might as well write them a big check right now for the things I plan to buy. It's going to be a banner year in van Gogh studies!

The "big one," the publication that has the potential to reshape our understanding of Vincent (oh! how my pulse races!), is the Five Volume, Completely Annotated, Fully Illustrated, In-Process-Since-1994 new edition of van Gogh's complete correspondence. 2500 pages! 2000 illustrations! It is set to be released in October 2009 (about the time of my own book, I love it), in conjunction with a special exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum showcasing actual letter manuscripts, and in English, Dutch, and French editions. All editions include the original text of all the letters in brand new translations, annotated commentary on each letter, and illustrations of all works of art discussed in the letters. The English edition is being released through Thames and Hudson, which I hope means it will be easily available via Amazon stateside. According to the VGM's publication programme, the cost is 300 Euros until January 2010, at which point price goes up to 350 Euros (price in US dollars not given). The volumes will also be available digitally through a special website.

What makes this publication exciting is that the letters will be included and translated as Vincent wrote them: no euphemisms (so his sometimes salty language will stay in), no amendments, and no excised passages. Johanna van Gogh-Bonger's original collection of the letters, quite understandably, left out some passages that might be sensitive to the family or that she felt might be otherwise inappropriate. What could those be?! (Ten bucks says I will be shouting "Gah! I want that in my novel! And it's too late!" many times while perusing the five volumes.)

As if that weren't enough to get me giddy, two more 2009 publications from the VGM will definitely make it to my bookshelf:
*Louis van Tilborgh and Ella Hendriks, Vincent van Gogh Paintings, 2: Antwerp and Paris, 1885-1888: the next volume of catalogues of the VGM's permanent collection. 500 pages, listed at 99 Euros. The recent volumes of the drawings catalogues have been available via Amazon, so this one may be too. Otherwise it can be purchased through the VGM website in autumn 2009.

*The latest volume in the slim-but-packed-with-good-research Van Gogh in Focus series, entitled "Van Gogh and Montmartre." These, unfortunately, are only available at the VGM or through its website. I have three of the five earlier titles, and they're terrific.

Happy Reading in 2009!

Spring Exhibition Roundup

2008-12-16T20:01:00.003-05:00

With the New Year come new shows. This list is in no way intended to be comprehensive, but here are some upcoming museum exhibitions that strike my fancy:

*Art Institute of Chicago: "Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety and Myth" (Feb 14th-April 26th). This major show will include ca. 75 paintings and 75 works on paper by Munch and his peers (including, apparently, something by van Gogh although the AIC website does not say what). The exhibition is meant to challenge the popular-culture view of Munch as emotionally unstable. Munch made the news recently when his "Vampire" sold for over $38 million at Sotheby's NY November auction. N.B. the AIC's new Impressionist and Post Impressionist galleries open December 16th.

*Baltimore Museum of Art: "A Circus Family: Picasso to Léger" (Feb 22nd-May 17th). This exhibition showcases images of the circus and circus performers in the early 20th century, but begins with the late 19th century and posters by Toulouse-Lautrec. Picasso's sympathetic saltimbanque images form the core of the show.

*British Museum, London: "Babylon: Myth and Reality" continues until March 15th. Considering that ancient Babylon lies smack in the middle of modern conflict in Iraq, this show is both timely and important.

*Getty Center, Los Angeles: "Captured Emotions: Baroque Painting in Bologna, 1575-1725" (Dec 16th-May 3rd). This show focuses primarily on the famed Carracci family of painters, but also includes work by other Bolognese notables such as Guido Reni and Guercino. Bologna is one of my favorite European cities, can I just say -- amazingly under-touristed but filled with good things to see (and eat).

*Musée d'Orsay, Paris: "See Italy and Die" (I love the title), from April 7th to July 19th. An exhibition of 19th-century "Grand Tour" photography which promises to be a treat.

*Museum of FIne Arts, Boston: "Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice" (March 15th-August 16th). This one is co-organized by the MFA and the Louvre, and will feature sixty paintings from European and American collections. I love Tintoretto -- this looks like a great show.

*National Gallery of Art, Washington DC: "Pompeii and the Roman Villa" will be on view until March 22nd. A student of mine saw this one over Thanksgiving and said it was terrific. Running from 1 February until 3 May will be "Pride of Place: Dutch Cityscapes of the Golden Age," co-organized with the Mauritshuis in The Hague and intended to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Dutch exploration in the Hudson River Valley. Jacob van Ruisdael's famous view of Haarlem and the bleaching fields will be featured (I teach that painting in survey and was happy to see it in person in The Hague last year).

*Philadelphia Museum of Art: "Cézanne and Beyond" (Feb 26th-May 17th). Includes forty paintings and drawings by Cézanne, plus numerous works by other artists to show his context and influence.

*Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels: "Alfred Stevens" (May 8th - 23rd August). This Belgian painter is less-known now, but in his day, he was hugely successful. He lived much of his career in Paris and was close friends with Edouard Manet, among others. One of his models (and his possible lover for a while) was none other than Victorine Meurent, the model for Manet's "Olympia."

And on the van Gogh front...
*Kunstmuseum Basel: "Vincent van Gogh Between Earth and Heaven: The Landscapes" (April 26th-Sept 27th). Ohhh I am sorry to be missing this one!

*Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam: "Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night," the European showing of the exhibition currently in New York, from 13 February through 7 June. The VGM has posted their entire exhibition calendar for 2009, which includes "Van Gogh's Letters: The Artist Speaks" from 9 October through 3 January 2010. The letters show is HUGE because it coincides with the VGM's release of THE definitive new edition of Vincent's letters and the launch of a special website dedicated to the correspondence. Be still my beating heart!

Vincent Does It Again

2008-12-12T20:17:00.003-05:00

The three-month, three-billion-Euro van Gogh exhibition at the Albertina Museum in Vienna closed earlier this week, and the numbers are in: 589,180 visitors to yield the best-attended exhibition in Austria for 13 years. (The museum expected 450,000.) Average attendance was 6000 visitors per day, making the exhibition the 10th most popular in the world for this year.

Bravo!

Mellow Out

2008-12-07T21:43:00.008-05:00

Consulting the online calendars of artists' birthdays for today, I learn December 7th belongs to two very disparate artists whose work I happen to like very much: the 17th-century Baroque sculptor par excellence, Gianlorenzo Bernini, and the 20th-century American painter Stuart Davis. Pictured is Davis' "Mellow Pad" from 1945-51 (image from WebMuseum, click to enlarge).

I dig "Mellow Pad." That's right, the classicist-aka-van-Gogh-junkie digs "Mellow Pad." Admittedly, Davis has been an acquired taste, and I wouldn't call myself well-versed in his work, but "Mellow Pad" for me conjures up two things: my love of jazz and the year I lived in New York, before I came to Florida. Davis wasn't from New York, but he showed there, and his paintings capture its essence: the noise, the neon, the crowds, the craziness. I remember seeing "Mellow Pad" the first time I went to the Brooklyn Museum during my NYC year, and it's one of the images I associate with that time in my life.

"Mellow Pad" also shouts jazz. Not smooth jazz/Kenny G stuff, I mean the real deal: Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, the bebop that Davis knew very well and sought to express in paint. I became a fan first of French jazz (leave it to me to do it backwards) after a happenstance visit to Paris during the 1996 Fête de la Musique -- jazz on the street corners of the Latin Quarter near my hotel, jazz in the Métro, this musical cacophony that set my brain to whirring. New York finished the job; I have fond memories of going to some basement joint in Greenwich Village where Kool-Aid flowed freely (no liquor license) and so did the beat, courtesy of some NYU students channeling the 1940s. I pull out my bebop now when my head feels busy and my nerves are jangled, when what I need is not something slow, but something to get whatever-it-is out of my system. (Um, like now with the end of the semester...) Jazz is healthy for a personality like mine, because it reminds me that sometimes disorder and the seemingly chaotic possess a strange harmony. Translation: don't get worked up, baby, mellow out!

In the past, I've showed "Mellow Pad" in art appreciation class. There's always some forehead-wrinkling at first, then I say, "Listen to this." On goes some Charlie Parker ("Ko-Ko" is usually my track of choice). Aha! Now they see it: the syncopation of colors, of notes, eschewing the obvious in favor of the unexpected. And the title -- Mellow Pad. Say it out loud. Mellooooow paaaaad. That's more Miles Davis-y and "Nature Boy," that title, smooth and, well, mellow.

Yep. I dig it, daddy-o.

ps. Stuart Davis' work was influenced by van Gogh, whose paintings he saw in the famous Armory Show. Had to be said. ;-)

Happy Birthday, Monsieur Lautrec!

2008-11-23T10:46:00.007-05:00

November 24th is the birthday of Henri-Marie-Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Montfa (1864-1901), to my mind one of the most colorful figures in art history. Replicas of his famous poster designs for the Moulin Rouge and the Divan Japonais decorate many a kitchen or dorm room nowadays, and certainly his distinctive drawing style found admirers in his own time, including Vincent van Gogh.

Although they are grouped together in art history textbooks under the Post-Impressionist umbrella, most people might not realize van Gogh and Lautrec were very close friends. They must have made quite a pair in the Montmartre cafés and cabarets, the socially awkward Dutch preacher's son and the flamboyant, 4'11" son of aristocrats with his trademark bowler hat. They met in the studio of Fernand Cormon, where Lautrec was studying alongside artists like Émile Bernard when Vincent arrived in Paris in early 1886. The particulars of their friendship are not well documented in the surviving source material, but it seems Vincent introduced Lautrec to the influence of Japanese prints, while Lautrec helped bring Vincent into the avant-garde fold. Vincent invited Lautrec to exhibit in a group show he organized at the Restaurant du Chalet in 1887 and probably encouraged his brother Theo's purchase of Lautrec's painting Poudre de riz (Rice Powder, click image to enlarge) in January 1888. (This painting today is in the Van Gogh Museum, along with a pastel drawing Lautrec made of Vincent in a café.) Lautrec's painting of Mlle. Marie Dihau at a piano influenced Vincent's portrait of Marguerite Gachet at the piano in 1890 while at Auvers-sur-Oise. From model-painter Suzanne Valadon, who possibly posed for Poudre de riz, we learn Vincent was a frequent but shy guest at Lautrec's artist soirées; from Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, we learn the two friends last saw each other in early July 1890, when Vincent made his last trip to Paris from Auvers and a luncheon was held in Theo and Johanna's apartment.

My favorite van Gogh-Lautrec story centers on the exhibition of Les Vingt in Brussels in early 1890. Vincent showed six works (including two Sunflower canvases) but did not attend the opening, because he was at the hospital in Saint-Rémy at the time. Lautrec showed five works in the exhibition and did attend the inaugural dinner on 16 January. The Belgian painter Henry de Groux, drunk and disorderly, proceeded at the dinner to insult Vincent's paintings, referring to him as an 'ignoramus' and 'show-off.' The equally drunk Lautrec flew into a rage and insisted de Groux rescind his comments or face the consequences ... Lautrec's friends had to stop him from challenging de Groux to a duel over the matter. Eventually de Groux was made to apologize.

Unfortunately, any letters exchanged between Lautrec and van Gogh no longer exist. Three brief letters to Theo from Lautrec do survive, including a letter of consolation dated 31 July 1890, after Vincent's death. Lautrec did not learn of his friend's passing in time to attend the hasty funeral in Auvers. Lautrec writes, "You know what a friend he was to me and how eager he was to demonstrate his affection -- unhappily, I am only able to tell you all this by clasping your hand very warmly but in the presence of a coffin."* Lautrec would die at nearly the same age as Vincent, just shy of thirty-seven, eleven years later in 1901.

*Trans. in R. Pickvance, ed., "A Great Artist is Dead: Letters of Consolation on Vincent van Gogh's Death" (Van Gogh Museum, 1992).

Home to Italy

2008-11-19T14:48:00.002-05:00

The Cleveland Museum of Art has agreed to repatriate 14 objects of dubious provenance to the Italian government, the latest in a string of repatriations from museums and private collectors in recent years. The objects include Etruscan and Greek artifacts (the Greek material either ancient imports to Italy or made in the Greek colonies of south Italy/Sicily), and a medieval processional cross. See the list and links to object information/pictures on Prof. David Gill's superb blog Looting Matters.

Van Gogh's Chair

My New Blog!

"The Bedroom" Is Back!

Have You Seen This Painting?

Caravaggio Update

Run, Pheidippides, Run!

Chasing Caravaggio

Go(gh) Netherlands!

Tiffany in Florida

Renovating "The Bedroom"

Southwest Florida Reading Festival

A "New" Van Gogh

A Snowy Day

Casting "Sunflowers"

Gogh-ing to the Nelson-Atkins

Auction Results

Up for Auction

L'anno di Caravaggio

The Real Van Gogh

The Venus Fixers

Painting the Wind

Art History Reading Challenge!

Mining for Clues...

Merry Christmas!

This Day in History...

Parlez-vous provençal?

A Flaming Soul

Fun at the Library

G'day, Vincent

Voted Most Popular for 2009...

Vincent the Blogger

Travel as Pilgrimage

Meet Monsieur Roulin

SOLD!

Up for Auction

Traipsing through the Blogosphere

Who Was Rachel?

Onward Ho!

*The* Newspaper Article

Festival of Reading

More Guest Posts

Why First Person?

T-minus...ONE DAY!

The Coolest Website EVER

Meet Van Gogh's Doctor

Van Gogh's Montmartre

Gauguin Exhibition at the CMA

My Favorite Self-Portrait

Goodreads Giveaway!

Van Gogh the Writer

My New Cyber-Home

Vincent Travels to Taipei

A New Semester

Holy Smokes! A Starred Review!

A Van Gogh Mystery

Helen of Troy

At The Bookbinders!

On This Day...

Keeping Up Appearances

The Elusive Vincent

Summer of Love

The Real Van Gogh

Here Comes the Chimaera

Happy Fourth!

East of the Sun

The New Acropolis Museum

My New Neighbors

Internet Treasure Hunting

We Are Watching

Bats in the Belfry

Hearing Voices

Boy, oh Boy!

Blast About the Past

Off to HNS

Happy Birthday, Monsieur Courbet

Meet My Bookcover!

Another Ear Theory

Opening in Basel...

"Sunflowers" in Romania

Lamentation

The Newspaper Article