Archive for November, 2006
2006 is nearing an end, so it isn’t too early to buy a new calendar, especially when it has Vincent van Gogh art on it….. I purchased a Vincent van Gogh Calendar at the mall for $8.50, but the website on the calendar also sells it. This calendar is so beautiful. Unfortunately, it is more to purchase it online than it was at the mall. Here is the link to buy it online. The picture on the website does not do this calendar justice, though. The cover shows a huge image of “Wheat Field Behind Saint-Paul Hospital with Reaper”. Even the image here doesn’t show the detail that the cover on this calendar does. I love how it shows each brush stroke of thick paint. I get excited thinking about Vincent painting it as I look at it. This calendar is beautiful.
Other paintings included on this calendar, are:
- Daubigny’s Garden
- Memory of the Garden at Etten
- The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum
- Barges on the River Rhone
- Self-Portrait
- Vincent’s Chair with His Pipe
- Rest from Work
- Olive Picking
- The Church at Auvers
- The Sower
- Vegatable Gardens in Montemartre
Below are some more 2007 Vincent van Gogh Calendars I found through my affiliate program.
Van Gogh
2007 Calendar
Buy at AllPosters.com
November 05 2006 | calendar | 1 Comment »
Au Charbonnage, taken from Vincent Van Gogh — The Complete Works on CDRom
Vincent van Gogh sketched “Au Charbonnage” and sent it in letter 126 to his brother Theo:
“I enclose that hasty little sketch, “Au Charbonnage.” I should like to begin making rough sketches of some of the many things that I meet on my way, but as it would probably keep me from my real work, it is better not to start. As soon as I came home, I began a sermon about the barren fig tree, Luke 13 : 6-9. The little drawing “Au Charbonnage” is not particularly remarkable, but I made it because one sees here so many people who work in the coal mines, and they are a rather distinctive type. This little house stands not far from the road; it is a small inn which adjoins the big coal shed, and the workmen come to eat their bread and drink their glass of beer there during the lunch hour…” (van Gogh, 1878).
Vincent had a burden for the coal mining communities. His father was a preacher, and he also pursued preaching for a while — pastoring a small coal-mining community.
It amazes me how Vincent could take the simple things that would have otherwise been long forgotten, and created a memorial that will last forever. This “Au Charbonnage” is one of these memorials that will live on forever because of Vincent…. He did give these people the glory and sainthood that he saw in them…. They will never be forgotten.
November 03 2006 | Au Charbonnage and Coal Miners and Letter 126 and Preaching | No Comments »
Vase with 12 Sunflowers taken from Vincent Van Gogh — The Complete Works on CDRom
Sunflowers and Swirly Stars is an excellent children’s book about Vincent van Gogh by Brad Bucks and Joan Holub. I received this book as a birthday present, and even though it is a children’s book, I enjoyed it and learned some things from it. Both of my daughters also read this book, and learned more about Vincent, so I was pleased. This book contains different paintings by Vincent van Gogh, and also colorful art that looks as if a child drew it. The book is told as if from a child’s point of view, and starts out explaining how Vincent was poor his whole life, and now his paintings sell for sometimes over $82 million dollars (Bucks, 2001).
There are many pictures, including a picture of the actual art gallery where Vincent worked for a while, a piece of a letter that Vincent wrote to his brother Theo and drew a picture at the top of it, a photo of Vincent at only 13 years of age, a photo of Vincent and Theo’s graves, Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (To demonstrate art of one of Vincent’s friends, of whom he learned a painting style called pointillism from), and also several of his paintings, including:
Dr Gachet
One of Vincent’s self portrait’s
The Potato Eaters
Japonaiserie
Portrait of Pere Tanguy
The Yellow House
Vase with Sunflowers
The Postman Roulin
The Bedroom
Self-portrait with bandaged ear
The Starry Night
The Red Vineyards at Arles
A detailed shot of Vincent’s signature, taken from “Sunflowers”
There is quite a bit of information in this book, and with all of the pictures and the way it is told, it makes it hold a child’s (or adult’s) interest. Both of my children really enjoyed and learned from this book.
November 02 2006 | Sunflowers and Swirly Stars | No Comments »
This morning I took an excerpt from a book that discussed Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night”, and also mentioned another “Starry Night” that Vincent painted a little later. According to Vincent Van Gogh — The Complete Works on CDRom, “The Starry Night over the Rhone” was actually painted BEFORE “Starry Night”. in September of 1888. I’m not sure which painting the book was referring to, but if I find out, I will be posting it later on.
“The Starry Night Over the Rhone”is currently at Musée d’Orsay, in Paris, France.
There are several different letters found in The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh that refer to “The Starry Night Over the Rhone”:
In Letter 552, Vincent writes to Theo of a “The Starry Night” canvas he has started that week. According to “The Complete Works on CDRom”, it is referring to “The Starry Night Over the Rhone”.
Also, in letter 547, Vincent discusses a “Starry Night”, that is supposed to be “The Starry Night Over the Rhone”.
Vincent calls it “Starry Sky”, in letter 546 to his brother Theo, calling it one of his “big studies”.
Letter 545 also talks of “The Starry Sky”.
The most descript Vincent was about this painting in a letter, was probably letter 543 to his brother Theo, saying:
“Enclosed a little sketch of a square size 30 canvas, the starry sky actually painted at night under a gas jet. The sky is greenish-blue, the water royal blue, the ground mauve. The town is blue and violet, the gas is yellow and the reflections are russet-gold down to greenish-bronze. On the blue-green expanse of the sky the Great Bear sparkles green and pink, its discreet pallor contrasts with the harsh gold of the gas.
Two colorful little figures of lovers in the foreground” (van Gogh, 1888).
November 02 2006 | Art and Letters of van Gogh and Painting and Starry Night over the Rhone and The Big Dipper and The Great Bear | No Comments »
Starry Night taken from Vincent Van Gogh — The Complete Works on CDRom
That does not keep me from having a terrible need of — shall I say the word — religion.
Then I go out at night to paint the stars.
— Vincent van Gogh in a letter to his brother
Anne Sexton (1928-1974)
The Starry Night 1961
The town does not exist
except where one black-haired tree slips
up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.
The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die
It moves. They are all alive.
Even the moon bulges in its orange irons
to push children, like a god from its eye.
The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die:
into that rushing beast of the night,
sucked up by that great dragon, to split
form my life with no flag,
no belly,
no cry.
Questions for Looking Deeper
1. In what ways does your reaction to the painting agree with Sexton’s? In what ways does it differ? Does her poem open your eyes to elements of the painting you had not initially seen? Explain.
2. The first two stanzas of the poem end with the refrain “This is how/I want to die.” What does “This” refer to? In what sense might The Starry Night be described as a painting about death?
3. Around the time of this painting, van Gogh was much preoccupied with cypress trees. He wrote his brother, “The tree is as beautiful of line and proportion as an Egyption obelisk. And the green has such a quality of distinction. It is a splash of black in a sunny landscape, but it is one of the most interesting black notes, and the most difficult to hit off exactly that I can imagine.” How does Sexton’s reference to the cypress tree in the opening lines of her poem relate to her overall reading of the painting?
4. Describe the difference in brush strokes van Gogh uses for the sky and those he uses for the village. How does this difference relate to the paintings theme?
5. The Starry Night was painted in a town of Saint-Remy. Later the same year, van Gogh did another painting, this one in the town of Arles, to which he gave the same title. Look up this later painting and compare the differences in the painter’s handling of light, both natural and artificial.
6. Some of van Gogh’s paintings have been described as mystical. Which of these two paintings does the term best fit? Explain. What similarities and differences do you find between the depiction of the village and the sky in the two works?
The only other “Starry Night” Painting that I assume this text is referring to, would be “The Starry Night over the Rhone”, as shown below.
Starry Night over the Rhone taken from Vincent Van Gogh — The Complete Works on CDRom
References
Abcarian, R., & Klotz, M. (2004). Literature: The human experience (shorter 8th ed.). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s
November 01 2006 | Anne Sexton and Starry Night over the Rhone and The Starry Night | 1 Comment »
