Interesting article: van Gogh’s letters to a young artist
Monday, December 24th, 2007Many people are aware of Vincent van Gogh’s extensive correspondence with his brother Theo, but he also corresponded with a number of artists, including Paul Gauguin and a younger artist named Emile Bernard, for whom he became something of a mentor.
I was not aware of these letters, which also included sketches of his works in progress, until I read an article about them in this month’s Smithsonian magazine. (The article can be found here, and does not require registration to read, although I don’t know how long it will remain available.) Emile Bernard was a relatively unimportant artist, but van Gogh’s advice-filled letters to him reveal a lot about van Gogh’s methods of working, opinions on working from life vs. reality, and color theory. Here’s a sample:
I follow no system of brushwork at all, I hit the canvas with irregular strokes, which I leave as they are, impastos, uncovered spots of canvas—corners here and there left inevitably unfinished—reworkings, roughnesses…. Anyway, my dear pal, no trompe l’oeil in any case…
I’ve always been attracted to van Gogh’s work, partially because of the dynamism he finds in landscapes (which I talked about once here) and partially because of his brilliant use of colors. This article quotes him as saying “I could hardly give a damn about the veracity of the color” and that’s almost something I want to write on an index card and tape above my easel. Color has so much emotional and visual power, it almost seems a pity to limit oneself to strict realism.
Anyway, it’s a very interesting article and includes a number of pictures of his sketches, letters, and finished paintings of his and Bernard’s. Worth a read.
(Smithsonian frequently has fantastic art history articles. In particular, I enjoyed (but forgot to blog about) this July article about Edward Hopper, another favorite artist of mine, and his lonely, evocative, quintessentially American paintings.)
