Unparalleled Van Gogh portraits seen for the first time
Van Gogh: Creative genius or lunatic?
Self Portrait, 1889, Vincent van Gogh (Dutch (worked in France), 1853–1890), Oil on canvas* National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.5 * Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Drama surrounding Van Gogh’s last years
The creative genius, as well as the torment suffered by the iconic artist Vincent van Gogh, is legendary.
Ravine, 1889, Vincent van Gogh (Dutch (worked in France), 1853–1890), Oil on canvas* Bequest of Keith McLeod * Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Vincent’s brief life and the drama surrounding his last years provide tremendous material for books, movies, and speculation about this man and icon of art history.
During a period of just ten years, he created over 2,000 paintings and drawings. His works showed an accelerating evolution of artistic style and subject interpretation.
10 years to create over 2,000 works
His earliest works were technically proficient and sombre coloured realistic portraits and landscapes, while his latter works showed the pinnacle of his creative development.
The best of these were enormously innovative and pivotal in the history of modern art.
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Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853, in the Netherlands. He died on 29 July 1890 in France at the age of 37.
His death was as startling as it was tragically sad. Vincent had suffered from mental illness for many years.
Van Gogh’s death was tragically sad
On 27 July 1890, Vincent shot himself in the chest. He did not die instantly. He walked back home himself.
Although the bullet seemed to have done little damage internally and was attended to by his own physician, he succumbed to infection two days later.
Wretched brief life ended
The wretched way Vincent’s brief life ended, and his emotionally erratic behaviour and psychological breaks added to the artist’s mystique.
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Dying young, unheralded in his lifetime and unrecognised for his profound contribution to the art world, secured his place in modern mythology as the suffering, misunderstood artist.
Theo van Gogh grief stricken
Compounding the sadness of this transitory soul was the effect of his life and death on his family, especially that of his younger brother Theo van Gogh and his young family.
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The van Gogh brothers were born to a well-off Dutch family to a pious mother and a father who worked as the minister of a Protestant church. Their grandfather and extended family worked as art dealers.
Both Vincent and Theo trained as art dealers. Vincent gave up this profession. Theo continued and became a successful dealer as well as Vincent’s most influential supporter and financial lifeline.
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Theo van Gogh was at Vincent’s side when he died. Stricken by grief and illness, Theo died just six months later, on 25 January 1891, at the age of 33.
Johanna van Gogh-Bonger
Theo left behind his wife, Johanna, whom he had been married to for only two years, and a young son, Vincent Willem, named after his brother, who was born on 31 January 1890.
The bulk of Vincent’s artwork and his legacy were entrusted to Theo’s widow.
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Although only aged 29, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger would play the most significant part in the tragic family drama by working to elevate Vincent’s status, posthumously, to that of one of the most vital characters in the history of the arts.
After Theo died, Johanna inherited all of Vincent’s artworks. Despite having little money and a young child to support, she resisted suggestions to get rid of them quickly and cheaply. Instead, she personally preserved the collection of hundreds of artworks and promoted them gradually and assuredly.
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At the time, there was no commercial market for Vincent’s work; however, she was deeply convinced that Theo was right about their value.
They so enamoured her that she hung them in her home, with pride of place given to the Sunflowers series.
Van Gogh fame rose
It took time for an audience to embrace Vincent’s intense expression and extraordinary sense of colour.
Camille Roulin, November–December 1888, Vincent van Gogh (Dutch (worked in France), 1853–1890), Oil on canvas* Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation) * Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Joanna pushed Vincent’s works to become known amongst his fellow artists. Giants of contemporary art, such as Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, saw the works and confirmed van Gogh’s remarkable talent.
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She subsequently arranged the first Vincent van Gogh exhibition in Amsterdam in 1892 and then others.
Vincent’s sister in law also loaned works to international exhibitions and strategically sold to wealthy collectors and influential people. Building Vincent’s reputation decade by decade, the major galleries eventually came knocking at her door.
Her success in having Vincent’s work collected and acquired by reputable museums assured the legacy and fame of Vincent as an avant-garde artist.
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When WW1 broke out, Joanna went to live in New York and started to publish some of the hundreds of letters Vincent had dutifully written to Theo. These letters detailed his ideas and thoughts about his creative process.
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Theo saved them all – more than six hundred. In 1914, the first of these was published. It is from these letters that the story of Vincent van Gogh emerged, and the art world and public came to know about the man and the artist.
From this source material, Vincent tells how he decided to become an artist, late in life, at age 27.
Legacy enshrined in letters
Having tried to find his way as an art student, art dealer, a Christian missionary, and as a teacher, he concluded that none of these was his calling.
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A poignant encouragement from Theo for Vincent to see the works of the Impressionists was a crucial step in Vincent’s creative development.
During the two years from 1886 to 1888, Vincent lived with Theo in Montmartre, the hub of artistic creativity.
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Theo was working as an art dealer in Paris, and Vincent was introduced to the works of the Impressionists, Monet, Degas, Lautrec, Gaugin and Pissarro, becoming friends with many of them.
The Postman Joseph Roulin, 1889, Vincent van Gogh (Dutch (worked in France), 1853–1890), Oil on canvas* The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William A. M. Burden, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Rosenberg, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Mr. and Mrs. Armand P. Bartos, The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection, Mr. and Mrs. Werner E. Josten, and Loula D. Lasker Bequest (all by exchange), 1989 * Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The colours and freedom exuded by the works of these legends of the art world were vital for Vincent. Through the works of these Impressionists, he found his breakthrough and a license to be as expressive as his torrent mind would allow.
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In 1888, Vincent travelled to the South of France. Looking for bright sunlight and warmth, he arrived in Arles. He found an ancient city surrounded by vast countryside, historic Roman-era architecture relics, and the ancient sixth-century Abbey of Montmajour as ample subject matter.
Arles masterpieces
Arles is where Vincent becomes prodigiously productive. From 1888 to 1889, he created the bulk of his breakthrough masterpieces, including the Sunflowers series, a celebration and symphony of yellow-on-yellow paint.
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During the 444 days van Gogh lived in Arles, he created 200 paintings and 100 drawings of the countryside, farmers and people.
Enclosed Field with Ploughman, October 1889 Vincent van Gogh (Dutch (worked in France), 1853–1890), Oil on canvas* Bequest of William A. Coolidge * Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The progressive transformation of Vincent’s style from controlled and staid to the frenzy of thick pure straight out of the tube, spots, jabs, stabs, vigorously and quickly applied pigment is visible through a particular collection of works – the Roulin family portraits.
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Vincent met the impressive Joseph Roulin, the local postman and asked him to model for a portrait. Roulin had a remarkable beard and wore his blue uniform with pride and honour. He was a happy family man, and his wife had just given birth to their third child, a daughter.
Madame Roulin and Her Baby, 1888, Vincent van Gogh (Dutch (worked in France)1853–1890), Oil on canvas* Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bequest of Lisa Norris Elkins, 1950 * Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Roulin and his family embodied the heroism of the simple working class. A theme that Vincent had championed in his earlier works.
Vincent subsequently created more than twenty portraits of the Roulin family, and painted Augustine, Roulin’s wife, sons, Armand and Camille, and newborn baby daughter Marcelle. The series was made possible by the Roulin’s willingness to model for free, in exchange for some of the portraits for their family home.
Through letters, Vincent and Joseph describe the friendship and fondness that developed between them.
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In a letter to Theo, from Arles, dated 4 April 1889, Vincent writes, “While Roulin isn’t exactly old enough to be like a father to me, all the same, he has silent solemnities and tendernesses for me like an old soldier would have for a young one. Always — but without a word — a certain something that seems to mean: we don’t know what will happen to us tomorrow, but think of me in any event. And that does one good when it comes from a man who is neither embittered nor sad, nor perfect, nor happy, nor always irreproachably just, but such a good soul and so wise and so moved and so full of belief. “
Postman Joseph Roulin, 1888, Vincent van Gogh (Dutch (worked in France), 1853–1890), Oil on canvas* Gift of Robert Treat Paine, 2nd * Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
In a letter to Vincent van Gogh, from Marseille, dated 24 October 1889, Joseph Roulin writes, “… I have a very heavy heart to see you go further from us; 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.”
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This series of work invites fascination and awe as it is a collection of portraits of the man who became his support and surrogate family. He painted more portraits of Roulin than of any other person, other than of himself.
Armand Roulin, 1888, Vincent van Gogh (Dutch (worked in France), 1853–1890), Oil on canvas* Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Acquired with the collection of D.G. Van Beuningen * Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
In the sequence of the six portraits of the postman, the striking evolution from quiet realism to exuberant colours and floral patterns is on display.
The works show less consideration for technique and more about spontaneous applications of marks and colours as an extension of his inward torrid thoughts flowing through his arms and out to brush, paint and canvas.
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In the sequence of the five paintings titled La Berceuse (The Lullaby), Roulin’s wife, Augustine, is shown with a string attached to a cradle; Vincent’s embrace of the fragmented singular individual brush strokes is fully confirmed.
Lullaby: Madame Augustine Roulin Rocking a Cradle (La Berceuse), 1889 Vincent van Gogh (Dutch (worked in France), 1853–1890),Oil on canvas* Bequest of John T. Spaulding * Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is presenting an exhibition dedicated to the groundbreaking portraits of the Roulin Family. It is the first such exhibition, which will then progress to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
The exhibition features the original paintings along with ancillary works and letters detailing Vincent’s artistic development and his relationship with the Roulin family.
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The Roulin portraits marked the peak of Vincent’s exploration of the ability of a painting to show the feelings the artist has towards the subject.
The warm and evident love for the Roulin family is on show in these tenderly painted modern portraits that Vincent strived to create.
Portrait of Joseph Roulin, 1888, Vincent van Gogh (Dutch (worked in France), 1853–1890) Reed and quill pen and brown ink, over black chalk* © The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles * Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Compared to other giants of modern art, such as Picasso, who lived till he was 91, Vincent van Gogh’s life span was but a blip of time.
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Although he did not live for long, he provided a lifetime worth of works for the world to marvel.
Text Cammy Yiu / Photos Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
