It doesn't look much like this, but as I was going along, I saw how he'd mixed green into the blue of the sky, how the lower blue/green/purple band of irises is a mass of splayed spikes, and how the red roof detail smacks you in the eye but still feels distant, back there among the dark trees.
Once I'd put the last piece in place, I saw how the pell-mell irises give way to the denser green-gold grass verge, and how the edge of the corn grows taller, throwing shadow on the shorter grass. The trees and red roof were revealed as a treelined road between this field and the next, with the outskirts of Arles beyond.
I'm sure I've seen this print umpteen times in art books and print shops; only, this is the first time I've actually seen it.
I clicked the link to Art.com for a better view. The link doesn't actually work, but the URL plus Arles took me here. Some of these prints are too familiar - but others I've never seen before, and get me past the potted biography and unexamined opinion of Van Gogh that I carry in my head, to see - the paintings.
What a treat. Art reveals Life. Jigsaw reveals Art!
Feast your eyes, then close them - on a summer field, the air thick and warm with the buzz of invisible bees and the faint caw of rooks away over there in the trees. The sun is hot on your back, the dry dirt road crunches under your feet, and when you get to Arles, you are going to sit in the cool darkness of a cafe, with a long cold drink.
Not bad for late November, when the wind's throwing itself against the windows and it's 3C outside.................. Thanks, Vincent.
2 comments:
I love Van Gogh. I went to Paris recently (as you know) just to see the pictures. This one wasn't there, but the Orsay had a few from Vincent including an all time favorite, the bedroom at Arles.
It is amazing what you get from a painting when you really look at it, isn't it?
Isn't it? We went to the Musee D'Orsay years ago, and I fell in love with the building. I think it's the first adapted public space I'd ever been in, and I was thrilled by it. My personal favourite was painting of a train in a station - I had the postcard for years - It may have been a Monet, and of the Quai D'Orsay, but I'm not sure now. I am often surprised at how small the original painting is, when I've known it from prints and illustrations. If you go to Holland, you must visit the Gemeentsmuseum in the Hague. Frans Hals's (teeny) Laughing Cavalier is there, and he really does laugh straight off the wall!
Post a Comment