Evert van Uitert, 'Vincent van Gogh in anticipation of Paul Gauguin', Simiolus 10 (1978/79), 182-99....

Stichting voor Nederlandse Kunsthistorische Publicaties is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toSimiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art.

http://www.jstor.org

Vincent van Gogh in Anticipation of Paul Gauguin Author(s): Evert van Uitert Source: Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 10, No. 3/4 (1978 - 1979),

pp. 182-199Published by: Stichting voor Nederlandse Kunsthistorische PublicatiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3780549Accessed: 02-07-2015 14:05 UTC

REFERENCESLinked references are available on JSTOR for this article:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3780549?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents

You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

This content downloaded from 146.50.68.116 on Thu, 02 Jul 2015 14:05:16 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=svnk

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3780549

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3780549?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp



I82

Vincent van Gogh in anticipation of Paul Gauguin*

Evert van Uitert

In I888 Vincent van Gogh left Paris for Aries in the south of France with the intention of developing a new, personal style. His correspondence with his sister Wil- lemien, which began at this time, discloses that Vincent had only a vague notion of the direction in which his art was to develop. There was no question of a premeditated goal or one attainable by rational planning. Vincent assimilated a variety of influences; technically the work of Monticelli (I 824-86), which he especially admired for its suggestive color, made the greatest impression on him. Almost unconsciously, it seems, Vincent adopted Monticelli's practice of applying the paint in thick layers.1

For the moment, Vincent focussed his attention on the international exposition which was to be held in Paris in I889. He referred to this coming event several times, as he assumed that the younger generation would be represented in one way or another. And Vincent wanted to be included, "to hold my own" ("pour garder ma position"), as he expressed it.2 In this same letter, written before Gauguin's arrival in Arles, he names the latter as well as Signac, Seurat and Guillaumin as his

* See also my article "Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin: a creative competition," Simiolus 9 (I977), pp. 149-68. The present article was translated from the Dutch by Andrea Gasten.

I This impasto technique contrasts with the methods of Gauguin and Bernard and forms a subject of debate in the correspondence between the three painters. Vincent insisted that he had no preconceived ideas with respect to his use of what was after all a rather exceptional technique. His aim was to work quickly and directly, whereby he points to the technique of the Oriental masters.

2 "Je n'y peux rien, je me sens en lucidite et je veux autant que possible m'assurer d'assez de tableaux pour garder ma position, lorsque les autres aussi feront pour l'annee '89 un grand effet." The complete letters of Vincent van Gogh, New York 1958 (hereafter cited as Complete letters), vol. 3, nr. 541, p. 48. Volume and page references for all quotations from van Gogh's letters are given in the English edition, which has also served as the basis for the translations of the passages cited in this article. Occasional revisions in the English version have been made in accordance with the original text. For the original Dutch or French texts of the letters, see Verzamelde brieven van Vincent van Gogh in any of the various editions published by J. van Gogh-Bonger in the Wereld-Bibliotheek.

competitors. Vincent's own contribution was to consist of a series of studies which together comprised a program of decoration which he had designed in anticipation of his coming collaboration with Gauguin. For, he continues, "In this way we shall be absolutely original, for the others will not be able to think us pre- tentious when we have done only that. But you may be quite sure that I shall try to put style into them."3

Vincent had also taken a psychological stand by ini- tiating an artistic competition not only with Gauguin, but also Bernard, whom he considered a less threatening rival, at a moment when his comrade Gauguin was yet to arrive in Arles.

DECORATION The search for an original style as a means of transcending "styleless" realism was a para- mount concern to many of the members of Vincent's artistic generation.4 Vincent considered the decorations that he designed for the yellow house that he rented in Arles to be his personal contribution to the furtherance of this aim. He compares the house to "une maison impressionniste," a description of which he had read in

3 "Donc, je voudrais bien moi avoir cette &poque, que nous l'exposions ou non, la serie d'etudes Decoration. Comme cela nous serons absolument originaux, car les autres ne pourront pas nous trouver pretentieux, lorsque nous n'avons que cela. Mais sois-en bien assure, que je cherche i y mettre un style." Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 54I, p. 48. Vincent was apparently stimulated by the plan to exhibit at the Revue Independante. In letter 534 he informed Theo that he wasn't ready just yet, but that he wanted to show his decoration the following year, in 1889.

4 See Sven Lovgren, The genesis of Modernism: Seurat, Gauguin, van Gogh and French Symbolism in the i880's, Stockholm (Figura 1) 1959; Nicola Ivanoff, "Stile e Maniera," in Saggi e Memorie di Storia dell'Arte I (1957), pp. I09-63, esp. pp. 151-53. According to Maurice Denis, the words synthesis and style were almost synonymous for Gauguin. See Maurice Denis, Thiories (I80o-igio): du Symbolisme et de Gauguin vers un nouvel ordre classique, Paris 1920 (ed. princ. 1912), p. 171. Gauguin himself wrote in I888: "J'ai cette annee tout sacrificie, I'execution, la couleur, pour le style..." Lettres de Gauguin ia sa femme et ses amis, collected and prefaced by Maurice Malinque, Paris 946, nr. 7I, p. 140.



I83

Le Figaro.5 The two relevant articles by Maurice de Fleury, entitled "La Maison d'un Moderniste," appeared in the Saturday literary supplement of Le Figaro on the I5th and 22nd of September, i888. De Fleury described the newly-built residence of a rich collector, in the article called the Duke of X: "Just like the house of an artist (the delightful home of this prince! Edmond de Goncourt), it's at Auteuil that you can find the house of a modernist..."6 The reference is to Edmond de Goncourt's La maison d'un artiste, published in i881, which enumerates at length the various collections amassed by the de Goncourt brothers at their home on the Boulevard Montmorency. Vincent, who was a great admirer of the literary brothers, was also familiar with this book.

What most captivated Vincent's imagination in the articles in the Figaro was the description of the house, which was decorated mainly in tints of violet and sit- uated in a garden with paths of yellow sand. This play with complementary colors particularly appealed to him, and he wrote, "Without changing anything in this house... I want all the same to make it an artist's house through the decorations."7 That last part he had mentioned earlier in connection with his reading of Edmond de Goncourt's book, "I want to make it really an artist's house, but not precieux, on the contrary, nothing of

5 In letter 537, written September i6 or 17, i888, he gives a relatively long summary of the first article, which he apparently had just read. Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 537, pp. 37-38.

6 "Tout comme la maison d'un artiste (le delectant logis de ce prince! Edmond de Goncourt), c'est a Auteuil que vous pourriez trouver la maison d'un moderniste..."

7 "Sans changer rien a la maison... je voudrais tout de meme par la decoration en faire une maison d'artiste." Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 537, PP. 37-38. Aside from this letter, Vincent had written about his maison d'artiste and its decoration earlier in letter 534 (Septem- ber9) as well as in w7 and 542. The exact composition of the decoration and its final realization do not come within the purview of this study, but are the subject of the dissertation of Roland Horn.

8 "Je veux reellement en faire une maison d'artiste, mais non pas precieuse, au contraire rien de precieux, mais tout, depuis la chaise jusqu'au tableau, ayant de caractere." Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 534, p. 3 . It is clear from this citation that the decoration was conceived of as an entity and was not limited to the paintings. With regard to "character," Vincent probably had in mind that of the Provence area in which he was then living and working. He was interested in the writers as well as the painters of southern France, and much of what he read and wrote is directly related to his identification with this region. See Ron Johnson, "Vincent van Gogh and the vernacular: his southern accent," Arts Magazine o1 (1978), pp. 131-35. Obvious examples of this interest are Vincent's reading of Alphonse Daudet's Lettres de mon moulin and his admiration for the paintings of Monticelli and Cezanne.

preciosity, but everything, from the chair to the painting, having character."8

Vincent's ideas on decoration can to a certain extent be considered as a very sober variant on the generally prevailing notions as regards the ornamentation of buildings and utilitarian objects. In accordance with this view, the easel painting should once again be given a place within a tastefully decorated whole. Only then would the painter's work be meaningful and would he be able to reach the public. This is also the background behind Vincent's interest in ornament and decoration, an interest which revealed itself early on.9

In September 1885, van Gogh's attention was drawn to a publication of the graphic artist Felix Bracque- mond, Du dessin et de la couleur, which contained long discourses on the subject of decoration.0l Vincent read the book and became more and more enthusiastic, as he wrote to his painter friend Anthon van Rappard.11 Unfortunately he doesn't deal explicitly with the concept of decoration in these letters; nor does he discuss other art theoretical concepts. It is however undoubtedly due to the inspiration of Bracquemond's book that the first thing Vincent did upon arriving in Antwerp a short time later was to pay a visit to the home of the painter Henri Leijs (i815-69). This house enjoyed a certain reputation by virtue of the dining hall which Leijs

9Particularly after the big international expositions, much was written on this subject. Typical is a work by Lewis Foreman Day, which was translated into Dutch by C. Vosmaer and published in 1884 under the suggestive title De kunst in het dagelijksch leven (Art in daily life). As early as I886 a second, enlarged edition appeared. Vincent first encountered the problem of decoration when, in the summer of 1884, he designed some six decorations for the goldsmith Hermans, an acquaintance from Eindhoven. Hermans had wanted a decoration of saints for his dining room, but Vincent persuaded him to choose scenes from farm life instead. This series was also to symbolize the four seasons, as Vincent wrote in letter 374. Vincent had photographs, so-called cartes de visites, made up of his designs in the hope of receiving further commissions, although he was actually far from satisfied with the results. Complete letters, vol. 2, nr. 374 and following letters, p. 300ff.

Io The connection between Vincent's ideas and those of Bracque- mond was pointed out to me by my late instructor Jan Emmens. Bracquemond was known not only as a painter, graphic artist and connoisseur of Japanese prints, but also as a designer and decorator of ceramics. See Gabriel P. Weisberg, "Felix Bracquemond and Japa- nese influence in ceramic decoration," Art Bulletin 51 (1969), pp. 277- 281.

1 Complete letters, vol. 3, R 58, p. 423 and vol. 2, nr. 424, p. 413. Vincent found Bracquemond's book stimulating and read it more than once.



EVERT VAN UITERT

himself had decorated (fig. i). Vincent already knew the murals there through photographs, Bracquemond's etchings and Charles Blanc's description in his Les artistes de mon temps.'2

The essence of a decoration is the unity between the work of art and the setting for which it is intended. To attain this unity, everything must be subordinated to a "principe ornemental," to use the expression of Brac- quemond.13 The effect of a decoration, whether it be a room complete with furnishings or an independent painting, depends upon this ornamental principle and not on what is represented. Essential is the contrast of light and dark lines, "irrespective of what is represented" ("abstraction faite d'une representation quel- conque"), as Bracquemond remarks apropos of the work of Poussin, in his eyes the greatest painter-decorator of all time.14 Vincent summarized the lesson he learned while reading Bracquemond's book as follows: "As to Poussin, he is a painter who is always thinking and who makes one think, in whose paintings all reality is at the same time symbolic. In the work of Millet, of Lhermitte, all reality is also at the same time symbolic. They are different from what are called realists."'5

The pictorial consequences of such a view, which may be manifested in decorativeness or stylization, or a free, non-naturalistic use of color, are not yet to be discerned in the work of Vincent's Brabant or Antwerp periods.

12 Charles Blanc, Les artistes de mon temps, Paris 1876, vol. i, p. 223. Blanc also spoke highly of the decorations in the town hall of Antwerp, as did Busken Huet in his Land van Rubens (Land of Rubens; I879). Vincent of course went to see these decorations as well. His first letter written from Antwerp (Complete letters, vol. 2, nr. 436, p. 450) begins with a description of the decorations in Leijs's dining room. Vincent's lifelong admiration for Leijs had its parallel in the tribute that such critics as Blanc and Paul Mantz paid him, among other places in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts (i886). For Leijs, see exhib. cat. Schilderkunst in Belgie ten tijde van Henri Leijs, Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten), I969.

13 Felix Bracquemond, Du dessin et de la couleur, Paris I885, pp. 184-85.

14 Ibid., p. 208. 15 "Wat Poussin betreft, hij is een schilder die bij alles denkt en te

denken geeft, in wiens schilderijen alle werkelijkheid tevens symbool is. In het werk van Millet, van Lhermitte is ook alle werkelijkheid tevens symbool. Zij zijn iets anders dan wat men realisten noemt." Complete letters, vol. 2, nr. 425, p. 416. Shortly before, in letter 423 (vol. 2, p. 412), Vincent had also mentioned Poussin in connection with his reading of Bracquemond. Vincent himself viewed Poussin as a forerunner of the "modern" artists Millet and Lhermitte, whose work he considered to be superior.

I6 In Antwerp and Paris Vincent was concerned not so much with the art theoretical as the economic implications of his decorations. He found it lamentable that one no longer saw paintings in cafes, as was

When in Arles he once again took up the concept of decoration, however, a pronounced stylization is often the result.16

The decorator par excellence, with whose work Vin- cent was also well-acquainted, is Puvis de Chavannes (I824-98).17 When Theo reports to him of the Salon of 1884 and of Puvis's part in it, Vincent responds, "As to what you say about Puvis de Chavannes, I am very glad you see his work thus, and I perfectly agree with your appreciation of his talent."18 Somewhat later, Theo sent him the Salon issue of Illustration, so that Vincent could get an idea for himself as to how "a few interesting pictures" had looked, among which Vincent includes "that composition by Puvis de Chavannes."19 He doesn't specify which composition, but almost certainly this was Le bois sacre cher aux Arts et aux Muses (fig. 2).20

Vincent's later position with respect to Puvis is best expressed in a letter he wrote to Bernard in August of i888.21 At that point he was forced to assess the significance of Puvis's work more closely, as his artist friends were sometimes very directly influenced by him. Bernard, moreover, followed in Puvis's footsteps by turning for inspiration to the early Italians, at that time still generally regarded as "primitive." Vincent states explicitly that Bernard adopted their methods, including "the symbolic significance which the abstract mystical drawing of the Italians may contain."22 But these

formerly the case. Vincent mentions in this connection the still-lifes of Fyt and Hondecoeter, which in his estimation made "splendid decorations". In Paris Vincent transformed this idea into reality through his exhibitions in the Tambourin cafe and later in the Chalet restaurant. About his artistic motives with regard to these decorations we unfortunately know very little.

In Arles Vincent tried to decorate his house in "style absolument voulu," whereby he made a distinction between studies and com- positions. He regarded the Sower (F 422) and the Night cafe (F 463) as "essais de tableaux composes" and incorporated them immediately into his decorative scheme. Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 534, pp. 30-3I.

17 Andre Chastel, "Seurat et Gauguin," Art de France 2 (1962), pp. 297-304. See further van Uitert, op. cit. (note *), p. 154, note 34.

I8 "Wat ge over Puvis de Chavannes zegt, doet me heel veel pleizier gij zijn werk z66 ziet, en in 't apprecieeren van zijn talent ben ik het volkomen met U eens." Complete letters, vol. 2, nr. 368, p. 290.

19 Complete letters, vol. 2, nr. 394, p. 349. 20 This work was exhibited in the Salon of I884 and mounted in

August of the same year on the wall of the museum in Lyon as part of the decoration of the staircase. See exhib. cat. Puvis de Chavannes i824-1898, Paris (Grand Palais) 1976-77, nrs. 174-77. While in Paris, Vincent had the opportunity to study more closely this work of Puvis's during the large exhibition of the latter's work organized there by Durand-Ruel in November and December of 1887.

21 Complete letters, vol. 3, B 14, p. 508. 22 "...la signification symbolique que peut contenir le dessin ab-

strait et mystique des Italiens." Ibid.

i84



Vincent van Gogh in anticipation of Paul Gauguin

-r D

i . . . ;-

.3 I .e

.

r'L k : >

i i;*

i, . i I i

I Henri de Braekeleer, The dining room at the home of Henri Leyis, I869. Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten

-A.

= .

.A. ss^ .^

i85

"r:

.u* J ul ;1 P (L i .L*i ·· .,, ·:b,. ···· S-· ..:-:·· -r " ·· :i'H

.*I· : '1X ·C .r *·· - .· r . ·z

·* ;r ly···: ..I ;F " i ·:: i* .· ·* H : tB·- I I ti %· *..-. * pl _ M.



EVERT VAN UITERT

2 Puvis de Chavannes, Le bois sacre cher aux Arts et aux Muses, signed and dated I884. Lyon, Musee des Beaux Arts

well-meant efforts to restore the old ideal of monumental painting woven into the fabric of society are nevertheless doomed to failure, according to Vincent, because in the meantime society has undergone radical changes. The close-knit "societe monumentale" in which Giotto and later Holbein and van Dyck worked no longer exists, and Vincent laments that modern society is one of"laisser-aller et anarchie." Monumental commissions, decorative programs that play a signifi- cant role in a social and artistic sense are virtually nonexistent; certainly for Vincent, Bernard and Gauguin, for, as Vincent wrote to Bernard, "we artists, who love order and symmetry, isolate ourselves and are working to define only one thing."23 Even the wise Puvis realized this, according to Vincent, as witness a splendid portrait through which he had wanted "to descend amiably into the intimacy of our time" ("descendre aimablement jusqu'a l'intimite de notre epoque")-and

23 "Nous, artistes, amoureux de l'ordre et de la symetrie, nous isolons et travaillons a definir une seule chose." Ibid.

24 G. Wildenstein, Gauguin, Paris I964, cat. nrs. 187, 191 and 198- 200. Christopher Gray, Sculpture and ceramics of Paul Gauguin, Baltimore 1963, cat. nrs. 132 and A4. In April of i888 Vincent received

here Vincent indicates that Puvis's grand decorations in fact miss their mark, however admirable they may be artistically.

Although little else remained to the modern artist but the making of "only one thing," both Vincent and Gauguin nevertheless endeavored to design decorations. Gauguin did this with his associates in the dining hall of the inn at Le Pouldu, and later alone in his own "maison du jouir" on the Marquesas islands in French Poly- nesia.24 Vincent set to work in 1888 on the decoration of his yellow house in Aries.

THE YELLOW HOUSE The paintings that Vincent intended to be part of a program of decoration often display iconographical and stylistic coherence, although they were made in each case as independent works and not according to any preconceived plan. It was in such a fashion that in the Spring of I888 Vincent collected a

a letter from Bernard containing sketches of a decoration by the latter. Vincent doesn't specify which works these were, but most likely they were the new cloisonnistic works of Bernard and Anquetin. Complete letters, vol. 3, B 3, p. 478.

i86




.. *'*'*'' .. . . *'/".. *'.:..:'.: ";. .... .... . .. .

.. ..... ...... - , -

*c Ikd- - ...'

'k:

.... ....S ............ ·

.

0 ')lt .-t.J.: - ' i

.

* · ·~~~~~ ~ ..:.s~~~~~~ .\,~~~ ~ ~ ~~.~~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~ :.. : ... . '.~i' ....·. ...,,

3 Vincent van Gogh, Sketches in letter 477, Arles, ca. April I I-I4, I888

series of paintings of orchards in bloom which he planned as a decoration for Theo (fig. 3).25

In August of that year Vincent received a letter from Gauguin in which the latter stated his willingness to come to Aries. Vincent responded immediately by de- signing a scheme of decoration for the studio he was to share with Gauguin. A decoration which was to consist of nothing but large sunflowers, like that of the restaurant next door to Theo's shop in Paris, which Vincent re- membered so well.26 The series was to be comprised of twelve canvases, "the whole thing... a symphony in blue

25 Vincent had six paintings of orchards in bloom and planned to make three more. In that way a unified whole would be created, "as the first design for a final scheme of decoration a great deal bigger" ("comme premiere pensCe d'une decoration definitive beaucoup plus grande.") Complete letters, vol. 2, nr. 477, p. 545.

26 Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 526, p. I9. This sunflower decoration was to play an important role in the relationship between Vincent and Gauguin. Gauguin expressed particular admiration for the sunflowers and also made a portrait of Vincent in which the latter was depicted while working on a canvas of sunflowers. Vincent must have been aware of the Christian symbolism associated with this blossom, which always turns its face to the sun. Within the context of Christian iconography, sun and light are symbols of divine power. The sunflower motif has gradually evolved into a symbol for Vincent himself;

and yellow."27 In a letter to Bernard dating from the same time, Vincent described the intended effect as being that of stained-glass windows in a Gothic cathe- dral; hereby indicating another source of inspiration for nineteenth century decorative programs.28 The stained- glass technique was in fact used by Bernard and had played a role in the so-called cloisonnism of Bernard, Anquetin and other innovators in i887.29

In September Vincent furnished his house. The white walls of the guest room were to be decorated with the sunflower paintings.30 The studio, which was also

see Evert van Uitert, "De legendevorming te bevorderen: notities over de Vincent van Goghmythe," in exhib. cat. Rond de roem van Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh) I977, pp. 15-27.

27 "Le tout sera une symfonie en bleu et jaune donc." Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 526, p. I9.

28 Complete letters, vol. 3, B 15, p. 5 II. 29 Cloisonnism was a topical subject during the spring of 1887 by

virtue of exhibitions held at Les XX and the Independants. Edouard Dujardin wrote about it in the Revue Independante on May 9I, i888. See John Rewald, Post-Impressionism: from van Gogh to Gauguin, 2nd edn., New York 1962, pp. 193ff.

30 Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 534, p. 30. In this letter Vincent reports on how the furnishing of his house is progressing and gives an

I87



EVERT VAN UITERT

white and had red curtains, was to receive a decoration of portraits. Together with the simple, rustic chairs and a white wooden table, the room was to take on a Daumier-like quality. Vincent asked Theo to send him some prints to add the finishing touches to his "maison d'artiste." In the creation of such a house, Vincent was following the example of the de Goncourt brothers discussed above.

Vincent attempted to arrange both the paintings he already had as well as those he still planned to make into thematic groups. In doing so, he took more and more account of Gauguin's ideas; thereby competing with him even before the latter finally arrived in October. Vincent expressed his emulation of Gauguin primarily by conveying within the context of his decorative program a particular ideal image of the artist. He himself may not measure up to the image, to be sure, but that only increased his adoration for Gauguin, who did. Vin- cent's portrayal reflects a conception in which the painter is likened to the poet, who was said to be empowered with prophetic faculties. This vision of Vin- cent's first takes shape, after a false start, in a portrait not of Gauguin, but of the Belgian painter Eugene Boch.

THE PORTRAIT OF THE POET In a letter of August I , 1888, Vincent describes in detail the means by which he intends to express his ideas.31 This passage can be read as a statement of principle as well as a justification of his departure from the naturalistic norm. Vincent has yet to paint his portrait of the Belgian painter Boch, but in the meantime he evokes an image verbally: "I should like to

itemized list of the things he had bought for it. In furnishing the house Vincent was mindful not only of Gauguin, but also of Theo, for whom the house could serve as a "maison de campagne."

31 Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 520, p. 6. 32 "Je voudrai faire le portrait d'un ami artiste, qui reve de grands

reves, qui travaille comme le rossignol chante, parce que c'est ainsi sa nature. Cet homme sera blond. Je voudrai mettre dans le tableau mon apprciation, mon amour que j'ai pour lui." Ibid.

33 "Derriere la tete, au lieu de peindre le mur banal du mesquin appartement, je peins l'infini... et par cette simple combinaison la tete blonde eclairee sur ce fond bleu riche, obtient un effet mysterieux comme l'etoile dans l'azur profond." Ibid.

34 Ibid. The modern portrait, as Vincent conceives of it, should always emphasize the distinguishing characteristics of the sitter and even tend towards caricature. Vincent is thinking here primarily of the work of Daumier, which moreover makes up part of the decoration of his house.

35 "Je l'ai peint un peu en poete, la tete fine et nerveuse se detachant sur un fond de ciel de nuit d'un outremer profond avec les scintille- ments des etoilles." Complete letters, vol. 3, w 7, p. 442.

paint the portrait of an artist friend, a man who dreams great dreams, who works as the nightingale sings, because it is his nature. He'll be a blond man. I want to put my appreciation, the love I have for him, into the picture."32 Vincent plans to begin by following his model as faithfully as possible, but then, in order to achieve his ultimate objective, to become a "coloriste arbitraire." He exaggerates the colors, but as regards the significance of the work, doesn't rely on the working of color alone: "Behind the head, instead of painting the ordinary wall of the mean room, I paint infinity..." By setting the blond head off against a deep blue background, he creates "a mysterious effect, like a star in the depths of an azure sky."33 Vincent predicts, however, that some people will see no more than a caricature in his portrait.34

The portrait of the painter Eugene Boch took shape much as Vincent had envisioned it (fig. 4). He reported to his sister, "I have painted him a little like a poet, the fine nervous head standing out against a background of a deep ultramarine night sky with sparkling stars." 5 Vincent's image of the poet is a direct borrowing from Carlyle. In his late Romantic work On heroes and hero- worship this author sketches the portrait of the prophetic poet Dante, who was said to contain infinity within himself and to impart a quality of infinity to everything he wrote. Vincent in fact described Boch as "this young man with the look of Dante," ("ce jeune homme a mine dantesque") and the deep blue sky in the background was correspondingly meant to symbolize infinity.36 Apart from the "lighting" and the exaggeration of the

36 Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 531, p. 24. For the iconography of Dante representations, see Richard Thayer Holbrook, Portraits of Dantefrom Giotto to Raffael: a critical study, with a concise iconography, London I9II. Holbrook analyzes in detail the known portraits of Dante as well as Carlyle's lecture The hero as poet of 1840, in which the author gives a description of Dante which was probably based on an eighteenth century engraving. In I 840 a portrait of Dante was discov- ered in the Bargello in Florence which has commonly been attributed to Giotto. An engraving based on this fresco was published in 1870 in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts (4 [1870], following p. 372). Vincent obviously knew this portrait. In I880 in Brussels he drew a portrait of Dante after a print (Complete letters, vol. I, nr. 137, p. 209) and in a letter written in Nuenen he discusses in detail the representation of Dante (Complete letters, vol. 2, nr. 391, pp. 343-44). The Dante iconography is also of importance for the theme of the poet's garden, which theoretically speaking can be conceived of as one element of the doctrine of ut pictura poesis. A basic article, though dealing with England and limited to the early nineteenth century, is Roy Park, "'Ut pictura poesis': the nineteenth-century aftermath," Journal of Aes- thetics and Art Criticism 28 (I969), pp. I55-64.

i88




I

i I / i

f. r;i

It '-l

. ' i I

4 Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Eugene Boch, called Le poete (F462), Aries, September, I888. Paris, Louvre

I

Y*' I8

I89



EVERT VAN UITERT

5 Vincent van Gogh, Sketch in letter 554, Aries, October i6, i888

color, Vincent does not otherwise engage in abstraction and remains essentially a realist.

During the course of September and October Vincent became increasingly obsessed with his decorations, which he then referred to as a "grand serieux travail."37 He received the prints he requested from Theo, and by the end of September the furnishing of the house seemed all but complete. Vincent described in a letter the studio with the Japanese prints and the lithographs by Daumier, Delacroix and Gericault on the walls. He mentioned that he would like to have included some work of Millet's, especially the etching after the Sower and the prints after Meissonnier. These are all names

37 Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 534, p. 31. 38 In a letter to Boch of October 4, i888, Vincent mentions that

Boch's portrait, along with that of the Zouave lieutenant Milliet (F 473), was hanging in his bedroom. Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 553b, p. 84.

which were to play a role in the quarrel which erupted later between Vincent and Gauguin. But it hadn't come to that yet; for the time being Vincent occupied himself with making thorough preparations for Gauguin's arrival. His expectations of their collaboration were high.

Part of Vincent's scheme of decoration is revealed in the painting of his bedroom. Two portraits hang on the side wall, which together were undoubtedly conceived of as a decoration.38 In the drawing which he enclosed in a letter to Theo to illustrate a detailed description of the room (fig. 5), the painting next to the window is also a portrait, although in the final painted version a landscape was substituted (fig. 6).39

39 Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 554, p. 86. In the drawing included in a letter to Gauguin written a day later (Complete letters, vol. 3, B 22 [actually a letter to Gauguin], p. 526) as well as in the painted versions, a landscape is depicted.

I90go




" i·i 8 d i i, %:ji 1 E t' Itl 1. ·L

:·II i ·r: :i i :t ····,

r4i

6 Vincent van Gogh, Bedroom in Aries (F482), Aries, October, i888. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh

IFT I91

· 4n :·I ·.··I ·I·u,· 1! .:.:: ..:: ··· u

i

! il

I 1 I t

I

I

IS~I Ir"' r

:.

00,



EVERT VAN UITERT

lj~~~~~~~~ ..i^/^i^-^1^^z~~~~~~~:l........

lg/ i. XS,t/ X^^t^W h >Jl

7 Vincent van Gogh, Sketch in letter 556, Aries, October 21 or 22, i888

The painting of the Bedroom is itself an element of a decorative scheme to which also the Night cafe (F 467) and the Coaches of Tarascon (F476a) probably be- longed.40 With respect to the style, Vincent wrote that he had purposely omitted any shadows and cast shadows in the Bedroom, and that he had intentionally applied the color in flat surface areas in imitation of Japanese prints.41 In other words, he followed the tenets of the "principe ornemental" advocated by Bracquemond.

40 Vincent states with regard to the painting of his bedroom that through simplification of color it was to take on a style suggestive of rest or sleep in general. His further description in this letter includes only the fact that portraits and a mirror were hanging on the walls. Everything was to be kept simple. In contrast to the Coaches of Tarascon (F 478a) and the Night cafe (F 463), all shadows were to be suppressed. Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 554, p. 86.

41 Ibid.

THE POET'S GARDEN Just before Gauguin's arrival, Vincent completed four canvases intended for his friend's room. He described one of them in some detail in a letter to which he added a sketch (fig. 7): "That makes the fourth canvas of 'The Poet's Garden,' which is the scheme of decoration for Gauguin's room."42 How he came to choose such a theme he relates in a letter to Gauguin himself.43 The public park opposite his yellow house in Aries had served as his point of departure.

42 "Cela fait la quatrieme toile du 'Jardin du poete' qui est la decoration de la chambre a Gauguin." Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 556, p. 92. The painting referred to is F 485, a park scene with a pair of lovers. Hulsker has identified the paintings belonging to this series, though without dealing with the iconological aspects of these works. See Jan Hulsker, "The poet's garden," Vincent: Bulletin of the Riks- museum Vincent van Gogh 3 (I974), pp. 22-32.

43 Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 544a, p. 65 (in the Dutch edition, nr. 553a) and vol. 3, nr. 539, p. 43.

I92




Vincent, who from the beginning of his career had often drawn parks and gardens, made a series of studies of this one as well. His intent with regard to these works was usually to represent an antique locus amoenus, a pleasant, charming spot; the park in Arles moreover makes him dream of a setting in which one could easily imagine Botticelli, Giotto, Petrarch and Boccaccio. It was Vin- cent's ambition to paint this garden in such a way that the viewer would think "of the old poet from here (or rather from Avignon), Petrarch, and at the same time of the new poet living here-Paul Gauguin."44

Vincent combines several traditional themes here. Gauguin, like Boch, was regarded as a prophetic painter/poet, but is now associated with a garden. Judg- ing from the pairs of lovers that Vincent includes in various versions, we are also dealing with a traditional garden of love.45 Through his reading of an article in the Revue des Deux Mondes, Vincent fuses this garden of love with the garden in which the poets Petrarch and Boccaccio conversed with one another. This decoration functions ultimately as a tribute to Gauguin as the new Petrarch, with the implication that Gauguin stood at the threshold of a new era, much as Petrarch had ushered in the Renaissance. Where Gauguin is accorded the role of

44 "...au vieux poete d'ici (ou plutbt d'Avignon) Petrarque et au nouveau poete d'ici-Paul Gauguin." Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 544a, p. 65. Vincent speculated on a Renaissance in the arts and accordingly called the studio that he wished to found an "atelier de renaissance" as opposed to an "atelier de dcadence." Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 544, p. 60. For the current view of Petrarch, see further van Uitert, op. cit. (note *), p. 157, note 51.

45 Vincent depicted a similar theme in Paris: a park scene in Asnieres with pairs of lovers (F 314). In a letter from Aries he describes the work as "the picture of the garden with the lovers" ("le tableau du jardin avec amoureux"). Complete letters, vol. 2, nr. 473, p. 540. There is extensive literature on the motif of the garden of love. E.R. Cur- tius, Europaische Literatur und lateinische Mittelalter, Berne 1948, deals with the topos of the locus amoenus. Illuminating for the motif and its treatment by authors whom Vincent also cites, is A. Bartlett Giamatti, The earthly paradise and the Renaissance epic, Princeton 1966 and Terry Comito, The idea of the garden in the Renaissance, New Brunswick (New Jersey) 1978, especially chap. 3, "Gardens of poetry and philosophy." Vincent's association of the garden of love with Gauguin has also been analyzed from a psychological point of view. According to Humberto Nagera, Vincent transformed Gauguin in his unconscious mind into a woman, "thus attempting to solve the problem posed by his homosexual longings." Humberto Nagera, Vincent van Gogh: a psychological study, London I967, p. 135. Vin- cent's relationship to Gauguin is dealt with in chapter 16 of this book, "The two empty chairs." Two paintings, F 498 and F 499, which had previously been analyzed by Nordenfalk, were interpreted convinc- ingly by Nagera; see also Carl Nordenfalk, "Van Gogh and literature," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 10 (I948), pp. 132-47.

Petrarch, Vincent tacitly assumes that of his companion Boccaccio.

These associations may seem far-fetched at first, but are clearly discernible in both Vincent's correspondence and his paintings. The portrait of the poet seems to have been an idea with which Vincent had been toying for some time. His initial effort to give visual form to this "poetic idea" was however unsuccessful. He destroyed a painting of a poet against a starry sky, and only when Boch posed for him was the work finally realized.46

The next step in Vincent's train of thought is probably due to his association of the garden with Dante.47 Just as Boch had been identified earlier with Dante by means of his "Dantesque" appearance and through Vincent's reading of Carlyle, now Gauguin is likened to Petrarch. In a letter of September i8 (539), Vincent mentions that he had read an article on Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Giotto and Botticelli which made a lasting impression on him ("Good Lord! it did make an impression on me reading the letters of those men").48 This article, a long one entitled "Boccace d'apres ses oeuvres et les temoinages contemporains," was published by Henry Cochin in the July/August I888 issue of the Revue des Deux Mondes.49 The historically so curious list

46 "I have mercilessly destroyed one important canvas-a 'Christ with the Angel in Gethsemane'-and another one representing the 'Poet against a Starry Sky'-in spite of the fact that the color was right-because the form had not been studied beforehand from the model, which is necessary in such cases." ("Une toile importante-un Christ avec l'ange au Gethsemani-une autre representant le poete avec un ciel etoile, malgre la couleur, qui etait juste, je les ai, sans misericorde, detruites, parce que la n'en etait etudiee prealablement sur le modele, necessaire dans ce cas-la.") Complete letters, vol. 3, B 19, p. 517.

47 "But isn't it true that this garden has a fantastic character which makes you quite able to imagine the poets of the Renaissance, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, strolling among these bushes and over the flow- ery grass?" ("Mais n'est-ce pas vrai, que ce jardin a un drole de style, qui fait qu'on peut fort bien se representer les poetes de la renaissance: le Dante, Petrarque, Boccace, se baldant dans ces buissons sur l'herbe fleurie.") Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 541, p. 48.

The portrait of Boch dates from the beginning of September; this letter has been dated to September 23 or 24 by Jan Hulsker, Van Gogh door van Gogh: de brieven als commentaar op zijn werk, Amsterdam 1973, p. 154.

48 "...mon dieu comme cela m'a fait de l'impression en lisant les lettres de ces gens-la." Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 539, p. 43.

49 Vincent's letters indicate that he not only read a great many novels, but also kept up with periodical literature. Aside from the Revue des Deux Mondes, he refers in his letters from Arles to the literary supplement of the Figaro, the Intransigeant and the Courrier Francais. For the press, see Jacques Letheve, Impressionnistes et symbolistes devant la presse, Paris 1959, and Anthony Burton, "Nine- teenth century periodicals," in The art press: two centuries of art magazines, London 1976.

193



EVERT VAN UITERT

of names of artists and writers given by Vincent comes in fact directly out of this article: "The close of the four- teenth century was sad. Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Giotto, all the men were gone who, after ten centuries, had revived the glory of ancient Rome."50 In another passage Botticelli was also joined to this illustrious company.

Cochin's article is best characterized as an ode to the friendship of the first modern thinkers, Petrarch and Boccaccio. The author takes us back to the Padua of 1351, where the two friends relax in the small garden outside Petrarch's home after a long day of study. The garden is mentioned once again as Boccaccio pays a visit to Francesca, the daughter of Petrarch: "We sit in the garden, with a few friends, passing the time in polite conversation." We can detect here a covert allusion to the garden of love. Certainly the author of this article had Petrarch's Triumph of love in mind when he wrote it.

Vincent now projects himself and his friend Gauguin, who was to arrive shortly, into these idyllic scenes. In Vincent's estimation Gauguin exemplified in every way the image of the poet as delineated in the article in the Revue des Deux Mondes: "The poet is the master of the world; he is expected to know everything and to teach everything.""5 Such a view of the poet reflects a rather elitist attitude toward poetry. And indeed the author of this article claims, "The mark of true poetry is a mystical quality; as such it is intended for the better classes and not for the multitude."52 One hardly needs to point out that such a notion is more characteristic of nineteenth century Symbolism than of the century in which Petrarch and Boccaccio worked. Vincent, who in con- tradistinction to Gauguin never subscribed to such an

50 "La fin du x ve siecle etait triste. Dante, Petrarque, Boccace, Giotto, tous les hommes etaient morts, qui avaient, apres dix siecles, revivifie l'antique gloire latine." Revue des Deux Mondes 88 (i888), pp. 373-413. This quotation is taken from the close of the article, p. 413.

51 "Le poete est le maitre du monde; il doit tout savoir et tout enseigner." Ibid., p. 403. Cochin constructed a line of duumvirates running from Dante-Virgil through Dante-Petrarch to Petrarch- Boccaccio. Vincent extended this series to include Gauguin (Petrarch) and himself. Cochin forthermore has Boccaccio declare that poetry is "a firm science founded on eternal truths" ("une solide science fondee sur les choses eternelles"). Ibid., p. 403.

52 "Le propre de la vraie poesie est d'avoir un sens mystique; aussi est-elle faite pour les meilleurs, non pour le peuple." Ibid., p. 403.

53 "II dit qu'il le trouve un si grand artiste qu'il en a presque peur, et qu'il trouve mauvais tout ce que lui, Bernard, fait en comparaison de Gauguin." Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 539, p. 43.

54 "...parce qu'il se sent trop timide devant Gauguin." Ibid., p. 44.

attitude, nevertheless projected this conception onto his friend. That he did so at a time when he as yet had had little actual contact with Gauguin was due at least in part to Emile Bernard. Bernard, like Vincent, had wished to emulate Gauguin, and while working on his park scenes and engaged in reflection on Petrarch and Boccaccio, Vincent often thought of his fellow-competitor.

In a letter he wrote to Vincent, Bernard expressed his profound admiration for Gauguin's talent. "He says that he thinks him so great an artist that he is almost afraid, and that he finds everything that he does himself poor in comparison with Gauguin," Vincent wrote to his brother-and that in spite of the fact that Bernard had had quarrels to pick with Gauguin just that past winter, he added.53 Bernard had given up any thought of trying to rival Gauguin artistically, a fact which is also demonstrated by his rejection of Vincent's proposal that they each make a portrait of Gauguin for one another. Bernard refused, "because he feels afraid in front of Gauguin," Vincent reports.54 Bernard's capitulation in the face of Gauguin's superior capabilities seems also to have affected Vincent's attitude. From the beginning he humbled himself before the master.55 Metaphorically as well, Vincent reserved a place of honor in his park scenes for the innovator Gauguin.

Not all of Vincent's paintings of this subject are referred to as "poet's gardens," however. The question arises as to how Vincent arrived at this designation, and which painters inspired him to do so. The answer to this last question can easily be gleaned from the letters. Vincent mentions Puvis de Chavannes' work Doux pays, which in his opinion so well captures the mood of the Midi.56 Manet, who painted gardens throughout his

55 In letter 543, Vincent once again sighs longingly, "I keep thinking of you and Gauguin and Bernard all the time wherever I go" ("Que je pense a toi et a Gauguin et a Bernard a tout moment et partout.") Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 543, p. 56. In his next letter to his brother he returns to discuss Bernard's relationship to Gauguin as he reports, "Bernard's letter is once more full of his conviction that Gauguin is a very great master, and a man absolutely superior in character and intellect" ("La lettre de Bernard est encore une fois remplie de la conviction, que Gauguin est un bien grand maitre et un homme superieur absolument quant au caractere et l'intelligence.") Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 544, p. 62.

56 "My dear Theo, when you have seen the cypresses and the oleanders here, and the sun [...] then you will think even more often of the beautiful 'Doux pays' by Puvis de Chavannes, and many other pictures of his" ("Mon cher Theo, lorsque tu auras vu le cypres, les laurier-roses, le soleil d'ici [...] encore plus souvent tu penseras aux beaux Puvis de Chavannes 'Doux pays' et tant d'autres.") Complete

194




ld I I Aeet

· ct cot. . ... : . .: . . .. .....:: .::

'. '.' .* . .' :

. ... I 1 e X\a ILB X

::

f. {a fu^W.£a e X

ftAf 9-

e41LU.A~~~~~~~~~ gI~~~~~Ltht4~~~~~~~ p A.a4-1~~~~~~~~~~t4':":

....: :;. i . ... _. .... ..

.. . ' . .

8 Vincent van Gogh, Sketch in letter 552, Aries, October 13, i888

entire career, also formed a general source of inspiration for Vincent.57 Demonstrating particular affinity to Vin- cent's gardens is Manet's version of Claude Monet's garden in Argenteuil, dating from I874 and depicting Madame Monet and the little Camille on the lawn. In this same year, both Monet himself and Renoir also painted this garden with the same figures.58 The Im- pressionists seem to have intended no literary allusions. Vincent, however, immediately experienced a "je ne sais quoi de Boccace" in the park opposite his house, and the

letters, vol. 3, nr. 539, p. 43. Vincent could have seen this work, which was intended as a decoration for the house of Leon Bonnat, during Durand-Ruel's Puvis exhibition in Paris in 1887. See exhib. cat. Puvis de Chavannes, op. cit. (note 20), p. 174, cat. nr. I74.

57 "This side of the garden is also, for the same reason of chastity or morality, destitute of any flowering bushes such as oleanders. There are ordinary plane trees, pines in stiff clumps, a weeping willow, and the green grass. But it is also intimate. Manet has gardens like this." ("Ce c6te-la du jardin est d'ailleurs pour la meme raison de chastete ou de morale, degarni d'arbustes en fleur tel que le laurier-rose. C'est de platanes communs, des sapins en buissons raides, un arbre pleureur et de l'herbe verte. Mais c'est d'une intimite. II y a des jardins de Manet comme cela.") Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 539, pp. 42-43. The notice Vincent takes of the various trees and plants is striking, and reminds one of a book he had read while still in London ( 874): Alphonse Karr, Voyage autour de monjardin, which was first published in 1845 and of which an illustrated edition appeared in i 85 1, containing drawings by Gavarni. One of the subjects Karr dealt with was the symbolic significance of the plants. Although such information is only mar-

title "poet's garden" is then an obvious choice.59 He used this title some time later in letters both to Bernard and to Gauguin, for whom the decoration was after all intended. It was only later that the title "Jardin du Poite" turned up in a letter to Theo, as one example of a "poetic subject."60 The paintings which he designated as "poet's gardens" formed part of Vincent's decoration. He reported on its progress in a long letter which he also illustrated with sketches (fig. 8).61 The title "poet's garden" apparently occured to him rather suddenly and as a

ginally relevant to an interpretation of Vincent's parks and gardens, it is safe to assume that Vincent had such notions in the back of his mind. He mentions the author of this book, Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808-90), again later.

58 John Rewald, The history of Impressionism, 4th edn., London I973, pp. 281-85 and 34I-43.

59 Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 539, p. 42. 60 The letters to Gauguin and Bernard must have been written on

or about September 29. Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 544a, p. 65 (in the Dutch edition nr. 553a) and B i8, p. 516. The letter to Theo (nr. 545) dates from October 7: "I know that it will do some people's hearts good to find poetic subjects again, 'The Starry Sky,' 'The Vines in Leaf,' 'The Furrows,' the 'Poet's Garden."' ("Je sais que cela fera du bien a de certains gens de retrouver les sujets poetiques-le Ciel itoile, Les Pampres, les Sillons, le ardin du Poete"); respectively F 474, F 475, F 574 and F 468(?). Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 545, p. 66. For dating and identifications, see Hulsker, op. cit. (note 47), pp. 157-59.

6I Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 552, pp. 77-81.

I95

': .::." ' :i.:: .:i : :.&. .: -



EVERT VAN UITERT

recapitulation of his objectives, as it is not to be found in the article on Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio in the Revue des Deux Mondes which so inspired him.

Vincent had at least one predecessor who depicted a similar theme and identified it as such in the German academic painter Anselm Feuerbach. In 1855, Feuer- bach composed a picture that he referred to variously in his letters as "Italienisches Dichterleben," "der Garten Boccaccios," and finally, simply as "Dichtergarten." Portrayed are Petrarch and Boccaccio strolling in a garden and surrounded by reciting women.62 It isn't likely that Vincent was familiar with either Feuerbach's letters or the painting, which had little to do with his own artistic vision and was conceived within the nineteenth century academic tradition. Representations of Dante were popular however, and through his experi- ence as an art dealer and his extensive reading, Vincent was certainly aware of this tradition.63

The term "poet's garden," along with "painter's garden" and the more familiar "philosopher's garden," also occur in Jacques Delille's poem Les jardins, which was long an integral part of the program of instruction in the French schools. Written at the end of the eighteenth century, it played a role in the emergent Romanticism of that time.64 The poem serves as a compendium of all themes related to gardens. The fourth canto, for example, begins with Virgil and Homer and is in fact a description of the poet's garden. The garden of love is also

62 Anselm Feuerbach's Briefe an seine Mutter, 2 vols., Berlin 1911, p. 39off. Heinrich Theissing, "'Die Ewigkeit der Kunst': zu Anselm Feuerbachs Schaffen und Denken," in Anselm Feuerbach: Gemalde und Zeichnungen, Munich & Berlin 1976, pp. 65-67. Feuerbach regarded Couture as his true master, and his choice of subject matter probably reflects the same French tradition upon which Vincent also drew. My thanks to Peter Hecht for calling my attention to this work of Feuerbach's.

63 Gerome, for example, painted a Dante strolling outside the city walls of Florence while being observed by people relaxing in the nearby countryside. A photograph of this painting was brought on the market by Goupil & Co. Certainly since the time of Delacroix's Bark of Dante, representations of Dante were popular. Most noteworthy within this tradition are perhaps the book illustrations of Gustave Dor6, who illustrated a complete edition of the Divine Comedy which was published in 1868.

64 David Mornet, Le Romantisme en France au XVIIIe siecle, New York 1971 (reprint of the 1925 edition), p. 31. For the influence of Italian authors, including Dante, see pp. 76-77. Jacques Delille, Les jardins: poeme, Paris [I8oI] (new enlarged edition). The Oeuvres completes de Jacques Delille were first published in Paris in 1833 and reappeared regularly until 1880. See also Edouard Guitton, Jacques Delille (1738-1813) et le poeme de la nature en France de 1750 a i820, Paris I974.

treated extensively, whereby Petrarch and his Laura are certainly not excluded.

This theme was therefore well-known since the beginning of the nineteenth century and it is consequently not surprising that Vincent was familiar with it, although neither the extent of his knowledge nor exactly where he found this title can be precisely ascertained.65

GAUGUIN IN ARLES Vincent's work on the decorations for Gauguin's room and the rest of the house were carried out in a state of feverish excitement which left him so greatly fatigued that for a while he was forced to take things easier and to give up painting out of doors. When after a short rest period Vincent once again took up the brush, he painted the picture of his bedroom which displays part of his completed decorative scheme.66 At that point, immediately before the arrival of Gauguin, Vincent was rather nervous and not alto- gether confident of his friend's verdict on what he considered to be his original contribution to the art of the future.

Vincent's correspondence discloses that he was not entirely in agreement with the artistic notions of his comrades. In one of the last letters that he wrote to Gauguin before the latter's arrival, he remarked in reference to the Bedroom that he wished to talk about his own work, because, as he puts it, "I often don't know what I am doing, working almost like a sleepwalker."67

65 The literature on gardens and associated themes is very extensive. One theme demonstrating affinity to Vincent's poet's garden is that of the dreaming poet. Among the illustrations for the Roman de la rose and Petrarch's Triumph of love are representations of a poet asleep in a landscape, while the product of his fantasy is visible in the landscape. Vincent may have been familiar with similar illustrations published in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts (I887). The garden with its various associations is a theme often employed by Vincent. Of particular significance is a very late rendition of a poet's garden, the Garden of Daubigny (F 776), in which the realistic painter Daubigny has taken the place of Gauguin. This would seem to indicate a reversion on Vincent's part to his earlier, more realistic artistic vision.

66 Complete letters, vol. 3, B 22, p. 526. 67 "...car je ne sais souvent pas ce que je fais, travaillant presque en

somnabule." Ibid. This is of course not a matter of depicting subjects evoked by the imagination, a way of working advocated first by the Romantics and later by Gauguin, but is an indication of Vincent's psychological state. Vincent made a chaotic impression on Gauguin when the latter arrived in Aries. Although Gauguin's description of Vincent's behavior later in Avant et apres is probably somewhat exaggerated, it can't be too far from the truth.

I96




This may sound merely apologetic, but from a letter written at almost the same time to Theo, we know that he felt "pretty nearly reduced to the madness of Hugo van der Goes in Emile Wauters's picture," so severe was the psychological pressure that his competition with Gauguin, barely in its beginning stages, had apparently brought to bear.68 In this same letter, he indicates that he never doubted for a moment that he would undergo Gauguin's influence. Still he cherished a barely expressed hope of being able to influence Gauguin in his turn. He refused in any case to give up the struggle, "before I can show him indubitably my own originality" (my italics).69 An originality which Vincent felt was above all manifested in his decorations.

Once in Arles, Gauguin praised a number of Vin- cent's studies, including the Sower, the Sunflowers and the Bedroom, but Vincent reports with understandable disappointment, "I do not yet know what Gauguin thinks of my decoration in general..." He adds however by way of qualification that he wasn't certain yet himself, as a number of canvases depicting "the other seasons" were still to be added before the scheme could be considered complete.70 From this last remark we can ascertain that for the coherence of his decoration Vincent did not rely only on pleasing color combinations or representations exhibiting thematic correspondence, such as groups of portraits, but also made use of a theme as exceedingly traditional as the seasons.71

In the letters that he wrote during the remainder of Gauguin's stay in Arles, Vincent says no more about his scheme of decoration as a whole. The idea continued to occupy his thoughts, however, and his attention was

68 "...a peu pres reduit au cas de la folie d'Hugue van der Goes dans le tableau d'Emile Wauters." Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 556, p. 90. See further Rewald, op. cit. (note 29), pp. 242-43 and 269, with an illustration of Wauters's painting.

69 "...avant de pouvoir lui montrer indubitablement mon orig- inalite propre." Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 556, p. 92. Apart from artistic rivalry, psychological factors also played a role here. The contextual explication given here is at any rate not incompatible with the psychoanalytic one offered by Nagera. See above, note 45.

70 "ce que pense G. de ma dcoration en general je ne le sais encore..." Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 558, p. 95.

71 Even within Vincent's oeuvre this is an old theme; see above, note 9.

72 The architect Garnier had organized an impressive exhibition devoted to the history of housing. This section of the international exposition attracted a great deal of attention, not least from artists. Vincent knew of the exhibition through the often richly illustrated

drawn to it again during the international exposition of I889, where a number of decorated houses were exhibited.72 Both Vincent and Gauguin later worked on decorations, although as far as Vincent was concerned, this never again resulted in a completed series of paintings. During their collaboration in Arles, the two painters did influence one another; an interaction in which the "principe ornemental" played a seminal role. Gauguin, for example, employed the motif of the night cafe which Vincent had handled earlier, although his decoratively conceived composition built up of flat surfaces deviates strongly from Vincent's version. The work seems a treatise in visual form of the new painting as conceived by Gauguin. Other motifs with which both painters deal reveal less striking differences in approach.73

Gauguin's influence is most strongly felt in two imag- inary subjects that Vincent depicts, Reminiscences of the garden in Etten (F 496), a painting which he considers so important that he describes and makes a sketch of it in a letter to his sister (fig. 9), and a Novel reader (F497; fig. io).74 By way of explanation for this way of working, which was unusual for him but advocated by Gauguin, Vincent offers the fact that the winter weather precluded his painting out of doors. Even if true, this can't have been more than an incidental factor. During the same period he also copied a work of Bernard's Brittany period and experimented with stylization and with com- posing works in a decorative fashion built up of flat surfaces.75 This is already evident in the Reminiscences of the garden in Etten, in which he employed Gauguin's trick of letting the horizon line fall outside the picture plane. A Sower that Vincent painted in November dif-

publications, and wrote about it in a letter to Bernard. Complete letters, vol. 3, B 20, pp. 520-2I.

73 For stylistic comparisons, see Rewald, op. cit. (note 29) and Mark Roskill, Van Gogh, Gauguin and the Impressionist circle, London n.d.

74 As an unsurpassable painter, Vincent named Ernst Meissonier, an opinion with which Gauguin thoroughly disagreed. Vincent based his admiration for Meissonier on such paintings as Liseurs and Halte. Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 623, p. 249. Meissonier painted a number of reading figures, most often in historicizing settings, for which both Rembrandt and eighteenth century examples served as models; see Vallery C.O. Greard, Meissonier: his life and his art, London I897 (transl. from the French). The Liseur blanc of I857 (fig. p. 37) demonstrates some affinity to Vincent's novel readers. Vincent's portrait of Madame Ginoux with the books (F 488) also belongs to this iconographical group.

75 Illustrations in Rewald, op. cit. (note 29), p. 251. The work referred to is in the Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Milan, F 1422.

I97



EVERT VAN UITERT

9 Vincent van Gogh, Sketch in letter to his sister Willemien (W9), Aries, ca. December 2, i888

fers significantly in composition from his earlier versions of this subject due to the cutting off of both the figure of the sower and the tree by the frame. Here as well, Vincent's departure from earlier practices reflects

76 This is a formal device analogous to that employed in Gauguin's famous Vision after the sermon as well as in the Japanese print by Hiroshige that Vincent copied in Paris. See exhib. cat. Japanese prints collected by Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh) 1978, nr. 46b.

77 Gauguin depicted a similar theme while in Aries (Wildenstein 300). Vincent writes, "Only I have spoiled that thing that I did of the garden in Nuenen, and I think that you also need practice for work from the imagination." ("Seulement j'ai rate cette chose que j'ai fait du jardin a Nuenen, et je sens que pour les travaux d'imagination il faut aussi l'habitude.") Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 560, p. o10. Earlier he had written that Gauguin had given him the courage to work with

the influence of Gauguin.76 Nevertheless, this seems to have been a difficult course for Vincent; especially with regard to his painting of the garden in Etten he was dissatisfied.77 Vincent's uneasiness intensified steadily,

his imagination, "...and certainly things from the imagination take on a more mysterious character" ("les choses d'imagination certes pren- nent un caratere plus mysterieux.") Complete letters, vol. 3, nr. 562, p. 105. While describing the work for his sister Willemien, Vincent admits that it scarcely resembles the garden in Brabant, but contends that it reflects the poetic character and the style of the garden as he felt these to be. As yet there is no hint of dissatisfaction; his detailed description and the sketch would rather indicate just the opposite. Vincent's later disappointment is possibly a consequence of the ab- sence of Gauguin's fatherly approval. Shortly thereafter the quarrel erupted. Complete letters, vol. 3, w 9, pp. 446-48. For the dating, see Hulsker, op. cit. (note 60).

I98




IO Vincent van Gogh, The novel reader (F497), Aries, November, i888. Collection Mr. and Mrs. Louis Frank

and finally reached a breaking point during the discus- sion he had with Gauguin following their visit to the museum in Montpellier. During the course of this dis- cussion Vincent apparently tried to pin Gauguin down as to his opinions. It wasn't necessary for the two artistic rivals to speak of one another's work directly; their opinions as regards the old masters served as a standard by which they could measure one another's point of view. In this way, major points of disagreement came to light, which seemed even greater because precisely at this moment Vincent was faced with the choice of either

becoming a follower of Gauguin or striking out for himself. As we know, he opted for the second of these two alternatives. He forced a showdown between himself and Gauguin which however didn't lead to a situa- tion of hostility between the two adversaries; nor did it result in the termination of their artistic contest. The two artists continued to show affection for one another, and in a number of paintings executed after the cata- strophic incident, Vincent emulated both Bernard and Gauguin.

199



Evert van Uitert, 'Vincent van Gogh in anticipation of Paul Gauguin', Simiolus 10 (1978/79), 182-99....

Documents

Transcript of Evert van Uitert, 'Vincent van Gogh in anticipation of Paul Gauguin', Simiolus 10 (1978/79), 182-99....