If Vincent Van Gogh could have seen the crowds there to see his pictures at the 'Poets & Lovers' exhibition at the National Gallery in London in December 2024, he would have broken down in tears of joy. Van Gogh is probably the most famous artist in the world but in his lifetime, he only sold 2 paintings.
In my research into artists for this website, I've often read of artists' struggles financially, a stark contrast to what their pictures may be worth today. If only they could see the future and have an advance against the future value of their work! Alas, with no crystal ball, it's impossible, so I feel for artists like Van Gogh, whose brilliance we have only come to appreciate long after his death.
The Poets & Lovers exhibition featured many of Van Gogh's lesser-known works as well as two of his sunflower portraits which flanked 'La Berceuse' (Lullaby, or Woman who rocks the cradle). This grouping was Van Gogh's own idea, part of his plan for the decoration of the 'Yellow House' in Arles. The two Sunflowers were the ‘yellow panels’ that would intensify the colours of 'La Berceuse'. Vincent thought that the triptych as a whole symbolised gratitude.
Vincent had rented the Yellow House in May 1888 as a studio, because it needed both renovation and furniture. By September he had moved in and had bold plans to turn the modest house into an 'artist's home' and a communal 'studio of the south' in which his artist friends could join him to work. He devised a decoration for the house that included his major paintings. This then evolved into carefully conceived ideas about how to present his art to the public, the Sunflowers/Berceuse arrangement being one of them. After his first mental breakdown at the end of 1888 and subsequent crises in the following spring, Vincent lost possession of the Yellow House, however he carried on developing ideas for its decoration.
'The painter of the future is a colourist such as there hasn't been before' were words he wrote to his brother Theo in the early months of his stay in Arles. Van Gogh’s style had undergone a major transformation during his two-year stay in Paris between 1886 and 1888. There he saw the work of the Impressionists first-hand and also witnessed the latest innovations by the Neo-Impressionists Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. In response, Van Gogh lightened his palette and experimented with the broken brushstrokes of the Impressionists as well as the pointillist touch of the Neo-Impressionists.
Some of my favourite pictures in the exhibition featured this amazing mark-making - every dot, dash and stroke of paint contributing to the rich tapestry and pattern of each picture, showcasing his amazing skill as an artist. 'Poppy Field', 'Starry Night over the Rhone' and 'The Road Menders' were all paintings that impressed me very much. Every thick, impasto brush mark that makes up the sky in ‘Starry Night over the Rhone’ is astonishing.
Van Gogh produced over 2000 artworks, most of them in the last 2 years of his life, between 1888 and 1890. He died from a self-inflicted bullet wound to the chest in 1890 at the age of 37, a sad end to an incredible artist.
