Van Gogh's 'Yellow House' in Arles

choi

On Oct 3, 2024 I published a posting titled "Childless People's Estates" whose Quote (b) stated in part: "Financial advisers say a far bigger concern [when the childless is still alive] than who gets what is making sure there is enough money and support for a comfortable old age, because clients without children can't call on them for help."  The sentence should be "the childless ARE * * * "

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Emily LaBarge, Something New Comes to Light; Paintings in a van Gigh exhibition reveals a fresh and tender perspective on that artist from a prolific but turbulent period time in his life. New York Times, (Friday,) Oct 4, 2024, at page C8 (C is WeekendArts section).
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/ ... gallery-london.html

Note:
(1) This is an exhibition review:
Van Gogh; Poets and Lovers. London: The National Gallery, Sept 14, 2024 to Jan 19, 2025
https://www.nationalgallery.org. ... gh-poets-and-lovers
("Over just two years in the south of France, Van Gogh revolutionised his style in a symphony of poetic colour and texture. He was inspired by poets, writers and artists. We look at this time in Arles and Saint-Rémy as a decisive period in his career")
(a) Arles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arles
(section 1 Name; section 3 History, section 3.4 Modern Era: "In May 1889, he [van Gogh] voluntarily left Arles for the Saint-Paul asylum at nearby Saint-Rémy-de-Provence")
The latter is 10 air-distance miles northeast of Arles; Arles is coastal and Saint-Rémy further inland.
(b)
(i) The en.wikipedia.org for Vincent van Gogh says he was fluent in English, Dutch and German.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh#Hospital_in_Arles_(December_1888)
("When Gauguin agreed to visit Arles in 1888, van Gogh hoped for friendship and to realize his idea of an artists' collective [or cluster, but, all in all, only Gauguin came], * * * After much pleading from van Gogh, Gauguin arrived in Arles on Oct 23" 18888/ section 4 Artistic breakthrough, section Hospital in Arles (December 1888) )
(ii) The en.wikipedia.org for Paul Gauguin says Gauguin left Arles on Dec 24, 1888 -- the day after van Gigh severed his ear.


(2) The Yellow House
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yellow_House
(September 1888; table: Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum [owned and run by Dutch government]; "The building was severely damaged in a bombing raid by the Allies on June 25, 1944[6] and was later demolished")
(a) The Yellow House (The Street).
https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0032v1962
(oil on canvas; "The [two] green shutters [on the second floor] in this painting of the square show where he lived")

It took me hours to find out what was on the street surface:
untitled. Van Gogh Museum, Mar 13, 2024
https://www.facebook.com/VanGoghMuseum/posts/817234837115559/
("Vincent painted what he saw, capturing moments in his life and turning them into something everlasting. His paintings and drawings are a bit like a biography, as demonstrated by a few fun details in his painting 'The Yellow House'. Vincent included the piles of sand on the road for a reason; gas was being installed, and you can also see the gas lanterns [I see just one on the left margin]. The train passing on the right of the painting is another delightful detail, a snapshot in time")
(b) The same museum also owns the watercolor painting.
https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/d0431V1962

(3) "The exhibition's focus is on the painter's two final years, when his distinctive writhing line, hallucinatory palette, impastoed surfaces and romantic visions reached new heights. * * * Van Gogh described Boch, a fellow painter, in Keatsian terms as 'an artist friend who dreams great dreams, who works as the nightingale sings.' "
(a) impasto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impasto

Search images.google with this word and you will be able to appreciate it.
(b) For Keatsian, see Keats
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Keats
(pronunciation for Keatsian)
(c) common nightingale
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_nightingale
(section 1 Etymology; "female nightingales do not sing. * * * Common nightingales are so named because they [males] frequently sing at night as well as during the day. The name has been used for more than 1,000 years")

View the map in this Wiki page for range, and you will realize that this bird is not found in China.

(4) De minnaar (portret van luitenant Milliet), late September - early October 1888
The Lover (Portrait of Lieutenant Milliet). Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, undated
https://krollermuller.nl/en/vinc ... ieutenant-milliet-1
("Paul-Eugène Milliet is a second lieutenant in a Zouave regiment of the French army (this is indicated by the [crescent] moon and star in the top right corner)")
(a)
(i) Dutch-English dictionary:
* The "de" is a definite article. See Dutch grammar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_grammar
(section 4 Articles)
* minnaar (noun masculine; from [verb] minnen [to love] +‎ [suffix; from Latin suffix -arius, which functions same as English suffix -er] -aar): "lover"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/minnaar
* van (preposition): "of;
from (origin)  <Hij komt van Griekenland.  He's from Greece.>"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/van
(ii) Kröller-Müller Museum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kröller-Müller_Museum
("was founded by Helene Kröller-Müller, an avid art collector")

She was born German with maiden name Müller (which, by the way, is same as English surname Miller). Her husband does not have a en.wikipedia.org page: "Anton Kröller (1862-1941) did not care to be remembered. 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust' is written on his tombstone. * * * During his life he preferred to stay out of the spotlights."
Ariëtte Dekker, Biography Anton Kröller (1862-1941). University of Groningen, Oct 28, 2013.
https://www.erim.eur.nl/fileadmi ... rdam_28-10-2013.pdf
(b) Zouave
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zouave
(1830-1962)

(5) Eugène Boch. Paris: Musée d'Orsay, undated
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/eugene-boch-744
(a) Boch is a (Belgian) painter by profession. How come the painting is dubbed The Poet? See Eugene Boch The Poet, 1888 by Vincent Van Gogh
https://www.vincentvangogh.org/eugene-boch-the-poet.jsp
("Shortly after his second version of The Peasant, Van Gogh set out to paint the portrait of a completely different human type - that of the poet. * * * It seems that Van Gogh found this description applicable to the inspired Gauguin, who even bore a physical resemblance to Dante, having the same sharp features as the Italian poet" Dante)

View the en.wikipedia.org for Dante, you can see his face was angular. But not that (face) of Gauguin.
(i) portraits by Vincent van Gogh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portraits_by_Vincent_van_Gogh
(section 3 Arles (1888–1889):
# The Lover: Paul-Eugène Milliet
# The Poet: Eugène Boch[:] "The portrait was executed in the first days of September 1888, a few days before Boch's departure. In the first version of Van Gogh's Bedroom, executed in October 1888, this portrait is shown hanging to the left of the portrait of Paul-Eugène Milliet"
# Vieux Paysan: Patience Escalier[:] There are two versions of this portrait. One held by the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, and the other [the second version; shown in this Wiki page, whose caption provides the timing of th painting: 'end August 1888']in the private collection of Philip Niarchos")

The titles of the portraits are italicized.
(ii) French-English dictionary:
* vieux (adjective masculine, but the same word before vowel will be spelled vieil; ultimately from Latin adjective masculine] vetus old): "old"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vieux
* paysan (noun masculine): "peasant"  (The English word came from French).
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/paysan
(b) This is the first version: Portrait of a Peasant (Patience Escalier) August 1888. Norton Simon Museum, undated.
https://www.nortonsimon.org/art/detail/M.1975.06.P

(6) Bedroom in Arles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedroom_in_Arles
("This room was not rectangular but trapezoid with an obtuse angle in the left hand corner of the front wall [located in the background of this painting] and an acute angle at the right"/ section 3 Third version: "the miniature portrait to the left recalls van Gogh's Peasant of Zundert self-portrait")
(a) Only the first version (1888) has paintings/ portraits of lover and poet on the wall.
(Click the "self portrait" and the new en.wikipedia.org page for "Portraits of Vincent van Gogh" shows at the top of this portrait (painted "end September 1889"). Still in this new Wiki page, section 1 Self-portraits, section 1.5 Saint-Rémy has the last two portraits as the contender (for the real last self-portrait). However, the top one is the one (portrait) mentioned in section 3 of Bedroom in Arles. See next.
(b) "Peasant of Zundert"
(i) Vincent van Gogh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh
(1853 – July 29, 1890; He was born in Zundert (on the Belgian border): "Van Gogh's mother came from a prosperous family in The Hague. His father was the youngest son of a minister. * * * in 1860, was sent to the village school. In 1864, he was placed in a boarding school at Zevenbergen"_

Neither he or his parents [though the above Wiki page does not talk about occupations of his parents) was a peasant. After he went to the boarding school, he never lived in Zundert again, but visited it many times: from the Web.
(ii) Letter from Vincent van Gogh to His Mother. Saint-Rémy, c. 20-22 October 1889.
https://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/20/612.htm
("You will see from the self-portrait I add that though I saw Paris and other big cities for many years, I keep looking more or less like a peasant of Zundert")

(7) L'Arlésienne (painting)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Arlésienne_(painting)

(8)
(a) Olive Trees (Van Gogh series)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_Trees_(Van_Gogh_series)
(section 5 The paintings)
(b) Van Gogh and the Olive Groves; Reunited and on display together for the first time. Van Gogh Museum, Mar 11 - June 12, 2022 (exhibition)
https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/ ... nd-the-olive-groves
https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/ ... nd-the-olive-groves
("Vincent was 36 [in 1889; he died on July 29, 1890] when he plunged into painting olive groves in the South of France. He saw many olive trees around the asylum [in Saint-Rémy] where he stayed for a year because of psychological complaints. * * * Van Gogh made fifteen paintings of olive groves, constantly experimenting with various approaches. Fascinated by the gnarly shapes of the olive trees and their ever-changing colours, he painted them over and over. He painted at different times of the day and used colours inspired by the season. Vincent himself considered his paintings of olive trees to number amongst the best he had made in the South of France")