l'il van gogh

This is one of my favorite paintings and it happens to be by Vincent van Gogh. That says a lot for the painting, because I really don't respond much to Van Gogh's work. He's not overrated--just overemphasized.

Ironically, I actually like this one because of what it says to me about Van Gogh's life. He was a very spiritual person--studied for the clergy and tried to become a religious leader, but he was a failure. (He had already failed in the family business--being an art dealer.) I think of his experience through life as that of an outcast, though thanks to his recurring mental health issues, (undiagnosed, but some experts have made a convincing argument for manic-depression/bipolar disorder) he was probably an outcast thanks to his own behaviors.

The strong diagonal line of the fence and lamp posts leads the eye into the tightly cramped center of the picture, where five people look out at the horizon, physically and forever separated from the distance that is the the object of their gaze, which in turn emphasizes the spiritual isolation that is the metaphoric subject of the picture. The viewer (or perhaps the maker?) is doubly separated, both from the distance and from those who look into it, as they turn their backs to all who would approach.

It has been some time since I've seen this small painting--Terrace and Observation Deck at the Moulin de Blute-Fin, Montmartre, 1887, from the Art Institute of Chicago--in the flesh. On my monitor it is far more blue than I recall; I remember a more neutral gray tonality. There is also more contrast; it is more sunlit (albeit a weak, hazy light); the shadows of the fence posts seems more pronounced. But the trees/vines on the left side, and the little patch of noxiously green-brown grass, pack the emotional wallop I recall. These small, sticky tortured little things stand stiff and naked against the sky. Winter has come, but it seems to be going now, evidenced by the sodden grass that waits for the sun to warm it again.