PAUL GAUGUIN'S ARMCHAIR, PORTRAIT OF GAUGUIN AND THE YELLOW HOUSE

Frost on the ground this morning.  Gee whiz, is it possible that we are blessed with a hint of winter?  Won't be long and the snowbirds will have no reason to fly down south.  

Once again it's Saturday, which means nothing, yet the weekend is something that's seared onto our brains after a lifetime of living the work week.  Normal routines stop on Friday and resume again on Monday.  Yesterday I watched the armorer's trial in the Alec Baldwin mess.  The court adjourned early, and the jury was instructed to return at 8:30 Monday morning.  When I first started working in 1964, the work week went until Saturday at noon.  Since then, it's scaled down to a 40-hour week.  Oh, there are a gazillion different work schedules out there, but I'm referring to the old-fashioned....the kind I'm most familiar with.

Today in art class, we'll visit three of Van Gogh's paintings.  There's no way we can study all 900+ works, so we'll touch on his different subjects and painting styles.  I'm intentionally saving the humdingers until the end.  The deeper I delve into Vincent's life, the more similarities I'm seeing.....between him and myself.  His love for nature, his respect for the poor and the struggling.  The way he elevates the ordinary. 

Paul Gauguin's Armchair - 1888

Paul Gauguin was Vincent's friend and fellow artist.   Van Gogh invited Gauguin to live with him in Arles, France, and create art together.  Vincent purchased 12 'exceedingly simple' wooden chairs and one ornate armchair (above), which he placed in Gauguin's room.  Vincent situated two books and a candle on the empty chair.  Some think Vincent painted this empty chair because he felt their friendship wouldn't last.  Others say the books and the candle merely represent Gauguin's favorite pastime. 

The colors are vibrant in this painting.  Vincent used dark colors to create a dark room lit up by a candle on the wall.  Note the carpet on which the chair sits.  Was this Japanese inspired?  Simple bold brush strokes create the carpet pattern.  A chair is a very personal object.  An empty chair personifies the person who is absent.  In the world of art, an empty chair can be a portrait of the person who sits in the chair.

Van Gogh painted his friend, the artist Paul Gauguin, in their studio.  He wrote to his brother Theo that Gauguin was working on 'a big still life of an orange pumpkin and some apples on a yellow background' while Vincent painted his portrait.  Note the yellow background and what might be an orange pumpkin.

Portrait of Gauguin - 1888

For 63 days in the fall of 1888, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, lived together in a yellow house in the town of Arles in southern France.  

The Yellow House (The Street) - 1888

Van Gogh rented four rooms with green shutters.  This painting shows their immediate surroundings.  Vincent often ate at the restaurant to the left that is shaded by a tree.  Note the outdoor cafe on the right side street.  

The time the two shared in the sunflower-colored house was productive for both artists.  Vincent made 36 canvases and Gauguin completed 21.  These included the portraits they did of each other.  Their collaboration was intense, and that may have magnified their differences, as well.  

In the autobiographical memoir Gauguin wrote the last year of his life, he reminisced about his time living with Vincent:  "Unbeknownst to the public, two men accomplished in that period a colossal amount of work, useful to both of them.  Perhaps to others as well?  Some things bear fruit."

From a study like this, we learn that life is life no matter the person, no matter the place, no matter the era.  Personal relationships exist, personalities differ.  Like these two men, we won't know if the things we do will manifest into something greater than we can imagine.  

The Yellow House no longer exists.  Bombing-raids during World War II destroyed it.  A placard on the site commemorates its former existence.🖌