MARGUERITE GACHET AT THE PIANO

Here we are once again well into another week.  The sunshine has my beaded sun catchers sparkling like mini suns in our east patio door.  One cannot help but breathe in the sense of abundance like a prayer.

Our trolley with friends was lots of fun, we ate at a nice restaurant with delicious food.  It was a healthy break from the New Mexico trial, which I watched in the evening on YT.  One of the defense witnesses was a questionable gun expert.  He brought a pistol to use in his testimony and while fiddling with it, he pointed it at the Judge.  Some of the people in the gallery actually ducked when he was handling the gun.  Holy Mother of God, he was an undeniable buffoon.  News reporters later were recapping the day in court, expressing disbelief.  Don't think his testimony is what the defense had in mind.  Sometimes the theatrics are as entertaining as the trial itself.  Today mid-morning the judge anticipates closing arguments to start.  So, it won't be long and the whole mess will be in the jury's lap of decision.  

Robins are back.

 Marguerite Gachet was a French woman, daughter of a doctor.  She met Vincent when she was nineteen.  He made two sketches of Gachet at the piano (below) before the actual painting.  Gachet never married and died in 1949.  Rumor goes that Vincent was quite fond of Marguerite, and probably she felt the same.  But, her father (Vincent's doctor) kept them apart.  Vincent wrote, "It is a figure that I painted with pleasure -- but it is difficult."

Marguerite Gachet
at the Piano
1890

Vincent's Sketches and Notes
 of Marguerite

Vincent Van Gogh took piano lessons in 1883-85 during his career as a painter.  His teacher thought he was teaching a madman and became so afraid of Vincent that he stopped the lessons.  Van Gogh compared painting with music to get a better understanding of tones.  He compared the notes of the Piano with Prussian blue and dark green or dark ochre to bright cadmium.  It was simply too much for his teacher.  The intensity of Vincent's creative mind was not stoppable.  He wanted his paintings to console, to give comfort, to be more like music.  

Note the brush strokes he used to paint Marguerite's skirt and the way he paints red spots on the green background and the green spots on the red carpet.  Also, Vincent captured the pianist's concentration.  The viewer is able to feel what she is feeling while her fingers meander across the piano keys creating soft and mellow music.🖌