Sunday, December 1, 2019

[The Terrible Aloneness of Vincent van Gogh]

 It can be proposed that no artist has ever demanded more of color, the night and desolation as Vincent van Gogh. Fame wasn't his priority nor was making a decent living, only aloneness. The post-impressionist affectionist, dutch-born but made his home in the southern Provence region of France, where he would complete some of  his finest works known today, notably "The Night Cafe."




  The story goes that van Gogh visited Arles, a town in the south of France in 1888, on the behest of a bar owner. Giving van Gogh room and board, the bar owner wished to have a portrait of his bar done by the young, lonesome artist. van Gogh stayed awake for three days and three nights, in which at the conclusion, he had completed what he told his brother in a letter "The ugliest painting he'd ever done." Simultaneously, van Gogh completed another painting "The Bedroom in Arles." Undoubtedly believing that the work had no value next to the achievements he would complete, notably "The Starry Night" produced the very next year, offering the painting to the bar owner in exchange for his room and board.

"The Night Cafe" somehow ended up in the hands of the Bolsheviks in 1919, then found its way to Yale University, where it is held today.

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