Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Auvers-sur-Oise (May-July 1890):
Flying Away
“The bird looks through the bars at the overcast sky where a
thunderstorm is gathering, and inwardly he rebels against his
fate. 'I am caged, I am caged, and you tell me I have every-
thing I need! Oh! I beg you, give me liberty, that I may be a
bird like other birds.' A certain idle man resembles this idle
bird....”
—Vincent van Gogh
Almond Blossom (1890)
Vincent moved north to Auvers, a small town near Paris where he
could stay at a hotel under a doctor friend's supervision. On the
way there, he visited Theo.
Theo's wife had just had a
ba by, whom t he y n a me d
Vincent. Brother Vincent
showed up with this painting
under his arm as a birthday
gift. Theo's wife later recalled,
“I had expected a sick man,
but here was a sturdy, broad-
shouldered man with a
healthy color, a smile on his face, and a very resolute appearance.”
In his new surroundings, he continued painting, averaging a
canvas a day, but was interrupted by spells that swung from bore-
dom to madness. His letters to Theo were generally optimistic,
but he worried that he'd soon succumb completely to insanity and
never paint again. The final landscapes are walls of bright, thick
paint.
Wheatfield with Crows (1890)
“This new attack...came on me in the fields, on a windy day,
when I was busy painting.”
—Vincent van Gogh
On July 27, 1890, Vincent left his hotel, walked out to a nearby
field and put a bullet through his chest.
This is the last painting
Vincent finished. We can try
to search the wreckage of his
life for the black box explaining
what happened, but there's not
much there. His life was sad
and tragic, but the record he
left is one not of sadness, but of beauty. Intense beauty.
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