Colour and emotion in Vincent van Gogh's post-impressionist years

Post Impressionism is a term initially used to refer to the styles developed during the last two decades of the C19th by French painters like Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin and Georges Seurat. The most famous Post Impressionists independently dev­eloped their styles, yet all were united in their rej­ection of Impressionism. Impressionism recorded Nature in terms of light and colour, while Post impressionists rejected these limitat­ions and instead sought to be more expressive and less idyllic.

The term Post Impressionism was invented by English artist and art critic Roger Fry in Nov 1910, calling his London exhibition Manet and the Post-Impressionists. The exhibition was held after many of the Post Impress­ion­ists art­ists had died; none of them ever used the term them­sel­ves.

The Post-Impressionists stressed their personal view of the visual world and preferred a freely expressive use of colour and form to de­scribe emotions and movement. The bold, intense colours and very expressive work stood out, particularly in Gauguin. But I had never thought of the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh as a Post Impressionist, at least in the early years of his very short, 10-year career.

Still Life with Wildflowers and Carnations, 1887

private collection, Paris

Nor had I thought of van Gogh as a painter of flowers in a vase. The current exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne suggested that flowers had become an obsession in Paris, grown in local hothouses or freighted in from the southern Midi region of France by train. The art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel fost­ered a vogue for floral paintings, in particular by Claude Monet, to go into Durand-Ruel’s own home. Van Gogh certainly had visited this site.

In summer 1887 in Paris, van Gogh painted Still Life with Wildflowers and Carnations and three other canvases, all featuring summer blooms in a vase. Note his chromatic brilliance in the high keyed contrasts of crimson, cobalt blue and pure white. And note the heavily textured surface and vibrancy that might have been modelled on Adolphe Mont­ic­elli, a French painter who died just a year before (1886).

Van Gogh admired Gauguin enormously but couldn’t get Gauguin to join him in Arles until the end of 1880, when the two finally painted tog­ether. Van Gogh and Gauguin visited Montpellier in December 1888, where they saw works by Courbet and Delacroix in the Musée Fabre. As we know now, their relationship was doomed. Gauguin was arrogant and domineering while Van Gogh was depressed and anxious.

Their fighting was bound to lead to a crisis. van Gogh returned alone to his home in Arles, where he was overwhelmed by voices and severed his left ear with a razor. van Gogh voluntarily admitted himself to an asylum in Saint-Rémy de Provence for a year (May 1889-May 1890). I mention it because the year was probably the most difficult of his entire life, filled with personal demons. And possibly because Post Impressionism used expressive use of colour and form to describe strong emotions, the year was also one of his most creative and pro­ductive years. Amazingly he completed 142 paintings in that time.

  

Vase with Irises Against a Yellow Background, 1890

painted in the asylum.

Now in Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam 

Red Poppies and Daisies, 1890

painted in Dr Gachet's Paris home.

Now in Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY

Examine Still Life: Vase with Irises Against a Yellow Background (May 1890). In a letter, van Gogh wrote: At present all goes well, the whole horrible attack has disappeared like a thunderstorm and I am working to give a last stroke of the brush here with a calm and steady enthusiasm. I am doing a canvas of roses with a light green background and two canvases representing big bunches of violet irises, one lot against a pink background in which the effect is soft and harmonious because of the combination of greens, pinks, violets. On the other hand, the other violet bunch (carmine to pure Prussian blue) stands out against a startling citron background, with other yellow tones in the vase and the stand on which it rests, so it is an effect of tremendously disparate complementaries, which strengthen each other by their juxtaposition. And note that Van Gogh's interest in the specific colour contrast of violet and yellow dated back to his Paris period, when he wanted to “to harmonise brutal extremes”.

Theo Van Gogh was searching for a home for his brother on his release from the Saint-Rémy asylum in May 1890. Camille Pissarro, a former patient of Dr Paul Gachet, told Theo about Gachet's interests in working with artists, so Theo sent Vincent to the doctor's second home in Auvers, Paris. Thus Vase with Daises and Poppies (mid 1890) was VERY late in Van Gogh’s career - only months before the artist’s death. The painting featured brilliantly coloured poppies and some small daisies, in addition to other meadow flowers. 

The stunning Portrait of Dr Gachet was painted as a thank-you in June 1890. It was sad but gentle, clear and intelligent. The ultramarine blue coat of Gachet was set against a lighter blue background of hills; two bright yellow books were displayed on the table, alongside the purple medicinal herb foxglove. Despite Vincent having sold only one work in his life time, his paintings are now very valuable. In 1990 Christ­ie's sold this original Portrait of Dr Gachet, with van Gogh's signature, for $82.5 million.

Vincent Van Gogh died in Auvers in July 1890 and was buried in the municipal cemetery there. He was 37.

Portrait of Dr Gachet, 1890

painted in Dr Gachet's Paris home.

Now in a private collection

Pablo Picasso's first major exhibition was held at the dealer Ambroise Vollard's gallery in June 1901. The exhibition pictures showed how Picasso was absorbing the influences around him, especially Edgar Degas, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Gauguin. But it was Vincent Van Gogh whose art meant more to Picasso than any of the other artists.