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Nature and the artist. Solace and inspiration in the open air
Vincent van Gogh saw nature and art as inseparably linked. Nowhere did he find as much inspiration, peace and solace as in nature.
'…if I felt no love for nature and my work, then I would be unhappy.’
To his brother Theo, from The Hague, 26 July 1882
Sometimes I long so much to do landscape, just as one would for a long walk to refresh oneself, and in all of nature, in trees for instance, I see expression and a soul, as it were.
To his brother Theo from The Hague, 10 December 1882
Vincent spent his childhood in the Brabant countryside. From the village of Zundert, where he was born, he went on long walks through the fields and woods. It was here that he developed his lifelong love of nature.
Letter to Theo, London, early January 1874
We know a lot about Vincent van Gogh, thanks in large part to the letters he exchanged with Theo. Vincent advised his brother as early as 1874:
‘Always continue walking a lot and loving nature, for that’s the real way to learn to understand art better and better.’
To Theo from London, early January 1874.
In the evening, when we rode back from Zundert over the heath, Pa and I walked a way, the sun set red behind the pines and the evening sky was reflected in the marshes, the heath and the yellow and white and grey sand were so resonant with tone and atmosphere.
To Theo from Etten, 22 July 1878
Vincent believed that an artist had to truly know and understand nature. The best way to achieve that was by living and working in the middle of it, in the unspoiled countryside.
Vincent went to Drenthe, a province in the northeast of the Netherlands, in search of the unspoilt countryside he had heard about from other artists.
He thought it was ‘superb’, but he was lonely there and returned to Brabant after three months.
Van Gogh preferred to work outdoors, although it did have its disadvantages:
'‘I must have picked a good hundred flies and more off the 4 canvases that you’ll be getting, not to mention dust and sand &c. — not to mention that, when one carries them across the heath and through hedgerows for a few hours, the odd branch or two scrapes across them &c.’'
To Theo from Nuenen, 4 July 1885
Vincent van Gogh, The Painter on the Road to Tarascon, 1888
'…and am always dusty, always more laden like a porcupine with sticks, easel, canvas, and other merchandise.'
To his sister Willemien, 16-20 June 1888
Bird’s nest, letter sketch, 4 October 1885
Vincent used birds’ nests as a subject for still lifes in Nuenen. He found them while out walking, or paid local boys to collect them for him.
Birds like the wren and the golden oriole constructed ingenious nests, the artistry of which Vincent considered equal to his own.
Vincent moved to Paris in February 1886, but after two years of hard work, he grew tired of the city. He went to live in the small town of Arles in the south of France, in search of light and peace.
In April 1888, Van Gogh wrote from Arles to his brother Theo in Paris with an order for canvas and paint:
‘…but for Christ’s sake get the paint to me without delay. The season of orchards in blossom is so short, and you know these subjects are among the ones that cheer everyone up.’
To Theo from Arles, 5 April 1888
Arles was a small town, from which a short walk took Van Gogh into vast landscapes:
‘I have a new subject on the go, green and yellow fields as far as the eye can see, which I’ve already drawn twice and am starting again as a painting.’
To Theo from Arles, 12 June 1888
Well, I’d like to be able to attain that self-confidence that makes a person happy, cheerful and lively at all times. That can happen much more easily in the country or a small town than in that Parisian furnace.
To Theo from Arles, c. 29 September 1888
Following his notorious breakdown in Arles, Vincent had himself committed to the Saint-Paul psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. He was allowed to paint in the garden.
Vincent painted this wheatfield at Saint-Rémy. A peasant mows the golden stalks in the blazing sun. It was an image for Vincent of the end of life, which would then begin again with the sowing of the grain.
‘Through the iron-barred window I can make out a square of wheat in an enclosure...’
To Theo from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, 13 May 1889
Vincent painted what he observed, rather than from his imagination. He claimed that the Biblical scenes showing 'Christ in the Garden of Olives' by his artist friends Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard had ‘driven me mad’. His own paintings of olive groves were done outside, among the trees themselves.
But what a beautiful land and what beautiful blue and what a sun. And yet I’ve only seen the garden and what I can make out through the window.
To Theo from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, c. 31 May- 6 June 1889
Vincent painted and drew reminiscences of his native Brabant during his time at the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy. He thought increasingly about returning home.
He finally headed back north in May 1890, but he never saw the Dutch countryside again. His final destination was Auvers-sur-Oise, not far from Paris.
Vincent painted several sweeping landscapes in the final months of his life: they were an ode to the countryside, to which he added a deeper emotional charge.
Vincent walked out into the wheatfields around Auvers for the last time on 27 July 1890. There, he shot himself in the chest. He died two days later.
The graves of Vincent and Theo van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise
No matter what people say; we painters work better in the country, everything there speaks more clearly, everything holds firm, everything explains itself...
To his sister Willemien from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, 20 January 1890
