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Van Gogh, faith, and the color yellow
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Starry Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh
I love the color yellow.
Recently, I came across a story in Scot McKnight’s The Jesus Creed that says the color yellow evoked hope for the one of the world’s greatest artists: Vincent van Gogh.
Van Gogh was born in Holland; he was the son of pastor. In addition to studying art, van Gogh worked as a bookstore clerk. Later, he moved to Belgium to preach the word of God to the miners. Because of his zeal and eccentricities – giving away his clothes and forsaking his own dinner in order to provide food for the families -- van Gogh was dismissed.
Initially, the focus of his paintings included dark and dreary subjects. There was no color or life in his work, and yet there was talent in his drawings. Perhaps his most famous work from this period is The Potato Eaters (see slide show).
As the years passed, van Gogh’s hope and faith waned. During his depressive periods he created his most famous work, Starry Starry Night. In spite of his diminishing faith, van Gogh still found truth present in nature. Notice the yellow that can be seen in the stars and the sun. Shockingly, the only item in the picture showing no traces of yellow is the church!
When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion. Then I go out and paint the stars.
~Vincent van Gogh
It seems no matter how discouraged he was, van Gogh maintained his faith. When van Gogh painted The Raising of Lazarus he revealed his hope in redemption by putting his face on the body of Lazarus.
Around 1885, van Gogh went to Antwerp and Paris, where he saw the colorful impressionistic works of Pisarro, Monet, Gaugin. At first he thought he had wasted all his years learning to draw when other artists were using a vastly different style: Impressionism. He had focused so much of his energy learning to draw, rather than using short colorful brush strokes.
I believe it was all part of God’s plan for van Gogh…he would be able to give happiness to others via paintings that combined beautifully rendered shapes soaked in thick colorful paint. Van Gogh’s style has been described as powerful, dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and emotional.
Years went by and van Gogh’s physical and mental health declined. Wikepedia claims that clinicians continue to debate the causes of this decline: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, syphilis, poisoning from swallowed paints, temporal lobe epilepsy and acute intermittent porphyria. Any of these could have been the culprit and been aggravated by malnutrition, overwork, insomnia and a fondness for alcohol, especially absinthe.
One of the most interesting things I've learned about van Gogh's work is that he often has two perspectives. For example, in many of his landscapes the vantage point in the foreground looks as if he is standing above looking down on top of the grass or flowers. Beyond that, the background is your typical straight-on vantage point. Click here for an example
Van Gogh moved to Arles in the south of France, where he hoped his friends would join him in starting an art school. This is where the infamous ear lobe cutting occurred (although now people are saying it was the artist Gauguin who cut van Gogh's ear off). Van Gogh alternated between fits of madness and lucidity and finally entered the Saint-Remy asylum for treatment. In May 1890 he seemed better and went to live with Dr. Gachet. Here he shot himself but did not die from the wound for two years.
Sadly, Vincent van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime (around $340 today’s price) – it was his brother Theo who believed and financially supported his talent. Today, a van Gogh will sell for tens of millions (e.g. The Portrait of Dr. Gachet is one of the most revered paintings by Vincent van Gogh fetched a record price of $82.5 million in 1990 at Christie's auction house).
Van Gogh painted Wheatfield with Crows the month he shot himself. Though sick and delusional, the quantity of yellow would suggest his faith in God was in tact.
I once met a atheist chef in Vermont who said when he stood before van Gogh’s work. “I could almost believe in God.” Last spring, my daughter and I got to spend a morning in the van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. Tears come to my eyes even now when I remember the beauty of his work, along with his torment.
What are some ways that beauty has touched your life?
Is there plenty of “yellow” surrounding you?
A slideshow of Vincent Van Gogh's work set to the song "Vincent" by Don McLean
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