The Orsay Museum (Musée d’Orsay) in Paris presents an exhibition of Vincent Van Gogh, with paintings and drawings that were painted during the last 3 months of his life, and they are a dazzling beauty! The exhibition presents 74 paintings that were painted in 70 days (!) and that their beauty leaves the spectator speechless! Colors are gleaming and this is true even for colors that by nature are less shiny. I have never seen something like that. It’s been more than 20 years since I last visited the Van Gogh Museum at Amsterdam, and I do not remember very well the sentiment I had while leaving the museum, but leaving this exhibition I had a sentiment of great satisfaction and a dazzling heart.
In two words:“How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!”
Van Gogh arrives at Auvers-sur-Oise (a village 30km outside Paris) after 1 year of seclusion in a psychiatric hospital at Saint-Remy-de-Provence. It’s Pissaro who suggested to Theo Van Gogh, Vincent’s brother, to send Vincent to Dr Paul Gachet, a psychiatrist who used mild methods to treat his patients and who lived at Auvers-sur-Oise.
Van Gogh becomes friends with Dr Gachet, and the doctor is helping Vincent to overcome his anxieties, as he believes that it is through the artistic practice that Vincent will be able to find peace. So away from the bars of a psychiatric institute, Vincent goes out every day and works almost constantly.
Van Gogh at Auvers-sur-Oise is not seduced by the beauty of the river and its reflection in the water, he is rather intrigued by the structure and the looks of the village, so this will be the subject of its paintings. He also paints the surrounded fields and even if the light is very different from the one that can be found in the South of France, the light here is also interesting, dazzling and revealing.
In these paintings we find a huge power due to color, structure and form used at every stroke. We see entire surfaces made with individual strokes of color and other surfaces with a smooth appearance, managing to make them coexist on the same painting. At every painting we discover what a genius he was.
The beauty of the paintings breaks all the prejudices that the mentally ill people are incapable of doing things. Van Gogh left this world right at the moment where its paintings stared to become more known and appreciated.
It’s a must to visit this exhibition if you are in Paris, and it worth the time waiting in line to enter.
C’est à vous,
Dimitra
Musée d’Orsay
From 03 of October 2023 until 04 February 2024
