Chapter 21 Van Gogh's Sunflowers

Van Gogh produced more than 800 oil paintings in his lifetime, but there are many similar themes among them, which confuses the audience at first glance.For example, there are as many as forty of his self-portraits.There are at least four paintings of "The Suspension Bridge" in Arrow's period, not only in different tones and angles, but one of them is even a watercolor. "Postman Lulan" and "Doctor Gachet" also painted two pieces each.As for the early representative work "The Potato Eater", from the head portrait sketch of individual characters to the finalization of the formal oil painting, I went back and forth and drew many pictures.Van Gogh is a painter who seeks change and completeness. When facing a subject, he always has to review it again and again, and he must take everything into consideration until he makes full use of it.His masterpieces are no exception.

As early as in Paris, Van Gogh fell in love with sunflowers.And I painted a single branch and a single flower, bright yellow against bright blue, very gorgeous.At the beginning of 1888, he went south to Arrow, and not long after he settled down, he invited Gauguin to live with him from Brittany in the northwest.This was Van Gogh's yellow period, and he welcomed the bright yellow Gauguin to live with him in the "yellow house". He intentionally painted bright yellow sunflowers on twelve panels as interior decoration. During his two years in Paris, Van Gogh was deeply influenced by Japanese prints just like young French painters.It is only 700 kilometers from Paris to Arrow, yet he imagined the beautiful Provence as Japan.Aro was a territory of ancient Rome, with many historic sites and residents of Greek, Roman, and Arab descent, so it was originally a place of nostalgia.Van Gogh did not have this ambition, and he only wanted to pursue a new world of art.

Not long after arriving in Arrow, he wrote to his brother: "There is a colonnade here, called the Portico of St. Dauphin, which I have admired a little. But this place is too unforgiving, too weird, like a Chinese nightmare, So it seems to me that even such a beautiful example of such a grand style belongs only to another world: I am glad that I have nothing to do with it, any more than the other world of Nero, regardless of that world. How magnificent." Van Gogh kept mentioning Japan in his letters, and he almost regarded Japan as a synonym for bright colors.He said to his brother:

"The fields around the town are covered with yellow and purple flowers, and it's like—can you feel it?—a Japanese dream." Due to limited contact, Van Gogh had an incorrect impression of China, but fell in love with Japan at first sight, which is indeed unfortunate.His appreciation of Japanese painting was also guided by Gauguin's example.After going to Arrow, I went a step further and approached color in a subjective and arbitrary way.Sunflower is exactly his expression of "yellow symphony", and indirectly, it is also the pursuit of "yellow high-profile" sunlight.

At the end of August 1888, half a year after Van Gogh went to Arrow, he wrote to his brother: "I am trying to paint like a Maasai eating fish soup. If you know that I am painting some big sunflowers , it will not be surprising. I am currently painting three oil paintings...the third one is a painting of twelve flowers and buds in a yellow vase (size 30). So this one is a light color contrast In light colors, hopefully the best one. Maybe I will paint more than this one. Since I am looking forward to living in my own studio with Gauguin, I will decorate the studio. Nothing but big sunflowers... …if this plan comes to fruition, there will be twelve woodcuts. The whole set will be a symphony of blues and yellows. I start every morning at sunrise, because the sunflowers fade quickly, so I have to do it All in one go."

After two months, Gauguin went to live with Van Gogh in Arrow.Soon, the two painters had frequent disputes because of their different artistic views.Van Gogh was already out of order, emotionally tense, and with all the setbacks accumulated in his life, he braved the scorching sun and strong winds to go out to catch up on painting every day, and even had to capture night scenes outdoors by candlelight at night. When he was exhausted, how could he bear extra stimulation?Two days before Christmas, his frenzy began.Two days after Christmas, Gauguin hurried back to Paris.Van Gogh was hospitalized for two weeks, and then resumed painting. It was not until February 4, 1889 that he had another attack and was ill for another two weeks.On January 23, between the two episodes, he wrote a long letter to his brother, which shows how much he valued his sunflowers, and still cherished his friendship and opinion of Gauguin.He said:

You can exhibit both if you like.Gauguin would be happy to ask for one, and I would love to make Gauguin happy.So it doesn't matter which one of the two he wants, and no matter which one it is, I can draw another one. You can see that these paintings should be eye-catching.I would advise you to keep it for yourself and only enjoy it privately with your sister-in-law.The style of this kind of painting changes, and the longer you look at it, the richer it appears.What's more, you also know that Gauguin likes these paintings very much. He said to me, one sentence is: "That...it is...this kind of flower."

You know, peonies belong to Jeannin, hollyhocks to Quost, but sunflowers belong to me more or less. It can be seen that Van Gogh had a strong confidence in himself, and it was him who did his part.These radiant sunflowers have many friends in later generations, which can prove that Van Gogh's prophecy is true.In the same letter, he even said: "If the Monticerina bush we have is worth five hundred francs from a collector, and it is really worth it, then I swear to you, the sunflowers I painted are also worth five hundred francs." Five hundred francs from those Scots or Americans."

Van Gogh was so humble.Five hundred francs were worth a hundred dollars then, he said in 1888.Almost exactly one hundred years later, in March 1987, one of them was auctioned in London, which was 398,500 times the artist's self-estimated price.How would Van Gogh feel if he knew about it?What would he say if he knew that the price of "Iris Garden" was actually higher than that? In February 1890, an "Exhibition of Twenty" (Les Vingt) was held in Brussels.Through Theo, the organizer invited Van Gogh to participate in the exhibition.Van Gogh sent six paintings, among them, which shows his confidence in this painting.In the end, the one sold was not, but "Red Vineyard".Not only that, but he was also humiliated in that exhibition.One of the painters participating in the exhibition, who specializes in religious subjects, is called Henry de Groux, and he is determined not to exhibit his paintings with "that unbearable sunflower".At the reception to celebrate the opening of the painting exhibition, de Grouse scolded Van Gogh, who was not present, calling him "a fool and a liar".Lautrec was present, so angry that he wanted to fight DeGrousse, and the painters finally persuaded them to leave.The next day, DeGrousse withdrew from the exhibition.

In general albums of Van Gogh, only four are seen: two in London, one in Munich, and one in Amsterdam.Van Gogh's earliest idea was that "the whole group of paintings will be a symphony of blue and yellow", but among the four paintings that are commonly seen, only one is to set bright yellow flowers on a light blue background, and the other three are They are all yellow with yellow, which makes people's cheeks tingle. The Netherlands was originally the hometown of tulips, but Van Gogh didn’t like this flower. Instead, he agreed with French sunflowers, perhaps because tulips are too delicate and delicate, while sunflowers with thick stems, rough leaves, unrestrained inflorescences, and can be fed are rich in soil. Qi and grass roots can best represent the spirit of farmers.

Van Gogh loved to paint sunflowers, which should have multiple meanings.The sunflower holds its head up and twists its neck, turning its face with the sun from morning to night, which is a symbol of chasing the light and worshiping the sun.The German sunflower is called Sonnenblume, which is the same as the English sunflower.The Spanish name for this flower is girasol, which is composed of the words girar (rotation) and sol (sun), which means "around the sun", which is quite similar to Chinese.French is the simplest, and the sunflower and the sun are simply called soleil.Van Gogh, who was proficient in many languages ​​in Western Europe and wrote letters more often in French, certainly did not miss these meanings.Was he not himself a seeker of light and color, and thus a Sun worshiper? Secondly, Van Gogh's brown hair is reddish, and he is also known as the "red-headed madman".In his self-portraits, not only his hair, but also his beard and mustache are all red and scorched, which is similar to the color of a sunflower's flower disc.As for the self-portrait he painted in September 1889 in the Saint-Rémi Asylum (which is also what I saw on the cover of my Chinese translation of "The Biography of Van Gogh"), the beard is still brown and reddish, and the hair is like golden flames. .If compared with the sunflowers he painted, don't they look like colorful inflorescences? Therefore, to paint a sunflower is to paint the sun, and that is to paint yourself.The sun, sunflowers, Van Gogh, the Holy Trinity. Another Van Gogh biography, Stranger on the Earth: by Albert Lubin, explained this picture: "The sunflower is the famous flower of the farmer. According to this, this flower is equal to the portrait of the farmer, and it is also a self-portrait. It The bright brilliance is also imitated from the sun, which is cherished by all beings as God and mother. In addition, its shape is like a breast, which may be particularly attractive to this frustrated man who longs for motherly love, but this is not confirmed. He himself It was also said (in a letter to Theo) that the sunflower is a symbol of gratitude." Ever since I met Van Gogh, I have always liked his paintings. I think those flowers squeezed into a vase, radiant blond hair, plump orange face, tall and straight green stems, against a pale lemon yellow background, It strongly symbolizes the innocence and abundant life, and the warm tone of yellow interlaced with deep and shallow ones is really a wonderful massage for the tired and injured optic nerves.Every time I face this painting, I am unwilling to take my eyes off it for a long time, and I want to eat it greedily. On the other hand, Sunflower's heroic sentiment of chasing the sun, has a kind of ambition to do it knowing that it can't be done, which is reminiscent of Kuafu chasing the sun in Chinese mythology, and Icarus in Greek mythology chasing the sun.So in one of my recent poems I said: