Marion, the titular head of my cultural exchange group, asked me if I wanted to go to the Impressionist exhibition in Auvers-sur-Oise. It was being held in a large chateau on the outskirts of this small village where van Gogh had spent his last days and is buried next to his brother, Theo, at the local cemetery. The tickets were reasonable so I hopped the train for the hour or so journey to Auvers. We stopped at Pontoise (also on the Oise River), another Impressionist landmark, as Camille Pissarro, one of my favorite impressionists, had lived here. An excellent book by Irving Stone called "The Depths of Glory" is about Pissarro's in some ways tragic life. He was the only Jewish impressionist and, after marrying the family "bon" (the maid), his mother wouldn't even speak to her grandchildren for the rest of her life. Also Pissarro had many of his paintings destroyed when the Germans used his house for a stable in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
I arrived at Auvers which is a very small village. Here van Gogh lived in a small room above the Ravoux Inn which he painted and can be seen here. He also painted some of the buildings of the town like the church (below), but mainly painted en plein air in the fields outside the village. I stopped into a French bakery for a tarte tatin since I couldn't resist French pastries, and made my way to the Exhibition Impressioniste. The ticket taker asked me if I had come "seule," which I didn't understand so I was frustrated again because they understood me, but I didn't understand them. Later I realized he was just making small talk by asking me if I had come "alone" which I had since, I guess, there were no other takers in Marion's cultural exchange group. It was a very impressive exhibition for having been staged way out in the middle of nowhere albeit a place with a rich history in terms of van Gogh's having lived there in very spartan quarters I might add.
After touring the town and seeing van Gogh's room, I walked to the cemetery to see where van Gogh lay next to his brother, Theo. Theo's wife gave up her place at his side so the two brothers could be buried next to each other. They had a lifetime friendship (although not without a few rough spots) and Theo, an art dealer, was Vincent's main financial support. Their correspondence contributed much to documenting Vincent's life.
After that I caught the next train back to Paris pondering the fact that van Gogh had only sold one painting in his lifetime and was another tragic figure who had given up everything for his art only to live in poverty and not be rewarded. Ironically, now his paintings sell for millions of dollars and are exhibited in museums all over the world including the van Gogh Museum - entirely devoted to his work - in Amsterdam. Another great collection is in the Kroller-Muller Museum also in the Netherlands which is located in a National Park. One rides a free white bicycle to get to it, and then leaves the bicycle at the park entrance when finished.
Irving Stone has also written an excellent book about van Gogh: "Lust for Life." It was also made into a movie. Vincent van Gogh didn't have any children who might have benefited from his legacy, but Theo's wife and son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, continued the family business after Vincent's death in 1890.
This is from Wikipedia:
Auvers-sur-Oise (May - July 1890)
In May 1890, Vincent left the clinic and went to the physician Dr. Paul Gachet, in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, where he was closer to his brother Theo. Dr. Gachet had been recommended to him by Pissarro, as he had previously treated several artists and was an amateur artist himself. Here Van Gogh created his only etching, a portrait of the melancholic Doctor Gachet. As it turned out the doctor was as much in need of help as his patient: Van Gogh commented that Gachet was "sicker than I am, I think, or shall we say just as much". Wheat Field with Crows with its turbulent intensity is often, but mistakenly, thought to be Van Gogh's last work (Jan Hulsker lists seven paintings after it). Daubigny's Garden is a more likely candidate. There are also seemingly unfinished paintings, such as Thatched Cottages by a Hill. Van Gogh's depression deepened, and on July 27, 1890, at the age of 37, he walked into the fields and shot himself in the chest with a revolver. Without realising that he was fatally wounded, he returned to the Ravoux Inn, where he died in his bed two days later. Theo hastened to be at his side and reported his last words as "La tristesse durera toujours" (French for "the sadness will last forever"). He was buried at the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise.Theo had contracted syphilis (though this was not admitted by the family for many years) and, not long after Vincent's death, was himself admitted to hospital. He was not able to come to terms with the grief of his brother's absence, and died six months later. In 1914 Theo's body was exhumed and re-buried beside Vincent's.
