Review:
There is little chance that you will not rub shoulders and knock elbows with the rest of
the crowd who are swarming around the Royal Academy to see some of the best of Van Gogh
and his lesser well-known letters.It is fair to say that most artists use illustrations and drawings
as part of the process of the development of their great works; but it is always a joy to
see the work in progress. With drawings from correspondence by Van Gogh set side by
side with the immaculate final works, the 'ticket-holders are quickly drawn into the world
of the unsold master.
Today it seems so improbable that Van Gogh was not an international celebrity; but great
works in the past have often been ignored by their contemporaries.
This exhibition is fabulous and
should not be missed - but please bear in mind that the lines are long; the crowd is dense
and the letters in particular should be studied close up and at length - but sometimes in
this 'much in-demand' exhibit a leisurely day out is not the easiest thing to achieve.
Be patient. It 's worth the wait!
Vincent van Gogh
Letter 252 from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh: Pollard Willow, c. 1 Aug 1882
Letter
13.8 x 13.4 cm
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
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Vincent
van Gogh
Pollard Willow, July 1882
Watercolour
36 x 56.5 cm
Private Collection
Photo Copyright Christie's Images Limited (2007)
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The exhibition focuses on the artist’s remarkable correspondence. Over 35 original
letters, rarely exhibited to the public due to their fragility, are on display in the main
galleries of Burlington House, together with around 65 paintings and 30 drawings that
express the principal themes to be found within the correspondence. Thus the exhibition
offers a unique opportunity to gain an insight into the complex mind of Vincent van Gogh.
This is the first major Van Gogh exhibition in London for over forty years.
In addition to lending almost all the letters in the exhibition, the Van Gogh Museum,
Amsterdam, has made available twelve important paintings. Other major lenders include the
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, and The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, together with other museums
and private collections worldwide.
Born in Groot-Zundert in the southern Netherlands in 1853, Van Gogh was the eldest of six
children of a Protestant pastor. In his early adult life, he worked for a firm of
art-dealers in The Hague and London, before becoming a missionary worker. His career as an
artist began only in 1880, when he was 27. During his ten year artistic career, which his
suicide cut tragically short in 1890, Van Gogh’s output was prodigious: largely
self-taught, he produced over 800 paintings and 1,200 drawings.
Van Gogh was a compulsive and eloquent correspondent. The majority of his letters were
written to his brother Theo, an art-dealer who supported Vincent throughout his difficult
artistic career. Vincent also wrote to other family members, including his sister
Willemien. Other artists, notably Anton van Rappard, Emile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, were
also, at different phases of Vincent’s life, recipients of his letters. The
originality of his ideas about art, nature and literature, combined with his deep
understanding of these subjects, make Van Gogh’s letters much more than a personal
expression of feelings: they attain the status of great literature. In reading the letters
one encounters not only a sensitive, determined and exceptionally hardworking man, but
also someone possessed of a powerful intellect; this exhibition challenges the view that
Van Gogh was an erratic genius by allowing the viewer a rare insight into his artistic
process through the intimate medium of his correspondence. Together the letters create a
‘self-portrait’, and reveal the ways in which Van Gogh defined himself as an
artist and as a human being.
Taking the letters as its starting point, The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters
views the paintings and drawings from the perspective of the correspondence. The letter
sketches that Van Gogh frequently used to show a work in progress or a completed work are
a fascinating part of the correspondence, and many are shown alongside the paintings or
drawings on which they are based.
Highlights of the exhibition include Self-portrait as an Artist (1888) and The Yellow
House (1888) from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; Still-life: with a Plate of Onions
(1889) from the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; Van Gogh’s Chair (1888) from the
National Gallery, London; and Entrance to the Public Gardens in Arles (1888) from the
Phillips Collection, Washington DC.
The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters has been curated by Ann Dumas of the Royal
Academy of Arts, London, in collaboration with Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten and Nienke Bakker
of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam; and sponsored by BNY Mellon.
IMAGES
Publicity images for The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters can be obtained from
Picselect, the Press
Association’s image service for press use. Please register at www.picselect.com and
once registered go to the
Royal Academy of Arts folder in the Arts section of Picselect.
To book tickets in advance please print www.royalacademy.org.uk or 0844 209 1919
For further press information, please contact Johanna Bennett on telephone 020 7300 5615,
fax 020 7300
8032, or email press.office@royalacademy.org.uk
For public information, please print 020 7300 8000 or Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington
House, Piccadilly,
London W1J 0BD 19/01/10
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Vincent van Gogh 
