Van Gogh’s Surprisingly Bold Painting of the Church of Auvers, Now on Display in Amsterdam

Van Gogh painted his memorable Church of Auvers (June 1890) in the village where he lived at the end of his life. The photo is among the stars of the new exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum Van Gogh in Auvers: His last months (until September 3), on loan from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, where the show will be presented in the fall. This is the cover image of the Amsterdam catalog.

Notre Dame Catholic Church is just a five-minute walk from the inn in Auvers-sur-Oise, just north of Paris, where Van Gogh was staying in the early summer of 1890. The church’s hillside location means the tower would have been visible from many places where he painted , so he knew it well . Nevertheless, it seems a surprising choice of subject for him.

Van Gogh came from a Protestant family and had long since abandoned organized Christianity, so the religious significance of the Catholic Church meant little to him. Although it was an important Romanesque monument, dating from the 12th century, he was not interested in imposing architecture. Van Gogh may have entered the church out of curiosity, but its stone interior is unadorned and the few religious paintings would have barely caught his eye.

On June 4, 1890, Van Gogh set up his easel in the cemetery, facing the apse which juts out under the bell tower. A comparison with early photographs shows that he depicted the scene with reasonable accuracy, although he used sinuous lines, bringing the structure to life rather than conveying it as static architecture. The result is a mighty work: whether intended or not, the radiant church seems to exude spirituality, soaring skyward.

The diverging paths that run along the sides are painted with a powerful, choppy brushstroke in what were originally rosy tones. Today, after the artist’s red pigment has faded, they’ve become a less dramatic beige. Spring flowers grow on fresh, lush grass. A woman rushes in, adding movement to a timeless scene.

The image draws its greatest impact from the sky, a mixture of shades of blue that deepens upwards. It may even seem like stormy weather, but the shadow cast by the apse confirms that it is a clear, sunny afternoon. The stained glass windows, in deep blue, almost suggest that one can look through the church to the sky.

Vincent described the image to his sister Wil: “I have a larger painting of the village church – an effect in which the building appears purplish against a plain deep blue sky of pure cobalt, the stained glass windows resemble ultramarine blue spots, the roof is purple and partly orange.

There are striking parallels between this painting from Auvers and Vincent’s depictions six years earlier of the church tower in the Brabant village of Nuenen, where his father was pastor. Aware of the connection, Vincent told Wil that his last photo was “almost the same as the studies I did in Nuenen of the old tower and cemetery”.

Although similar in approach, the huge differences between the Nuenen and Auvers paintings underscore the dramatic development of Van Gogh’s style – moving from the dark tones of his Dutch period to the bright palette and powerful brushwork of his later French years. . As Vincent told Wil, her coloring had become “more expressive, more sumptuous.”

What has gone largely unnoticed is the similarity of backgrounds in Church of Auvers with those of Wheat field with crows (July 1890), painted three weeks before Van Gogh committed suicide. The panoramic image of the wheat field is generally considered to reveal something of his tortured mental state, before his suicide. Although the configuration of the divergent paths is similar, the sunshine and the human presence give a very different atmosphere to Church of Auvers.

After Van Gogh suicide his coffin was held for a few hours in the inn, with friends and neighbors arriving to pay their last respects. The coffin was then surrounded by his last canvases, of which Church of Auvers.

The village church was asked to lend its hearse, to enable Van Gogh’s body to be carried up the hill to the cemetery. But the priest, Henri Tessier, refused, because Van Gogh had committed suicide. Although it is no longer a criminal offense in France, it was still considered a sin by the Catholic Church.

As for the painting, it was offered to a local resident, Doctor Paul Gachet, who had treated Van Gogh at the end of his life. He hung Church of Auvers above his fireplace, in a plain white frame, a simple style that Van Gogh would have appreciated. After Dr. Gachet’s death, his son allowed very few specialists to see the image and forbade it to be photographed. The painting therefore remained largely secret, even after the artist became famous.

Gachet Jr transferred Church of Auvers at the Louvre in 1952 (and it later moved to the Musée d’Orsay). On acquisition, it was valued at 15 million (old) francs, but Gachet Jr generously accepted 8 million. Although the Musée d’Orsay website reports that this was paid for by “an anonymous Canadian donation”, we can report that it was from New York-born Princess Winnaretta Singer-Polignac, who lived in England, but whose estate had passed to a Canadian. entity after his death in 1943.

The church building is now visited by thousands of visitors every week, who come to see the place where Van Gogh painted Church of Auvers. They then end their pilgrimage by walking a little further up the hill, to pay homage to the simple tombstones erected for Vincent and his brother Theo.

Other Van Gogh short stories:

The New York Times investigated the fate of poppies and daisies (June 1890), sold at Sotheby’s in 2014 for $62 million. Painted in Auvers, it originally belonged to Dr Gachet.

The article reveals that although Chinese entertainment businessman Wang Zhongjun has been named as the buyer, ownership is apparently much more complicated. There was an obscure middleman in Shanghai, Liu Hailong, who was paying the Sotheby’s bill through a Caribbean front company. The person he replied to was a Hong Kong billionaire, Xiao Jianhua, who is now in jail in mainland China. apparently for corruption of officials and manipulation of financial markets. The New York Times reports that the Van Gogh is up for sale again for a private sale.

Although Poppies and daisies was promised for Van Gogh in Auvers: his last months and is in the catalogue, it did not show up at the exhibition.