Team Cinthia and the Sparrius' made a special get up early effort, in order to cover a fair amount of the canals, and also have some museum time. After breakfast we headed off, rain pelting down and a cold chill in a day that was summer in calender only. Like a scuba divers nightmare, visibility was down. With the canal boats windows foggy inside, and raindrops running down the outer side of the windows, making objects outside more abstract than in an Impressionist painting. We headed straight to the museum precinct via the Red Line, hoping the weather may clear later in the day.
After tossing up whether to visit the Van Gogh or Rijksmuseum, we finally choose Van Gogh, which was Cinthia's preference....and mine. Mum, as always, was pretty impartial, happy to go with the consensus. Dad wanted to go to see Rembrandts' works in the Rijksmuseum, however perhaps this was mainly account he was actually born in the Netherlands, whilst Van Gogh was actually born in Belgium, however grew up in the Netherlands. Kind of like Phar Lap and Crowded House, who us Australians claim ever though they were born in New Zealand.
The Van Gogh museum houses around 250 of his 700 paintings, however also depicts the story of his life, his influences, his traumatic friendship with Gaugin (who he seemed to admire yet clash with), and the different regions in which he lived. Most people are aware that he cut part of his ear off with a razor, however many do not know that he also shot himself and died in hospital several days later, ending what what another life of a talented but crazy artist. In his declining years he checked himself in to a mental hospital, and proclaimed in letters to his brother Theo that his end was near.
Two interesting aspects were that the museum showed paintings under his paintings, and his painting evolution.
Firtsly, through X Ray imaging, paintings which orignially existed under many of his masterpieces. Whilst it may seem almost sacreligious to paint over his works, the museum explained how he lived in poverty, the canvasses and paints were not cheap in these days, and thus, he painted over many works.
Secondly, there was a seperate section that showed a chronological walk through of his paintings. They started with the dark lines and social themes (such as painting peasants) and moved on the see the influences of Japanese art on his thinking, then the French artisits such as the impressionists, who, whilst never moved Van Gough to paint Impressionist style, did result in him painting with more light and colour, and also took out some reality, such as 3D depth.
Some of the better paintings we saw were "Sunflowers", "The Harvest", "The Potatoe Eaters", "The Bedroom", and "The Yellow House". Van Gogh definitely had a strong influence on the direction on art in the early 20th century with his style, although this was post his death. Given Van Gogh is one of Cinthia's favourite painters, see entered the shop when exiting as excited as a kid in a candy score. Fifteen minutes later, with my stomach growling I had to drag her out, however via the checkout as she had found a few prints to brighten up our apartment.
Post a quick lunch we returned to the boat, this time Orange was our colour as we took the outer circumference of the canal cruises. The weather had improved, with the ducks, geese, and swans enjoying there own pleasure cruises, whilst Cinthia, Bill, Glenys and I discussed van Gogh, the musuem, and aspect of Amsterdam.
No comments:
Post a Comment