by Leonie Andrews

Up close to Van Gogh

While in the Netherlands in 2019 we had the opportunity to binge, in person, on the works of Vincent Van Gogh at both the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo. The latter is the largest private collection of Van Gogh’s work in the world and the second largest collection after the Van Gogh Museum. Unlike the Van Gogh Museum, the Kröller-Müller does allow photography so I was able to take photos and details of some of the works I saw during my visit.

The reason I am posting these photos now is that a fellow blogger, Rose Davies, has been spending some of her recent time attempting to copy Van Gogh’s painting Starry Night. As she commented in her recent post, “it’s so interesting to analyse a famous artwork and see what has gone into it”. So I thought I’d share a few of my detail shots and two drawings I made in the Kröller-Müller Museum.

Please note that these photos were taken standing back and using a close up lens, rather than with my face on the painting. Although I did see a man literally lean over a barricade, place his hand on the wall next to a Van Gogh self portrait in the Rijks Museum and literally stick his face only a few centimetres off the glass!

Enclosed Wheat Field with Rising Sun, late May 1889,

Detail from the left side of the painting (as we are looking at it).

My notes on the painting, Enclosed Wheatfield with Rising Sun.

Wheatfields in a Mountain Landscape, early December, 1889,

Details of the tree from the left side of the painting (as we are looking at it).

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Detail of the tree in the centre right of the painting, (as we are looking at it).

My notes on the colours of the tree on the centre right of the painting

Terrace of a Café at Night (Place Du Forum), circa September 1888

Detail of the street and figures to the far right of the painting, (as we are looking at it).

You can see those black arcs of ‘dry brush’ skipping over the other layers of paint.

Portrait of a Young Woman, late June-early July 1890

Detail of the left shoulder, (as we are seeing the painting).

I love how we are so simply led over the contour of her torso by those blue brush strokes, something that I noticed Van Gogh often does in his self-portraits as well.

Let’s hope that in the near future we will be able to see such art in person again.

15 Comments

  1. When I lived in Cardiff, about a million years ago, I used to pop into the National Museum to visit the Impressionist paintings. I always loved the textures of the Van Goghs. Those stroke and “dry arcs” as you decribed them. Looking at them you could feel the presence of the man who had mad those marks (I felt the same about a Picasso I saw in Swansea last year too). Always made me want to go home and paint.

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    1. We did get to see some of his works a few years ago at the National Gallery of Australia, but in the Netherlands it was amazing. We went to the Van Gogh Museum at opening hour (all tickets have to be pre-booked) and didn’t leave until the middle of the afternoon!

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    1. Claudia, you are spot on there. I will let you in on something that I didn’t know until I saw it in the Van Gogh Museum. Vincent had a small box with little balls of wool in it that he used to think about colour selection. I will post a photo of it.

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Thanks for commenting, I like to hear your thoughts and ideas.