Little Art Stories 20.03
Monday 20.03.2023 – Every week Thalia invites you to discover a famous art work and a book.
This week, to celebrate the arrival of Spring, Thalia would like to introduce an artistic work from the very famous Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890).
Vincent is a Dutch painter who tried his hand first at art dealing but without any real interest and then to religion as a theologian. As he could not find his way in any of these efforts, he decided to join one of his younger brothers, Theo, and moved to Paris. There, Vincent met many artists and dove with all his body and soul into painting with a very particular style. We were in 1880.
A few years earlier he had done his first sketches and paintings while he was still a theologian, but these early works were dark and his particular style was not yet apparent.
It is the impressionist movement and his encounters in Paris that pushed him to change his color palette and thus revive his paintings. Japanese art also influenced his paintings until the end of his life through the trees in bloom and the many references to Japanese paintings.
After a few years in Paris, Vincent dreamed of creating a community of artists at the service of the Human kind. He decided to go to the South of France, to Arles, where one of his friends, Paul Gauguin, joined him to collaborate, in 1888. The two friends were looking for color and deep shades to find the origin of what has inspired the oriental art, including the Japanese one.
Unfortunately, the artist began to have psychotic attacks, and one day, this crisis pushed him to mutilate himself, cutting off his ear. This event coincided with an argument with his friend Gauguin who decided to return to Paris. We were in December 1888.
In order to be treated, Vincent asked to be interned in May 1889 in the South of France.
From then on, his paintings reflect a lot of suffering and loneliness. However, in February 1890, his brother, Theo, announced that he had just had a son, named Vincent.
It was during the most troubled period of the artist’s life that he rediscovered his love of painting and created a colorful and magnificent work in honor of the new life that had just begun. His nephew, who bears the same name as him.
This artistic work is the Almond Blossoms.
He committed suicide in July 1890, near Paris, without wealth or recognition, despite the efforts of his brother, Theo, a gallery owner. His art remained misunderstood until his last day.
Today Vincent Van Gogh is recognised as one of the greatest painters in Europe, his works can be seen in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
To embrace the new spring, we suggest you discover or rediscover an intense and unique love story: The perfume by Patrick Suskind.
It is the story of a man, of a being, who is characterized only by one of his senses, the sense of smell.
The story of a tortured being, rejected, who knows nothing of the love between mother and son nor between man and woman.
He has nothing, possesses nothing, only a gift, unique and strange. A remarkable sense of smell that allows him to memorize every place and person with an extreme precision.
His journey leads him to discover the techniques of perfumer and perfume extractor. Nevertheless, the simple fragrance of a flower is not sufficient for him.
He wants more, much more. His sense of smell can detect a much more powerful and enchanting fragrance than a simple flower.
The monster will then express itself. Experiences will follow one another. Animated by a burning desire of perfection.
A dream, a madness, a passion that will ultimately consume him.
In spite of the darkness of the acts of the character of this novel, it is a literary work which it is necessary to know. This reading, as intense as it is, will surprise you by awakening your own senses and will invite you to pay more attention to the smells that surround you.
And what could be more magical than to refine your sense of smell at the arrival of spring?
Enjoy your reading!
*Novel available in our reading space
