The Vincent van Gogh Gallery Blog

Philadelphia

2012-02-14T14:27:00.000-08:00

The "Van Gogh: Up Close" exhibition in Philadelphia has opened and it's received great reviews. Check out the full list of Van Gogh works on display.

That strange, wild man . . . . .

2011-12-06T07:29:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I watched once again the 2010 Doctor Who episode "Vincent and the Doctor." The more I see the episode, the more I'm starting to like it. The story has its flaws certainly, but there are moments that are extremely moving. For example, when the Doctor takes a despairing Vincent to a Van Gogh exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay in 2010, Vincent discreetly listens while the curator gives his opinion about the artist:

"To me, Van Gogh is the finest painter of them all. Certainly the most popular, great painter of all time--the most beloved. His command of colour, the most magnificent. He transformed the pain of his tormented life into ecstatic beauty. Pain is easy to portray, but to use your passion and pain to portray the ecstasy and joy and magnificence of our world . . . . no one had ever done it before. Perhaps no one ever will again. To my mind, that strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world’s greatest artist, but also one of the greatest men who ever lived."

Updates

2011-11-17T11:38:00.001-08:00

Hello, all! Just a brief note to mention a few small updates I've made today. Nearly two years ago the Rhode Island School of Design took a disputed painting in their collection to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam for authentication. After a careful analysis it was determined that their painting was a genuine Van Gogh. I was pleased to officially add it once again to the site. You'll find it at View of Auvers with Church.

Also, I received a nice story from someone in the Netherlands titled "Van Gogh in the Attic." It's about Van Gogh paintings being stored in the attic in Holland in the years before Van Gogh's works became famous. An English and Dutch version of the story are available in the Archives section.

More updates soon!

Van Gogh photo reproductions exhibition

2011-09-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

I've been asked to help organize a large exhibition of photo reproductions of Van Gogh's works in Amsterdam next year. A sort of "dream exhibition" of Van Gogh's works--it should be wonderful. My first task--to choose which works will be included. Not easy! Van Gogh produced more than a thousand paintings, drawings, watercolours and letter sketches in his early (pre-Paris) period. Of those I need to select . . . . . 37. A real challenge! But an enjoyable one. Selecting the most representative pieces of a larger puzzle--the most beautiful Van Gogh works that best illustrate his progress as an artist.

Stay tuned . . . . . .

I found a Van Gogh in Grandma's attic . . . . . .

2011-05-03T13:22:00.000-07:00

My Van Gogh website has been online for fifteen years now. Over the course of these years BY FAR the question I’m asked most frequently is “I believe I have a previously known Van Gogh. How do I get it authenticated?” Although this is answered in Question #1 on my Frequently Asked Questions page, the same topic comes up over and over again.

I’ve received more than a hundred of these enquiries and in all these years not one has ever been authenticated. AND the vast majority of the time the images that are sent to me show works about as likely to be by Van Gogh as dogs playing poker.

I always refer people on to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. They’re the only ones who can officially authenticate a Van Gogh work and, frankly, they’re also paid as museum staff for dealing with this sort of thing (and I’m not). For the most part these enquiries have been fine—brief and pleasant enough. But now and then I’m put in the unenviable position of dealing with a real lunatic.

Case in point: a number of years ago someone in Australia wrote to me to say that he not only had one unknown Van Gogh drawing, he had a whole pile of them! Against my better judgment I had a look at the images and, as expected, they were all absolutely rubbish. Over the course of more than a dozen e-mails I answered multiple Van Gogh related research questions. Eventually I referred him on to the VGM and that’s when the trouble began. Not surprisingly the Van Gogh Museum quickly determined that it was impossible that Van Gogh drew these works. And that’s when the flood gates opened. This man started writing me over and over again. Begging, pleading. His messages became more and more delusional. He was going to blow the art world sky high with the revelation of his “treasures.” He would destroy the Van Gogh Museum. He would receive world-wide attention and directors the likes of Steven Spielberg would want to make a movie about him (he actually believed that).

I quickly tired of the nonsense and that’s when accusations of a grand conspiracy started. He claimed that I was part of some Van Gogh “cabal” that was determined not to recognize his beautiful Van Gogh drawings. He said that I was the keeper of a vast array of secrets and that it was time to “spill the beans.” On and on his delusional accusations continued. All in all, I’d spent a number of hours of my time answering this fellow’s questions, giving him advice, etc. and my only reward was to be accused of lying and deceit. Foolishly this man sent all of his e-mails using his work (a hospital) e-mail address. Fed up, I reported the whole incident to his hospital’s human resources department and, after a few more feeble messages, he stopped writing.

This is an extreme example, of course, but it was still part of an endless stream of people who are convinced that they own a Van Gogh. In the end, the best advice I could give is to just put the “treasure” back in Grandma’s attic where it belongs.

Random VG #4

2011-04-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

Book: An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin (Grand Central Publishing: 2010)

Chapter 15: "A hand lifted the velour to reveal a Van Gogh drawing so fine that the only improvement it could make would be to turn itself into a painting. It showed Van Gogh's finest landscape subject, wheat fields being harvested by workers loading wheat into a hay wain."

[Note: The work in question is a watercolour, not a drawing.]

Chapter 19: "The brunette leaned the two paintings on either side of the Van Gogh on the floor, giving the gouache breathing room. The director turned to Talley. 'Do you know this picture?'

The sujbect was a green boat on yellow sand next to a blue sea, eighteen by twenty-four inches, under glass. 'Of course I know the painting, but I didn't know there was a gouache. It's wonderfully fresh,' said Talley, standing and examining it. Lacy came close. The signature 'Vincent,' made her feel that the artist was nearby, that his brush had just lifted off the paper."

[Note: A character in Martin's book says that this work was seized from the Germans during the war and that it was to be returned. The work, however, is still in the collection of the Hermitage.]

Currently reading . . . .

2011-04-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

I would encourage everyone to share their thoughts on any Van Gogh related books they're reading these days.

Right now I'm reading A Real Van Gogh: How the Art World Struggles with Truth by Henk Tromp. This book was published in Dutch in 2008 (I believe) and an English version came out in 2010. Excellent research and engaging writing make this a very enjoyable book. It focuses on the first efforts to catalogue Van Gogh's works (something near and dear to my heart as a cataloguer of Van Gogh's works for more than fifteen years now). It then moves on to the various scandals and controversies concerning authenticity over the years. Lots of underhandedness and back stabbing--the stuff of high drama . . . . drama that continues to the present day. Highly recommended.

Random VG #3

2011-03-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

Television show: Doctor Who
Episode: The Lodger (Season 5)
Air date: 12 June 2010
Time: 07:31

One of Van Gogh's self-portraits can be seen on a postcard taped to a refrigerator.
___________________________________

Film: Despicable Me
Release date: 9 July 2010
Time: 1:02:26

A framed Starry Night (very likely meant to be the original) can be seen leaning against a wall.
___________________________________

Television show: Dexter
Episode: Living the Dream (Season 4)
Air date: 27 September 2009
Time: 27:35

A framed print of Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries can be seen on the wall.

Van Gogh Museum on YouTube

2011-02-09T10:53:00.000-08:00

Just a brief note to encourage everyone to visit the Van Gogh Museum's channel on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/atVanGoghMuseum

The VGM has been putting out videos focusing on specific paintings. I've found these videos to be very enjoyable, informative and entertaining. Be sure to check them out!

InSites Page for Watercolour

2010-11-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

I've just added a new InSites page for:

- Tree Roots in a Sandy Ground ("Les Racines")

I'd welcome any other suggestions for additional InSites pages.

Two New InSites Pages

2010-11-11T14:33:00.000-08:00

Just a reminder to keep checking the InSites section for ongoing updates. In the last week I've added:

- Thatched Cottages at Cordeville

- Entrance Gate to a Farm with Haystacks

Two Van Gogh Paintings Rejected in Germany

2010-10-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

This month the Von der Heydt-Museum in Wuppertal, Germany rejected two of the four Van Gogh paintings in their collection:

Still Life with Beer Mug and Fruit (F 1a, JH 82)

Vase with Flowers, Coffeepot and Fruit (F 287, JH 1231)

I always think it's commendable when a museum undertakes research on a work's authenticity and comes to the difficult conclusion that the work in their collection can no longer be considered genuine. Other museums are guilty of the opposite. Both the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco and the Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo claim to own Van Gogh works (a painting and two drawings respectively) when these works have been categorically rejected by everyone else.

On another note, it’s always a bit of a challenge for me when a Van Gogh art work is rejected. For each rejected work, the following is required:

- Build a new record in my Van Gogh database's rejected table. Reconstruct all data from accepted works table (a field by field copy and paste because both tables are structured differently). Reconstruct rejected work's provenance records. Reconstruct rejected work's exhibition history records. Move image to rejected folder. Deleted original record from the accepted works table.

- In the website: remove image, remove webpage, change chronological listing page (and change number of total paintings at the top of the page), change thumbnail page, change painting A-Z page, change "next painting" and "previous painting" link on relevant webpages, remove work from World Map section (if applicable) and change total number of paintings on main page.

All just for one rejected painting!

Irresponsible Journalism

2010-09-23T09:35:00.000-07:00

Irresponsible Journalism

Several news services have reported that a man has been arrested in Vermont after stealing a Van Gogh drawing from a private home in 2009. The art work is a drawn version of Van Gogh’s famous Night Café painting.

The problem with the story is that Van Gogh never produced such a drawing. It's not a genuine Van Gogh. And yet reputable news sources such as Associated Press and BBC News have reported that the drawing is attributed to Van Gogh. With absolutely no investigation into the authenticity of the work.

I've seen this happen a number of other times over the course of the last year. A couple in the U.S. claims that their precious Van Gogh drawing (a different drawing than the Night Café work) was stolen. Again, their drawing was a fake. A professor in the U.S. claims to have two Van Gogh drawings along with dozens of other valuable art works. His Van Gogh drawings are also fake. And yet more than a dozen news services reported on both of these stories claiming that the Van Gogh drawings in question were genuine.

A credible news service should do more than just take such claims as statements of fact. Ten minutes of diligent research would make a world of difference.

Random VG #2

2010-09-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

Television show: Mission Impossible
Episode: Encore (Season 6)
Air date: 25 September 1971
Time: 00:33

In a crime witness's hospital room a print of Van Gogh's Sunflowers can be seen hanging on the wall.

Thousands of hours of work . . . . . and for what?

2010-08-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

One question I receive now and then is "What is the difference between your website, www.vggallery.com and www.vangoghgallery.com?" It’s a long story.

About thirteen or fourteen years ago my Van Gogh website was still in its infancy. I was using a small, local internet provider and, the bigger the site got and the more visitors it received, the more bandwidth I had to pay for (over my monthly limit). It reached the point where the website was costing me nearly $100 a month. This couldn't continue so I put a message on the site saying "This Van Gogh website will shut down. Can you help?" I eventually received an e-mail from an art print company called Barewalls who offered to secure a new URL for me where I could keep maintain my site for free. It sounded like a good deal (at the time).

So over the many years to follow my Van Gogh website, at the URL I came up with: www.vangoghgallery.com, did well. Thousands of hours of work went into the site, from scanning, to helping with the complete letters, to webpage creation. It took a number of years, but eventually the site included the complete art works and letters of Van Gogh and, as a result of all my hard work, ranked #1 for "Van Gogh" on search engines.

Eventually I realized that "leasing" the URL from Barewalls probably wasn't in my best interest, given how much time and effort I had invested. I made an offer to buy the URL from them. The owner of Barewalls put me off for a full year and a half before finally refusing to even consider selling me the URL that I had helped make #1. Eventually Barewalls sold all of its assets (including www.vangoghgallery.com) to another company. Which in turn later sold it to yet another company.

So I had no choice but to secure a URL in my own name (www.vggallery.com) and move all of my content over. I kept an eye on www.vangoghgallery.com over the course of a year or so. With all of my material removed there was almost no content and that was fine with me. Strangely www.vangoghgallery.com retained its #1 search engine ranking even without my content, whereas my new URL, www.vggallery.com, did fairly poorly in the rankings. But such is life.

Eventually however all of my material magically rematerialized on the www.vangoghgallery.com URL. All of the thousands of scans that took me so much time and trouble to put together—-there they were. I contacted the new owners of www.vangoghgallery.com and told them about the situation. They told me that when they bought the assets of Barewalls the www.vangoghgallery.com URL was included in the sale and that all of my material was as well. I assured them that this wasn't the case and even received confirmation of this from the former owner of Barewalls. Still, the new owner of www.vangoghgallery.com wouldn't relent. In the end, they had a legal department at their disposal and I had nothing. Once again all of the material I worked so hard on was stolen and once again there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

The whole situation is hugely disappointing to me. To see everything I worked on for years vacuumed up and republished by someone else. I rarely visit www.vangoghgallery.com because I find what happened so maddening, but I had a quick look recently and was especially mortified to see that they had posted a prominent thank you along the lines of "Thanks to all of you for making us the #1 Van Gogh site on the internet!" This was especially galling in that it was, in fact, me that made www.vangoghgallery.com the #1 Van Gogh site on the internet. The new owners of www.vangoghgallery.com simply benefited from the endless labours of my hard work. For which I received absolutely nothing in return.

My own Van Gogh website, www.vggallery.com, doesn't rank well on the search engines despite the fact that it's comprised of the same material that allowed me to make www.vangoghgallery.com #1 all those years ago. I've looked at every possible solution to no avail.

In the end, I suppose it's my own fault for allowing someone else to own the URL to a site that I committed thousands of hours to. What can I say? I was young and foolish. But it's still immensely disappointing to me to see others profit from years of my hard work and I remain, not only uncredited, but absolutely powerless in remedying the situation.

So there's your answer.

New Language for the Van Gogh Gallery

2010-08-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

Over the years people have written to me and volunteered to translate blocks of my website into their language. I've always been very grateful for the opportunity to present The Van Gogh Gallery in other languages. It's been a couple of years since I launched a new language on my website, but my latest translation volunteer has been working hard and I'm pleased to announce that the Gallery's 20th language is now online.

TURKISH

A strange and challenging language to my eyes, but very interesting. And, as with many of my translators, I'm also enjoying the pleasure of getting to know the translator, Inanc, and to learn about the day to day life of someone who lives in Turkey.

Random VG #1

2010-07-30T13:30:00.000-07:00

Movie: V for Vendetta
Time: 28:10

In V's Shadow Gallery the Vincent van Gogh painting The Church at Auvers can be seen in the background.

How Do People Sleep at Night?

2010-07-26T12:38:00.000-07:00

I recently received the following e-mail:
___________________________

Date: 6/29/10
Subject: Van gogh painting

Hi
H r u?

A friend of mine had a painting of Van Gogh which is not in your list but has been Authenticated by Van Gogh Museum Research Department on Dec 08, 2008 titled as "The Princess" with registration no. 1.008.928. If u are interested i can give further information about that. Pls let me know.

Regards
___________________________

This, of course, sounded suspicious, but I nevertheless invited the writer to send me images which I attach to this blog posting.

Over more than 15 years on working on my Van Gogh Gallery website I've received a number of e-mails like this. But this one was especially striking in terms of its stupidity (it's obviously not a Van Gogh--more likely a copy of a painting by Ingres). And the clumsiness of the certificate of "authenticity" boggles the mind.

The writer, of course, wanted help in selling this treasure. I sent him packing. What sort of people do this kind of thing? Nigerian e-mail spammers, dishonest roofers that tell the frail old lady that her (perfectly sound) roof is in immediate need of repair . . . . or people trying to sell flea market garbage as genuine art works.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense would never be taken in by such amateurish deception. All the same, I think it's a good idea that people were made aware of these sorts of deceitful tactics.

Caveat emptor!

Vincent van Gogh meets Doctor Who

2010-07-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

In June 2010 the BBC aired an episode of the science fiction series Doctor Who entitled "Vincent and the Doctor." In it the time traveler and his companion travel back to France and meet Vincent van Gogh.

As a long time Doctor Who and Van Gogh aficionado I was very much looking forward to this episode. Normally I wait until Doctor Who comes out on DVD before I watch it. Mainly because the CBC, which airs Doctor Who in Canada, is forever cutting the show up, moving it, postponing it, etc. I couldn't stand it anymore. When I saw that the Van Gogh episode of Doctor Who was airing here in Canada I decided to make an exception and watch that one single episode before the DVD set comes out.

So the whole thing was a bit jarring for me because suddenly I was faced with a new Doctor (Matt Smith), a new companion (Karen Gillan), a new credits sequence and a new TARDIS. A lot to take in. But never mind.

As for the episode, overall I was disappointed. I'm definitely not a stickler for historical accuracy, but the errors were unnecessary and easily fixed. The Van Gogh specialist at the Musée d’Orsay (played by the always enjoyable Bill Nighy) says that Van Gogh died in 1891. He died in 1890. Most of the episode takes place in an unnamed French town which is both Arles (1888) and Auvers-sur-Oise (1890). I realize that the episode writer Richard Curtis (of Blackadder fame) included the Auvers setting because he wanted to use the church as a plot device (and that church was painted in 1890). But he easily could have set the whole thing in Arles and altered the story accordingly (was the plot really so dependent on a painted smear of a monster peeking out from the church's window?).

Which gets to the story. There's plenty of material to deal with when a 900 year old alien time lord travels to the 1800s to meet Vincent van Gogh. But much of this potential was untapped. I appreciate that this is a science fiction program (that has seen Agatha Christie in the same room as a giant wasp and both Shakespeare and Dickens confronting alien witches/zombies). But the best they could come up with is Vincent van Gogh battling a giant invisible chicken?

"Vincent and the Doctor" did have some strong points, however. The actor playing Van Gogh, Tony Curran, did a good job, even if his Scottish accent was a bit too Groundskeeper Willyesque. There's a strong physical resemblance and Curran's handling of Van Gogh's manic moments was well done. The set designers also did a very nice job in reproducing the Café Terrace and Van Gogh’s bedroom (if only they’d spent a few more pounds and digitally recreated the Yellow House, rather than having Van Gogh living in a sort of barn). And the ending, back in Paris in 2010 is touching and well understated.

With a few story tweaks here and there this episode of Doctor Who could have been outstanding. All in all it was adequate. And, of course, to see Vincent van Gogh standing in the console room of the TARDIS . . . . . well, that alone was worth it.

New Blog!

2010-07-05T08:41:00.000-07:00

The Vincent van Gogh Gallery has been online for nearly fifteen years now. Recently I decided that adding a blog would be a good idea.

I'm pleased with the Van Gogh Gallery website, but I thought that it would benefit from some content that was a bit more subjective and informal. So a blog seemed to be just the thing.

Here I'll be posting my thoughts on Van Gogh and his works, on Van Gogh in popular culture, books and films, etc., etc. Really just a mixed bag of thoughts, gripes, musings and reflections.

I welcome any comments or suggestions for future postings.