On 24 April 2007, I went on a pilgrimage to the presence of the great Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) in his ethereal and magical paintings.
These paintings are in the Van Gogh museum which is near the majestic Rijksmuseumshown in this
photo.
The Van Gogh Museum has the largest collection of works by Vincent, it houses more than 200 paintings including the ones in this collection of photos.
People are not allowed to take photos of the original paintings so I ended up taking photos of reproductions sold in the museum shops outside the museum, like the Starry, starry night; the Sunflowers and the Irises.
This visit is indeed a pilgrimage in itself as one is confronted with one's soul-searching need to discover the essence of truth and beauty as expressed in deep feelings. Van Gogh himself says that his art does not follow the accepted schools during his lifetime, rather he was out to manifest "deep genuine feelings".
In art, as in religion, one is face to face with ultimate questions demanding answers which, if found, bring some measure of serenity to one's life.
1 comment:
Haha just opened this. I see you've visited the Van Gogh Museum. Did you stay long?
Me, I wanted to stay the whole day but I was with someone who didn't seem interested. I was on the third floor and he was on the ground floor already.I was lucky to have brought my little Van Gogh book at the time of the visit. That really helped.
Did you buy any of his books?
I was choosing between that beautiful reproduction of his last painting but ended up choosing the book (Letters to brother Theo or something like that) which showed how this artist who only sold one painting in his lifetime, managed to go through life with super major support from his brother Theo.
in a sense it's a beautiful story of brothers.
carolina
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