{"id":9550,"date":"2016-07-21T18:45:01","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T18:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/georgethomasclark.com\/?p=9550"},"modified":"2018-12-13T22:54:12","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T22:54:12","slug":"van-gogh-on-the-verge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgethomasclark.com\/van-gogh-on-the-verge\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Gogh on the Verge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Handing over my ticket, I\u2019m excited to enter the Van Gogh Museum for another emotional exhibition. I\u2019ve been to many and read about all the others. On the Verge of Insanity is a great title. By that I mean it\u2019s appropriate. Look at Self-Portrait with a Bandaged Ear and Pipe: Vincent looms under a heavy black cap and green coat, blowing smoke from his pipe like a frosty soldier near the end at Stalingrad. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cHello, Vincent,\u201d I say. \u201cHow\u2019re you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI\u2019m wounded, but it doesn\u2019t hurt anymore. Here, take a look.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\u201cPlease, that\u2019s not necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI\u2019m referring to Dr. Felix Rey\u2019s drawing over there. It\u2019s a wonderful likeness, and new to most. I nearly died that night and wish I had. Would\u2019ve spared me a year and a half of torment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAt least you survived to paint more great works. I love your Portrait of Dr. Rey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cHe\u2019s a fine man but it\u2019s not one of my penetrating works. The doctor\u2019s too handsome, healthy, and untroubled. I cut deeper when carving my face or those of peasants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tVincent steps out of the frame and says, \u201cCome and look at Still Life with Plate of Onions.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\u201cWicked green shooting from the onions.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\u201cDon\u2019t eat those,\u201d he says. \u201cI painted them after a difficult night not long after leaving the hospital. I don\u2019t blame the doctor whose book next to the onions gives hope that camphor will relieve hallucinations and nightmares. Perhaps others have benefited.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cHere\u2019s Entrance to a Quarry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI\u2019d just agreed to enter an asylum. This isn\u2019t one of my better works but does imply a mind descending between foliage into a rocky hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cWheatfield with a Reaper is much stronger, a classic Van Gogh work, I\u2019d say. The sun\u2019s ominous in a nightmarish green sky, the mountains barren, the lake gray and dead, and the golden wheat\u2019s fiery and undulating, ready to engulf the reaper.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI knew I wasn\u2019t going to get better but sometimes pretended otherwise when I spoke or wrote. In The Garden of The Asylum in Saint Remy, as in all my paintings, I paint the truth. While others may see beauty, I feel sinuous leaves clawing a polluted green and yellow sky that shrouds an amputated tree and three morbid people who dwell in the asylum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cUnpleasant subject matter but always, somehow, touching.\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\u201cThank you,\u201d says Vincent. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cThere\u2019s Portrait of a One-Eyed Man. Was he offended by your interpretation?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cNo, I painted him delicately because his missing eye was my ear and his mind like mine; I admired him more than feared him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAs you wished, you were discharged after about a year in the asylum. You must\u2019ve been happy, if only briefly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI may have felt well thirty seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cYou were quite productive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI was possessed and prolific but no longer really at my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cHere\u2019s your final work, Tree Roots, from July 1890.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI\u2019m moving toward abstraction. A pity I didn\u2019t live sixty years later in New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cYou\u2019ll live forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThankfully, you\u2019re incorrect about that. Isn\u2019t that a vile pistol, rusty and corroded and corrupt? That\u2019s why people lurk around, spying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cYou weren\u2019t murdered, were you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cPeople want more trauma from my life. They won\u2019t find it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThere are plenty more works to look at.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cNot today. I want to see the card announcing my funeral.\u201d<\/p>\n

Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe<\/a><\/p>\n

Portrait of Dr. F\u00e9lix Rey<\/a><\/p>\n

Wheatfield with a Reaper<\/a><\/p>\n

Portrait of a One-Eyed Man<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Handing over my ticket, I\u2019m excited to enter the Van Gogh Museum for another emotional exhibition. I\u2019ve been to many and read about all the others. On the Verge of Insanity is a great title. By that I mean it\u2019s appropriate. Look at Self-Portrait with a Bandaged Ear and Pipe: Vincent looms under a heavy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128,119,130,457],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nVan Gogh on the Verge - George Thomas Clark<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/georgethomasclark.com\/van-gogh-on-the-verge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Van Gogh on the Verge - George Thomas Clark\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Handing over my ticket, I\u2019m excited to enter the Van Gogh Museum for another emotional exhibition. 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