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Welcome to Great Art.
For the past few years,

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we've been filming the biggest
exhibitions in the world

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about some of the greatest artists
and art in history.

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Not only do we record
these landmark shows,

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but we also secure privileged access

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behind the scenes of the galleries
and museums concerned.

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We then use the exhibition
as a springboard,

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to take a broader look
at these artists.

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A short while ago,
the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

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decided to re-hang its entire
and unparalleled collection.

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They felt it was time to re-visit
the biography of Vincent van Gogh,

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which was somewhat in danger
of being over-mythologised.

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And his passion for learning
from both his artistic predecessors

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and his contemporaries,
somewhat overlooked.

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We were given extensive access
to the museum

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and its archives, a treat in itself.

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But also giving us a chance
to take a fresh look

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at one of history's
most iconoclastic,

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revolutionary, passionate,
and popular artists.

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(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)

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VINCENT: "My dear brother.

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The painter's household
with its great and petty fixations,

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with its calamities,

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with its sorrows and griefs,

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it has a certain goodwill
in its faith, a certain sincerity,

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a certain genuinely human quality.

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And I ask, "What most makes me
a human being?"

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Zola says, "I, an artist,

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I want to live life to the full,

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want to live without ulterior
motive.

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Naive as a child, no, not as a
child,

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as an artist, with goodwill,

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just as life unfolds,
so I will find something in it.

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So I'll do my best in it.""

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There were a number of
reasons why we felt that a re-hang,

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a new presentation of the permanent
collection was necessary.

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We felt that the previous
presentation had some shortcomings,

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particularly with regards
to the person of the artist.

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When we first started out,

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we asked ourselves the question,
"What is the importance of van Gogh?

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Why is he still appealing
to so many people?

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What is it in his art

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that appeals to our emotions so
much?

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What did he want to say
with his art?"

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Van Gogh is a phenomenon,

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um, so I think people,
when they enter the museum,

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will already have an idea
about van Gogh.

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and they probably will have his most
important paintings in their heads,

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or they know about his troubled
life.

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So it's really a challenge for us

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to have them look
beyond the Sunflowers,

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to have them look beyond the
suicide.

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I think the re-hanging makes it
clear that he was not an isolated
genius

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who just fell from Heaven,
and, you know, just was.

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He was an artist who developed,

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who took lots of cues
from the artistic world around him.

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He lived and worked in a context,
within a network of other artists.

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Um, he exchanged ideas with them,

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he was inspired greatly, by also
earlier generations of artists.

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And, of course, then subsequent
generations were also inspired by
him.

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and we also want to show van Gogh
in that sort of continuum.

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The man and the artist are one.

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It's not two separate identities.

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It's the art of one
of the greatest artists of all time,

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and to put the focus back on the art

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by giving more attention
to the miss, as well.

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Um, that sounds contradictory,

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but I think it really helps
in understanding,

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um, what makes van Gogh
so important and special.

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Vincent's brother, Theo,
was an art dealer in Paris,

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and he supported Vincent
all his life.

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and so when Vincent died,

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Theo owned over 450 paintings,

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and many hundreds
of drawings by Vincent.

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And after the death
of Vincent and Theo,

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and his mother, as well,

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my grandfather inherited
the entire collection.

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And in the '30s,

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he decided to bring
half of his collection

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to the Municipal Museum of Art,
the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

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And the other half,
he had in his home,

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hanging on the walls,

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and in, as we say, nowadays,
a walk-in closet.

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200 paintings by Vincent van Gogh,

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500 drawings,
and Vincent's letters to Theo,

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and also many hundreds
of contemporaries,

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like Paul Gauguin, Emile Bernard,

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and he had the idea
together with his mother,

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to keep the collection together.

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and to get the collection accessible
for...well, for everybody.

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And the museum, the van Gogh Museum
in Amsterdam, opened in 1973.

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(CHATTERING)

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After Theo's death,

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his widow, Jo,
started to read the letters

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Vincent wrote to his brother, Theo.

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And while reading them, she noticed

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they were of huge importance
to art history.

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Because Vincent and Theo had a very
close relationship, very intimate,

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and Vincent, uh, already wrote
letters to his brother,

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before he became an artist.

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The letters are, of course,
an enormous treasure for us,

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because, in the letters,
van Gogh talks so much

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about, um, his becoming an artist,

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what moved him, what inspired him.

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He refers to hundreds and hundreds
of works of art,

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to literature, to music, to
religion,

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um, all the sort of sources
of inspiration that he used.

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The letters are also
extremely well-written,

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so it's really a joy to read them.

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And you really get
a very comprehensive

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picture of who he was,
as a personality,

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his trials and tribulations,
his joys and fears.

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Um, so, in that sense,
the letters are an essential aspect

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of our understanding
of van Gogh, the person,

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and also of van Gogh, as an artist.

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It is important, of course,

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being the van Gogh Museum,
that's what it says on the can,

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so you expect when you enter
to encounter van Gogh.

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And we did that
in a rather drastic way,

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by presenting him,

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just with a sort of series
of self-portraits.

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12 self-portraits in one room,

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so you really come
eye-to-eye with van Gogh,

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and it has an immediately
a strong impact,

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and then you enter the story,
as it were.

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"My dear brother, people say,

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and I'm quite willing to believe it,

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that it's difficult to know oneself.
(MATCH IGNITES)

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But it's not easy
to paint oneself either.

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Thus, I'm working on two portraits
of myself, at the moment,

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for want of another one,

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because it's more than time
that I did a bit of figure-work."

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His face in itself, of course,
is an icon.

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Everyone knows his face.

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Maybe they figure
there might be an ear missing,

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but, of course, there's not, uh,
and, for him, of course,

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in the first place,
they were just practice,

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but, of course,
it's also a sort of artistic,

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and maybe even
psychological research.

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I paint self-portraits,

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and I've known a lot
of other artists who do,

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and we do it because, for a start,

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the models are always there,
it's for free.

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And those are the paintings
in any gallery,

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I think it's the faces that people
instinctively look towards,

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because we are always programmed

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to be looking for other people.
(LAUGHS)

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I don't think you could surmise that
by painting himself all the time,

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he was engrossed in the idea
of his own identity,

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or the trauma that we might imagine

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he was exploring about himself.

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I think he was just, uh,

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he was just painting the model
that he knew best.

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It's a bit funny to
talk about van Gogh

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because, actually, he wanted
to be named as Vincent,

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and we know him as van Gogh.

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Uh, but he signed his pictures
all with 'Vincent,'

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partly because he didn't
like the family name.

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partly, perhaps,
this is also tradition

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with great masters,
so Rembrandt is also a first name.

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Van Gogh's personality was,
of course,

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the personality of a driven man,
and a man obsessed.

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Somebody who wanted
to achieve something in life, um,

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partly that I tend to think had
something to do with his character.

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It was a man who was easily...

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who had emotions, strong emotions.

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I mean, if you would go out with him
and go to the pub,

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you would have,
within five or ten minutes...

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well, not fighting,

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but perhaps fighting with words,
which he certainly would,

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uh, because he would immediately try
to convince you of his opinions.

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Vincent van Gogh was born in 1853,

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in the rural Dutch village
of Zundert,

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near the border with Belgium.

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He was the eldest son
in a family of six children,

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and his father was the local
Protestant preacher.

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Vincent attended a boarding school,

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where he was well-educated,
learning several languages.

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From an early age,
Vincent loved nature,

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and being surrounded
by the natural world.

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He would often go on long walks,

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exploring the rural landscape
around him.

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He also loved to read.

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And this was the normal thing
in the 19th century.

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If you belonged to the middle class,
you read.

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And especially in a Protestant
family where the word is very
important,

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you did read,
so the whole family did read books,

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like we watch television nowadays.

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But in the case of van Gogh,
this really grew

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into "you have to read
to develop yourselves,

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and to learn about yourself."

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And that's what he did.

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Vincent's father
decided that his eldest son

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should be an apprentice at
Goupil & Co.,

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an art dealership
partly founded by van Gogh's uncle,

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also called Vincent.

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Goupil was a very big firm,

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with showrooms and offices
across Europe.

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During this period, Vincent
became exposed to the art market,

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visiting many galleries and museums.

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He was quick to formulate his own
opinions on what appealed to him,

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and started
communicating his thoughts
through letters with hisfamily,

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and, particularly,
with his younger brother, Theo,

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who had also joined Goupil.

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Vincent was transferred
to Goupil's offices in London.

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He moved into lodgings
in Brixton, South London,

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and spent his time reading,
taking long walks,

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and visiting museums.

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Vincent became increasingly
disillusioned with his work,

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but found solace
in reading and writing,

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particularly religious texts.

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The van Gogh that we know
was being born in London,

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because he simply realised,
I think, at the time,

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that he had to look
for something else.

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He liked art,
but I don't think he liked

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really what he was doing,
within the firm.

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In 1875, Vincent was transferred

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to Goupil's head office in Paris,

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to improve a lacklustre
attitude to his work.

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The plan failed,
and Vincent left Goupil and Co.,

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having decided his path lay
with helping the disadvantaged.

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"My dear Theo,

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not a day goes by
without praying to God,

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and without speaking of God.

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Not only praying,
but also admitting to it.

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Not only speaking,
but also holding fast to praying.

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Oh, Lord, join us intimately
to one another,

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and let our love for Thee
make that bond ever stronger."

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He wanted to do something
with religion, wanted to preach.

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And he thought, "You don't need
an academic degree

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to be a minister."

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But you know the Gospel very well,
by heart, like he almost did, um,

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and you care for people, then you
can also preach the Word of God.

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Um, he decided,
or it was more or less decided

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within the family, that he would go

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to a short course in Brussels,

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in Belgium,
for the Protestant church,

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to be trained, more or less,
as a preacher, an evangelist.

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And after that, um,
he decided to go to the Borinage.

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It was a difficult region,
the south of Belgium,

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French-speaking, but French-speaking
with a heavy accent.

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Quite difficult to understand
from the beginning,

243
00:15:03,590 --> 00:15:05,590
as he said in his letters.

244
00:15:05,590 --> 00:15:08,230
Um, but he wanted to be there,
it was a mining country.

245
00:15:11,390 --> 00:15:13,950
"It's a sombre place.

246
00:15:13,950 --> 00:15:15,990
And at first sight,
everything around it

247
00:15:15,990 --> 00:15:18,430
has something dismal
and deathly about it.

248
00:15:20,070 --> 00:15:22,030
The workers there are usually
people,

249
00:15:22,030 --> 00:15:25,310
emaciated and pale, owing to fever.

250
00:15:25,310 --> 00:15:27,590
Who look exhausted and haggard,

251
00:15:27,590 --> 00:15:30,150
weather-beaten and prematurely old.

252
00:15:31,950 --> 00:15:34,390
Later, I'll try and make
a sketch of it,

253
00:15:34,390 --> 00:15:36,390
to give you an idea of it."

254
00:15:40,390 --> 00:15:43,630
This is one of the earliest drawings
that we have in the collection.

255
00:15:43,630 --> 00:15:48,830
It's from 1879, when van Gogh
was staying in Belgium,

256
00:15:48,830 --> 00:15:51,310
in the Borinage, the mining region.

257
00:15:51,310 --> 00:15:54,870
And what we see here is a coal mine,

258
00:15:54,870 --> 00:15:57,750
with a little person standing here,

259
00:15:57,750 --> 00:16:01,190
and some kind of animal in the
field.

260
00:16:01,190 --> 00:16:05,030
It's er, it's a bit naive,
it's not yet as developed

261
00:16:05,030 --> 00:16:08,990
as when he was really starting out
as a draftsman.

262
00:16:08,990 --> 00:16:14,550
He's...he's experimenting
with pencil, and watercolour,

263
00:16:14,550 --> 00:16:18,990
but this was before
he decided to become an artist.

264
00:16:18,990 --> 00:16:22,350
Vincent's time in
the Borinage village of Petit-Wasmes

265
00:16:22,350 --> 00:16:24,430
was full of self-sacrifice,

266
00:16:24,430 --> 00:16:27,830
and dedication
to the small mining community.

267
00:16:27,830 --> 00:16:32,230
But after six months, he lost
his position as an evangelist,

268
00:16:32,230 --> 00:16:35,230
largely due to his poor skills
at delivering sermons.

269
00:16:37,430 --> 00:16:39,390
From that moment on,
almost for a year,

270
00:16:39,390 --> 00:16:41,790
we don't know really
what he actually did.

271
00:16:41,790 --> 00:16:44,590
He didn't write any letters any more
to his brother, Theo.

272
00:16:44,590 --> 00:16:47,830
We have some information
from letters of his parents to Theo,

273
00:16:47,830 --> 00:16:51,030
where they talk about Vincent, and
they only have concern about him,

274
00:16:51,030 --> 00:16:53,350
what he's going to do with his life.

275
00:16:53,350 --> 00:16:56,590
When Theo and Vincent
started writing to each other again,

276
00:16:56,590 --> 00:16:59,230
Vincent's despair
and wretched situation

277
00:16:59,230 --> 00:17:01,670
were all too apparent.

278
00:17:01,670 --> 00:17:05,150
Theo was now working
in the Paris office of Goupil & Co.,

279
00:17:05,150 --> 00:17:07,190
and he thought
it might help his brother

280
00:17:07,190 --> 00:17:11,150
if he considered a new path,
as an artist.

281
00:17:11,150 --> 00:17:13,830
Van Gogh started
as an artist in 1880.

282
00:17:13,830 --> 00:17:15,910
He was living in the Netherlands,

283
00:17:15,910 --> 00:17:18,230
and he would stay there
for the next five years.

284
00:17:18,230 --> 00:17:20,310
So the first half of his career,

285
00:17:20,310 --> 00:17:23,190
he spent in the Netherlands,
what we call the Dutch period.

286
00:17:23,190 --> 00:17:25,590
He was moving around
in the Netherlands.

287
00:17:25,590 --> 00:17:28,110
He was living
in The Hague for a while,

288
00:17:28,110 --> 00:17:30,150
where he took lessons
with Anton Mauve,

289
00:17:30,150 --> 00:17:34,390
a well-known Hague school painter,
and he was also family of van Gogh,

290
00:17:34,390 --> 00:17:38,590
so it was easy to get some training
with this established artist.

291
00:17:38,590 --> 00:17:41,430
Van Gogh didn't take
traditional schooling,

292
00:17:41,430 --> 00:17:44,670
he only went for a very brief period
to the academy,

293
00:17:44,670 --> 00:17:46,710
when he started out as an artist,

294
00:17:46,710 --> 00:17:48,990
and then decided that he would learn

295
00:17:48,990 --> 00:17:51,990
his...being an artist by himself.

296
00:17:51,990 --> 00:17:54,070
He used a lot of handbooks,

297
00:17:54,070 --> 00:17:56,870
and he looked at other artists
intensely also,

298
00:17:56,870 --> 00:17:59,510
during these five years in Holland.

299
00:17:59,510 --> 00:18:02,670
We always tend to think that van
Gogh was an avant-garde artist,

300
00:18:02,670 --> 00:18:05,950
but, in fact, if you look upon him,
he was quite old-fashioned.

301
00:18:05,950 --> 00:18:08,950
Drawing remains
the main thing for an artist.

302
00:18:08,950 --> 00:18:12,390
So he started that way,
he started the traditional way

303
00:18:12,390 --> 00:18:14,710
of how you become an artist
in the 19th century.

304
00:18:14,710 --> 00:18:17,190
You start with drawing.

305
00:18:17,190 --> 00:18:20,350
Vincent kept working
on his technique in The Hague,

306
00:18:20,350 --> 00:18:24,070
though finding willing models
was proving hard.

307
00:18:24,070 --> 00:18:26,670
After setting up a studio
in his lodgings,

308
00:18:26,670 --> 00:18:31,670
Vincent met a prostitute called
Clasina Maria Hoornik, known as Sien,

309
00:18:31,670 --> 00:18:35,590
who was pregnant and living rough
with a four-year-old child.

310
00:18:35,590 --> 00:18:38,630
He decided to invite her
to live with him.

311
00:18:38,630 --> 00:18:41,230
The arrangement was kept secret
from the family,

312
00:18:41,230 --> 00:18:45,950
as Vincent was using money
sent by Theo to support them both.

313
00:18:45,950 --> 00:18:49,270
Vincent cared greatly
for Sien and her children.

314
00:18:49,270 --> 00:18:51,430
They became part
of his domestic life,

315
00:18:51,430 --> 00:18:54,190
and the subject of many
drawings and studies.

316
00:18:55,830 --> 00:18:58,910
When Vincent's relationship
with Sien was discovered,

317
00:18:58,910 --> 00:19:02,670
his family, including Theo,
put pressure on him to finish,

318
00:19:02,670 --> 00:19:04,750
which he did with great sadness

319
00:19:04,750 --> 00:19:07,590
and after a long period
of contemplation.

320
00:19:07,590 --> 00:19:10,190
He was 30, and it was the first time

321
00:19:10,190 --> 00:19:12,790
he felt he had a family
of his own to care for.

322
00:19:14,790 --> 00:19:17,350
Vincent left The Hague,
and travelled North,

323
00:19:17,350 --> 00:19:19,710
to the flatlands of Drenthe.

324
00:19:19,710 --> 00:19:21,990
Here, he lived a frugal life,

325
00:19:21,990 --> 00:19:24,190
and captured the landscape on paper,

326
00:19:24,190 --> 00:19:26,990
until he eventually moved back
to the family home,

327
00:19:26,990 --> 00:19:29,790
which was now located
in the Dutch village of Nuenen.

328
00:19:34,670 --> 00:19:37,190
He was considered
by locals as eccentric,

329
00:19:37,190 --> 00:19:39,510
a loner, strange.

330
00:19:39,510 --> 00:19:42,550
But nothing would deter him
from walking into the countryside

331
00:19:42,550 --> 00:19:44,630
with his artist materials,

332
00:19:44,630 --> 00:19:46,710
endlessly attempting
to capture rural life.

333
00:19:48,070 --> 00:19:51,430
It's interesting to see
that he always had this crude,

334
00:19:51,430 --> 00:19:53,510
sort of bold way of drawing.

335
00:19:53,510 --> 00:19:56,950
In the beginning, he was trying
to fight against it.

336
00:19:56,950 --> 00:19:58,990
And then, at some point,
he understood

337
00:19:58,990 --> 00:20:02,390
that this whole expressiveness
that just keeps pouring out

338
00:20:02,390 --> 00:20:04,750
of his chalk or his pencil

339
00:20:04,750 --> 00:20:08,230
was just his strongest asset,
in a sense.

340
00:20:08,230 --> 00:20:11,710
And he learned how to use it
in a very strong way.

341
00:20:11,710 --> 00:20:14,110
So I think his marks in his drawings

342
00:20:14,110 --> 00:20:16,390
helped him also to paint,

343
00:20:16,390 --> 00:20:18,630
because he figures out,

344
00:20:18,630 --> 00:20:21,910
what is his mark? What is his style?

345
00:20:21,910 --> 00:20:24,230
When van Gogh started as an artist,

346
00:20:24,230 --> 00:20:27,270
he admired the French landscape
tradition greatly,

347
00:20:27,270 --> 00:20:31,110
especially as it was
painted by Daubigny

348
00:20:31,110 --> 00:20:35,030
in a very personal, not sentimental,
but more realistic mood,

349
00:20:35,030 --> 00:20:37,790
but very personal
and very free in his brushwork.

350
00:20:37,790 --> 00:20:39,870
And this, of course, was also

351
00:20:39,870 --> 00:20:42,550
the ambition of van Gogh,
when he started as an artist.

352
00:20:42,550 --> 00:20:45,150
So these French landscape painters

353
00:20:45,150 --> 00:20:48,270
like Daubigny, like Millet,
were his great models.

354
00:20:49,630 --> 00:20:52,710
So, looking at all these great
French landscape painters,

355
00:20:52,710 --> 00:20:57,190
he...he tried to convey
the same, er, mood

356
00:20:57,190 --> 00:20:59,790
of...of human versus nature.

357
00:21:03,470 --> 00:21:07,150
"My dear Theo,
one would be wrong to my mind,

358
00:21:07,150 --> 00:21:12,750
to give a peasant painting
a certain conventional smoothness.

359
00:21:12,750 --> 00:21:17,310
If a peasant painting smells
of bacon, smoke, potato steam,

360
00:21:17,310 --> 00:21:19,630
fine, that's not unhealthy.

361
00:21:19,630 --> 00:21:22,910
If a stable smelled of manure,

362
00:21:22,910 --> 00:21:25,590
very well,
that's what a stable's for.

363
00:21:25,590 --> 00:21:28,830
If the field has an odour
of ripe wheat or potatoes

364
00:21:28,830 --> 00:21:32,350
or of guano and manure,

365
00:21:32,350 --> 00:21:35,910
that's really healthy,
particularly for city folk.

366
00:21:35,910 --> 00:21:38,790
They get something useful
out of paintings like this.

367
00:21:39,910 --> 00:21:42,430
But a peasant painting
mustn't become perfumed."

368
00:21:43,750 --> 00:21:46,070
He was really
focusing very hard on this,

369
00:21:46,070 --> 00:21:49,670
reading about it,
writing about it to Theo,

370
00:21:49,670 --> 00:21:53,430
by making a lot of studies
of peasant hats, for example,

371
00:21:53,430 --> 00:21:56,750
and, finally, his most ambitious
work, The Potato Eaters.

372
00:22:03,390 --> 00:22:05,470
The play between light and dark,

373
00:22:05,470 --> 00:22:09,110
the chiaroscuro, is so important
in this painting,

374
00:22:09,110 --> 00:22:12,990
that makes it into,
technically and stylistically,

375
00:22:12,990 --> 00:22:15,430
a very well-achieved painting.

376
00:22:15,430 --> 00:22:19,790
This new way
of...of presenting the peasant

377
00:22:19,790 --> 00:22:22,910
in a very stark and very...

378
00:22:22,910 --> 00:22:25,070
well, almost expressive manner,

379
00:22:25,070 --> 00:22:28,310
um, was pretty radical.

380
00:22:28,310 --> 00:22:31,750
The people that you see
are not happy or sad,

381
00:22:31,750 --> 00:22:35,070
they're just very tired
from this intense work,

382
00:22:35,070 --> 00:22:38,590
and, for van Gogh,
it was something beautiful

383
00:22:38,590 --> 00:22:41,350
that people worked hard,
he worked hard himself,

384
00:22:41,350 --> 00:22:43,830
and, of course,
that's also something religious.

385
00:22:43,830 --> 00:22:48,710
You work very hard, and you will
reap what you put in the ground.

386
00:22:50,350 --> 00:22:52,630
Vincent believed The Potato Eaters

387
00:22:52,630 --> 00:22:55,230
to be his greatest
accomplishment so far,

388
00:22:55,230 --> 00:22:58,070
and showed it to both
Theo and Van Rappard,

389
00:22:58,070 --> 00:23:01,150
but was met with an unenthusiastic
response from Theo,

390
00:23:01,150 --> 00:23:03,990
and harsh criticism from Van Rappard.

391
00:23:03,990 --> 00:23:06,710
Infuriated, he headed for Antwerp

392
00:23:06,710 --> 00:23:10,710
to explore new ideas
and seek academic training.

393
00:23:38,590 --> 00:23:41,150
In Antwerp, he first of all
went to the museums,

394
00:23:41,150 --> 00:23:44,590
he discovered the Rubens,
for instance, the beautiful
colours of Rubens.

395
00:23:44,590 --> 00:23:46,550
and especially
the brushwork of Rubens.

396
00:23:46,550 --> 00:23:48,590
From now on,
when he would look at art,

397
00:23:48,590 --> 00:23:50,630
he would always look
at how they were made.

398
00:23:50,630 --> 00:23:53,030
Before he was a painter,
he would go to a museum,

399
00:23:53,030 --> 00:23:55,870
and only talk about the images
he saw, and their sentiment.

400
00:23:55,870 --> 00:23:58,390
But now he would only talk
about how they were made,

401
00:23:58,390 --> 00:24:01,750
how the brushwork was. He wanted to
learn something from the old
masters.

402
00:24:04,150 --> 00:24:06,190
After a short time in Antwerp,

403
00:24:06,190 --> 00:24:09,310
he decided to head for Paris
to be with his brother

404
00:24:09,310 --> 00:24:11,590
and search out new inspiration.

405
00:24:39,110 --> 00:24:43,470
In the late 19th century,
Paris was the centre of modern art,

406
00:24:43,470 --> 00:24:46,950
and Montmartre was the centre
of artistic freedom.

407
00:24:46,950 --> 00:24:50,830
The establishment lived elsewhere,
but the hill of Montmartre

408
00:24:50,830 --> 00:24:54,030
was a place for young artists
and radical thought.

409
00:24:55,270 --> 00:24:58,110
Vincent not only moved there
to be closer to Theo,

410
00:24:58,110 --> 00:25:00,510
an increasingly successful
art dealer,

411
00:25:00,510 --> 00:25:03,870
but also to involve himself
with a like-minded community,

412
00:25:03,870 --> 00:25:07,270
that thrived in this multitude
of colourful bars,

413
00:25:07,270 --> 00:25:11,270
burlesque theatres,
and bohemian cafes.

414
00:25:11,270 --> 00:25:14,270
On arrival in Paris,
Vincent attended classes

415
00:25:14,270 --> 00:25:18,510
at the studio of a well-known painter
called Fernand Cormon.

416
00:25:18,510 --> 00:25:21,190
Young artists were left
to work in groups,

417
00:25:21,190 --> 00:25:25,390
receiving advice once in a while
from the established Cormon.

418
00:25:25,390 --> 00:25:28,750
Although Vincent was disappointed
with the level of tuition,

419
00:25:28,750 --> 00:25:32,350
his time at the studio introduced him
to other young artists

420
00:25:32,350 --> 00:25:34,510
who later became close friends.

421
00:25:34,510 --> 00:25:38,510
Emile Bernard, John Russell,
and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec,

422
00:25:38,510 --> 00:25:41,670
who introduced him to
the hedonistic world of Montmartre,

423
00:25:41,670 --> 00:25:45,470
and engaged him in the artistic
dialogue he craved so much.

424
00:25:48,510 --> 00:25:50,870
The Impressionists
like Monet and Pissarro

425
00:25:50,870 --> 00:25:54,430
were already more or less
established
by the time that van Gogh arrived,

426
00:25:54,430 --> 00:25:57,630
and their heydays were in the 1870s,

427
00:25:57,630 --> 00:26:01,550
so there was this new generation
of...of young men

428
00:26:01,550 --> 00:26:04,670
who wanted to change
and revolutionise the art world.

429
00:26:21,550 --> 00:26:24,430
Shortly after Vincent arrived
in Paris,

430
00:26:24,430 --> 00:26:27,070
the brothers moved to
a larger apartment,

431
00:26:27,070 --> 00:26:29,470
54 Rue Lepic.

432
00:26:29,470 --> 00:26:33,670
Van Gogh had a small room there
which he used as a studio,

433
00:26:33,670 --> 00:26:39,670
and went outside to paint,
to just set up his easel and paint

434
00:26:39,670 --> 00:26:44,070
the landscape which was still
quite rural in Montmartre.

435
00:26:44,070 --> 00:26:49,710
On the hill, there were mills
and allotments, little gardens,

436
00:26:49,710 --> 00:26:53,150
not yet as many apartment buildings
as there are today.

437
00:26:53,150 --> 00:26:58,150
So, he was basically painting
everything that he came across.

438
00:26:58,150 --> 00:27:01,630
Street scenes,
the view from his window,

439
00:27:01,630 --> 00:27:04,670
but also still lifes in his studio,

440
00:27:04,670 --> 00:27:08,390
when he couldn't go outside to
paint. And of course the many
self-portraits

441
00:27:08,390 --> 00:27:11,510
of which we have several on view
here in the museum.

442
00:27:14,630 --> 00:27:17,270
I think it's impossible to
understand what was happening

443
00:27:17,270 --> 00:27:20,350
to van Gogh's palette and technique
when he moved to Paris

444
00:27:20,350 --> 00:27:22,670
without seeing the contexts
that he worked,

445
00:27:22,670 --> 00:27:26,470
and it was such a...a great change

446
00:27:26,470 --> 00:27:28,790
from what he was doing in Holland.

447
00:27:28,790 --> 00:27:30,950
Of course,
it didn't happen overnight,

448
00:27:30,950 --> 00:27:32,950
but it went really quickly.

449
00:27:32,950 --> 00:27:36,510
Then in that time,
his colour had changed dramatically.

450
00:27:36,510 --> 00:27:39,190
It became very bright and very pure.

451
00:27:39,190 --> 00:27:42,230
He used pure colours
in his paintings.

452
00:27:42,230 --> 00:27:45,750
His brushstroke changed.
He was very much influenced

453
00:27:45,750 --> 00:27:50,990
by the Pointillists who were
painting in short stripes and dots.

454
00:28:04,670 --> 00:28:08,350
The woman that we see on the
portrait is Agostina Segatori.

455
00:28:08,350 --> 00:28:11,150
She was the owner of a bar
in Montmartre,

456
00:28:11,150 --> 00:28:15,550
which was called Le Tambourin,
a bar where artists frequently came,

457
00:28:15,550 --> 00:28:20,030
and van Gogh, at some point,
he had a relationship with Agostina,

458
00:28:20,030 --> 00:28:23,070
and he also exhibited in her bar.

459
00:28:23,070 --> 00:28:26,070
He hung his own paintings
on the wall,

460
00:28:26,070 --> 00:28:28,230
and he even organised an exhibition

461
00:28:28,230 --> 00:28:30,950
of Japanese prints
from his own collection.

462
00:28:30,950 --> 00:28:33,590
The portrait of Agostina Segatori
is hanging

463
00:28:33,590 --> 00:28:36,430
next to a portrait
by Toulouse-Lautrec,

464
00:28:36,430 --> 00:28:41,390
painted in the same time,
same year, actually. 1887.

465
00:28:41,390 --> 00:28:44,430
And we have hung
those two paintings together

466
00:28:44,430 --> 00:28:49,430
because they show a similar subject,
a similar composition,

467
00:28:49,430 --> 00:28:52,550
of a woman sitting at a cafe table,
which was, again,

468
00:28:52,550 --> 00:28:55,910
a very modern subject at the time.

469
00:28:55,910 --> 00:28:59,830
Another important thing he
discovered in Paris were Japanese
prints.

470
00:28:59,830 --> 00:29:04,230
There was this rage about
Japanese art in Paris at that time.

471
00:29:04,230 --> 00:29:07,430
Some of his artworks are direct
translations of these prints.

472
00:29:07,430 --> 00:29:10,990
He really copied them in colour
in his own way.

473
00:29:10,990 --> 00:29:14,470
But also, the way that they made
cropped compositions,

474
00:29:14,470 --> 00:29:17,550
or they used a very stark
perspective

475
00:29:17,550 --> 00:29:20,830
are also reflected in van Gogh's
art.

476
00:29:20,830 --> 00:29:24,350
Paris was too overwhelming
in the end for van Gogh.

477
00:29:24,350 --> 00:29:28,750
It was too much visual noise,
too much things going on.

478
00:29:28,750 --> 00:29:30,910
And he needed to step away
from it all,

479
00:29:30,910 --> 00:29:33,870
and to be physically removed

480
00:29:33,870 --> 00:29:37,190
from the centre of the world,
basically.

481
00:29:37,190 --> 00:29:39,510
So, he decided to leave.

482
00:29:40,790 --> 00:29:43,350
He longed for a warmer climate,

483
00:29:43,350 --> 00:29:47,230
and he was also anxious to discover
the colours of the south,

484
00:29:47,230 --> 00:29:49,910
of the strong light
and the effect that

485
00:29:49,910 --> 00:29:52,790
that would have on the countryside,

486
00:29:52,790 --> 00:29:57,870
on the landscape, such as the land
that he knew from the Japanese
print.

487
00:29:57,870 --> 00:30:02,350
So, when he arrived in Arles, he was
really hoping to find a new utopia.

488
00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:40,120
"My dear Theo, during the journey,

489
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:45,160
I thought at least as much about you
as about the new country I was in.

490
00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:48,680
But I tell myself that you'll
perhaps come here as often yourself
later on.

491
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:54,400
It seems to be almost impossible
to be able to work in Paris

492
00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:56,840
unless you have a refuge
in which you recover

493
00:30:56,840 --> 00:31:00,000
and regain your peace of mind
and self-composure.

494
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:03,680
Without that, you'll be bound to go
utterly mental.

495
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:07,400
Arles doesn't seem any bigger than
Montmartre.

496
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:11,840
Before reaching Tarascon, I noticed
some magnificent scenery.

497
00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:17,480
Huge yellow rocks, oddly jumbled
together in the most imposing
shapes.

498
00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:21,320
In the small valleys
between these rocks,

499
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:24,560
there are rows of little round trees
with olive green,

500
00:31:24,560 --> 00:31:27,920
or grey-green foliage,
which could well be lemon trees."

501
00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:48,560
He always went out early in the
morning with all his painting gear.

502
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:52,680
And he often painted
and drew a subject

503
00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:56,520
from various angles
and in series of works.

504
00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:53,080
I think that, for me,
painting is all about light.

505
00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:57,200
And as an artist, you've got to
notice it and scrutinise it

506
00:32:57,200 --> 00:33:00,880
because it shapes the world
around us every day,

507
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:03,880
and most of the time,
we don't give it a second thought.

508
00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:07,840
And it might well be an overcast
day, where everything feels

509
00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:10,200
a lot more muted
and softer and cooler,

510
00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:12,840
and the shadows aren't so extreme,
and you're searching

511
00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:16,280
for the difference between areas
of a building that are

512
00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:19,480
supposedly closer to the sun
than those that are away from it,

513
00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:22,600
or it might be a blazing hot
Mediterranean day,

514
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:25,480
when the sun is really shaping
and sculpting

515
00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:28,560
in combination
with rich, dark shadows.

516
00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:31,480
So, he's experiencing the weather,
the temperature, the wind.

517
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:33,560
He's gauging all of that.

518
00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:36,720
And when you get into the zone
as a painter, and you're out there,

519
00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:40,160
that energy becomes almost hypnotic.

520
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:44,800
You're painting and you're
responding to what's happening in
front of you,

521
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:47,160
you're mixing pigments
in your palette,

522
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:49,560
and maybe you drop your brush
and you get some earth

523
00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:51,640
on the brush,
and it mixes into the colour.

524
00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:54,000
You become at one
with this whole experience.

525
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,640
And you can almost get into
a kind of weird trance.

526
00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:00,920
More than being a landscape painter,

527
00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:03,360
he wanted to be
a painter of portraits.

528
00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:06,160
And this is something that he really
started to do

529
00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:08,240
in a very serious way in Provence.

530
00:34:08,240 --> 00:34:12,160
He asked people from the town
to pose for him,

531
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:14,240
such as an old woman of Arles.

532
00:34:14,240 --> 00:34:17,320
All kinds of portraits
of ordinary people,

533
00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:19,880
everyday people, everyday life.

534
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:23,960
Such were the things that he wanted
to paint, and draw in Arles.

535
00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:29,440
When van Gogh was living in Arles,
he started to have this dream

536
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:33,560
about an artist colony, and he hoped
that other artists would join him.

537
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:36,560
And they could work together,
share their materials together,

538
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:39,680
discuss art, and together they would

539
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:42,800
make better art,
and become better artists.

540
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:46,960
One of these artists was Gauguin,
and he came in the end.

541
00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:51,840
In preparation of Gauguin's arrival,
van Gogh started a campaign

542
00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:57,560
of painting canvasses as kind of
decoration for his yellow house.

543
00:34:57,560 --> 00:35:00,560
And he started to make
specific paintings

544
00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:03,160
that would hang in
Gauguin's bedroom,

545
00:35:03,160 --> 00:35:05,480
and it was a very beautiful series

546
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:09,440
of nowadays icons
of van Gogh's work.

547
00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:27,320
Gauguin and van Gogh worked and lived
together for two months in Arles.

548
00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:30,360
They drank and ate together
and painted the same models

549
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:32,400
side by side in the yellow house.

550
00:35:34,240 --> 00:35:37,160
Unfortunately,
it didn't end that well.

551
00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:40,960
As most people know,
it ended with the famous incident

552
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:43,600
that van Gogh cut off
part of his ear.

553
00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:46,520
They had a huge argument,

554
00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:52,440
probably also about art
and what modern art should be about.

555
00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:56,320
Their characters
didn't go well together.

556
00:35:56,320 --> 00:36:01,240
Gauguin left Arles, and van Gogh
was hospitalised for a longer period

557
00:36:01,240 --> 00:36:06,640
to...to, um, well,
recover from his ear injury.

558
00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:10,960
The paintings of the sunflowers
and his bedroom

559
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:13,560
were very important to Vincent.

560
00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:17,400
They reflected the ambitions
that he set himself while in Arles.

561
00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:20,320
Critics of the day
and observers of the avant-garde

562
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:26,320
recognised that the sunflowers were
something completely new and unique.

563
00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:29,960
These paintings may have become icons
after van Gogh's death,

564
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:32,480
but they'd always been
very important,

565
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:35,800
not only to Vincent
but also to his brother Theo

566
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:39,320
and to other artists from his circle,
like Gauguin.

567
00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:44,680
Van Gogh was
an incredibly creative person,

568
00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:46,880
and tried out many
different techniques,

569
00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:50,080
and experimented with things
that he'd picked up along the way,

570
00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:53,360
but combining them in his own
personal approach.

571
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:57,080
And what we see is that he often
experimented with extremes.

572
00:36:57,080 --> 00:37:01,800
So, first painting were very dilute
oil paint, for example,

573
00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:06,640
and then switching just a month
later to using thick, creamy,

574
00:37:06,640 --> 00:37:10,240
what we call impaste,
a very strongly textured paint.

575
00:37:10,240 --> 00:37:13,000
Though he was using
basically the same materials

576
00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:15,320
for these different approaches, um,

577
00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:18,000
we do have to adjust our technique
of treating paintings

578
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:20,680
according to the, you know,
the build-up of the layers

579
00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:22,640
and the way that the paint
is applied.

580
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:29,320
So, this is an example
of a painting that I'm restoring.

581
00:37:29,320 --> 00:37:32,560
It's a view of Arles with irises
in the foreground,

582
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:34,960
painted in May 1888.

583
00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:37,560
And what you can see,
what I'm actually doing is

584
00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:41,080
reversing the restoration
carried out by my predecessor.

585
00:37:42,320 --> 00:37:46,160
Apparently, the conservator
who worked on the painting in 1927

586
00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:48,480
found this transition
very disturbing,

587
00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:51,240
so he applied retouches to soften

588
00:37:51,240 --> 00:37:53,640
this transition,
to blend it into each other,

589
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:56,000
even though, as in this case,
van Gogh did not

590
00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:58,200
intend his French paintings
to be varnished

591
00:37:58,200 --> 00:38:01,000
because he preferred a modern
matte surface.

592
00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:08,240
After recovering from his ordeal
in hospital,

593
00:38:08,240 --> 00:38:11,360
Vincent went back to his studio
in his yellow house

594
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:16,280
and realised his dream of an artistic
brotherhood had been shattered.

595
00:38:16,280 --> 00:38:18,600
The episode of the cutting of the ear

596
00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:21,600
was the start of a very difficult
period in his life,

597
00:38:21,600 --> 00:38:24,640
blighted by seizures
and bouts of illness.

598
00:38:26,480 --> 00:38:29,920
Van Gogh stayed a little longer
in Arles, in and out of hospital,

599
00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:33,880
and finally, he decided that he
needed to get away from Arles.

600
00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:36,240
And he committed himself

601
00:38:36,240 --> 00:38:39,440
to an asylum in Saint-Remy,
not far from Arles.

602
00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:43,440
He stayed there for a long time, and
he was treated for what he called

603
00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:47,840
his, well, lunacy or his illness,
his moments of depression.

604
00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:52,120
We'll never know exactly
what his illness was.

605
00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:55,120
The doctor wrote down that he had
a type of epilepsy,

606
00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:59,280
so it was close to some kind of
madness in the eyes of many people.

607
00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:04,640
Painting is a difficult, troubling,

608
00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:08,280
and enormously frustrating activity.

609
00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:12,720
Every day, when I stand
in front of my canvas,

610
00:39:13,800 --> 00:39:15,840
I will expose the gap between

611
00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:18,160
what I want to achieve
and what I can achieve,

612
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:21,160
And the greatest artists in history

613
00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:27,160
have been possessed by the need to
create art and it exhausts them.

614
00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:29,320
And it's real. That bit is real.

615
00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:32,680
Painting takes it out of you,

616
00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:38,360
if you're doing it as a conviction,
as a passion.

617
00:39:38,360 --> 00:39:42,320
Um, and that's no lie.
(CHUCKLES) That's for real.

618
00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:46,200
In Saint-Remy,
in spite of his illness,

619
00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:51,080
he created a lot of works
that are considered his best works.

620
00:39:51,080 --> 00:39:54,560
It's amazing how he managed to
recover every time

621
00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:57,560
and to continue to really develop
his work,

622
00:39:57,560 --> 00:40:00,440
his way of painting,
his way of drawing.

623
00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:04,640
The Irises, for example, he'd done
at the end of his days in Saint-Remy

624
00:40:04,640 --> 00:40:11,120
and during this period, he created
an amazing amount of masterpieces.

625
00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:39,720
"My dear Theo, I have a wheat field,
very yellow and very bright,

626
00:40:39,720 --> 00:40:42,920
perhaps the brightest canvas
I've done.

627
00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:45,320
The cypresses still preoccupy me.

628
00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:48,760
I'd like to do something with them
like the canvasses of the
sunflowers,

629
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:54,160
because it astonishes me that no-one
has yet done them as I see them.

630
00:40:54,160 --> 00:40:57,160
It's beautiful as regards
lines and proportions,

631
00:40:57,160 --> 00:40:59,240
like an Egyptian obelisk,

632
00:40:59,240 --> 00:41:02,280
and the green has such
a distinguished quality.

633
00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:06,440
To do nature here, as everywhere,

634
00:41:06,440 --> 00:41:09,520
one must really be here
for a long time."

635
00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:13,360
He made beautiful close-ups
of undergrowth

636
00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:16,200
or butterflies, roses in the garden,

637
00:41:16,200 --> 00:41:19,080
He painted the view of his window.

638
00:41:19,080 --> 00:41:22,880
On the fields stood olive groves
around the asylum.

639
00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:27,360
But he also asked Theo to send him
several of his favourite artworks,

640
00:41:27,360 --> 00:41:32,560
such as paintings by Millet,
Delacroix, Rembrandt in print.

641
00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:35,760
So, he received his black and white
prints from Theo,

642
00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:38,400
and he started copying them
like he did before

643
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:40,400
when he started out as an artist.

644
00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:52,160
After a year in the asylum,
van Gogh was feeling stronger,

645
00:41:52,160 --> 00:41:55,200
and was anxious to move,
to get away from the institutional

646
00:41:55,200 --> 00:41:57,920
atmosphere of Saint-Remy.

647
00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:01,400
It was time to move back north
and be closer to Theo,

648
00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:03,560
who had by this time,
married Jo Bonger

649
00:42:03,560 --> 00:42:06,480
and had a child named Vincent Willem.

650
00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:11,680
Although Vincent was keen
to be closer to his brother,

651
00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:15,520
Paris was considered too much
for his fragile state of mind.

652
00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:18,960
So, he asked Theo to find him
a location close to Paris

653
00:42:18,960 --> 00:42:21,240
with a doctor who could keep
an eye on him.

654
00:42:23,240 --> 00:42:27,000
Theo made inquiries, and through
the painter Camille Pissarro,

655
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:30,240
found a homoeopathic doctor
called Paul Gachet

656
00:42:30,240 --> 00:42:32,560
in the rural village
of Auvers-sur-Oise,

657
00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:35,000
just to the north of the capital.

658
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:38,640
Gachet was both a well-known doctor
and a well-known collector,

659
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:42,040
and would keep an eye on Vincent,
while offering his companionship

660
00:42:42,040 --> 00:42:44,960
as one who understood artists
and the art world.

661
00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:43,200
When Vincent went to Auvers,
one of the first letters
he wrote to Theo in Paris

662
00:43:43,200 --> 00:43:45,800
is quite a remarkable thing he said

663
00:43:45,800 --> 00:43:49,080
is that he felt that his whole life
had been a failure,

664
00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:51,160
that he was a failure as a painter.

665
00:43:51,160 --> 00:43:56,280
We know that van Gogh really thought
that ambition was gone in his life,

666
00:43:56,280 --> 00:44:00,360
he was still working, but he was
more working like a madman.

667
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:02,400
But why are you working
like a madman?

668
00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:06,080
You're working like a madman because
you want to push certain thoughts

669
00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:09,320
out of your mind which you do not
want to think about.

670
00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:12,280
Vincent was at a very low point.

671
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:15,920
Illness, despair,
and an uncertain future

672
00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:18,640
weighed heavy on his mind.

673
00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:22,400
In the afternoon
of July the 27th, 1890,

674
00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:26,800
Vincent left his lodgings
and disappeared into the countryside.

675
00:44:26,800 --> 00:44:30,640
On his return that evening,
he was evidently in great pain.

676
00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:35,160
He confessed to having shot himself
in the chest,

677
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:38,240
and Dr Gachet was called
to tend the wound.

678
00:44:38,240 --> 00:44:40,320
Theo arrived in haste the next day.

679
00:44:42,560 --> 00:44:45,520
Vincent lay in some agony,

680
00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:49,200
but still managed to smoke his pipe
and talk with Theo,

681
00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:52,720
until the following day,
he fell into unconsciousness

682
00:44:52,720 --> 00:44:57,040
and died on the 29th of July
in his brother's arms.

683
00:45:01,760 --> 00:45:04,440
"I want to die like this."

684
00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:17,760
Many people have thought,
because of that fear

685
00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:20,280
that's been expressed
in this picture,

686
00:46:20,280 --> 00:46:22,400
that it also was his last picture

687
00:46:22,400 --> 00:46:24,920
and it's been described as such.
It wasn't.

688
00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:28,720
But people are right to think
in the interpretation of the picture

689
00:46:28,720 --> 00:46:31,240
that there is a kind of fearness
in it.

690
00:46:31,240 --> 00:46:33,800
The idea that you're being
overwhelmed by something

691
00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:36,560
which you cannot do anything about,
and will threaten you.

692
00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:38,560
That's the idea of the picture.

693
00:46:40,400 --> 00:46:42,880
Tree Roots is his last picture.

694
00:46:42,880 --> 00:46:46,920
So, that's the picture that he made
in the morning before he died.

695
00:46:55,600 --> 00:47:00,120
Vincent's art wasn't appreciated
very well by the audience,

696
00:47:00,120 --> 00:47:02,200
by the people during his life.

697
00:47:02,200 --> 00:47:06,360
But at the end of his life,
his contemporaries, his peers,

698
00:47:06,360 --> 00:47:09,520
considered him as one of
the most important,

699
00:47:09,520 --> 00:47:13,200
maybe the most important artist
of the avant-garde of that time.

700
00:47:14,440 --> 00:47:18,120
Van Gogh hoped to move and touch

701
00:47:18,120 --> 00:47:21,520
and inspire or console
as many people as possible,

702
00:47:21,520 --> 00:47:26,080
and I don't think the fact
that he's so successful now,

703
00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:29,720
that his paintings belong to the
most expensive paintings in the
world,

704
00:47:29,720 --> 00:47:32,680
or that we have so many visitors
at the van Gogh Museum,

705
00:47:32,680 --> 00:47:35,720
that's not, um,
it's not the financial success,

706
00:47:35,720 --> 00:47:38,400
it's really about some
sincere ambition

707
00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:41,320
that he wanted to make
this connection,

708
00:47:41,320 --> 00:47:46,240
and to be...to try to give answers

709
00:47:46,240 --> 00:47:50,800
to all of our questions
about our existence, about life,

710
00:47:50,800 --> 00:47:54,640
and the fact that he's still
able to make that connection

711
00:47:54,640 --> 00:47:57,680
to so many people, that would have
pleased him the most.

712
00:48:07,640 --> 00:48:13,240
"My dear Theo, man is not placed
on the Earth merely to be happy,

713
00:48:13,240 --> 00:48:16,320
nor is he placed here
merely to be honest.

714
00:48:16,320 --> 00:48:20,880
He is here to accomplish great
things through society,

715
00:48:20,880 --> 00:48:24,160
to arrive at nobleness,
and to outgrow the vulgarity

716
00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:28,040
in which the existence of almost
all individuals drags on.

717
00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:35,920
Art is long and life is short,

718
00:48:35,920 --> 00:48:41,640
and we must wait patiently while
trying to sell our skin dearly."

719
00:48:56,840 --> 00:48:58,800
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