9781422271827

MASTERS OF ART

PLATE 3 Two Women in a Wood (1882) Oil on paper on panel, 12 x 9 1 ⁄

2 inches (31 x 24 cm)

The viewer of this painting is cleverly led into the depths of the wood by the figure in the foreground, and then to the other woman walking away into the distance, perhaps suggesting a sound understanding of perspective.

Articles, exhibitions, catalogs, and, later, books (of which this is a small example) have poured into a voracious marketplace since before World War I, and the process continues. The story of Van Gogh’s life, tragic in its actuality and glorious in its legacy, continues to fascinate. It is also worth noting that despite a lack of sales and public recognition, the enthusiasm of one or two admirers, the willingness of galleries to show his work, and the representation of his work in many mixed shows indicate that he was not an unknown painter during his working life. He knew many, if not most, of the artists we would regard as important today, and even if many of his contemporaries regarded him as in some way a little odd or strange, his work interested many people. The fact that he sold only one painting might appear to be a failure, but that is not so: from the very start, some regarded Van Gogh as a genius. Van Gogh worked as an artist for at most ten years, and of those, only the last four produced his most representative works. As early as 1884, he said to a friend: “I certainly hope to sell in the course of time, but I think I shall be able to influence it most effectively by

working steadily on, and that at the present moment making desperate efforts to force the work I am doing now upon the public would be pretty useless.” Ten years is not a lengthy career, and although Van Gogh wished and, indeed, tried to sell his work, he realized that he was making progress in his work and required more time to arrive at his full achievement. It might be argued that his unsatisfactory life was his own fault and that his suicide was an admission of defeat or inadequacy, but equally, recognizing his temperament and mental condition, it might be that he was unable to overcome the pressures imposed by his intense, creative nature.

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