| Artist |
Van Gogh, Vincent Willem |
Shortly after his arrival in Auvers-sur-Oise, Vincent van Gogh wrote to his sister Wil about the studies he had painted at Dr. Gachet's home and then went on to describe one of his last paintings: "Apart from these I have a larger picture of the village church, an effect in which the building appears to be violet-hued against a sky of a simple deep blue color, pure cobalt; the stained-glass windows appear as ultramarine blotches, the roof is violet and partly orange. In the foreground some green plants in bloom, and sand with the pink glow of sunshine on it.... [I]t is nearly the same thing as the studies I did in Nuenen of the old tower and the cemetery, only it is probable that now the color is more expressive, more sumptuous." That single quotation provides, in its simplicity, a moving counterpoint to the flood of writing—much of it prone to excess—elicited by this painting, which is surely the most beautiful from the artist's Auvers period and one of the masterworks of his entire career. Just two points will be underscored here, in the context of its presentation as part of the Gachet collection.
Although art historians have long made written reference to this painting, following the 1904 example of the German art historian and critic Julius Meier-Graefe, they were not able to see it (and its photograph was not published) until 1951, when it entered the French national museums. Paul Gachet fils justified his continuing refusal to make reproductions available to researchers: Contrary to his usual thinking regarding the popularization of his works, Vincent said one day to Dr. Gachet, on the subject of this canvas, that such a painting should never be seen except in the atmosphere in which it was conceived. That desire, which became like a command, has until now been realized; something that has earned me every conceivable form of invective, idiocy, and nonsense. On the other hand, it has helped me measure how much interest there is in unpublished works of art, truly beautiful ones: I came to understand that people speak with more curiosity of a so-called unknown work than of one that has been widely reproduced. But such an attitude calls down upon the owner of the work epithets as varied as they are ludicrous, which are more than compensated by the special interest that the painting has gained by not being popularized.
That interest, proven when the work finally became accessible, was probably further heightened by the publication at the same time of the artist's letters to his sister Wil. The letters, which had long remained unavailable and unknown, are a remarkable source of information, as the quotation cited at the beginning of this entry makes clear.
My second point concerns the actual medium of the work. Van Gogh describes the foreground of his painting as being illuminated by "sand with the pink glow of sunshine on it," something indeed visible in the precious small watercolor copy of the work painted by Blanche Derousse in 1901. Of course, Derousse knew only the painting itself, not the letter to Wil. And if we study the edges of Van Gogh's painting hidden by the frame, we find a few remaining traces (minuscule but quite real) of unfaded pink. Thus, a victim of unstable pigments—deprived of its rose tones, which have now faded to beige—*The Church at Auvers* has lost some of its harmony. This situation, observable with the naked eye, has been more closely examined by the Research Laboratory of the Musées de France.
Inventory number:
RF 1951 42
Provenance:
Collection of Doctor Paul Gachet, Auvers-sur-Oise
Until 1951, in the Paul Gachet (son) collection
1952, acquired with the assistance of Paul Gachet, son of Doctor Paul Gachet, and the participation of an anonymous Canadian donation by the National Museums for the Jeu de Paume Museum (committee of 29/11/1951, decree of 17/01/1952)
1951, attributed to the Louvre Museum, Paris
From 1951 to 1986, Louvre Museum, Jeu de Paume Gallery, Paris
1986, assigned to the Musée d'Orsay, Paris
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