Brain Bites: Brain Train to Europe: Say goodbye to you Vincent Van Gogh (Part 4) June 2015

Auvers-sur-Oise

I can't tell you exactly what it felt like as we traveled into the Northern suburbs of Paris. It seems as soon as I learned of Vincent Van Gogh as a child (of course it was the Pop hit of Don McLean's, "Vincent" from 1972 that introduced me to the artist), I was obsessed.

The story was epic, tragic, historic and immortalized for me in a mournful song that painted the picture with melodic words that took the place of the art that I accessed years later.

I didn't understand mental illness then, knew little of suffering and struggling or the creative process of even making art. Of compulsion to do the things that are inside you, be it art or the desire to cut off an ear. The curiosity and yearning to know more came from some primitive connection that I can't explain.

Through the years I gathered the bits and pieces of the life through visits to museums (MOMA in NYC,for Starry Night and National Gallery in London for Sunflowers of course being the highlights), books, television and then the almighty internet.

And now, at last I was going to the place where Vincent ended his life.. When I was a teen I wanted to move to the Netherlands. Amsterdam was my liberal and progressive ideal. It was not by coincidence that it was also home to the Van Gogh museum. On the bucket list still, I will someday make it there, but for this trip to France I insisted on being near the spirit of the man, and the last was fine for me.

I took these shots as we neared the village of Auvers-sur-Oise.

This road from Paris into the countryside of small village (approximate population of 7,000) Auvers takes you to the place where many painters went to live and paint. Vincent moved here to be near his brother who lived in Paris. Having tried to live in Paris before, when Vincent traveled back up to the area, he settled in this suburb of Paris to be treated by a specific doctor, Dr. Paul Gachet, who was recommended by Camille Pissarro.

The trip from Paris to Auvers is approximately a half hour journey by train. Vincent had heard of the place from other artists, the town was full of them by the late 1800's. Artist Charles Daubigny had been there since 1860. Daubigny never left and even now has his own museum in the town. Manet, Cézanne, Renoir, and Camille Pissaro—patriarch of Impressionism—all lived there for a time. It was Pissaro who recommended the doctor from Auvers to Vincent's brother Theo. Vincent went directly from the Hospital in St. Remy to Auver's for treatment by Dr. Gachet.

The River Oise- an interesting historical perspective here= in 1871, the authorities destroyed the bridges over the Oise to delay to the enroachment of the Prussian troops.

and Vincent's painting of the river

This painting is in the Detroit Institute of the Arts (DIA), so if one is so inclined (I have already been inclined + believe-you-me, it was well worth the visit) a little jaunt over to take this is before the awful economy of that city forces it to sell of gems/assets like this Van Gogh.

A bit about the "Eternal Village" that just warms my little preservationist heart:

http://www.colleensparis.com/2010/07/day-trip-to-auvers-sur-oise-an-eternal-village/

There is a ton of You Tube video's on VVG. I liked this one because of the black and white historic photos

https://youtu.be/5neTNWE-k8k

Once over the bridge and immediately facing you is the church of one Vincent's paintings, The Church at Auvers. The painting now hangs in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Another view of the church in the distance and some of the town.

We didn't have enough time to wander around or take roads less traveled. We took the left turn over the bridge and made our way to the center of the town.

No mention of Daubigny or the street or musee named after him. It is all Vincent from the tourist perspective.

Here are some shots of what the town looked like in Vincent's day:

ANd now:

This restaurant is across the street from VVG's last home, and behind it sits a castle (which we did not see), The Auvers Castle, and the restaurant's lower level is connected to the castle's museum shop. I wish we had more time in the town. I sure would have liked to wander around. Here is a link to the castle/restaurant. It looks to be a very similar set-up to the museum we saw in Montmartre:

http://www.veltra.com/en/europe/france/paris/a/101803

This is a side view of the restaurant that has this picture of Vincent on. I could not find the reason for this.

This alleyway which runs alongside Le Bistro is typical of the whole village. Many small, narrow streets and alleyways.

Here is one alleyway near Vincent's last home that has been made famous by the painting below:

Village Street in Auvers

We stopped briefly in town at a little park that has a sculpture of Vincent and a tourist bureau which directed us to Auberge Ravoux.

This bronze statue of Vincent Van Gogh by the sculptor Ossip Zadkine (1890-1867) has been in this small green space since 1961. Behind the sculpture and cherubic figure is the Tourism/Musee Daubigny. Poor, poor Daubigny- one of the first artists to discover this peacable town and who is almost completely overshadowed by Vincent now.

Here is a nice and short piece from an old Smithsonian:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/van-gogh-in-auvers-13579213/?no-ist

And then we were there!

Auberge Ravoux, home to Vincent Van Gogh May-July 1890

So this building is not the rooming house, that building is to the left of this building.

What the Inn used to look like.

Here is Vincent's home/boarding house room (#5), the upper window on the right.

Below is what the window looked like before restoration.

Some ugly American tourists visiting Auberge Ravoux

I thought the spiderweb at the gate was pretty cool.

And the Vincent benchmark on the ground was also very cool.

It's hard to describe the compulsion to come and be here. To gawk, to ponder, and try to understand something that is not very understandable. So here we were to somberly enter this hallowed ground and try to trace and commit to memory the last 70 days of this incredible artists' life. So enter we did.

This is the alleyway between the restaurant and the inn. It is not the "correct" entryway so we were redirected. I can't help but wonder what it was like for Vincent and the villagers of 1890. Seventy days and eighty works, that is a fevered pitch. Perhaps he was so manicy that he had little need for sleep. But did he drink, drug, and carry on? There are tidbits all over the place as to how Vincent's behavior was erratic and he was disliked and shunned by some because of it. The parish priest of Auvers-sur-Oise called him accursed and even refused to provide his hearse for Vincent`s funeral.

Outside view, room #5

The alleyway between the Inn + the restaurant

Through the looking glass on the outside gate

The empty room we we not supposed to photograph. The one next door is a revisioned one with furnishings that reflect the VVG time period.

Here is another blog with a succinct bio on VVG:

http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/expressionism/Vincent-Van-Gogh.html

It was an intense short stay in this quaint and quiet Paris suburb village. I so wished we had more time. I would have liked to wander to see the countryside, to visit the various places Vincent painted, check out Daubigny and the other Impressionist artists who hung here, to see the Castle and its museum, and of course there was some Art Nouveau in town too that we missed.

The 1903 house we didn't get to see by Hector Guimard, a leading French architect in Art Nouveau back at the turn of the 20th century. This house is located in the Chaponval section of town, about 5 minutes from the VVG site.

Of course the curious tourist or imagining dreamer in me wanted to find these homes for sale as well, because you just never know...

This home is down the road from Chaponval in a section called Valhermeil. The home price is comperable to ours here in Northampton outskirts area.

And this one in the central village with its elevated price is similar to what you would find inside Northampton, MA as well.

It has taken me over a month to sit with all that this European visit entailed, and mostly getting lost in Vincent once again. Where did he live in Montmartre? What were his relationships like? What was manic-depression of that era called and how was it treated? I got sucked in and hard a very hard time pulling myself back out.

My husband, knowing my fascination with the man, quietly purchased tickets for an upcoming event in Great Barrington, MA for the end of August 2015.

http://www.clarkart.edu/ImportedEvents/566-26089

Here's what it had to say about this event:

New York City’s Ensemble for the Romantic Century, in partnership with the American Institute for Economic Research, presents Van Gogh’s Ear, an original theatrical concert based on Vincent van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo. The Ensemble’s recent engagement at the Brooklyn Academy of Music was hailed as “ingenious...breathtaking...sheer poetry!” by The New York Times.

Complementing the Clark’s exhibition Van Gogh and Nature, Van Gogh’s Ear takes the audience on a journey through the artist’s final years in the south of France in a fully staged production with live performances of the music of Debussy, Fauré, Chausson, and Franck.

I was getting one more pass at my man! Actually 2 if you count our trip to the Clark with my foster mother we made in mid-August!! What an exhibit. Van Gogh’s oeuvre, borrowed from a variety of sources and on display for 3 months, the place was mobbed on a Thursday mid-morn and the library free passes have not been available all summer. The new addition to the Clark in my proliteriat opinion sucks, but the exhibit was phenomenal. Here are a few (illegal) shots of it:

There is a hint of another illegal shooter to the left, with very recognizable hands (at least to his wife!) and his innocuious camera hanging from his neck.

My foster mother, Nancy Jones to the left pushing the wheelchair and my favorite picture of Auvers to the right. It was with extreme fondness that I bid VVG adieu.

Goussainville the Ghost Town

In my quest to find good ruins to see, I stumbled upon this place. Here is the Reuters piece on this haunting and preportedly haunted place:

http://blogs.reuters.com/photographers-blog/2013/09/20/the-ghost-town-of-goussainville/

and my absolute go-to in my odd meanderings is Atlas Obscura and Messy Nessy. They had this:

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ghost-town-goussainvile-vieux-pays

http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/07/01/the-suburban-paris-ghost-town/

Although each has a slightly different version, it basically tells the same story of the tragedy that hit in the early 1970's (as the Charles de Gaulle airport was being built and nearing completion) when a plane crashed into the town, destroying buildings and killing over a dozen humans. Many abandoned the town and although some have remained, the town still has a beat-down look. Here's what we saw:

These fields of mostly barren land that surround the CDG airport used to be fields that after the Liberation, German prisoners of war worked in and life quietly moved along until in June 1973 a Tupolev 144, performing at Le Bourget Air Show, crashed in the village, destroying fifteen homes and a school.

This is 14th century Eglise St. Pierre et St. Paul Church. The only building to have withstood the neglect is the Church of St Peter and St Paul – a building erected in the 1300s and now classified as a historic monument that requires the protection of the state. This view is of an occupied home next door to the church and a partial front view of the church

The church was deserted and we only saw two people in the time we spent wandering around. The grass was mowed however, and there were cultivated flowers in places so someone is providing care.