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안녕하십니까?

이 글은 Mons에 있는 Gogh가 살던 집 밖에 세워져 있는 소개글을 입력한 것 입니다. 사진을 누르시면 더 크게 보실 수 있습니다. 제가 몰랐던 사실을 많이 알게 되었는데, 그동안 몰랐던 것을 알게되니, 개인적으로 이 화가의 삶에 대한 연민이 많이 갑니다. 특히나 그가 evangelist 살던 집에서의 너무나도 근엄(?)했던 방 분위기를 통해서 많은 것을 느꼈기에 그 연민의 정이 더합니다.

그가 몽스에 있는 집을 떠나면서 "from here Vincent Van Gogh departed in search of the sun and of himself"라고 한 말이 제 가슴에 들어옵니다. 빛은, 사랑이며 존재 그 자체이기에 그가 그리려고 했던 노란 색조의 이글거리는 태양에 많은 사람들이 열광하는 모양입니다.

또 다른 한 가지 제 가슴에 들어오는 글월은 고호가 살던 당시의 탄광촌 생활상.

저는 최근에 husband의 어원인 husbandry (farming: the practice of cultivating the land or raising stock)에 상당한 의미를 두고 있습니다. 사실 역사적으로 따지고 보면, 산업혁명 이전에는 밖에 나가 밭일 하고, 가축 먹이고 하는 것이 대부분의 남정네의 일, 즉 남편(또는 바깥양주)이 하는 일이었습니다. 요즘은 남편들이 하는 일이 참 많아지고 다양해지고, 남편, 여편의 일에 경계가 별로 없어졌지요.

문득 드는 생각이, "우리가 신업화를 통해서 얻는 것은 물론 물질적인 풍요와 편리함이겠지만, 결국 대부분의 개개인은 종속의 길로 들어서게 된 것이 아니었나?", 하는 것 입니다. 즉, husband의 일이 직접 먹을 것을 생산하는 일에서 벗어나면서 초기 자본의 축적에 이용을 당하게 된 것은 아니었을까, 하는... 물론 지금은 상황이 많이 나아졌다고는 하지만, 결국 동일한 논리가 적용되고 있는 것은 아닌가, 하는... 결국, 이 모든 와중에 정신을 차리고 살아서 진정으로 더 자유로워지려면, 결국 치열하게 자유를 사랑할 수 밖에 없나요? (마치 누군가가, "only remedy for love is to love more"라고 말하는 것처럼?).

에공, 무슨 소린기여... 그냥 본문 갑니다요~

이 글은 Mons에 있는 Gogh가 살던 집 밖에 세워져 있는 소개글을 입력한 것 입니다. 사진을 누르시면 더 크게 보실 수 있습니다.

Childhood and Youth

30-03-1853

Birth of Vincent Willem in Grood-Zundert (in the Netherlands, province of North- Brabant), son of the clergyman Theodorus Van Gogh and Anna Carbentus.

01-05-1857

Birth of his preferred brother Theo. A deep friendship binds the two brothers until their death. It is Theo who shall provide the material aid to enable Vincent to practive his art.

1864 - 1866

Vincent studies Zevenbergen and then in Tilburg. He is an ardent reader, and learns various languages; French, English and German.

1869

He returns to Zundert, which leaves on 30 07 1869, never to come back again.

The Early Years of His Life

30-07-1869

Employee in the Goupil Art Gallery in Den Haag (La Laye), and establishment created by his uncle Vincent, named like him after the grand father. He is interested in art and in drawing.

1872

As a trusted employee, he is sent to the Goupil Gallery in London. He falls in love with his landlady’s daughter, who is already engaged. This is the first deception in his love life.

1874 - 1876

Vincent works alternatively in the Goupil Galleries in Paris and in London.

The Religious Calling

1876

He returns to the Goupil Art gallery in Paris, but shows less and less interest in selling of paintings. But his religious fervor increases, and on April the 1st, he ends his job.

17-04-1876

Vincent goes back once again to England. He becomes a teacher and a language coach in Ramsgate, and then joins Pastor Jones in isleworth as an assistant preacher.

1877

Back to the Netherlands in Etten, where his father has been nominated as Pastor. While working as a library salesman, Vincent prepares the entry examination in the Faculty for Theology in Amsterdam.

1878

He abandons the study of Latin and Greek languages, considering them to be unnecessary, and goes to Laeken (Belgium) to take courses to become an evangelist.

In the Coalmining Area of the Borinage

26-12-1878

He leaves for the Borinage. He lodges with the traveling salesman Van Der Haegen in Paturages.

January 1879

He establishes himself in Wasmes as assistant preacher, and lodges with the Denis family. Deeply impressed by the misery of the coal miners, he abandons his predications and starts a more direct apostolate. He descends into the coalminers, he abandons all superfluity, and becomes a “miner with the miners”.

July 1879

The Evangelical Authorities consider that his zeal is exaggerated and deprive him of his mandate. In that period Vincent starts to sketch his first drawings of the life of the coalminers.

In Cuesmes

August 1879

After a visit to the Pastor Pietersen in Brussels, a member of the Synod of the Evangelical Church and an art lover (probably the reason for his visit), Vincent establishes himself in Wasmes, in an annex of the house of Marcel Decrucq, in the rue de Pavillon, after having stayed a short while in the home of the Evangelist Franck.

September 1879

While helping the Evangelist on a personal basis, he rediscovers his artistic calling “I’m once again taking up my drawing activities, because it seems to me that everything has changed form me”. (Letter 136F to his brother Theo – Cuesmes 24 09 1879)

1879 - 1880

In this period two events take place: his definite rupture with the unions of the protestant churches; his first continuous production, mainly inspired by Millet with among others, the drawing “The Diggers”, now the property of the towns of Mons.

October 1880

Vincent leavers Borinage for ever: “from here Vincent Van Gogh departed in search of the sun and of himself”.

The Borinage Coalmine Region in Vincent’s Time

The region of the Borinage is mainly marked by the extraction of coal, which was already active in the 13th century, and which gradually active in the 13th century, and which gradually increased from 1735 onward, together with the “Industrial Revolution”. In the 19th century, the industry reached its full development. An important testimony of this development Is the nearby site of the Grand-Hornu mine complex, erected between 1810 and 1830 by henri De Gorge, a “Captain of Industry” born in France, and who dies in 1832.

In that period the “Golden Age” of he extraction industries in the province of Hainaut started up, with as corollaries the iron and steel industries and the glassworks. The mine-owners lived in Mons, and the town became a center for the coal trade.

However, the misery of the working classes was immense, accentuated by the numerous mine-gas explosions. In April 1897, a real castrophe took place in the Agrappe coalmine in Frameries, resulting in hundreds of victims. Although coal was an immense source of riches, both on a regional and a national basis, the living conditions of the miners and their families were appalling. At that time, there were 30,000 men active in the Borinage coalmines. At the same time 2,000 girls and 2,500 boys yonger than 14 years were working there too, together with 1,000 girls and 2,000 boys between 14 and 16 years old, and 3,000 women.

The average working day lasted 12 hours; health conditions were disgraceful; ventilation in the mine-shafts and the galleries was insignificant, and the underground works was extremely dangerous. Salaries were very low, the employers were only interested in “making profit”.

Alcoholism and various illness wrought havoc; the death rate in childhoold was enormous. These were the conditions Vincent encountered when he arrived in the Borinage.

The Discovery of His Art

1880 – 1881

Vincent lives in Brussels and practice drawing with his compatriot the painter Anton Van Rappart.

1881 - 1883

After a short stay with his parents in Etten, he leaves for the Hague in November 1881, where he works with the painter Anton Mauve.

He starts to use colors and paints his first pictures. This period ends with a short spell in the province of Drenthe.

1884 – 1885

After staying some time with his parents in Nuenen where they are now living, and where his father dies on 26 03 1885, Vincent leaves the Netherlands definitely in November 1885.

He selles down in Antwerp, where his Academy teachers consider that he is “incapable to draw”, and where they want him to take up lessons as a beginner.

1880 – 1888

He goes to Paris where he lives in the home of his brother Theo, who is an expert in the Art Trade. This is where he meets the Impressionists, and where he starts up a stormy friendship with the painter Gauguin. Vincent amalgamates the various influences into an increasingly personal style.

Nostalgis

1888

He will never forget his stay in Borinage. He writes from Arles to Eugene Boch in La Louviere: “I’m so much love this sorrowful area of the Borinage, which shall remain unforgettable to me”. (Letter 553b)

The same Borinage of which he said the years earlier: “the Borinage is just as picturesque as the old Venice, Arabia or Brittany”.

France and the Final Years

1888

Toulouse-Lautrec having encouraged him to leave for the South of France, Vincent settles in Arles. This is where he experiences his masterly period of Light and Sun. Gauguin joins him there in October, the result being the tragedy of the severed ear on December 24. Vincent begins to be mentally disturbed.

1889

After having been cared for in the Arles hospital, Vincent becomes a voluntary inmate in the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole Asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Province.

1890

Theo’s child is born, and is named Vincent (he will become the engineer Van Gogh). The artist returns to his brother’s home on May the 17th, and then leaves on May 21st, going to Auvers-Sur-Oise, where he is placed in the loving care of Doctor Gachest and his family. Everything is upside-down; his paintings are tormented, full of sorrow and melancholy.

On July 29th, Vincent shoots himself in the chest, and succumbs to the wound.

1891

Theo is struck by the illness and joins Vincent in death on January the 25th. Their bodies are resting side by side since 1914 in the cemetery of Auvers.