Van Gogh and Hiroshige

Route de campagne en Provence, la nuit mai 1890.© Collection Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo,
The Netherlands

The holidays are over and winter has fallen. This past week, I’ve been valiantly fighting off the dark thoughts threatened by another dreary January in Paris by planning to see some of the great exhibits that are closing up in the coming weeks. This past Friday, I visited the Cercle de l’Art Moderne in the Luxembourg gardens. The Musee de Luxembourg is a great afternoon destination during the winter months that is even more perfect now that Angelina’s has opened a little museum tea salon that serves heart stopping, mouthwatering, ambrosia unfortunately named hot chocolate on the menu. This choice of terminology is certainly one of life’s greatest understatements, but we will forgive the modesty as long as the chocolate is always served so rich it makes you see stars. For those of us who are attempting to maintain the New Year’s resolution for a few more weeks, there is always their house specialty tea that has a nice chocolate flavor and fewer calories.

By the time you are reading this, the Cercle exhibit will be closed and the museum in full preparation for the Chagall exhibit that will open in late February. But there are a number of other excellent exhibitions winding down this month too from Impressionisme et la mode, at Musee d’Orsay to Hopper and les Bohemes at the Grand Palais (see the post from last November). Reserve your tickets for Les Bohemes soon. It ends on January 14! There are also Les couleurs du ciel, at Musee Carnavalet (see the post from last October) and two lovely exhibits at the Pinacotheque Van Gogh and Hiroshige.

Plage des maiko dans la province de Harima Série des Vues des sites célèbres des soixante et quelques
provinces du Japon 1853/XII.© Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden/Musée national d’Ethnologie, Leyde

The companion exhibits are first and foremost an excellent opportunity to see two lovely collections on loan from museums in the Netherlands. Over two hundred Hiroshige engravings, including the series Fifty- three stops on the road to Tokaido* and Sixty-nine stops on the road to Kisokaido were sent from the Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden and 31 Van Gogh paintings belong to the Kröller Müller Museum in  Otterloo.

The quantity of the Hiroshige engravings is astounding and it doesn’t take an expert in the subject (which I certainly am not) to see that these pieces are exceptional.  The Beaches of maiko in the province Harima has dramatic, sinuous lines forming the trunks of immense trees that seem to tower over ant-sized people populating a small portion of the long beach. The Voyagers on Horseback is a view of an elevated road winding through rice paddies that stretch out to the mountains on the horizon. The landscape is touching and the swishing s-shape of the horsetail gives vitality to the scene.  

Voyageurs à cheval sur la route de Yoshiwara avec le mont Fuji sur la gaucheSérie des Cinquante-trois étapes du Tōkaidō1833-1834© Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden/Musée national d’Ethnologie, Leyde

The exhibit draws us into daily life in Japan in the 19^th century, with details clothing and vehicles, traditional events and hierarchies. The images are full of animation and activity, and much of the cultural are explained in the labels that accompany each picture.  One of my favorite pieces is this engraving showing a group of pilgrims walking on a country path in the moonlight towards a village. One of the pilgrims is wearing a large theatrical mask on his back. The unusual character of the little man hunched under the giant mask gives certain originality to the scene by placing it at a specific time with this man’s specific purpose. Many of the cultural details that stand out to western eyes are explained in the labels, engaging the non-initiated spectator to the artwork.

Oliveraie, juin 1889.© Collection Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands

The Van Gogh paintings are the main reason I visited the Pinacotheque. Van Gogh is a colorful and emotional painter that I’ve always found hard to resist. Even though we've been bombarded with cheap reproductions of his paintings in dentist office waiting rooms, on calendars and on mouse pads, once you are face to face with the actual painting, that sickening feeling of déjà vu fades right away. The Kröller-Müller collection has the added benefit of being less accessed by the global market so the paintings are all that more fresh and new to a large number of visitors (including yours truly).

Three paintings that stand out in particular are: L'oliveraie, Pins au coucher du soleil and Route de campagne. The reproductions I present here can by no means do justice to the real paintings on which the thick paint textures the canvas making the colors and forms vibrate and come to life. Of the three the pines are my personal favorite because the colors are surprising - rose, coral and orange behind grey blue, sage and black. These are not at all typical Van Gogh colors, but treated in a way that belongs to Van Gogh alone.

Added to the pleasure of seeing these paintings the exhibit . This isn't necessary for the enjoyment of the exhibit. It is interesting however to discover the discussions between Vincent and his brother Theo on Japanese art, particularly Vincent Van Gogh on Provence and being a sort of Japan. It's up to the visitor to decide why he made this comparison. 

Pins au coucher du soleil, December1889.© Collection Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands

This month, let's say good-bye to some of our regrets from 2012 and take a last minute visit of one or two of those excellent 2012 exhibits that are coming to a close!

Bonne Annee 2013!

-CSL

*Translations of titles into English are my own and translated from the French titles presented in the exhibits.