Van Gogh is my favourite artist. I can sit and gawp at his beautiful paintings for hours. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is my favourite place to visit and I do go every year to visit.
When I saw that this talk was on, I was intrigued. I did know that Van Gogh lived in London as I saw that in films and read about it but knew very little of his life here. The talk will be given by Kristine Groenhart, author of the book How I love London.
How I love London will lead you through Vincent van Gogh’s life between 1873-1875, when he lived and worked in London. It was a bittersweet and short stay, but one of the most pleasant periods of his life.
- What did he see?
- Where did he walk?
- And what impressed the young artist the most, while living the expat live in the Victorian age?
The talk will highlight an underexposed period in Vincent van Gogh’s life, let us
experience the same strolls Van Gogh made and see what he saw in ‘his London’. it will also be illustrated with unique visuals and facts to let us see what Van Gogh
saw, like paintings he admired to drawings of 1874s city life. Although it might
seem that his London years are insignificant, this period in his life had a great
impact on him artistically, for his notes and sketches of his walks have been inspirations for his later paintings.
When : 12 September 2013
Where: The Dutch Centre
7 Austin Friars, EC2N 2HA, London, U.K
Tickets are free but you have to apply via their website.
More information about Kristine -www.kristinegroenhart.nl/
More about Van Gogh in London
At the age of 20 Vincent van Gogh – not yet a painter- moved to London to work for
art dealer Goupil & Cie at 17 Southampton Street in Covent Garden. On his way to
work and in his leisure time he walked with great pleasure through London’s museums, galleries, churches and streets, making notes and sketches of all things he gazed. Unfortunately it was a broken heart that made him leave his beloved London within two years.
The walks Vincent van Gogh made through Victorian London are reconstructed from his letters and notes: from the Dutch Church in Austin Friars to St Pauls Cathedral, from The National Gallery to Westminster Bridge, to The British Museum and Hampton Court Palace.
On January 1874 a young Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo: “I am doing well here, I have a lovely home and it gives me great pleasure to witness London, and the English way of life, and the English themselves, and then I have not even mentioned the nature and art and poetry, and if that were not enough, what will be enough.”
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