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Vincent van Gogh's LettersPainted with Words
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Before text messaging, smilies and telephones communication across distances involved letter writing. The correspondence was often saved enabling us to learn about past generations particularly of important historical figures be it royalty, military campaigners, government officials or the creative genius of a man like Vincent van Gogh. |
Title: A Summer Evening, July 1888
Artist: Vincent van Gogh (Dutch 1853-1890)
Medium: Reed Pen, Quill, and Ink over Graphite
Dimensions: 24.0 x 31.5 cm (9 1/2 x 12 3/8 in.)
Permanent Collection: Kunstmuseum, Winterthur
Image Courtesy: Morgan Library and Museum
The Dutch master often included sketches in his letters, providing links to some of his well-known works of art.
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Painted with Words offers a rare look at Van Gogh through his own words specifically involving his friendship with fellow artist Émile Bernard. Along with the letters the exhibit includes twenty-two paintings, drawings and watercolors that the two artists discussed or exchanged. |
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Émile Bernard
Title: Madeleine au Bois d’Amour, 1888
Artist: Émile Bernard (French, 1868–1941)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 138 x 163 cm (54 3/8 x 64 1/4 in.)
Permanent Collection: Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Photography Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
Image Courtesy: Morgan Library and Museum
Who is Émile Bernard? He was a post-impressionist French artist who counted Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh among his friends. Bernard first met Van Gogh in 1886 Paris. Their brief relationship lasted two years ending with Vincent van Gogh's death by suicide. The time frame adds to the importance of the details parsed from the correspondence. In 1888 Gauguin and van Gogh shared a studio space in Arles. Gauguin's decorative touch included a Bernard painting he'd purchased Breton Women in the Plain of Pont-Aven, a work that would inspire Van Gogh. The Dutch master's version is included in Painted with Words.
The letters demonstrate van Gogh's self-appointed and much appreciated role as Bernard's mentor.
![Breton Women in the Plain of Pont-Aven [after Émile Bernard], Arles, by Vincent van Gogh](bretonwomenplainpontaven.jpg)
Title: Breton Women in the Plain of Pont-Aven [after Émile Bernard], Arles, , October–December 1888
Artist: Vincent van Gogh (Dutch 1853-1890)
Medium: Watercolor
Dimensions: 47.5 x 62 cm (18 3/4 x 24 1/2 in.)
Permanent Collection: Civica Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milano
Scala/Art Resource
Image Courtesy: Morgan Library and Museum
“We are delighted to present this exhibition, which explores van Gogh’s creative process through the writings and sketches he sent to Bernard and the works themselves,” said Charles E. Pierce, Jr., director of The Morgan Library & Museum. “The show is uniquely appropriate for the Morgan as it highlights two of our overarching collecting interests, the literary and the visual.” “We are deeply grateful to Gene and Clare Thaw for their exceptional gift to the Morgan of the van Gogh letters. They enrich our holdings of artists’ letters tremendously by adding significant correspondence by a figure essential to the development of modern art.”
The Letters
Twenty of the twenty-two known letters van Gogh wrote to Bernard are on view at the Morgan. Thanks to the future largess of Eugene and Clare Thaw, 19 of these letters will eventually be donated to the Morgan. The other belongs to the Fondation Custodia in Paris and has been loaned for this exhibit.
Of the two letters from Van Gogh to Bernard that are not included in this exhibit, one is in a private collection and the other is considered lost and was known only from an old photograph.
Title: Olive Trees, 1889
Artist: Vincent van Gogh (Dutch 1853-1890)
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 51 x 65.2 cm (20 1/8 x 25 5/8 in.)
Permanent Collection: National Gallery of Scotland
Image Courtesy: Morgan Library and Museum
It is said that letter writing is a lost art. Smilies and TLA's (Three letter acronyms) don't have the cachet as the long-hand form of correspondence. The information derived from the Van Gogh letters to Bernard provide so much information into a pivotal time in the Dutch master's life and work.
Painted with Words: Vincent van Gogh's Letters to Émile Bernard:
Morgan Library and Museum:
September 28 2007 - January 6, 2008