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Van Gogh’s Self-Portraits

vangoghmuseum.nl

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Re: Van Gogh’s Self-Portraits

#41

Post by Cthulhu_ »

janwillemb wrote: post #35
JacobAldridge wrote: post #25

I’ll join the others in chorus recommending an in-person attendance to the Van Gogh museum. I attended after enjoying another classic Amsterdam experience, munching through a potent hash brownie. Despite giving myself the recommended enjoyment and recovery time, the effects really kicked in just as we entered the Van Gogh Museum. It was brilliant! My beautiful wife abandoned me, because my absorption in some of the w…

And also visit the nice Kröller Muller museum near Apeldoorn while you're in our country. They also have some Van Gogh's. Helena Kröller Muller was one of the first to recognize this kind of art. And also the place is surrounded by a beautiful forest where bikes are freely available.

For sure, make sure to take a whole day though, there's a lot to get through. There's also the park (there's free bikes available or you can drive through it), and another museum called the Museonder, more aimed at kids about what happens underground.

Note that you need a ticket to access the park, pay extra if you want to take your car in, and you need a separate ticket for the museum (the museum is inside the park). Park access is €12,50 per person, museum is another €12,50, and taking the car with you costs €8,70.

Re: Van Gogh’s Self-Portraits

#42

Post by Freak_NL »

Still the same piss-poor resolution of the works in the linked article, as well as the on-line collection. You can download his self portraits in a whopping 500×800 pixels, or use the crappy online viewer to zoom, and resort to hacks to download the obfuscated high resolution imagery.

The Van Gogh Museum gave this as the reason for this low quality:

> We zijn ons ervan bewust dat sommige culturele instellingen de bestanden ook op hoge resolutie beschikbaar stellen. Wij hebben vooralsnog een andere keuze gemaakt, mede omdat bij gebruik van de beelden voor commerciële doeleinden wij er waarde aan hechten dat dit op een passende wijze plaatsvindt. Ik vertrouw op uw begrip hiervoor.

They want to prevent the works of Van Gogh from showing up on merchandise without their seal of approval (and income), basically. Meanwhile the neighbouring Rijksmuseum provides high resolution scans for download without such miserly reasoning, fulfilling their public duty in a much more pleasant way.

Re: Van Gogh’s Self-Portraits

#43

Post by Vinnl »

janwillemb wrote: post #35
JacobAldridge wrote: post #25

I’ll join the others in chorus recommending an in-person attendance to the Van Gogh museum. I attended after enjoying another classic Amsterdam experience, munching through a potent hash brownie. Despite giving myself the recommended enjoyment and recovery time, the effects really kicked in just as we entered the Van Gogh Museum. It was brilliant! My beautiful wife abandoned me, because my absorption in some of the w…

And also visit the nice Kröller Muller museum near Apeldoorn while you're in our country. They also have some Van Gogh's. Helena Kröller Muller was one of the first to recognize this kind of art. And also the place is surrounded by a beautiful forest where bikes are freely available.

They don't just have a large Van Gogh collection, but have a collection that quite strikingly demonstrates how his work fits into the evolution of styles from Rembrandt to Mondriaan.

Big +1 to this recommendation.

Re: Van Gogh’s Self-Portraits

#45

Post by j-a-a-p »

isaacfrond wrote: post #39

Next time you're in the Netherlands, don't go to the van Gogh museum, but go to the Kröller-Müller Museum instead. It is the better van Gogh. Trust me on this. The Kröller-Müller collection was made before van Gogh has broken through. They got first pick on everything. Although the van Gogh has more works, the Kröller-Müller has the better ones. Besides the setting of the Kröller-Müller is much much nicer.

Kröller Müller is also not flooded with people. The world's top musea, like van Gogh and Musée d'Orsay are a victim of their own success.

Re: Van Gogh’s Self-Portraits

#46

Post by coldcode »

dekhn wrote: post #11
smokel wrote: post #2

I used to "not get" why Van Gogh is considered to be so special. After reading his biography and his letters, I am now in the know. Van Gogh is an interesting case. He was very familiar with the art world, even before he started drawing and painting. He worked as an art dealer and traveled a lot when he was young. Where it gets interesting is when he sets out to become an artist himself. Over the course of only ten y…

To me it wasn't until I saw his painting in person at the Van Gogh museum. I had never seen painting with just so much physical, 3D realism to them (the paint projects off the canvas some 5-10mm in places). I've never seen anything quite like it from that era. Some others that I've gained appreciation for over time: Rembrandt (seeing the Night Watch in person, alone, was amazing), Vermeer (he was barely known until f…

I stood in front of The Starry Night at MOMO in New York City for a long time, trying to imagine what it felt like for him to stand in front of a blank canvas, thinking what should I do today, and come up with that.

Re: Van Gogh’s Self-Portraits

#47

Post by mikhailfranco »

The best art exhibition I have ever seen was Van Gogh and Japan at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam circa 2018.

It juxtaposed his paintings with traditional Japanese woodcut prints from his personal collection (~500), or that he would have seen at contemporay Japonisme exhibitions.

The influence is clear, and in some cases very direct. Sometimes with subject matter, others with composition, or texture, or contrast of textures. The Japanese prints were as wonderful as the Van Gogh.

All together, an educational and sensory delight.

Re: Van Gogh’s Self-Portraits

#48

Post by david927 »

artursapek wrote: post #28
david927 wrote: post #3

> On 23 December 1888, Vincent cut off his left ear in a state of total confusion. The evidence we have now strongly points to that Gauguin cut it off during an argument.

As I read about all this, I kept thinking, “what makes us so sure he did it to himself?”

Yeah, it's quite funny. We know they argued violently and that Gauguin was armed with a sword. We know that Gauguin rushed out of town that night leaving his sword behind. We know that the argument was directly in front of a brothel. We know that Vincent opened the door and handed the receptionist his ear in paper saying, "Hold this for me," then went home and fell asleep, and later refused to talk about the incident in any way.

From this we came up with: after an argument with Gauguin, he cut off his own ear and gave it to a prostitute he probably was in love with, which shows how crazy he was.

I mean, now we have the doctor's rendering and it's clearly a sword cut, but couldn't we have figured this out before? Really?

Re: Van Gogh’s Self-Portraits

#49

Post by artursapek »

david927 wrote: post #48
artursapek wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I read about all this, I kept thinking, “what makes us so sure he did it to himself?”

Yeah, it's quite funny. We know they argued violently and that Gauguin was armed with a sword. We know that Gauguin rushed out of town that night leaving his sword behind. We know that the argument was directly in front of a brothel. We know that Vincent opened the door and handed the receptionist his ear in paper saying, "Hold this for me," then went home and fell asleep, and later refused to talk about the incident…

This drawing?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Drawing_...

yeah it's funny to think how much of history is likely to be retold incorrectly

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