In the artists’ footsteps
Marvel and despair at two greats’ starkly opposite fortunes
THEY had not been on my travel bucket list, but two experiences in the one week are now embedded in the memory as exceptional.
First, Monet’s Gardens in Giverny, about 30 kilometres out of Paris.
While, like most of us, I am familiar with the Monet lily pond paintings, nothing could compare to strolling the gardens Claude Monet created and loved, to be where he lived and painted, to sit in the beautiful gardens he captured so richly on canvas.
I had to share the gardens with hundreds of others who flock there every day in summer but it did not detract from the pleasure.
The Japanese garden, the bamboo, roses and weeping willows, the ponds, the bridge, the little boat – all exquisitely maintained and now a living museum of scenes so many of us have admired on canvas and in myriad prints.
Monet loved to paint everyday things: lily ponds, landscapes, ladies strolling the gardens with parasols, families picnicking. A visit to these beautiful gardens brings the works to life and gives a connection to the impressionist artist.
Secondly, the Van Gogh connection in Auvers-Sur-Oise, a sleepy town about an hour from Paris, where Van Gogh spent the last 70 days of his life.
Standing in front of the mairie (town hall) and looking at the plain building and then at Van Gogh’s glowing painting of it on a nearby panel was thrilling. Then to wander to the church he painted, to look first at the old and dignified church and then to Van Gogh’s depiction against a dark blue sky was to feel a strong intimacy.
In Van Gogh’s room at the Auberge Ravoux, the modest inn he lived in for those 70 days, the connection was even deeper.
Van Gogh’s mental torment is well documented in the many letters he wrote to his brother Theo, and it was profound to stand in the room where he suffered so much.
In one of his many letters to Theo, he wrote that he had done three large pieces: the celebrated Wheat Field with Crows and Wheat Field under Clouded Sky and Plain near Auvers. “They are vast stretches of corn under troubled skies,” he wrote, “and I did not have to go out of my way very much to try to express sadness and extreme loneliness.”
Other letters to Theo recorded his feelings of worthlessness and sadness at being a weight for his brother, who suffered bad health himself.
It was in Auvers that Van Gogh went out into the fields one day after lunch and shot himself in the chest. But not fatally. He was seen coming back to the inn at night, bent over, and explained he had hurt himself with an old pistol kept in a drawer. He said he had decided to put an end to “a sadness that would go on forever’’. He died the next day in the small room.
A visit to the cemetery in Auvres shows his grave next to the grave of his brother Theo, who died of bad health sometime later. The graves sat in obscurity for years but now draw admirers from all over the globe to pay their respects.
It is impossible to imagine what Van Gogh would think if he could look down upon us now, to see his paintings worth billions, while in his short but productive lifetime he was not able to sell a single painting.
Both these unforgettable artistic encounters were made in comfort and style during shore excursions from our European Waterway’s barge, Panache.
We cruised for six nights on Panache out of Paris, a slow and luxurious way to see the French countryside and visit cultural sites.
European Waterways offer a large variety of barge cruises through some of the most beautiful regions in France.
◗ DETAILS: www.europeanwaterways.com