Exhibitions Huon Mallalieu
Van Gogh and Britain Tate Britain 27th March to 11th August
These days it is almost impossible to be unable to find an exhibition devoted to some aspect of van Gogh’s life and art. In 2018 and 2019, there have been or will be shows in Texas, Amsterdam and Den Bosch, Arles, Arken in Denmark, and London.
Until the 2008-9 Van Gogh and the Colours of the Night show in New York and Amsterdam converted me, his drawings meant more to me than the paintings; now I am intensely moved by many of them.
Despite a post-war show at what was then just the Tate Gallery, it does, however, seem strange to find van Gogh at Tate Britain rather than the National Gallery or Tate Modern. Calendar constraints, or perhaps a ploy to sprinkle international stardust over the repository of the older national collections?
In any event, there will be major pleasures, with 40 of his works on show, including Starry Night over the Rhône from the Musée d’orsay in Paris, a Sunflowers lent by the National Gallery, Shoes from the Van
Gogh Museum and two later works painted in the Saint-paul Asylum: one from the Kröller-müller in the Netherlands and Prisoners Exercising from the Pushkin, Moscow.
In 1873-74, when working for the art dealer Goupil’s London branch, Vincent lodged in Hackford Road, Stockwell, and fell in love with the city, as well as his landlady’s daughter. He walked everywhere and revelled in the art he saw, by painters such as Constable and Millais.
‘He would go to museums – the National Gallery was five minutes from Goupil,’ says Martin Bailey, a van Gogh expert and co-curator of the Tate show. ‘It had enormous influence on him, particularly some years later when he set out to become an artist.’
Hobema’s The Avenue at Middelharnis, which will be in the show, ‘made a deep impression on van Gogh, who, in his early years particularly, loved avenues of trees because they gave a sense of perspective to a painting’.
He also acquired contemporary prints, notably a run of the Graphic magazine, which fed his love of Shakespeare and Dickens. On loan from the Museu de Arte de São Paulo is the version of L’arlésienne (1890) in which the sitter has a Dickens novel in front of her.
In January 1874, Vincent wrote to his brother, Theo, ‘Things are going well for me here. I have a wonderful home and it’s a great pleasure for me to observe London and the English way of life, and the English themselves, and I also have nature and art and poetry, and if that isn’t enough, what is?’
He was in England again for six months in 1876, less happily, teaching at Ramsgate and in Isleworth and assisting a Methodist minister. Only in 1880 did he fully commit himself to art.
In 1947, the Tate’s previous van Gogh show was hugely influential, introducing him to British audiences and a new generation of artists. This one includes works by artists he influenced, such as Christopher Wood, David Bomberg and Francis Bacon.