Travel and Adventure by Various Travel Authors

By Karen Kenyon

"Art is what one feels in a certain state of the soul." — Vincent van Gogh

I didn't see sunflowers. It was a little early for that. And I forgot to look up at the starry sky.

But in Arles, France, I felt the spirit of Vincent van Gogh — the tormented, green-eyed Dutch painter who roamed those streets in 1888. He would have worn his straw hat, carried paints and easel, searched for a spot to pause and put thick paint onto the canvas in a frenzy of love.

I was traveling with a few others in a minibus, and I must have fallen asleep just before we entered Arles. When I opened my eyes we were swerving through the ancient village. Where are we? I wondered, feeling claustrophobic.

I hadn't expected this feeling. This was Arles, where van Gogh lived for 15 months and created 300 canvases. He had come here for the light and hoping for internal enlightenment.

But even the beautiful and historical hotel felt wrong — the walk to my room felt like a trip to a dungeon. (The hotel was an ancient structure. Beneath the lobby's glass floor we could see Roman excavations). It was fascinating, but I was in no mood. My room had thick wooden shutters from which I could picture Vincent peering — rough-hewn, yet comfortable. But I didn't feel comfortable.

Even at dinner our small group, which until then had been happily congenial, fell apart — with anger and some tears. I decided to break with the group excursion in the morning. I felt emotionally on edge and needed to wander the streets alone.

The next morning, armed with a map from the desk clerk at the hotel, I walked through the village, searching for the huge Roman arena, built in 46 B.C., when Arles was the capital of the Western Roman Empire. In Roman times the arena featured gladiators, and for many years bullfights have been held there. In fact, Pablo Picasso often attended the bullfights in Arles and van Gogh did one well-known painting, "The Arena at Arles."

Not far away was the Musee Reattu, Arles' major museum. This was basically a museum of classical antiquities when van Gogh was in Arles, but he preferred the here and now and did not frequent the museum. Even today there are none of his paintings on display, even though there are a significant number of Picassos along with the antiquities.

Van Gogh envisioned an artists' colony, all artists learning and growing by the sharing of ideas. The first step for the 35-year-old Dutchman was to invite another painter he admired, the 42-year-old Frenchman Paul Gauguin. Though reluctant to come, Gauguin was promised the sale of his work as an incentive by van Gogh's art dealer brother, Theo.

Van Gogh found a yellow house with green shutters at 2 Lamartine, now referred to as "The Yellow House." He painted the interior yellow, too, and purchased as much furniture as he could afford.

Theo sent money regularly so that he was able to buy a table, two chairs, and equipment to make coffee (which he loved) and soup. Then he set to work painting the sunflowers he saw in the nearby fields. He hung them along with Japanese prints and Daumier lithographs.

"I really do want to make of it an artists' house," he said.

Unfortunately, the house was destroyed by American bombers in 1944.

I headed toward the famous cafe (now the van Gogh Cafe), which both van Gogh and Gauguin painted as "The Night Cafe" or "Le Cafe de Nuit." Van Gogh said dramatically of his paintings of "The Night Cafe": "I have tried to express the idea that the cafe is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad or commit a crime."

Once at the cafe, whose originally bare limestone walls are now painted bright yellow to match van Gogh's painting, I saw a small group of American students taking photos.

The interaction with American strangers in a faraway city gave me the feeling of connection van Gogh seldom felt in Arles. He had few friends, most of whom are immortalized in his paintings — the postman Roulin, his wife and baby daughter, and Mme. Ginoux of the cafe.

It was time to wander back to the hotel to meet the group for our departure. I had missed the talk the guide must have offered my companions, but I felt that alone I could feel van Gogh's spirit.

Since 1983, Arles has had the Foundation van Gogh with works inspired by the artist. Its mission is to achieve van Gogh's dream of a House of Artists. Each summer an exhibition is devoted to a new artist whose work can be linked to him. One such artist was David Hockney, whose painting of the van Gogh chair graces the foundation's poster.

Van Gogh's painting of his chair and Gauguin's were the first times a painter had used such a common object for a subject. He had an affinity for chairs and wept after his father left him as a young student when he looked at his father's empty chair. He even had a print of Samuel Luke Fildes' painting of Charles Dickens' empty chair. Now his chair paintings are icons.

The beginning of the end came for van Gogh in Arles just before Christmas1889. Tortured because of an argument when Gauguin stormed out, Vincent ran after him with a razor in his hand. When he approached Gauguin, van Gogh gesticulated wildly. He then cut off part of his own ear and immediately left. Horrified, Gauguin ran back to the house, took his belongings and left town.

Van Gogh went to the house of prostitution he frequently visited. He asked for a prostitute he knew and gave her the severed piece of his ear before going home to pass out. After that he was hospitalized, though in time released. The people of Arles signed a petition then to send him to an asylum. Soon he was in a mental hospital in nearby St. Remy.

While at St. Remy Vincent dreaded more attacks (possibly epileptic seizures), but he painted several of his most famous works, including "The Reaper" and "The Starry Night." Afterward he had a short reprieve in Paris with Theo and his wife and baby. Then he settled in Auvers, north of Paris.

Tragically, he took his own life by walking into a field outside of Auvers and shooting himself in the chest. Two days later, on July 29, 1890, he died. He left behind traces of passion, hard work and an appreciation of beauty, but also his torment and longing in Arles.

Traveling to Arles has made his paintings seem even more poignant, compelling and beautiful to me. As we drove toward the Marseilles airport, I glanced out the window and had my first and only view of a field of sunflowers just coming into bloom. Vincent must have loved that birth of yellow and felt hope for the beauty he would capture with his hands and heart.

IF YOU GO:

www.tourisme.ville-arles.fr

www.hotelarlatan.fr

www.foundationvangogh-arles.org

Karen Kenyon is a freelance travel writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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