Vincent, Faith, Hope, and Charity

 

 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 King James Version

[Verse 1]
Starry, starry night
Paint your palette blue and grey
Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul
Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils
Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colors on the snowy linen land

[Chorus]
Now I understand
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they did not know how
Perhaps they'll listen now.

                              Don McLean 1970

Vincent Van Gogh's revolutionary painting style and his chaotic personal life contributed to the sad fact that he only sold one painting before his untimely death. Fortunately his sister-in-law Johanna,  wife of Vincent's brother who also died young, became the executor of his work and published the correspondence between the close siblings. 

These efforts meant that by the early twentieth century Van Gogh was being recognized for his genius and his paintings were in demand. I came across an article about a new exhibition of Vincent's paintings in a smaller museum which owns 88 of them but has never displayed the entire collection at one time:

The Kröller-Müller Museum, which owns pictures donated by the greatest private collector of Van Gogh, has just hung all of its paintings by the artist for the first time since 2003. Based in a national park near the Dutch village of Otterlo, the museum usually has space for only half this number. The remainder of the Van Goghs are usually in store or on loan, with an occasional one in the conservation studio. 

Helene Kröller-Müller, a connoisseur and the wife of a wealthy businessman, acquired the works in the period 1908-30 (it remains the world’s largest collection of the artist’s work, after that left by his family at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum).

Van Gogh’s Terrace of a Café at Night (September 1888) and Country Road in Provence by Night (May 1890) Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

Seeing this collection would be wonderful in itself but I also found the theme for the exhibition fascinating:  

The exhibition is divided into three sections loosely inspired by the three Christian virtues of faith, hope and charity. Curator Renske Cohen Tervaert has played with the concept, changing charity (as in towards one’s neighbours) into “love”. 

Tervaert’s idea came from Van Gogh’s only known sermon text, which he delivered 150 years ago on 29 October 1876 at Richmond Methodist Church. Aged 23, Van Gogh had recently been sacked as an art dealer in London’s Covent Garden and was then working as an assistant teacher in a small school in Isleworth, in west London. We have no idea what the congregation thought of this young Dutchman with his strong accent, but his preaching career lasted only a few weeks.

More framed pictures in Van Gogh, All Our Paintings 

Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (photograph Marjon Gemmeke)

I've read an extensive biography of Van Gogh which describes his earnestness about his Christian faith and anguish at his failure while in London. He returned to the Netherlands where he worked with impoverished mining families. For all his suffering and dissolute lifestyle in subsequent years there was an underlying element of faith and devotion in many of his paintings, some more overt than others, and he always had a passion for Christ. 

Perhaps Van Gogh could be the patron saint of preachers although it might be better to imagine St. Francis in that role, even if he too was unconventional. Vincent also served as a Sunday School teacher in London, which must have been an adventure!

[Outro]
Now I think I know
What you tried to say to me
And how you suffered for your sanity
And how you tried to set them free
They would not listen, they're not listening still
Perhaps they never will