Van Gogh and the Colours of the Night
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam until 7 June
Remembering his former teacher Vincent van Gogh, the painter Anton Kerssemakers described a walk one evening in 1884 from Nuenen to Eindhoven when Vincent suddenly stopped before the sunset, framed it in his hands and, half closing his eyes, cried out, ‘My God, how does such a fellow — whether God, or whatever you want to call him — how does he do that? We must be able to do that too!’
The hours of sunset, dusk and darkness — outdoors and in — always fascinated van Gogh. Perhaps it was the sense of sacredness that the pastor’s son could never separate from them, or perhaps it was the challenge to the modern painter posed by their colours — more likely, it was a mixture of the two.
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