Sorrow (van Gogh)

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Sorrow (Vincent van Gogh)
Sorrow
Vincent van Gogh , 1882
Drawing, pencil, pen and ink on paper,
44.5 cm × 27.0 cm
Garman Ryan Collection; new York

Sorrow is a drawing by Vincent van Gogh . He created the work in 1882, two years after he decided to become a painter. It shows a 32-year-old woman, Clasina Maria Hoornik, called Sien . The drawing is considered a masterpiece, the result of a long and often uncertain apprenticeship in technology.

The drawing is part of a series with Sien Hoornik as a model. It is mentioned in several letters from Van Gogh, who described it as “'t beste figuur dat ik nog geteekend heb” (German: “the best body study I have ever drawn”). In a letter from July 1882 he wrote: “ Ik wil teekeningen maken meet the summer people . Sorrow is een small begin [...] Daarin is ten minste iets directly uit my own gemoed. "(German:" I want to make drawings that touch some people. Sorrow is a small beginning. [...] At least it's something straight from my heart. ").

The drawing has the number F929a in the Catalog raisonné by Jacob-Baart de la Faille . It belongs to the Garman Ryan Collection, which was shown in the New Art Gallery Walsall. It was previously in the private collection of the painter Sally Ryan and hung in her suite at the Dorchester Hotel in London.

Relationship to the model

Van Gogh is said to have met Sien Hoornik in January 1882 with her five-year-old daughter Maria Wilhelmina on the streets of The Hague . She was pregnant and shabby, addicted to alcohol and nicotine, and worked as a prostitute. Out of compassion and responsibility, Van Gogh looked after her for about a year. From their point of view, the relationship seems to have been nothing more than a solution to a difficult situation, while Van Gogh had at times intended a marriage. He gave her accommodation and in return she sat for him as a model.

In July 1882, Sien gave birth to their son Willem in Leiden . After the birth, she moved into an apartment with a studio with Van Gogh. After a happy period, she began drinking and working as a prostitute again in 1883. They still lived together, but the relationship suffered. Van Gogh found it increasingly difficult to support her and the children. In September 1883 they finally separated. Sien committed suicide in 1904; she threw herself into the Scheldt .

Drawing and symbolism

Sorrow probably originated in the spring of 1882, between the first meeting with Sien and the birth of their son. The drawing is mentioned in a letter to brother Theo dated April 10, 1882. This date is very likely because spring flowers can be seen in the foreground. The 44.5 cm × 27.0 cm drawing was made in pencil, pen and ink on paper.

Although the general mood of the picture is described as dreary, the flowers suggest hope. Van Gogh depicts women as drawn from life, related to the drawings of old stunted trees such as Les racines (1882): “Ik wilde zoowel in dat blank slanke vrouwenfiguur as in the twinky gnarled wortels with hun knoesten iets uitdrukken van den strijd des levens . "(I want to express something about the struggle for life both in the white, slender female figure and in the black gnarled roots with their knots.)

The drawing bears the French inscription "Comment se fait-il qu'il y ait sur la terre une femme seule, délaissée?" ("How can it be that a woman is alone on earth, abandoned?"), Quoted from the book La Femme by the contemporary sociologist Jules Michelet . The quote provides a key to issues in van Gogh's early work.

Versions

Other Version (F929)
Pressure (F 1655, JH 259)

Allegedly there were four versions of Sorrow from the first half of April 1882, the original drawing and two sheets of paper underneath. Van Gogh worked on the leaves that were accidentally made. Ten days after the first drawing, he transferred the motif to a larger version. He mentioned them in a letter to Theo dated May 1, 1882: I have now finished two larger drawings. Initially Sorrow, but in a larger format, the figure without accessories. But the position has changed a little, the hair no longer hangs over the back, but forwards, partly in a braid. This allows you to see more of the shoulder joint, neck and back. And the figure is drawn with greater care. He drew the drawing on cardboard. It is unknown whether this version still exists. Another of the versions mentioned, which according to the letter he sent to his brother on April 10, is believed to have been lost.

Prints of Sorrow's versions are in the collections of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which has two copies, and the Museum of Modern Art , New York. The latter print was made by J. Smulders & Cie. executed in The Hague .

literature

Web links

Commons : Vincent van Gogh - Sorrow  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Hughes: The genius of Crazy Vinnie. In: The Guardian . October 27, 2005, accessed November 15, 2014 .
  2. ↑ a b To: Theo van Gogh Date: The Hague, on or about Monday, April 10, 1882. In: Vincent Van Gogh. The letters. Van Gogh Museum, accessed January 16, 2014 (Dutch / English).
  3. ^ A b c Leo Jansen: Vincent van Gogh - The Letters: The complete illustrated and annotated edition - Volume 2: The Hague 1881-1883 ( English ). Thames & Hudson, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-500-23865-3 , pp. 52, 61.
  4. ↑ Mark Roskill: The Letters of Van Gogh ( English ). Fontana, Glasgow 1963, p. 155.
  5. ↑ To Theo van Gogh. The Hague, on or about Friday, July 21, 1882. In: Vincent Van Gogh. The letters. Van Gogh Museum, accessed January 16, 2014 (Dutch / English).
  6. ↑ Accession number 1973.128.GR
  7. ^ A b Jo Digger: Extraordinary People: Portraits in the Garman Ryan Collection ( English ). The New Art Gallery Walsall, 2009, ISBN 0-946652-93-7 , pp. 32, 56.
  8. ↑ a b c Letter 192 to Theo , in: Fritz Erpel (Ed.): Vincent van Gogh. All letters. 1. To brother Theo . Translation by Eva Schumann . New ill. Facs.-repr. the edition Berlin 1965 and 1968. Bornheim-Merten: Lamuv-Verl. 1985, pp. 354-356
  9. ^ Hans Bronkhorst: Vincent van Gogh ( English ). Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1990, ISBN 0-297-83108-9 , p. 15.
  10. ↑ Letter 227: To Theo van Gogh. The Hague, on or about Tuesday, May 16, 1882. In: Vincent van Gogh: The Letters. Van Gogh Museum , accessed May 10, 2013 .
  11. ^ Van Gogh's Progress: Utopia, Modernity, and Late-Nineteenth-Century Art ( English ). University of California Press, Berkeley 1997, ISBN 0-520-08849-2 , p. 52.
  12. ^ A b Sheila McGregor: A Shared Vision: The Garman Ryan Collection at The New Art Gallery Walsall ( English ). Merrell Holberton, London 1999, ISBN 1-85894-086-9 , p. 58.
  13. ↑ From: Vincent van Gogh To: Theo van Gogh Date: The Hague, Monday, May 1, 1882. In: Vincent Van Gogh. The letters. Van Gogh Museum, accessed January 16, 2014 (Dutch / English).
  14. ↑ Jules Michelet: Woman (La femme) ( English ). Rudd & Carleton, 1860, p. 32 (accessed May 10, 2013).
  15. ^ Letter 195 to Theo , in: Fritz Erpel (Ed.): Vincent van Gogh. All letters. 1. To brother Theo . Translation by Eva Schumann . New ill. Facs.-repr. the edition Berlin 1965 and 1968. Bornheim-Merten: Lamuv-Verl. 1985, pp. 368-373
  16. ↑ Accession: 332.1951
  17. ↑ a b Vincent van Gogh. Sorrow. November 1882. MoMA, accessed May 10, 2013 .
  18. ↑ Vincent van Gogh: The Lithographs ("Sorrow"). In: Van Gogh Gallery. Retrieved May 6, 2013 .