Vincent van Gogh - The Old Church Tower at Nuenen 1884
The Old Church Tower at Nuenen 1884
47x55cm oil/panel
Zurich, Foundation E.G. Bührle
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From Foundation E.G. Bührle, Zurich:
Vincent van Gogh had gone through a severe crisis when, seeking a place of refuge at the beginning of December 1883, he arrived at his parents house at Nuenen in the Dutch province of North Brabant, where he stayed until the end of 1885. He was thirty years old, but young as a painter, for up to that time he had tried his hand in many occupations, but had always failed owing to his uncompromising character. After a training with Anton Mauve and a collaboration with George Hendrik Breitner in The Hague, he determines, at Nuenen, to work on his own and in accordance with his own principles.
In his fathers parsonage, in the ironing room projecting into the garden, he sets up his studio; from here, there is a view over the garden across the fields where the ruined
tower of the old church soars up. During this period van Gogh repeatedly painted and sketched this tower, to accent the horizon in landscapes and harvest scenes, or close up,
as here, as a symbol of transitoriness and solitude, with the sunken crosses of the old graveyard, the felled tree and the crows circling it. The earthy tones only stress the
mournfulness of this place, matched by the grey of the sky.