Van Gogh's famous self portrait

Was Van Gogh really the mad genius we all think of when we hear his name? The ear chopping depressive who violently took his own life when the art world’s indifference finally got too much for him?

The purpose of the latest exhibition at the Royal Academy is to persuade the viewer that there was a lot more to Van Gogh than this reputation. Entitled ‘The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters’; an insight into the artist’s personal life provided by a vast collection of letters shows his hopes and fears and most of all his clear obsession with his art studies. Accumulating a huge body of work over just ten years, Van Gogh did little else but develop his skills as an artist in this period. His letters, mainly to his younger brother Theo, himself an art dealer, reveal his quest for improvement and his disappointment with his ‘failures’.

Taking over seven rooms at the gallery, we follow Van Gogh’s progression from his first works through to his final paintings. Fascinating sketches show his practice, many of which he copies onto his letters to illustrate his point and his development can be traced in chronological order from room to room. Starting with the Dutch landscapes, we see how Van Gogh struggles to master perspective, before moving onto another difficult task, figures. Almost entirely self taught, it is fascinating to see the development of a great artist unfold and be able to read his thoughts on his progress. In the third room we are hit by fabulous colour and the Van Gogh we know and love (‘Grass and Butterflies’, ‘Fishing Boats at Sea’) begins to appear. Also in this section are the Japanese prints that influenced Van Gogh so much. He said in a letter to Theo that all his work was based on Japanese art to some extent.

In the following rooms there are the very famous ‘Self portrait as an artist’, ‘The Postman’ and many paintings influenced by his avid reading. A damaged lithograph ‘Pieta’ is an interesting feature accompanied by a letter that quotes ‘It fell into paint. I was sad about that’.

The Postman

From here on the collection is dominated by nature completely. After moving out of Paris Van Gogh re-entered the countryside where he would remain until his death in 1890. It was in Provence that he suffered his first mental breakdown and so began a number of spells spent in the hospital at Saint-Rémy.

This is an insightful exhibition but I’m not sure it does much to dispel the image of mad man that has long been associated with Van Gogh. I was essentially left with a feeling of sadness and sympathy for a man possessed by his work to the point that he could think of nothing else. He had no life outside of it and no reason to live when he felt he was failing. Such obsession cannot be understood by mere mortals and perhaps it was essential to his genius but eventually it would be the cause of his demise. Never seeing any recognition for his toil was too much to bear and so believing himself a failure, there was nothing to stop him from ending his life.

However he did leave us with an extraordinary amount of paintings to remember him by and this beautiful extensive collection displays some of his best works. It’s like being able to visit the Van Gogh museum without having to travel to Amsterdam. Catch it while you can.

‘The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters’ is showing until April 18th.

www.royalacademy.org.uk