I love Vincent Van Gogh. I found this painting some days ago, and I needed to talk about it.
This painting is called Nature morte avec planche à dessin et oignons, or Still life with a plate of onions in english, and was made in january 1889.
At first, it just looks like any still life painting. But you need to know the context of the painting.
1 month before making this painting (the 23th of december 1888), Vincent had a MAJOR mental breakdown. Why ?
His brother, Theo, was regularly giving him money (Vincent was mentally ill and he struggled to do any job excepted painting), and he had promised Vincent that he would give him money to start a commitee of artists in the town he lived. However, one day, Theo announced that he would get married. Vincent didn't know if his brother could still give him money, he didn't know how he would be able to live anymore, and had a breakdown. That's when he cut his ear.
He went to the hospital, and then started to make still life paintings, including this one.
In the painting, you can see a letter (at the bottom right) : it is Theo's letter announcing that he would get married. We can be sure of that because the letter in the painting is very detailled : for example we can see that it's a recommended letter with a 15c stamp, so researchers found out where the letter was made, when it was posted etc. The fact that he chose to represent this letter here proves how much this letter affected him.
The big book next to the plate of onions is called "annuaire de la santé", which means "health directory". I don't think I need to explain this one. Also, onions were, at the time, the food of the poor people.
We can also see an empty bottle (at the bottom left), which represents his drinking habits ; same with the pipe which represents his smoking habits.
The colors used on the painting are the usual colors that Van Gogh used (yellow, green, blue, some brown...) but the way they're used make them particularly contrast : for example, the blue wall with yellow lines gives the impression that "something isn't right".
And lastly, the candle (at the top right) gives a feeling of uncertainty : when will it burn ? And most importantly, when will all of this end ? Like every element in the painting, the candle represents his mental state at the time.
This still life painting is truly magical because each element, each color of the painting is like a word on a diary. It's like Van Gogh wanted to express how lost he felt, but the only way he could do it was with a painting. And... it speaks to me. So I wanted to share it with you.
i love this