On June 5, 1890, Vincent van Gogh sat down to write a letter to his younger sister, Wilhelmina. The Dutch artist was less than two months away from being shot in the abdomen that would tragically end his life. But the moment he sat down to write to his sister, his attention Vincent focused on the places he intended to paint in the French city to which he had recently moved, and where he would ultimately be buried. “With that I have a bigger picture of the village church: an effect where the building appears purplish against a deep, simple blue sky of pure cobalt, the stained glass windows look like patches of ultramarine blue, the roof is violet and in orange part. In the foreground, a little flowery vegetation and some sunny pink sand.” The church Van Gogh describes became one of his iconic paintingsthe masterpiece that bears its name The iglesia of Auvers (1890). Hordes of visitors flock to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris every day to see the iconic painting. What many of these visitors don’t know, however, is that if they were to take a train an hour north of Paris, to the city of Auvers-sur-Oise, they would be able to see the church itself.
It’s not always that simple determine the location of iconic and famous paintings. In large part, this is because in the years preceding Impressionism (1860s), portraits were more fashionable than landscapes (think Jean-Léon Gérôme, and his painting Bashi-Bazouk). Furthermore, the landscapes painted in the 19th century by personalities such as Thomas Cole were rather the backdrop for a larger political message (as in the case of the work of Cole The course of the empire, a series of five paintings depicting the rise and fall of an empire, seen through the prism of nature). Ultimately, these well-known creators were artists, not surveyors.
However, with the founding of Impressionism and the arrival of the paint tube —invention courtesy of the American painter John G. Rand—, artists had the opportunity to delve into nature to paint the same scenes that we can venture today. However, throughout the history of art, the possibility of paint lush landscapes outdoors it didn’t stay open for long. Just before the outbreak of the First World War, Cubism broke with convention, forcing art to take a turn towards abstraction, making the actual locations of any painting extremely difficult to discern.
The continuation, from The starry night over the Rhônefrom Van Gogh, to Water liliesby Monet, AD lists the places in the world that you can visit if you want to see the true inspiration behind your favorite paintings before your eyes.
Article originally published in AD US.
Translation and adaptation of Fernanda Toral.
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