Furious at Gauguin's Threat of Leaving,

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BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Furious at Gauguin's Threat of Leaving,

#1 Post by BobBradshaw » 20 Feb 2018, 22:38

Furious at Gauguin's Threat of Leaving,


Van Gogh chased Gauguin down a street,
waving an open razor at him.

In the morning Gauguin found blood splatter
leading up the stairs, wet towels

strewn across the lower rooms.
The damn fool had shaved off part

of his ear. Vincent was like a man on fire,
madness the oxygen feeding his flames.

Remain and be consumed? Or leave?
Gauguin took the train.

The Yellow House was padlocked, Vincent
wrestled off to an isolation ward,

raving, where sadly he spent hours
washing himself in a bin
of coal.

Bernie01
Posts: 777
Joined: 30 Jul 2015, 11:14

Re: Furious at Gauguin's Threat of Leaving,

#2 Post by Bernie01 » 20 Feb 2018, 23:04

Bob:

pretend the names are Bill and Jim. another words, does the poem rely too much on celebrity?



Furious at Gauguin's Threat of Leaving,
Van Gogh chased Gauguin down a street,
waving an open razor at him.

what i would write for a newspaper account on the crime page...


how did van gogh feel beyond furious?.


In the morning Gauguin found blood splatter
leading up the stairs, wet towels




too much police procedural there for me. blood spatter. what color is the blood? can Vincent create this color in his paint box?




strewn across the lower rooms.
The damn fool had shaved off part



telling the story for the reader who didn't know about the ear....?

of his ear. Vincent was like a man on fire,
madness the oxygen feeding his flames.


man on fire, oxygen feeding flames---a little plain.





Remain and be consumed? Or leave?
Gauguin took the train.


I like the declarative line, Gauguin took the train.

The Yellow House was padlocked, Vincent
wrestled off to an isolation ward,

raving, where sadly he spent hours
washing himself in a bin
of coal.




raving?

i think of van morrison telling poets to rave on....

Rave On, John Donne
Van Morrison
Rave on John Donne, rave on thy Holy fool
Down through the weeks of ages
In the moss borne dark dank pools
Rave on, down through the industrial revolution
Empiricism, atomic and nuclear age
Rave on down through time and space down through the corridors
Rave on words on printed page
Rave on, you left us infinity
And well pressed pages torn to fade
Drive on with wild abandon
Uptempo, frenzied heels
Rave on, Walt Whitman, nose down in wet grass
Rave on fill the senses
On nature's bright green shady path
Rave on Omar Khayyam, Rave on Kahlil Gibran
Oh, what sweet wine we drinketh
The celebration will be held
We will partake the wine and break the Holy bread
Rave on let a man come out of Ireland
Rave on on Mr. Yeats,
Rave on…
Feedback


van morrison doesn't tell a story about Donne and other poets, he feels their genius and pain---and he enables us to feel their suffering also.


i want to feel van gogh....


bernie

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: Furious at Gauguin's Threat of Leaving,

#3 Post by BobBradshaw » 20 Feb 2018, 23:11

Thanks, Bernie...I have qualms about this one, too

Bernie01
Posts: 777
Joined: 30 Jul 2015, 11:14

Re: Furious at Gauguin's Threat of Leaving,

#4 Post by Bernie01 » 20 Feb 2018, 23:32

The Guardian:


We all know the old tale - how it's come to mark the chasm of creative madness.

On 23 December, 1888 Vincent Van Gogh - following an argument with fellow lodger and artist Gaugin - retreated to his room, where he took a razor to his left ear; severing it, wrapping it in paper, and delivering it to a woman at a brothel both he and Gaugin used to frequent. He was found unconscious the next morning by a policeman and was taken to the hospital.

Van Gogh awoke with no recollection of what had happened; he was diagnosed with "acute mania with generalised delirium" and placed under hospital care in Arles, spending the following months in and out of hospital before voluntarily entering an asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. It is here he painted one of his most iconic works, 1889's The Starry Night.


READ MORE
Van Gogh's famous bed may be hidden in a Dutch attic
The motivation for such an act of self-mutilation has evaded art historians for more than a century, though writer Martin Bailey claims to have finally found evidence as to his reasons (via The Guardian); stating that it was in fact inspired - not by his argument with Gaugin - but by the news that his brother Theo, who supported him closely both financially and emotionally, had become engaged.

Though it was previously thought he had only learnt of the impending marriage after his mutilation, Bailey's new book Studio of the South claims that Van Gogh actually learnt of it in a letter from Theo delivered on the very same day he cut his ear off; a note which enclosed 100 francs, and the news that a fortnight earlier Jo Bonger had agreed to marry him, having previously turned him down.



Film about Van Gogh made entirely with paintings
Bailey notes that Theo had already written to his mother asking for permission to marry and that Jo had written to her older brother, with his congratulatory telegram in response arriving on 23 December; Bailey, therefore, seems certain Theo would have written to Vincent at the same time, meaning the letter would also have arrived at the artist's house on the 23.

Bailey also provides evidence that Van Gogh's famous bed featured in the 1888 work The Bedroom, as well as marking the place he was found the next morning amongst blood-soaked sheets in the Yellow House in Arles, may have survived the passing decades; he now believes it could be housed somewhere in the small Dutch town of Boxmeer.

Bernie01
Posts: 777
Joined: 30 Jul 2015, 11:14

Re: Furious at Gauguin's Threat of Leaving,

#5 Post by Bernie01 » 20 Feb 2018, 23:34

I look at paintings he completed after 1888---the year of his mutilation.

Starry Night...for example.

bernie

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: Furious at Gauguin's Threat of Leaving,

#6 Post by BobBradshaw » 20 Feb 2018, 23:54

Thx for sharing, Bernie....the news about receiving the letter from Theo about his approaching marriage is very intriguing, and if true must have contributed to his attack...

I have a poem on the starry night painting at eclectica....http://www.eclectica.org/v20n4/bradshaw.html

Bernie01
Posts: 777
Joined: 30 Jul 2015, 11:14

Re: Furious at Gauguin's Threat of Leaving,

#7 Post by Bernie01 » 21 Feb 2018, 00:01

Bob:


lovely poem:

....
he gazed out
on a voltage of stars
and a big, yellow moon
in cobalt blue skies.

Every morning he painted
from memory
in the hospital's studio
on the first floor

turbulent wheat fields,
writhing cypresses,
the night's swirling corsage
of lights.

.....



Each day
he laid down layer after layer
of thick paints, disappearing
into wheat fields,

pomegranates, ivy , olive trees,
or as he does here
into the reassuring calm
of a starry night.


terrific

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: Furious at Gauguin's Threat of Leaving,

#8 Post by BobBradshaw » 21 Feb 2018, 00:05

Thanks, Bernie

FranktheFrank
Posts: 1983
Joined: 02 Mar 2016, 18:07
Location: Between the mountains and the sea

Re: Furious at Gauguin's Threat of Leaving,

#9 Post by FranktheFrank » 21 Feb 2018, 14:32

I though the first part rather celebrity driven also.

I don't think the real reason for his mania is that important
interesting maybe , but not too important for the poem.
Personally I am too fussy on facts over fiction,
but I bend the rules to fit the poem too.

I have a poem on this incident too:
Het Gele Huis (The Yellow House)

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/thewate ... age#p17038

Notice the complete absence of personality names
just the name of the maid at the brothel.

In a recent BBC documentary the maid's family were traced, by a researcher, in Arles.
The family were ashamed of the association, it seems Gabriele worked in the brothel
only because it paid so well, even as a maid, and that helped to pay of her medical
bills.

Echoes of American health care problems there.

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