Thatched Cottages
In his final stretch he began to paint the shapes of his early years — only the colours were entirely different.
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F88 The Old Tower at Nuenen 1884 -
F792 Houses at Auvers 1890
Painting
Two oil paintings. The cottages at Cordeville are squat houses huddled together, their roofs furred with moss. The colour is no longer the Nuenen darkness — cobalt blue, emerald green, violet and orange weave through one another, and the rooftops are painted in strokes that move like waves. Same motif, a different colour system: northern shapes carried by southern colour. In the last two months of his life, he painted his childhood back.
Letter
June 1890, just after arriving in Auvers. He wrote to Theo: "Auvers is very beautiful — among other things a lot of old thatched roofs, which are becoming rare." In another letter: "Mossy thatched roofs that remind me of thrushes' and blackbirds' nests." He was using the words of his childhood to describe the houses in front of him. This was the last time he could write down the word beautiful.
Place
Auvers-sur-Oise, a village 30 km northwest of Paris. Doctor Gachet lived there. A slow tributary of the Seine ran through fields, orchards and old houses. Eight years from Nuenen. Two from Arles. Less than two months from the 27th of July.
Auvers had many thatched cottages, which brought Nuenen back to him — the shapes of the northern countryside he had painted so long ago.
He used his present colours — blue-green, violet, orange — to paint the outlines of buildings out of an earlier memory. Two periods overlapped in one picture.
This kind of looking-back appeared more than once in Auvers. He was not only moving forward; sometimes he was speaking with what had already happened.
Events
- Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 877
Just after his arrival: 'Auvers is very beautiful — among other things a lot of old thatched roofs, which are becoming rare.' The objects of his childhood reappearing in front of him
- Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 877
'Mossy thatched roofs that remind me of thrushes' and blackbirds' nests.' He did not say 'warm' or 'homesick' — he reached straight for a bird's nest as the comparison
- The Colour Experimenter · Letter 879
Completed Thatched Cottages at Cordeville — no longer the Nuenen darkness. Cobalt, emerald, violet, orange interweaving. The same kind of cottage, five years on, relit by the colour learned in Provence
- Synaesthetic Precision · Letter 879
Continued with Houses at Auvers — the same motif, three densities of thatched cottage. In the last two months of his life he painted his childhood back
From the Letters
Auvers est bien beau — beaucoup de vieux chaumes entre autres, ce qui devient rare. Auvers is very beautiful — among other things a lot of old thatched roofs, which are becoming rare.
Des toits de chaume moussus qui me rappellent les nids de grives et de merles. Mossy thatched roofs that remind me of thrushes' and blackbirds' nests.
Letter Sources
Van Gogh letter records referenced on this page, linked to the Van Gogh Letters Project. vangoghletters.org