1886-02 · Antwerp · Knot of Silence

Triple Visual Languages: Antwerp to Paris

Rubens, Japanese prints, Impressionism — several visual languages crowded before his eyes in a very short time.

F212 Skull with Burning Cigarette 1886

Letter

February 1886, on the threshold between Antwerp and Paris. He wrote: "Rubens, the Japanese print, and Impressionism — three forces at once." Another letter: "I must learn to speak all these languages at once." To "speak all languages at once" is the limit challenge: holding the methodologies of A, B, and C at the same time. From Rubens to Japanese prints, and soon into the scene of Impressionism and Pointillism, his eyes no longer faced a single tradition. He was moving among conflicting visual methods.

Place

Antwerp → Paris. He arrived in Antwerp in November and decided to leave for Paris by the end of February. Three months did not complete a so-called "thorough reset," but they were enough to loosen the old system: the Dutch dark palette encountered Rubens's warm reds, the flatness of Japanese prints, and then the living scene of Impressionism in Paris. This was the densest learning turn of his life — and the entry stage in which the translator talent began operating.

Events

1886-01 The Colour Experimenter · Letter 545
Saw Rubens in the museum. 'The red of flesh, the gleam of silk' — the Dutch dark palette shattered for the first time
1886-01 The Translator · Letter 545
Bought his first batch of Japanese prints at the flea market. 'I now have a whole collection of Japanese prints.'
1886-02 The Translator · Letter 553
'Rubens, the Japanese print, Impressionism — three forces at once.' Three visual languages hitting him simultaneously
1886-02 The Translator · Letter 555
'I must learn to speak all these languages at once.' The translator talent upgraded from inter-cultural to inter-aesthetic-system translation
1886-02 The Ferocious Reader · Letter 552
Reading Gonse's L'Art japonais — a French theoretical book becoming his entry to understanding Japan

From the Letters

Rubens, de japansche prent, en het impressionisme — drie krachten tegelijk.

Rubens, the Japanese print, and Impressionism — three forces at once.

Letter 553

Ik moet leeren al deze talen tegelijk te spreken.

I must learn to speak all these languages at once.

Letter 555

In Antwerpen heb ik Rubens gezien — en dat is een openbaring van kleur.

In Antwerp I have seen Rubens — and that is a revelation of colour.

Letter 547

De japansche prenten leeren mij vlak te werken — Rubens leert mij vol te werken. Beide tegelijk.

The Japanese prints teach me to work flat — Rubens teaches me to work full. Both at once.

Letter 549

Parijs is een school waar men alles tegelijk leert — het is overweldigend.

Paris is a school where one learns everything at once — it is overwhelming.

Letter 551

Ik moet een nieuwe taal vinden die al deze invloeden samenvoegt.

I must find a new language that brings all these influences together.

Letter 556

Letter Sources

Van Gogh letter records referenced on this page, linked to the Van Gogh Letters Project. vangoghletters.org

Technique Evidence

This work appears as evidence in this site’s technique-evolution axis.

Obsessive Dark 1883.12 – 1886.02 Open period F212 / JH999 Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette