The Winter of Imagination in Arles
While Gauguin lived in the Yellow House, Vincent began composing from memory. Memory of the Garden at Etten brought a scene from years earlier onto canvas.
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F496 Memory of the Garden at Etten 1888
Events
- The Colour Experimenter · Letter 717
He reported Gauguin painting women in a vineyard entirely from memory.
- The Colour Experimenter · Letter 718
He planned to paint from memory more often and described the purple and yellow of the vineyard picture.
- The Colour Experimenter · Letter 719
He wrote that Gauguin gave him courage to imagine and mentioned the Etten garden memory and a woman reading.
- The Colour Experimenter · Letter 720
To his sister Wil he wrote that Gauguin encouraged him to work from imagination.
- The Colour Experimenter · Letter 721
He began composing from memory, using earlier studies to recall what he had seen.
- The Colour Experimenter · Letter 723
He wrote that he had spoiled the garden picture and that works of imagination also required practice.
- The Ferocious Reader · Letter 726
He and Gauguin discussed Delacroix and Rembrandt so intensely that he likened their minds afterward to discharged batteries.
From the Letters
Gauguin me donne courage d’imaginer et les choses d’imagination certes prennent un caractère plus mysterieux. Gauguin gives me courage to imagine, and the things of the imagination do indeed take on a more mysterious character.
Gauguin et moi causons beaucoup de Delacroix/ Rembrandt &c. La discussion est d’une électricité excessive. nous en sortons parfois la tête fatiguée comme une batterie électrique après la décharge_ Gauguin and I talk a lot about Delacroix, Rembrandt &c. The discussion is excessively electric. We sometimes emerge from it with tired minds, like an electric battery after it’s run down.
Letter Sources
Van Gogh letter records referenced on this page, linked to the Van Gogh Letters Project. vangoghletters.org