Van Gogh on the Train

By: Greg Mitchell It?s always amazing when an unexpected newspaper article ?- just words and maybe a photo on grayish newsprint -- inspires a flood of memories or emotions. It happened to me again early on Thursday morning while riding a commuter train south into Manhattan.

The article, at the bottom of the front page of the Arts section of The New York Times, concerned the quixotic campaign by one Dominique-Charles Janssens to raise $30 million or more online to give Van Gogh fans a chance to collectively purchase one of his final wheat field paintings at a Sotheby?s auction on Nov. 7 -? and install it in the room in Auvers-Sur-Oise where the haunted artist died in 1890 after shooting himself near one of those wheat fields.

Janssens, naturally, owns the inn, about an hour outside Paris, that holds the famous death room, now something of a shrine. The Times yesterday carried a sun-dappled photo of the inn, which Janssens has loving restored, though not the room. The room does appear in a photo gallery at the Times? site, with Janssens sitting on a caned chair in it, smiling sheepishly. I applaud Janssens for reviving the inn, but that irreverent grin kind of ticks me off.

Like I said: an article in a newspaper can really get you going, even during a commute. Why this one in my case? Exactly one year ago, my wife and I, longtime Van Gogh aficionados (both words and pictures), took a train from Paris, and then a cab, to Auvers, on a rainy day ?- the kind of weather that seemed appropriate to ponder the artist?s painful final days. The sunflowers were long gone by this time.

After visiting the inn, the Auberge Ravoux, we hiked up the steep hill, where Van Gogh's friends and perhaps his brother, Theo, carried his coffin. The houses, fences, and trees, were very old, so it was easy to imagine you were back in the 1890s. Virtually no one else was making the weekday walk with us.

We arrived at the 11th-century stone church immortalized in one of my favorite Van Gogh paintings, which we had seen again at Musee d?Orsay just the day before. You may know it -- with the deep blue sky and one figure bustling by. The men had carried the coffin a little further up the hill to where the wheat fields began. We followed the same route last October, in a steady drizzle.

Vincent?s grave is in the simple town cemetery, which is surrounded by a low wall. There are no flashing lights or arrows, so you have to search a bit to find it. It?s covered with vines and topped with a simple stone tablet and ?Ici Repose Vincent Van Gogh.? Someone had placed a potted yellow flower beside it.

Right next to it is an identical stone over the remains of his brother Theo. He died just a few months after Vincent. The sibling arrangement is almost unbearably touching, along with the reminder that Vincent dwelled among the common folk right up to, and beyond, his death.

Then we went back to the inn and after paying a few euros climbed the time-worn stairs to the room where Vincent died on the second floor. As the Times related, it is empty save for a cane chair, which looks like it came right out of one of his paintings from Arles. It's fairly dark and the walls look like they haven?t been painted for awhile, though a skylight lightens the mood a little -- while suggesting god?s blessing.

I won?t go on, except to say that all one wants to do there is linger in that spartan room, perhaps take a seat on the floor, soak it in, and meditate a bit. We had that privilege, in total silence for a few minutes, until the proverbial busload of Japanese tourists arrived. But the point is: You could still do it, most days, most of the time, apparently.

The Times story was skeptical of Jannsens? chances of actually raising the money and installing the painting in the room, but it didn?t discuss the sacrilege, the massive security measures that would surely ruin the experience, the certain arrival of not the occasional tourist bus, but possibly countless ones. Jannsen?s argument is that Van Gogh had expressed a desire that one day there would be an exhibition of his paintings in a caf?. Vincent didn?t say anything about showing one $30 million painting in the room where he would die.

Then there was the photo of Jannsens grinning -- in that chair. As I said: A newspaper story can really get you going, even on a commuter train.
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NOTE: An advisor to Jannsens has written pointing out a few historical errors in the original column above. They have now been corrected. Most of the advisor's lengthy letter will be posted at E&P Online on Monday in the daily Letters item. Here it is below.
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As Dominique-Charles Janssens? scientific advisor, I would like to react to your recent article on his ?Van Gogh?s Dream? project. As I noticed that you are indeed a true Van Gogh lover, I would like to share some views with you; not to correct you, but to complement the information you have on both the project and Van Gogh?s life and work. I hope you will be so kind to forgive me for the poor English I?ll use !

I?m convinced that you are absolutely right about the fact that attracting more tourists to Van Gogh last room would ruin the experience. However, Mister Janssens has always made the access to the room relatively difficult (the main gates remain closed at all times, one really has to want to get in to find one?s way), to ensure the tranquillity of the place. This will not change, and that?s why the webcam will allow people to see the room without going there. There are no parking spaces in Auvers to welcome busloads of tourists, and everything will be done to keep the place as quiet as it has always been. The Institute has never accepted more than two group visits a day, only in the morning, and by appointment only.

As for the security measures you fear : they are already there. You walked through them without noticing them. A lot of state-of-the art security devices are already working there, high-tech and discrete.

As for mister Janssens? grin, I must tell you that he is not fond on being photographed, and feels terribly incomfortable as soon as a lens is in his vicinity. He?s discrete and modest, and does not like to be in the news... This, of course, might look like a paradox, as he?s doing his best to let everybody know about his initiative; it seemed to him that it was the only way to have a chance to realize Van Gogh?s dream.

You must know also, as it doesn?t seem to me that you are fully aware of it, that when Mister Janssens bought the inn, it was a ruin, and looked like a run-down 1970 banlieue caf?. Nobody, the French state included, wanted to be responsible for it. Mister Janssens accepted the challenge to restore it, and spent a lot of energy, money and time to make it what you enjoyed : a modest place with a true soul. A nice place where anybody is welcome to enjoy an extraordinary experience. As a Van Gogh scholar, I admit that I thought, before I saw it, that the place would be worthy of a creation by Walt Disney. I was terribly wrong. The job Mister Janssens? did is amazing.

Re: ?Vincent didn?t say anything about showing one $30 million painting in the room where he would die.?

This seems a bit unfair, as the Institut Van Gogh doesn?t fix the price of this priceless painting. Mister Janssens believes that his project would give an exceptional setting to a Van Gogh painting, allowing people who care about Van Gogh to share an extraordinary experience. Personnally, I think his project should be judged with keeping in mind what he already did. He saved the room, and I believe he?ll be able to save the painting.

Best regards,

Wouter van der Veen