By By Anna Piazza
The Metropolitan Museum of art was crammed with people: students, art connoisseurs and newbies. Judging by the 30-minute wait-line it is easy to guess that most of the crowd had come to see the Vincent Van Gogh drawing exhibit being held from Oct. 18 until Dec. 31. This very impressive show chronicles the Dutchman’s drawings from 1881 until his death in 1890. The self-taught Van Gogh strove to be perfect and worked to make drawing come as easily to him as writing. One can see that throughout the years he evolves as an artist, and becomes more comfortable with his own technique, his subjects, and the mediums he chooses.
Many would be surprised to see that although he’s known as a landscape painter, Van Gogh depicted many people early in his career.
The exhibit even starts with “Woman Sewing” (1881), a very modest and simple drawing, something not usually thought of when hearing about the artist’s works. Most of his figure drawings are slightly blocky and hefty, not holding as much grace as his landscapes. Nonetheless, he still conveys emotion in them, such as in “Girl with Pinafore” (1882-83). Van Gogh drew the daughter of a prostitute that he lived with for some time, and depicts the girl in a very morose and dark manner. Technically it may be the best of his figures, for he has an excellent understanding of tone and hardly emphasizes any line. He has the ability to gain both physical and psychological depth.
Van Gogh’s landscapes are still his best work. One can be bold enough to say his earlier landscapes are so real looking they are perfect, and he does not lack in emotion at all. “A Marsh” (1881) consists of inky stains making up a very dark and depressing sky and marsh. The short staccato lines represent the growing grass around it, and an exceptional use of hachure and cross hatching show tone and depth.
To go even further on how emotional his landscapes can be, the artist comments on “Behind the Hedges” (1884), calling it “melancholy grandeur.” Van Gogh draws a cold and uninviting field that almost seems completely forgotten. Again he displays his talented use of hachure, and creativly emphasizes sunlight with his marks without actually ever defining a sun.
In the last few rooms viewers see Van Gogh’s most famous works, nearly all occuring during his stay in France. His landscapes become much more energetic as lines move in all directions and hachure is avoided. Its clear that he has become more comfortable in his marks and develops his own style which many have described as impressionistic. The transition from drawing to painting are shown as wel.
For instance “Street in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer” (1888) shows the transition of his quaint street, from detailed marks of the different roofs and plants to an impressionistic painting that gives bright new colors and textures to the work. However it loses many of its interesting details.
Perhaps his most successful translation of works would be “Cypresses” (1889). In the artist’s drawing the cypress consists of curling lines going in different directions, and the same technique depicts rolling clouds as well.
His painting loses nothing, and only gains more with its vibrant colors and dynamic textures. Even the detail is retained for every green hue coils around the trees. Only in the paintings of his asylum years does his work become bleaker and less interesting.
Van Gogh claimed that “[d]rawing is the root of everything,” and probably no other phrase can describe his exhibition better. He spent the last ten years of his life constantly drawing and developing his own style. Van Gogh began as a realistic landscape artist, became an impressionistic drawer and painter and finally created bleak still lifes in his final years. He has created some of the most well-known work in the world and continues to impress art lovers all over the world.