With the literary device of the rediscovered diary, the author, who has been studying the painter for years, now gives him a voice in a Solferino novel. Which will also become a show
The farmers are about to cut the wheat, I am finishing painting some pictures of fields. They will be the last for this season now … I feel in a perfect mood to paint everything I see, until the distance from green turns blue and you understand that the sky our beginning and our end. The place where we will fall asleep. There, something sacred happens. Always, since we all are.
Vincent van Gogh remains a mystery. His paintings are the best known, photographed, iconic in the history of art. But his fire burns for a very short season. His genius is created, formed, expressed completely outside the schools, academies, the market. it is true that she has an art dealer brother, Theo; but not even he is able to follow him, and to save him, despite the close correspondence he has with Vincent. How Van Gogh found, after having explored so many paths, the right one to express his talent, and how that path was interrupted by an early death, remains the fulcrum of his mystery.
The last days of Van Gogh. The rediscovered diary offers a key to the answer to this riddle. Marco Goldin wrote it, Solferino published it. The author dedicated enormously successful public exhibitions to Van Gogh and his time. He has been studying him for twenty-five years, he dedicated his first true Italian biography and a novel to him, The colors of the stars (Solferino), focusing on the link between Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.
Now Goldin explores the last days of Van Gogh through his own words.
The literary trick that starts the narration is to have the owner of the inn in Auvers-sur-Oise find a diary that goes from 1890 to the day of his death, the town north of Paris where the painter was. The story unfolds between real events and explores aspects of a psychological nature. Starting from a premise: in spite of what has been written and claimed, Vincent van Gogh was not crazy.
Through flashbacks, the reader finds himself retracing episodes from his childhood, the relationship with his parents, with God, with his brother. And one of the most moving passages in the book is the farewell from Theo: If you find this diary of mine, you will discover some things about me that I had never written to you in the letters we exchanged in all these years. In the end, the full knowledge that it is not necessary to be crazy to leave the world, because it is not the crazy ones who do it. And instead you need clarity, calm and a decision that must be taken after having understood that there is no other way than this.
The book was also born from the author’s intention to overcome the many clichés about the great painter, who want him to be poor and crazy, to restore the many nuances of his sensitivity and his work. Goldin’s pages are marked by colors and the force of nature. Writing continually stimulates the senses of readers: the pages alternate with descriptions of starry skies, immense nights, olive trees, mountains, almond trees in bloom, woods swept by the wind, light. A book to read while having Van Gogh’s paintings under your eyes.
Nature is a refuge for the painter: at a certain point he describes the wheat fields where I can throw myself into them to stay afloat in the midst of the waves. The reading of The last days of Van Gogh also an immersion in things, and in the need to cling to the heart of the grand universe.
The literary pretext of the diary responds precisely to the attempt to give voice to the teacher directly, to destroy the prejudices linked to his figure. Until the end, the last tragic moments of his life, shortly before the suicide, when Van Gogh says that God will not forgive him for his life but maybe his art will save him: I always thought that [Dio] could have blessed my painting. Recognize in it the immense effort of a single man, dedicated to the poetry of color, to tell the story of man through two eyes that have sunk into the soul.
Inspired by the book: a show and a podcast about Vincent’s life
A show and a podcast. It goes beyond the page the history of The last days of Van Gogh told by Marco Goldin in the novel he signs for Solferino. In fact, the text is inspired by a theatrical performance that will be on stages throughout Italy from November. The book also inspired a podcast of the same name that explores some of the themes, with particular attention to historical references and documents cited, such as the letters that Vincent exchanges with his brother Theo. The podcast in 5 episodes of 15 minutes each, available on the main platforms: the first is already online and a new one will be released every Tuesday in October.
September 27, 2022 (change September 27, 2022 | 19:04)
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