The Real Truth Of Van Gogh's Infamous Self Portrait | (Waldemar Januszczak) | Perspective

[Music] [Music] this is van Gogh famous self-portrait the self-portrait with bandaged ear in the court old gallery in London but it's famous because Van Gogh's ear is so famous everyone knows the story of him cutting it off with a razor and this picture painted soon after in 1889 commemorates that tragedy how very grisly to hack off your ear with a razor what a strange piece of self-harming it's a picture full of mysteries why does this easel look like a cross why is the bandage so prominent and what's this Japanese print doing here at the back it's this one here geishas in a landscape published in 1880 by satto tor Akio with Mount Fuji in the distance and these beautiful geishas at the front van Gogh collected Japanese prints and this was in his collection but why included in his self-portrait and of course the biggest mystery of all why did he cut off his ear in the first place van Gogh self-portrait with bandaged ear asks a lot of questions so it's time I think to start answering them welcome to all in the South of France where van Gogh arrived by train on February the 20th 1888 full of hopes and dreams [Music] unfortunately those dreams were destined to turn into nightmares these days are as a glamorous holiday destination somewhat chic to visit in Provence the back in 1888 it was a bit of a dump small cramped backward the dirtiest town in the south is how van Gogh painted buddy Goggan described our van Gogh arrived in February and there were still snow on the ground but it soon got warmer spring arrived and he began painting those beautiful views of orchards full of happiness and hope [Music] he painted this bridge as well the bridge at Langlois because he said it reminded him of the bridges back home why did he come here well one of the reasons is the weather in Holland where he came from the Sun never glowed like it goes in our van Gogh all pictures are ecstatically sunny and how different they are from the first art he made so glum and dark he'd grown up in a world starved of colors and it had left him hungry for them [Music] another reason he came was a Japanese Prince he likes so much he wanted to find somewhere as bright luminous as the world depicted by the artists of Japan there's beautiful views of his the fruit trees in blossom painted in all when the spring came were inspired directly by the Prince of Hiroshige a van Gogh favorite Japanese master [Music] there's a portrait of Hiro she gay by his follower Kunisada and it shows him as a Japanese monk because late in his life he Roshi gay retired from the world and became a Zen Buddhist [Music] so van Gogh got it into his mind that all Japanese artists were monks but they lived and worked together in artistic communes and that's what he wanted to do in our to start a community of artists living and working together like Japanese Buddhists he asked toulouse-lautrec to come emile Bernard but in the end only one other painter joined him here in our Gogan and that was a big mistake [Music] so some of the reasons for coming to our were Noble and artistic he wanted to start what he called his studio in the south school of progressive painters but there were other reasons as well less noble ones when you've got the whole of the south of France to come - why choose ah the short answer is because of the women van Gogh could have gone anywhere in the South of France but he came to all because he was looking for love all was famous for one thing its women the women of all the oil as he ends as they were called were supposed to be the most beautiful women in France B's a the great composer of Carmen even wrote a musical tribute to the legendary beauty of the alleys yen's it's the suite of gorgeous melodies you're listening to now [Music] unfortunately the legendary beauty of the aliens was exactly that legendary in real life they were tough grumpy and profoundly uninterested in Vincent van Gogh they didn't want to talk to him they didn't want to pose for him and they certainly didn't want to fall in love with him so instead he began frequenting the local brothel in this street paying for the love he's so chronically craved [Music] [Music] van Gogh had a history with prostitutes he'd always been unlucky with women the only one he ever lived with was this sad and worn out brunette class ena Maria hornik or seen as he called her seen was a prostitute in The Hague where van Gogh had briefly studied when he met her she was pregnant with her fourth child but he let her move in with him and looked after her [Music] his family was appalled especially his father who was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church how could his son be living with a prostitute but it was precisely because van Gogh had had this keen religious upbringing that he could see prostitution in a biblical light for him prostitutes were saintly figures he called them his little good women and the reason he did that was because of her ah yes Mary Magdalene the Bible's most alluring feminine presence and the most famous prostitute in all of Christianity the Bible doesn't actually say that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute an immoral sinner who mended her ways but that's the myth about her that grew up and it appealed mightily to so many artists through the ages if you've read The Da Vinci Code you'll know that the Magdalene fantasy grew and grew she was Christ's lover they said she bore him a child and their descendants are still among us now [Music] now in paintings of the crucifixion Mary Magdalene is also the woman you see at the foot of the cross holding up the dead Christ because she was there at the end to witness his suffering along with Mary Claire fasts and Mary the mother of Jesus and you can always spot the Magdalene because she's the most beautiful of the three Mary's at the foot of the cross so what's all this got to do with Van Gogh well everything actually because just a few miles from our on the Mediterranean coast lies that little town over there listen Marie de la Mer the st. Mary's of the sea [Music] according to legend it was here that Mary Magdalene and her companions arrived by sea in France [Music] it happened on this very beach as a follower of Jesus Mary Magdalene was persecuted by the Jews and they put her and her friends on three boats with no sales no oars and set them adrift on the Mediterranean and they drifted across the sea till they washed up here atlas anne-marie de la Mer and also just about here van Gogh painted one of his most charming provençale views with some boats on the beach here at the San Merida la Mer it's usually seen as just an innocent boat picture but in the San Marie de la Mer there's no such thing as an innocent boat picture [Music] no sales washed up on the beach and look where Vinson has signed his name on this battered box that's ended up on the beach just like Mary Magdalene back in our this is where he lived in the famous yellow house the actual building isn't there anymore but at least we have his gorgeous painting on it this is where he wanted to start his studio in the south the idea came to nothing the only other artists to join him here briefly was Gogan and it was Gogan who triggered the events that ended with Vincent cutting off his ear Goggan arrived in all in October 1888 to prepare for the visit Vincent had gone into the fields around our and picked some sunflowers which he painted in an exquisite series for gogans room look how they drenched it with sunshine that was the good news the bad news was that Gogan was everything that Vincent wasn't experienced smooth-talking and above all very good with women the two of them used to come here to the brothel just around the corner from the yellow house and what they called their hygiene visits and even here in the brothel van Gogh complained to his brother in a letter Goggan always got more for his Frank than he did and it wasn't just the prostitutes he was more successful with Gogan also had more luck with the all Asians notably with a woman who ran the late-night bar that van Gogh frequented the Cafe de llegar yet another of the Mary's who study this story Mary Jo knew the artists Yin Vincent had been trying to get her to pose for months she always said no but to go Gann she said yes so Vincent to finally got to paint his are lazy n just a few days before his world was turned upside down and tragedy struck happened on the night of December the 23rd 1888 van Gogh and Gauguin have been getting on each other's nerves for weeks in just a few days before Christmas it all blew up [Music] according to Gogan as he walked home that night Vincent threatened him with a razor Goggan stared him down and Vincent ran back to the yellow house where he cut off his ear with the blade wrapping the severed body part in a newspaper he took it to the brothel where he gave it to a prostitute called Rachel who fainted when she saw it [Music] why did he cut off his ear why did he give it to a prostitute it's one of the biggest mysteries in art to solve the mystery there's one more piece of the jigsaw we need to fill in we need to understand what goes on up here in the arena you know when the bullfights happen [Music] Vincent couldn't miss the bullfighting it happened just a hundred yards from its front door in this great arena at all and we know he came to the bullfights because he painted them the busy crowd of the corrida and look there's Maria again the aisle is the end [Music] and one of the things that happens in a bullfight is that a matador who's been particularly successful has given the ear of the defeated bull that he's just killed it's just cut off and given to him and then he walks around the ring with it [Music] holding it up proudly a symbol of his victory [Music] and because Matadors are Matadors show-offs in tight trousers they inevitably throw the year that they've won up into the crowd to the most beautiful girl that they can see macho end to a macho moment [Applause] so when Vincent cut off his ear on that terrible night in our and gave it to Rachel the prostitute at the brothel just up the road he was casting himself as the defeated bull the sacrificial victim in the Battle of love he'd come here to all to find his Allah's Yin but all he had found was suffering and defeat [Music] and that's why he painted this his self-portrait with bandaged ear a painting about suffering pain and rejection remember van Gogh had been brought up in an intensely religious atmosphere his father was a minister in the Dutch church so he knew all about Mary Magdalene about suffering penitence and pain but it's all gone into this picture so the easel at the back the way it forms a cross that's now accident Van Gogh is identifying himself with Jesus [Music] it's something in which he had form a few months later he painted a copy of a pietà by Delacroix and explicitly gave the dead Christ his own face in all after the ear cutting the kids would throw stones at him in the street they'd mock him and Tube use him and the people of all love him so much these days actually organized a petition to have him thrown out of the town and it was signed by all the citizens he thought were his friends like Christ he was mocked rejected despised and that's why he painted his great self-portrait with bandaged ear [Music] it's a hidden crucifixion the easel at the back is his cross where Christ had his loin cloth van Gogh has this grubby bandage that covers his wounds all that's missing is the three Mary's at the foot of the cross and that's where the Japanese print comes in this is the sketch for Rubens is descent from the cross it's also here at the court old gallery look at the bottom of the picture there's the three Mary's at the foot of the cross with the alluring Mary Magdalene at the same time but in Van Gogh hidden crucifixion the part of Mary Magdalene the former prostitute at the foot of the cross is being played by a Geisha a beautiful Japanese courtesan gathered here with her fellow Mary's and Mount Fuji is their Calvary a genius with a Christ complex is comparing his suffering to the suffering of Christ wounded and alone Van Gogh is saying thank you to the good people of all for all that they've done for him there are a million stories in the world of art this has been just one of them [Music]

Channel: Perspective

Views: 379,400

Keywords: Arts, The Arts, Full EPisode, Full documentary, documentary, performing arts, van gogh, vincent van gogh, vincent van gogh (visual artist), self portrait, visual arts (field of study), art lessons, van gogh documentary, van gogh paintings, waldemar januszczak, waldemar januszczak documentary, history documentary, art history, starry night, documentary history, dutch artist, art history timeline

Id: XA_CqvjQWu8

Length: 24min 51sec (1491 seconds)

Published: Sat May 09 2020