more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday
When I visited Arles together with my friend, daughters and boyfriend, we wanted to drink a good cup of coffee before starting visiting the city.
We choose this little café and made plans. I wanted to follow van Gogh's traces and didn't know that we were sitting just opposite the "Yellow house" which he had painted and which became so famous !
Finally I decided to take the little train which made the tour through the city with explanations. The stop was right at the "Yellow house". So of course I was very surprise to hear that I had sat just in front of this house drinking my coffee.
As soon as I knew I took pictures from all angles ! I was so happy to see where he had his drinks and had painted.
Van Gogh wanted the Yellow House to become a monastic community where the art of the future would be forged, but the house was too cramped.
At home when I looked up the history of the "Maison Jaune" I was surprised that they talked about another house, in which he had lived together with Gaughin. It says that "The Yellow House" no longer exists. It had been destroyed in the 1940s during World War II, but had been rebuilt. I saw this building too, which is now a hotel. The city hadn't even reconstructed his room and it didn't look at all like the painting. The "Yellow House" I had turned around had the inscription "La maison jaune". Now whatever is the truth, I have seen "The Yellow House "!
We were all surprised and disappointed that the city had done so little to remember this famous painter. There was not even a statue of him in the park he had painted.
PS. I just realized that I am one letter behind, the sun probably had some influence on my brain.
How sad is that. He achieved no recognition in his life time and even after his death Arles didn't care enough to reconstruct such an important place in his life.
ReplyDeleteLovely pictures and such a valuable place in history! He is my Moms favorite artist!
ReplyDeleteI'm a letter of this week too.
We didn't go to this town last year and opted for another tour. Very disappointing that they haven't chosen to use his fame to attract more tourists.
ReplyDeleteWonderful post (ahead or behind doesn't matter) ~ great shots and you must have loved this trip ~ how blessed ~ thanx, carol, xx
ReplyDeletelove Van Gogh and pics of the yellow house, real or not!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic coffee shop and to be opposite the famous yellow house, is amazing. So glad you saw everything you wanted about Vincent Van Gogh. I always feel an affinity with Van Gogh as his younger brother Cor, who fought in the Boer War in SA, died in a town only about 90km from where I live. Thanks for the interesting post. Jo
ReplyDeleteWe had so much fun in Aix! Sad the town didn't take care about this famous painter enough! I hope they will do something in the futur like they did in Aix for Cézanne!
ReplyDeleteI mean we had fun in Arles!!!
ReplyDeleteI know his story so well! What a lovely place to visit!
ReplyDeletethat's for the view of the Yellow House! How wonderful it is {:-D
ReplyDeleteIt's so nice that you've remembered him! Interesting post.
ReplyDeleteeven if it's the actual recreation, it's still look like a nice place to visit.
ReplyDeletenext week, you can do x or y again. I would have made the same mistake too. not a big deal.
have a great day.
Hi Gattina .. well I'm glad you did find out and see the various studios - Arles looks lovely despite the lack of too many references to van Gogh and Gauguin ...
ReplyDeleteCheers Hilary
Beautiful collage and cool you got to see the yellow house ... whether or not .... It is surprising the city doesn't make more of a tourist attraction out of it, but maybe that makes it even more fun because you can discover the places on your own.
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting on my blog... the Yellow house looks very pretty...
ReplyDeleteNevermind the alphabet, this post is a delight, such a nice place!
ReplyDeleteGod bless you!
Cezar
This sounds like such an eXciting eXperience...
ReplyDeleteI am also trailing behind on my grading...
EXcellent post for the letter "X"!
Thanks for linking.
A+