“On the verge of eternity” ( French: Au seuil de l'Eternité ; in another translation “At the gates of eternity” , the painting is also known as “The Old Man with His Head in His Hands” ) - a painting by the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh .
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| Vincent van Gogh | ||
| On the threshold of eternity . 1890 | ||
| Au seuil de l'Eternité | ||
| Canvas, oil. 80 × 64 cm | ||
| Kroeller-Muller Museum , Otterlo , Netherlands | ||
| ( inv. ) | ||
Content
History
The painting was painted in April — May 1890 on the basis of lithography of 1882 . Apparently, the first drafts appeared even earlier. In September 1881, in a letter from Etten ( fr. Etten-Leur ) to his brother, Theo van Gogh writes about several drawings by him of local villagers, among which he mentions
| an old sick peasant sitting on a chair in front of the hearth: he put his head in his hands and rested his elbows on his knees [1] . |
This image has not been saved. In 1882, in The Hague, he made another version of the drawing, which he then transferred to lithography, on the basis of which in 1890 the most famous version of the painting was created, in contrast to the previous ones, painted in oil . In addition, there is still a half-length version of the image of the old man of 1883 , created by van Gogh under the impression of Thomas Moore 's poem "In the silence of the night", which he quotes in one of the letters of that time [2] . Currently, the picture is stored in the Kroehler-Muller Museum in the Netherlands [3] .
Notes
- ↑ W. Van Gogh. The Letters (Etten, April 1881 - December 1881). (inaccessible link) . Date of treatment December 11, 2009. Archived on October 6, 2014.
- ↑ Dmitrieva N.A. Vincent Van Gogh. Man and artist. - M .: Nauka, 1980 .-- 404 p.
- ↑ Treurende oude man ('At Eternity's Gate') - Kröller-Müller Museum (link not available) . Date of treatment December 11, 2009. Archived on October 6, 2014.
Literature
- Vincent van Gogh. Letters to brother Theo. - St. Petersburg : Alphabet — Classic, 2007. - ISBN 978-5-91181-478-6 .
- Dmitrieva N.A. Vincent Van Gogh. Man and artist. - M .: Nauka, 1980 .-- 404 p.
- 10,000 Meisterwerke der Malerei: von der Antike bis zum Beginn der Moderne (neopr.) . - Berlin : The Yorck Project, 2005 .-- ISBN 3936122202 .