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25/6/2006

Vincent Van Gogh and Anthon van Rappard

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Amice Rappard: Letters from Vincent van Gogh (1881-1885)

Van Gogh Museum acquires 55 important letters by Vincent van Gogh

Unique national heritage returns to the Netherlands

The Van Gogh Museum has recently acquired a remarkable group of 55 letters written by Vincent van Gogh to the Dutch artist Anthon van Rappard (1858-1892). These letters reveal the intense contact between these two artists between 1881 and 1885. Furthermore Van Gogh’s exchange of views with Van Rappard, accompanied by some beautiful sketches, is crucial for our understanding of his early artistic development. Having remained concealed for sixty years, the letters were offered by their former owner to the Van Gogh Museum, thus giving the museum the unique opportunity directly to acquire this valuable series of documents. The spectacular purchase was made possible with the unstinting support of various financial contributors. The letters were acquired by the Vincent van Gogh Foundation with funds from the Mondriaan Foundation, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the VSB Foundation and Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

Van Gogh was introduced to Van Rappard by his brother Theo in 1880. Van Rappard lived in Brussels where he studied at the art academy. He invited Van Gogh to sketch at his studio and so they became friends. On a few occasions they met to work together, but their contact was largely by post. For four years Van Gogh and Van Rappard kept each other informed about their work, exchanging sketches, drawings and prints and discussing literature and art. They shared a penchant for subjects relating to working-class life and felt a certain camaraderie as painters of the common people.

Their friendship was based on shared views and passions, but was also characterised by differences in background and temperament. Van Rappard came from an aristocratic family, had academic training and mixed in artistic circles. Van Gogh, a parson’s son, refused to accept academic rigour, became a self-taught artist and worked in relative isolation. The ‘friction of their thoughts’ as Van Gogh expressed it, proved a fertile seedbed for both, but eventually it led to a break in their friendship. In the spring of 1885 Van Gogh painted his Potato eaters. He considered this his masterpiece and even before he had finished it he sent Van Rappard a lithograph of the picture. Van Rappard’s exceptionally critical response hurt Van Gogh deeply and their friendship soon cooled. Not long after the correspondence came to a halt.

Van Gogh’s letters to Van Rappard represent a crucial addition to the approximately 700 letters by his hand currently in the Van Gogh Museum collection. In all around 845 letters have survived, by far the majority of which are to his brother Theo. Yet, unlike the letters to Theo, those he wrote to Van Rappard represent a genuine correspondence between artists - and they are of key importance for our understanding of Van Gogh’s views and his development as a burgeoning artist. The recent acquisition allows these letters to be included in the extensive research currently being carried out into all Van Gogh’s letters, to be published in a new edition of his correspondence. This edition is expected to appear in 2008/2009 and will provide an essential resource in the coming decades for anyone studying Van Gogh’s life and work.

The new acquisition comes from a private collector who wishes to remain anonymous and was offered for sale via Sotheby’s New York. To mark the purchase a show is presented on the second floor of the Rietveld building from 26 June to 3 September 2006 entitled Amice Rappard: Letters from Vincent van Gogh (1881-1885), in which the principle themes of this unique correspondence between two artists are explored in a broad selection of letters and work by the two artists.

Van Gogh Museum - Amsterdam
Paulus Potterstraat, 7
Opening hours: daily 10.00 to 18.00, Friday 10.00 to 22.00
Admission: eur 10/2.50

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