At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, the question people ask the most is: Will 2017 be better?

Pull out the text from 2005. The content has nothing to do with New Year's Eve, and the meaning may be borrowed. It doesn’t matter which time, which era, when it was better or when it was worse, our lives are destined to be like Van Gogh and Monet, withered and bloomed in turn.

Van Gogh, Monet - Decline and Bloom

May 2005

AUVERS and GIVERNY, two small towns very close to Paris, because of Van Gogh It is famous for Vincent Van Gogh and Oscar-Claude Monet. The former is the place where Van Gogh created and lived before his death, and the latter is the beautiful home built by Monet with all his emotions.

Since we had to go to two places in one day and time was tight, we decided to rent a car with a few classmates. Before setting off from Paris, my traveling companion asked, should we go to AUVERS or GIVERNY first? I asked: Do you want to be sad first and then happy, or vice versa? The final decision is to leave happiness behind.

Drive northwest and go straight to AUVERS. Paris in spring brings the fragrance of flowers and plants to your breath. On the roadside on the outskirts of the city, the lush vegetation stretches out its waist that has been dormant all winter, which is very eye-catching.

Ever since I saw Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” ??at the National Gallery in London, the desire to visit AUVER has been growing in my heart. Van Gogh's personal tragedy and the strong expressionism of his works make you open your eyes and long to enter his world. In art school, we often talk about art based on our works. But the works of each master are actually a reflection of his life and emotional experiences, and also a microcosm of that era. It doesn’t matter which sect they belong to, or in other words, this is not the fundamental purpose of their creation. For someone like me who is not engaged in pure art practice but only dabbles in art appreciation, I am more interested in things other than art. I always hope to see the artist's life through his works.

If you want to understand Van Gogh’s works, you might as well look at his footprints. For Van Gogh (1853-1890), who was born in the Netherlands, he basically experienced all the major setbacks in his 37 years of life: the breakdown of his relationship with his parents, being trapped by poverty all his life, having no harmonious religious support, and being obsessed with love. Abandoned (the first love breakup caused an emotional crisis), suffered from schizophrenia, and was not accepted by peers and even society. He had nearly a thousand works, but almost no one bought him during his lifetime. No wonder our tutor once said that Van Gogh had all the "conditions" for an artist who was unknown during his lifetime and became famous after his death. In the eyes of his contemporaries, his "failure" was enough to be quickly forgotten, but for those who came after him, his misfortune and advancement became a legend.

Van Gogh’s only friend was his brother THEO, who was 4 years younger than him. THEO devoted everything he had to supporting his brother's creation. Most of what future generations know about Van Gogh comes from hundreds of letters written by their brothers. Six months after Van Gogh committed suicide, THEO died of depression and sadness in Paris. In 1914, his bones were moved to AUVERS and buried next to Van Gogh's tomb.

Although Van Gogh's real painting career only lasted 10 years, he was full of confidence in his works. He believes that artists should not only paint what they see, but also paint the sounds they feel deep in their souls, and that color is a tool for emotional catharsis.

In a letter to THEO, he wrote: "Compared with realistically drawing what my eyes see, I prefer to use colors to express my feelings freely." This was in line with the situation at the time. The "Salon" Academy and the "Impressionism" that pursues the recording of instantaneous light, shadow and color changes are not very relevant, let alone the "Realism" faction that aims to depict the facts seen with the eyes, such as: MILLER (representative work "The Gleaners") and COURBET. Van Gogh's lonely and repressed growth environment as a child left him without the skills to cater to the world, and his aloof and eccentric personality made the surrounding environment unable to accept him.

PISSARRO, the "Impressionist" painter of the same era as him, once said: "This person is either a madman, or he is far ahead of us." These are in line with Van Gogh's extreme appreciation of his artistic talent. Confidence creates a strong conflict. Creation became his only way to escape from the world.

He spent the last 70 days of his life in AUVERS, during which he created more than 80 works, which are currently collected in well-known art museums around the world. In a letter he wrote to THEO before committing suicide, he said: "I can't change the fact that no one wants my paintings. But one day, they will realize that these paintings are more valuable than the paints used to create them. Valuable. ”

Arrive at AUVERS, a quiet, simple town. The winding country roads; the houses and small gardens built according to the terrain on both sides rarely have open windows; the fields not far away and the cypress trees nearby stir up memories of Van Gogh's paintings. The silence here forced us to lower our voices even when we spoke.

Perhaps to make myself more mentally prepared, I don’t want to go see Van Gogh’s cabin right away. So we first went to Le Chateau d’Auvers sur Oise, a small and medium-sized art gallery, to visit an exhibition about the birth and development of French “Impressionism” in the 19th century. Since Cézanne also lived and painted in AUVERS, the promotion of "Impressionism" here is very comprehensive and vivid. After leaving the Chateau, we went straight to Dr. GACHET's house. Dr. GACHET was entrusted by THEO and had been taking care of Van Gogh. He was also an amateur painter and was good friends with Van Gogh and Cézanne. However, Van Gogh later suffered from an extremely serious schizophrenia and believed that GACHET was also ill, and the relationship between the two broke down for a time. On July 27, 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest and insisted on walking back to his couple's residence in Ravoux. It was Dr. GACHET who bandaged his wounds and informed THEO. On the 29th, Van Gogh died in THEO's arms.

Dr. GACHET's residence is next to a hill. There is a small garden in front of the house, and a garden built on a hill behind the house, full of flowers and plants. Portraits painted by Van Gogh and reproductions of some of his works are displayed around. Like Van Gogh, Dr. GACHET also loves Japanese prints, and he also saw Cezanne's sketches for him in his home.

After walking out of Dr. GACHET's house, we walked east along the path named after him for about 25 minutes. We turned left into a quiet side street and arrived at the Ravoux Inn, where Van Gogh spent the last part of his life. The place of time is an ordinary two-story building.

There are not many tourists here. They climb up the stairs in silence, dark stairs, dark stones, and narrow corridors. On the second floor, Van Gogh's room is right in front of him, a 7-square-meter room with a small skylight. There was only one chair inside, the kind where the pipe was placed in Van Gogh's works. The four bare walls are as cold as they were a hundred years ago. In such a space, it is unknown how life will be compressed. However, the compressed desire and despair can also be released exponentially; for Van Gogh, the only action that can release him is to put his back on the canvas and apply color - the only language that can connect him to the world: such as The swirling shapes, blurred scenery and people, the uncompromising illusion that only exists in his ideal world, are like an abandoned person, clinging to his last right to love and express love, no matter what. All the doors of this world were closed to him, leaving only 7 square meters for him, where he held the hand of his only relative, THEO, and counted the last moments of his life.

The guide is a local French girl and her English is very limited. She said that the Van Gogh Institute is actively raising funds now, hoping to buy a masterpiece by Van Gogh and put it in this house, but it is still short of 40 million euros! And once there is a painting, the security system of the entire Ravoux Inn must be strengthened to prevent thieves, which requires another amount of money.

What would Van Gogh think if he knew that people would go to such trouble to put his paintings in his own small room a hundred years later? Just as contemporary people classify the style of Van Gogh's works as "Post-Impressionism" and "Expressionism", in fact, the best summary of Van Gogh is the short poem of the French poet Baudelaire:

"He was born.

He painted.

He died.

The wheat field was golden,

A flock of crows screamed Flying across the sky."

The world did not give him any response during his lifetime. Just like Van Gogh's "Four Cut Sunflowers".

Many people know the "Sunflowers" he painted for Gauguin, but the most shocking thing is actually "Four Cut Sunflowers"!

With this emotion, we bid farewell to the Ravoux Inn and continued eastward, passing the simple, ancient church painted by Van Gogh and arriving at a cemetery surrounded by rice fields.

Enter from the main entrance, go around to the left, and soon you will see the extremely ordinary tombstones of Van Gogh and THEO, covered with ivy. The surrounding tombstones are scattered in various places, many of which are very luxuriously decorated, reflecting the loneliness in this corner, the desolation of being in a foreign land. Today, no matter what aura the outside world bestows on Van Gogh, AUVERS, his cabin, and his cemetery are actually the true concentration of his life trajectory.

Our car set off for GIVERNY. There is a song lingering in my ears: Starry Night. This is a work by New York-based singer-songwriter Don McLean in memory of Van Gogh. Starry Night is also one of Van Gogh's famous paintings, and the other name of this song, VINCENT, is Van Gogh's name.

Starry, starry night

Paint your palette blue and gray

Look out on a summer's day

With eyes that know the darkness in my soul

Shadows on the hills

Sketch the trees and the daffodils

Catch the breeze and the winter chills

In colors on the snowy linen land

Now I understand

What you tried to say to me

And how you suffered for your sanity

And how you tried to set them free

They would not listen; they did not know how

Perhaps they'll listen now

..... .

My classmates cheered me up because the world in GIVERNY an hour away is so beautiful.

Monet’s life gives you hope. He was born 13 years earlier than Van Gogh and died 36 years later, living a full 86 years (1840-1926). Monet's growth was not easy. He was born in Paris, and his family was not well-off. He had no interest in studying when he was young, but he was very active and made money by drawing charcoal cartoons for people. On the beach of Normandy, he met the artist EUGENE BOUDIN. Eugene later became Monet's mentor and taught him how to paint. Afterwards, Monet served in the army for two years in Algeria. In 1862, he joined the studio of CHARLES GLEYRE in Paris. There he met RENOIR, BAZILLE and SISLEY, the representative figures of "Impressionism" in the future.

France in the 19th century was the center of art and culture in the world. With the opening of the railway and the emergence of tubed paint, the tradition of painting only in the studio was abandoned. Young artists began to put on their easels, enter a wider space, and enjoy the colors and brilliance given by nature. This means that they will have to break with the traditional creative methods of religious and mythological themes - the artificial indoor light and color, as well as the techniques respected by the academics at that time. They saw a brand new world of outdoor creation that could capture the instantaneous changes of light and shadow.

"To express instantaneous changes, we must create new painting methods." However, this move caused a ban from the dominant academic school at the time. Impressionist works were not shortlisted for the annual "Salon Exhibition". Young painters had no choice but to hold independent art exhibitions on their own.

In 1874, Monet's "Impression Sunrise" with a landscape in Le Havre as the background was unveiled at the first exhibition of Impressionist painters. It is now displayed at the Musée Marmottan-Monet in Paris. According to the title of this painting, art critic LOUIS LEROI put forward the term "Impressionism". According to normal appreciation habits, he could not see what Monet painted at all, only some vague "impressions", and his words were full of To ridicule and belittle this painting technique.

At one time, Monet, like all Impressionist painters, was financially strapped. But his fascination with nature and art, and his more realistic attitude towards the so-called "market" and "success" have enabled him to gain continued support from some wealthy peers (BAZILLE and CAILLEBOTTE) and agents (Art dealer). In the 1880s, Monet began to travel around Europe, capturing the "light", "shadow" and "color" he was obsessed with, and persistently continued his journey of saying goodbye to traditional stereotypes. His canvases began to record sunrises and sunsets in France, England and the Mediterranean. The colors of the sky and water - the clarity of morning light, the blazing heat of noon, the blur of dusk; the surging of the sea, the gentle ripples of the stream, the tips of the leaves blown by the wind. Nye was immersed in the wonderful feeling that light brought to him, and also created his own artistic conception of light, allowing his brush to freeze moving moments one after another, while infecting those Parisians whose eyes were accustomed to artificial light, He himself was in harmony with nature...

In 1890, when Van Gogh was struggling on the verge of self-destruction in AUVERS dozens of miles away, Monet had successfully been accepted by Paris and began to purchase at GIVERNY , built his own house, garden, pond, and bridge surrounded by nature, and lived an idyllic life with his second wife ALICE and 8 children (2 from himself and his ex-wife, 6 brought here by ALICE), And began to create his famous water lily series, Rouen Cathedral series and straw stack series. At this time, Monet no longer needs to walk around the world to chase the figure of light. From the different images the sun casts on the pond throughout the day, to the golden glow and desolation given to the fields at dawn and dusk, the "poet of light" can already use the simplest things around him to show the world under the light.

Entering GIVERNY, we are bathing in the warm sunshine of spring. The frozen heart of AUVERS begins to melt.

Monet’s house, gardens and ponds bloom in the fragrance of May, thanks to the generosity of those who loved him around the world.

Going through the narrow entrance, you are greeted by a dazzling array of colors.

Monet’s home consists of gardens, ponds and turquoise houses. The flower-filled courtyard was designed by eight gardeners that year, demonstrating Monet's idea of ??integrating art and nature.

Behind the layers of flowers is a long green building, which is Monet's home. Compared with the loneliness of Van Gogh's cabin and only one local guide, there are more than 10 rooms on the upper and lower floors here, which are crowded with tourists from all over the world; there are also neatly dressed security personnel who politely remind You, don't take pictures indoors. Traces of the painter's daily habits during his lifetime can be found here. Japanese ukiyo-e works and prints by painters such as Hiroshige and Hokusai can be seen everywhere, as well as paintings by contemporary artists such as Cézanne, MANET, RENOIR, DEGAS, COROT, and SARGENT. There is a large studio on the left side of the house surrounding the quiet lotus pond, where Monet's late work "Water Lilies" was created.

In his later years, Monet was recognized as one of the most famous painters in France and the greatest practitioner of "Impressionism". His love for nature, the world of colors and moments of light and shadow he retained perfectly embody the "fleeting" yet "eternal" meaning of life. Like Van Gogh, creation became part of Monet's breathing. Although the old man suffered from cataracts in his later years, he still painted until his death on December 5, 1926.

Saying goodbye to the colorful flowers and green willows of GIVERNY, we set off back to Paris. On the way, the French driver asked us where we liked best in half-baked English.

We asked him back, and he smiled and said: I don't understand art, but I like Monet because his things are beautiful.

At this time, the afternoon sun is still bright and charming, reflecting the golden rapeseed flowers in the distance. If Monet were here, he would definitely look at it intently, and then use oil paint to transform a picture, full of warmth and poetry... But the other side of my heart is still occupied by Van Gogh. Perhaps, he is destined to be a cold, lonely moon higher than this world, illuminating the struggle in the dark night.

For Monet and Van Gogh, it can be said that their character determines their destiny; but their circumstances and endings are not our own lives - withering and blooming take turns occupying them.