Van Gogh in le Brabant
'...if I did not have a love for nature and my work - I would be unhappy'
The Franco-German cultural television channel ARTE has made a wonderful documentary about Van Gogh in Brabant.
The documentary focuses on nature and the environment in which Vincent grew up. Nature and art were inseparable for Vincent van Gogh. Nowhere did he find so much inspiration, peace and solace as in nature.
Vincent van Gogh spent his childhood in the Brabant countryside. From his native village of Zundert, he took walks along fields and through forests. It was there that his lifelong love of nature was born.
When we drove back from Zundert over the moors in the evening, Dad and I walked a long way, the sun was setting red behind the mastwood and the evening sky was reflecting in the marshes, the moor and the yellow and white & gray sand were so full of tone and mood.
(To Theo, from Etten, July 22, 1878)
According to Vincent, as an artist you had to really know and understand nature. The best place to do that was where you could live and work in the midst of it: in the unspoiled countryside. And he found that in Brabant!
Watch the documentary 'Van Gogh dans le Brabant' on ARTE T here