Vincent And The Crows
Monique selected the garish, and shiny refrigerator magnet
of Van Gogh’s ‘Bedroom At Arles’. It depicted the iconic, yellow and rush
chair, narrow bed and floorboards in receding perspective.
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Slamming shut his edge worn bible, Vincent then gathered his new tools in
trade.
The failed ministry was a past chapter to him now, fresh
fields to explore.
The sunshine warmed his scrawny and bony frame, flickers of black
hovered in his periphery. As the chatter of café drinkers was left behind in
the square, he sauntered off, with an increasingly confident swagger.
He hummed to himself, it dulled the cawing crows, helped to
clear his confused and weary mind.
Passion and obsession, his two new companions, perched on
each shoulder, spurring him on. Black strokes, dashes, dots. A vibrant circus
of activity, spread over the whole
coarse paper sheet. The ingredients of his handiwork, fashioned crop fields,
fences, houses and distant mountains.
In the sky, the obligatory blackbirds, animated the cloud
whirling atmosphere.
Progress had been made, this was a substantial work, on its
own merits, but also as a preliminary for a full colour painting.
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In the blue and gold flames of the flickering lamplight,
shadows toyed with his vision and imagination, dancing and leaping up the walls
of his meagre room.
He put out the light, and crawled under the threadbare
counterpane. Pictures whirled in his
head, and the whine of an accordion player in the restaurant below, helped to
deflect the gnawing hunger.
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Yellow, not enough yellow. The simple wooden chair was
stroked in a coat of yolky yellow, bright as the countryside sunshine. It
lifted his mood, put his signature on the interior.
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Months later, Vincent tried to take his life in the very
field he painted. He lay on the hot ground, a pistol flung from his hand.
Buzzing and burning in his head. The crows circling. Some would call him a
madman, others a genius.
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At Christy’s Auction House ‘Cornfield At Arles’ sold for 6.5
million.
Michelle
Mabbott 1/7/10
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