Growing up, there was a print of Il Ponte Di Asnieres in our house. It fascinated me. The colors were so stark and yellow. It wasn’t unlike the color of the dust in the rural area where we lived. For years I thought the image in the painting was the place my parents came from.
Why did my parents choose that picture to bring with them? They had so little, they were allowed to take so few things. The monogrammed linens I understood. The silver candlestick I would have taken, too. But why that image? I never knew. But for years I wondered where that train was heading.
Often, I wonder where my parents got their strength, to start over in a strange land well into middle age. I wonder what it would have been like to grow up as someone else’s daughter, in a house that had a television. What would it have been like to have watched The Mickey Mouse Club? To have eaten Twinkies before the age of 20? But then again, that strict, rigid upbringing may have been exactly what I needed to become a writer.
If Vincent Van Gogh had lived a life of ease, of wealth, of comfort, would his paintings have been as rich? Would his brother have been as supportive? There is no time machine to show alternative lives. Or alternative paintings. We have the memories of Van Gogh’s tortured life and the glory of the paintings.
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 31, 2007 at 2:56 am
shewolfy728
It does make you wonder, doesn’t it?
March 31, 2007 at 5:35 pm
marimann
Those are good questons, Quinn~ I wonder if Vincent had lived now, if he would have been “diagnosed” with something, given medication and “cured”—would there have been no paintings? Or vastly inferior paintings?
April 1, 2007 at 5:52 pm
jan2
Quinn - I think it’s possible that the severity of his mental illness would have still had to find an outlet and he would quite possibly have painted the same or similar things in his unique style. Had he been from a wealthy family in order to avoid embarrassment they may have kept him out of sight but, ironically, provided better materials. Nevertheless I agree with your summing up, he did not have an alternative life and we are the beneficiaries of that tortured mind.
marimann - yes he would have been diagnosed - it would appear he suffered from a psychotic disorder, schizophrenia, manic depression - possibly elements of both. Would he have been ‘cured’ - I don’t think there is a cure but he would have been given medication to ‘manage’ his symptoms and had they been successful he may well have been a much happier and contented young man. Would he have painted anything at all if he’d had a more ‘normal’ life? I have no idea about that - but one thing I do know - I wouldn’t wish psychosis on my worst enemy, painting be damned.