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Madrid exhibit explores Van Gogh's final days

By Ciaran Giles, Associated Press
09:02 AM PDT, June 12, 2007

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Nearly 30 paintings that troubled genius Vincent van Gogh turned out in the last two months of his life will be on exhibit at Madrid's Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in what is billed as a first exhibition to focus on the Dutch artist's final days.

When Vincent van Gogh arrived in the French village of Auvers-sur-Oise in late May 1890 in search of a new life after a year in a mental asylum, he embarked on an explosion of creativity, producing more than 70 paintings within two months. It turned out to be a frenzied farewell: He shot himself July 27 and died two days later at age 37.

Beginning today, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum brings together 29 of the works in an exhibit that runs until Sept. 16. Thyssen chief curator Guillermo Solana said unavoidable legal restrictions at the Louvre in Paris and availability problems with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam made an unabridged Auvers show impossible.

Titled "The Final Landscapes," the Madrid exhibit features 26 paintings and three drawings gathered from galleries and private collections worldwide. Providing points of comparison are six paintings by Cezanne, Pissarro and Daubigny, who had also found inspiration in Auvers before Van Gogh.

Delights such as "Daubigny's Garden" from the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland, the Cincinnati Art Museum's "Undergrowth with Two Figures" and "Landscape at Twilight," from the Van Gogh Museum, join the Thyssen's own "Les Vessenots" for a compact exhibit that makes a welcome break from the gallery's customary large-scale blockbuster art shows.

One of the first Expressionists, Van Gogh produced nearly 1,500 paintings and drawings, all in his last 10 years. Not recognized in his time, he had a history of mental illness, famously cutting off his ear after an argument with Paul Gauguin.