The Lovers’ Chronicle 30 March – Pinturas negras – art by Francisco Goya & Vincent Van Gogh – verse by Verlaine

30 March 2024 By 0 In Random

Dear Zazie,

Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag to his muse. This is one of our favorite days in TLC. Beauty and sorrow, our two favorite topics, were never done better than by the trio of today’s birthday boys.

Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

that you understand
certainly one reason
there are many

you, who have read
’em all, know ’em

the dark pull surfaces
know and again and
this day serves as reminder
to channel that impulse
through verse or color

to express the possibilities
in every scene, over and over

© copyright 2022 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

no more fallin’
tears
nor long ache

the worst pain
not to understand
without

what have we done,
standin’ here
what will we do
with what is left

we must let this vision ride with luck
on the back of verse that moves
touched with the passion
and colors that ignite

nothin’ else matters

© copyright 2021 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

she knows the place
she goes there
to escape
when the black
threatens to pull
her under
it comes and goes
without reason
without care
for what she wants
it does not defeat her
she is too strong for that,
but she wonders why
and he is there
ready to help

© copyright 2020 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

her paintin’s were strikin’
the blackest i ever saw
but life gave her that
she never asked for it

she would talk of tears
that would not fall
and the long ache

she would paint
the darkness
and i would write
tryin’ to keep up,
to understand
her full heart

then
done, standin’ there
tell me what is left

because without you
rien ne suis
rien ne puis

© copyright 2019 mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

look forward to this day
to seek the possibilities
of black in everything
in movies, in books
in art, in verse
in bars, in the eyes
of the ones encountered
who knew it as well or better

what else matters
these stories
these scenes
what they know
those who have been

© copyright 2018 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

wish we were in Madrid
at the Museo del Prado
to see them again
the pain, the fear
the beauty
later, we would
drink absinthe
and read Verlaine
and offer ourselves
to each other
to be consumed

© copyright 2016 Mac tag/cowboy coleridge all rights reserved

 

Self-portrait, c. 1796-97. Museo del Prado

Self-portrait, c. 1796-97. Museo del Prado

Today is the birthday of Francisco Goya (Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes; Fuendetodos, Aragón, Spain 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828 Bordeaux); romantic painter and printmaker.  In my opinion, the most important Spanish artist of late 18th and early 19th centuries.  Goya is often referred to as both the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns.  Far and away, my favorite Goya paintings are his so called Pinturas negras (Black Paintings).  They are a group of fourteen paintings from the later years of his life, likely between 1819 and 1823.  The paintings portray intense, haunting themes, reflective of both his fear of insanity and his bleak outlook on humanity.  In 1819, at the age of 72, Goya moved into a two-story house outside Madrid that was called Quinta del Sordo (Deaf Man’s Villa).  All of the paintings were executed in oil directly onto the plaster walls of the house.  Goya apparently, did not intend for the paintings to be exhibited, nor did not write of them.  It was not until around 1874, about 50 years after his death, that they were taken down and transferred to a canvas support.  The effects of time on the murals, coupled with the inevitable damage caused by the delicate operation of mounting the crumbling plaster on canvas, meant that most of the murals suffered extensive damage and loss of paint.  Today they are on permanent display at the Museo del Prado, Madrid.  Goya did not give titles to the paintings, or if he did, he never revealed them.  Most names used for them are designations employed by art historians.  Initially, they were catalogued in 1828 by Goya’s friend, Antonio Brugada.  Pinturas negras have inspired my verse, time and again.  I have a long, unfinished, epic poem about them.  Here they are:

Images of the Pinturas negras

He eats his young.
(Saturno devorando a su hijo), Saturn Devouring His Son, 1819-1823
(El perro), The Dog, 1819-1823
(Dos viejos/Un viejo y un fraile), Two Old Men, 1819-1823
(Hombres leyendo), Men Reading, 1819-1823
(Judith y Holofernes), Judith and Holofernes, 1819-1823
(Mujeres riendo), Women Laughing, 1819-1823
Heads in a Landscape (Cabezas en un paisaje, possibly the fifteenth Black Painting)
A dog looks up.
(Una manola/La Leocadia), Leocadia, 1819-1823
(Átropos/Las Parcas), Atropos (The Fates), 1819-1823
Like wraiths.
(Duelo a garrotazos), Fight with Cudgels, 1819-1823
(Dos viejos comiendo sopa), Two Old Men Eating Soup, 1819-1823
Two men fight each other.
(Vision fantástica/Asmodea), Fantastic Vision, 1819-1823
Two figures at a table.
(Peregrinación a la fuente de San Isidro/Procesión del Santo Oficio), Procession of the Holy Office, 1819-1823
(El Gran Cabrón/Aquelarre), Witches’ Sabbath, 1819-1823
(La romería de San Isidro), A Pilgrimage to San Isidro, 1819-1823

The Song of the Day is Peter Gabriel Fourteen Black Paintings. we do not own the rights to this song. all rights belong to rightful owner.

paulverlaineCarrierePortraitVerlain

Portrait by Eugène Carrière 1890

Today is the birthday of Paul Verlaine (Paul-Marie Verlaine, Metz 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896 Paris); poet associated with the Symbolist movement.  In my opinion, he is one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.  Here are a few of my favorite Verlaine verses:

Il pleure dans mon cœur
Comme il pleut sur la ville.
Quelle est cette langueur
Qui pénètre mon cœur?

  • Falling tears in my heart,
    Falling rain on the town.
    Why this long ache,
    A knife in my heart.
  • “Il pleur dans mon cœur” line 1, from Romances sans paroles (1874); Sorrell p. 69
  • C’est bien la pire peine
    De ne savoir pourquoi
    Sans amour et sans haine
    Mon cœur a tant de peine!

    • By far the worst pain
      Is not to understand
      Why without love or hate
      My heart’s full of pain.
    • “Il pleur dans mon cœur” line 13, from Romances sans paroles (1874); Sorrell p. 71

Qu’as-tu fait, ô toi que voilà
Pleurant sans cesse,
Dis, qu’as-tu fait, toi que voilà
De ta jeunesse?

  • What have you done, you standing there
    In floods of tears?
    Tell me what you have done
    With your young life?
  • “Le ciel est, par-dessus le toit”, line 13, from Sagesse (1880); Sorrell p. 111

Que ton vers soit la bonne aventure
Éparse au vent crispé du matin
Qui va fleurant la menthe et le thym…
Et tout le reste est littérature.

  • You must let your poems ride their luck
    On the back of the sharp morning air
    Touched with the fragrance of mint and thyme…
    And everything else is literature.
  • Line 33, Sorrell p. 125

Aime-moi
car sans toi
rien ne suis
rien ne puis

 

Vincent van Gogh
A head and shoulders portrait of a thirty something man, with a red beard, facing to the left

Self-Portrait, 1887, Art Institute of Chicago

Today is the birthday of Vincent Willem van Gogh (Zundert, Netherlands 30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890 Auvers-sur-Oise, France); Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life in France. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. His suicide at 37 followed years of mental illness and poverty.

Van Gogh suffered from psychotic episodes and delusions and though he worried about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly and drank heavily. His friendship with Paul Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor, when in a rage, he severed part of his own left ear. He spent time in psychiatric hospitals, including a period at Saint-Rémy. After he discharged himself and moved to the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, he came under the care of the homeopathic doctor Paul Gachet. His depression continued and on 27 July 1890, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a revolver. He died from his injuries two days later.

Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime, and was considered a madman and a failure. He became famous after his suicide, and exists in the public imagination as the quintessential misunderstood genius, the artist “where discourses on madness and creativity converge”. His reputation began to grow in the early 20th century as elements of his painting style came to be incorporated by the Fauves and German Expressionists. He attained widespread critical, commercial and popular success over the ensuing decades, and is remembered as an important but tragic painter, whose troubled personality typifies the romantic ideal of the tortured artist.

Gallery

Donna al Cafè Le Tambourin

Donna al Cafè Le Tambourin

 

Head shot photo of the artist as a clean-shaven young man. He has thick, ill-kept, wavy hair, a high forehead, and deep-set eyes with a wary, watchful expression.
Head shot photo of a young man, similar in appearance to his brother, but neat, well-groomed and calm.
in 1873, when he worked at the Goupil & Cie’s gallery in The Hague. Theo (pictured right, in 1878) was a life-long supporter and friend to his brother.

 

A view from a window of pale red rooftops. A bird flies in the blue sky; in the near distance there are fields and to the right, the town and other buildings can be seen. On the distant horizon are chimneys.

Rooftops, View from the Atelier The Hague, 1882, private collection

A group of five sit around a small wooden table with a large platter of food, while one person pours drinks from a kettle in a dark room with an overhead lantern.

The Potato Eaters, 1885. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
  • A drawing of an old man who sits on a chair with his head in his hands

    Worn Out, pencil on watercolour paper, 1882. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam [90]

  • An image of a large opened bible on a table top

    Still Life with Open Bible, Extinguished Candle and Novel also Still Life with Bible, 1885. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

  • A skull smoking a cigarette

    Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette, 1885–86. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

  • A woman facing away working with a spade

    Peasant Woman Digging, or Woman with a Spade, Seen from Behind, 1885. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Blue-hued pastel drawing of a man facing right, seated at a table with his hands and a glass on it. He is wearing a coat. There are windows in the background.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Portrait of Vincent van Gogh, 1887, pastel drawing, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
  • A Japanese woman looks to the left in a Ukiyo-e style painting

    Courtesan (after Eisen), 1887. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

  • A bearded old man sits gazing directly at the viewer

    Portrait of Père Tanguy, 1887. Musée Rodin, Paris

  • Closeup of a tree branch and landscape in the background, in a Ukiyo-e style painting

    Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige), 1887. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

  • A glass and bottle on a cafe table

    Still Life with Glass of Absinthe and a Carafe, 1887. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

A large house under a blue sky

The Yellow House, 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
  • A man sowing seeds in front of a giant sun going down near a large tree

    The Sower with Setting Sun, 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

  • On the edge of the sea four boats on the water in the distance; closer, four boats are on the dry sand on the beach

    Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries, June 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

  • A small room with paintings on the wall, two chairs, a single bed and a table

    Bedroom in Arles, 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

  • A large building under a clear sky with a landscape in the background and two people in the near distance

    The Old Mill, 1888. Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

A seated red-bearded man wearing a brown coat, facing to the left, with a paintbrush in his right hand, is painting a picture of large sunflowers.

Paul Gauguin, The Painter of Sunflowers: Portrait of Vincent van Gogh, 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
  • A billiard table in the centre of a room of a cafe surrounded by tables. Patrons are seated at several tables, and a man dressed in white stands behind the billiard table.

    The Night Café, 1888. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

  • A vineyard with many people working picking fruit, while a very large and bright sun shines in the sky.

    The Red Vineyard, November 1888. Pushkin Museum, Moscow. Sold to Anna Boch, 1890

  • A single, simple, yellow, wooden and straw, armless, empty chair, with a pipe and tobacco on the seat, in an empty room with tiles on the floor.

    Van Gogh’s Chair, 1888. National Gallery, London

  • An armchair with a cushion seat; there are two books and a lit candle on the seat. A lit lamp is on the wall.

    Paul Gauguin’s Armchair, 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

  • A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the right; he is smoking a pipe, wearing a winter hat. His ear is bandaged and he has no beard.

    Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe, 1889, private collection

  • A courtyard garden of a large building with tree and fountain.

    The Courtyard of the Hospital at Arles, 1889, Oskar Reinhart Collection “Am Römerholz”, Winterthur, Switzerland

  • A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the right; he is wearing a winter hat, his ear is bandaged and he has no beard.

    Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1889, Courtauld Institute of Art, London

  • A large room of a large building with hospital beds and several people gathered around a wood-burning stove; nuns and others are in the background.

    Ward in the Hospital in Arles, 1889, Oskar Reinhart Collection “Am Römerholz”, Winterthur, Switzerland

A landscape in which the starry night sky takes up two thirds of the picture. In the left foreground a dark pointed cypress tree extends from the bottom to the top of the picture. To the left, village houses and a church with a tall steeple are clustered at the foot of a mountain range. The sky is deep blue. In the upper right is a yellow crescent moon surrounded by a halo of light. There are many bright stars large and small, each surrounded by swirling halos. Across the centre of the sky the Milky Way is represented as a double swirling vortex.

The Starry Night, June 1889. Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • In an indoor prison yard a large group of men walk in a circle, one behind the other. The face of the prisoner in the centre of the painting and looking toward the viewer looks like Van Gogh.

    The Round of the Prisoners (after Doré), 1890. Pushkin Museum, Moscow

  • A man is scattering seeds in a ploughed field. The figure is represented as small, and is set in the upper right and walking out of the picture. He carries a bag of seed over one shoulder. The ploughed soil is grey, and behind it rises a standing crop, and in the left distance, a farmhouse. In the centre of the horizon is a giant yellow rising sun with emanating yellow rays. A path leads into the picture, and birds are swooping down.

    The Sower, (after Millet), 1888. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

  • Two women are digging in a snowy field, covered in white, houses off in the distance, while the sun rises.

    Two Peasant Women Digging in a Snow-Covered Field at Sunset, (after Millet), 1890. Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich, Switzerland

  • A painting of an old man who sits on a chair with his head in his hands.

    Sorrowing Old Man (‘At Eternity’s Gate’), 1890. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

White House at Night, 1890. Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, painted six weeks before the artist’s death

Tree Roots, July 1890, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

The Church at Auvers, 1890. Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Two graves and two gravestones side by side; heading behind a bed of green leaves, bearing the remains of Vincent and Theo Van Gogh, where they lie in the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise. The stone to the left bears the inscription: Ici Repose Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) and the stone to the right reads: Ici Repose Theodore van Gogh (1857–1891)

Vincent and Theo’s graves at Auvers-sur-Oise

A view of a dark starry night with bright stars shining over the River Rhone. Across the river distant buildings with bright lights shining are reflected into the dark waters of the Rhone.

Starry Night Over the Rhone, 1888. Musée d’Orsay, Paris

A squarish painting of green winding olive trees; with rolling blue hills in the background and white clouds in the blue sky above.

Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background, 1889. Museum of Modern Art, New York

A squarish painting of a closeup of two women with one holding an umbrella while the other woman holds flowers. Behind them is a young woman who is picking flowers in a large bed of wildflowers. They appear to be walking through a garden on a winding path at the edge of a river.

Memory of the Garden at Etten (Ladies of Arles), 1888. Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

A well-dressed woman sits facing to her right (the viewer's left). She has two books on her lap, and is dressed in dark clothes vividly contrasted against a yellow background.

L’Arlésienne: Madame Ginoux with Books, November 1888. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
  • A closeup portrait of an elderly well-dressed woman sits facing to her left (the viewer's right). She has a pleasant smile and she is dressed in a dark top and she is wearing a hat, in front of a vivid green background.

    Portrait of Artist’s Mother, October 1888, Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, California

  • A closeup portrait of an intense young man well-dressed with suit and tie, facing to his right (the viewer's left), he has a moustache and goatee and he is standing in front of a starry sky in the background.

    Eugène Boch, (The Poet Against a Starry Sky), 1888, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

  • A portrait of a middle aged man with a mustache and beard seated on a chair facing to his left (the viewer's right). He has a thoughtful look on his face and his hands are free while his left arm rests on a table, he is wearing a dark blue uniform and cap, in front of a pale blue background.

    Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin (1841–1903) early August 1888, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

  • An elderly well-dressed woman sits facing to her right (the viewer's left). She has her hands clasped together on her lap, and she is dressed in a dark top and green dress in front of a vivid flower wallpaper background.

    La Berceuse (Augustine Roulin) 1889, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the left, with an extreme intense, intent look, and a red beard.

Self-Portrait, September 1889. Musée d’Orsay, Paris
  • A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the left, with a relaxed but intent look, a red beard and wearing a grey hat.

    Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat, Winter 1887–88. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

  • A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the left, with a relaxed look, a red beard and wearing a straw hat.

    Self-Portrait with Straw Hat, Paris, Winter 1887–88. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

  • A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the left (good ear) holding a palette with brushes. He is wearing a blue cloak and has yellow hair and beard. The background is a deep violet.

    Self-Portrait, 1889. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. His Saint-Rémy self-portraits show his side with the unmutilated ear, as he saw himself in the mirror

  • A portrait of Vincent van Gogh from the left (good ear), with no beard.

    Self-Portrait Without Beard, c. September 1889. This painting may have been Van Gogh’s last self-portrait. He gave it to his mother as a birthday gift

A ceramic vase with sunflowers on a yellow surface against a bright yellow background.

Still Life: Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers, August 1888. National Gallery, London
  • A ceramic vase with sunflowers on a yellow surface against a pale blue background.

    Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, August 1888. Neue Pinakothek, Munich

  • Irises growing in a garden. There is bare soil visible and orange flowers in the background.

    Irises, 1889. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

  • Pale pink blossoms on the branches of a tree against a pale blue sky.

    Almond Blossom, 1890. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

  • Iris flowers and some green leaves in a yellow vase.

    Still Life: Vase with Irises Against a Yellow Background, May 1890, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

  • Pale pink roses in a green vase, against a pale green background.

    Still Life: Pink Roses in a Vase, May 1890, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

A painting of a large cypress tree, on the side of a road, with two people walking, a wagon and horse behind them, and a green house in the background, under an intense starry sky.

Road with Cypress and Star, May 1890, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
  • A drawing of a landscape in which the starry night sky takes up two thirds of the picture. In the left foreground a cypress tree extends from the bottom to the top of the picture. To the left, village houses and a church with a tall steeple are clustered at the foot of a mountain range. In the upper right is a crescent moon surrounded by a halo of light. There are many bright stars large and small, each surrounded by swirling halos. Across the centre of the sky the Milky Way is represented as a double swirling vortex

    Cypresses in Starry Night, a reed pen drawing executed by Van Gogh after the painting in 1889

  • A painting of a large group of cypress trees, beside which two young women are walking, a large house in the background, under a cloudy blue sky.

    Cypresses and Two Women, 1890. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

  • A painting of two large cypress trees under a bright afternoon sky, next to a wheat field in a landscape of hills, bushes, flowers and trees

    Wheat Field with Cypresses, 1889. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

  • A painting of two large cypress trees, under a late afternoon sky, with a crescent moon

    Cypresses, 1889. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

A watercolour of two pink peach trees in a blossoming orchard of trees near a wooden fence under a bright blue sky.

Pink Peach Tree in Blossom (Reminiscence of Mauve), watercolour, March 1888. Kröller-Müller Museum
  • A painting of a blossoming orchard of trees under a bright blue sky.

    The Pink Orchard also Orchard with Blossoming Apricot Trees, March 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

  • A painting of a blossoming orchard of many trees near wooden fences bordered by large cypress trees under a bright blue sky.

    Orchard in Blossom, Bordered by Cypresses, April, 1888. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

  • A close view of three blossoming trees behind which can be seen a large orchard and field in which a man is working, a village filled with buildings and houses in the background, under a bright sky

    View of Arles, Flowering Orchards, 1889. Neue Pinakothek, Munich

An expansive painting of a wheatfield, with green hills through the centre underneath dark and forbidding skies.

Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds, 1890, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • A bright squarish painting of a wheatfield, a river, houses, mountains and the rising sun.

    Enclosed Wheat Field with Rising Sun, May 1889, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

  • A squarish painting of a wheatfield in a dense pouring rain.

    Rain or Enclosed Wheat Field in the Rain, November 1889, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia

  • A squarish painting of a darkened wheatfield of stacks, with a river and mountains in the background under a rising full moon.

    Wheat Fields (Van Gogh series), early June 1889. Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

  • A squarish painting of a wheatfield, in the afternoon, with landscape and a white house in the background.

    Wheat Field at Auvers with White House, June 1890, The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C.

A man wearing a straw hat, carrying a canvas and paintbox, walking to the left, down a tree-lined, leaf-strewn country road

Painter on the Road to Tarascon, August 1888 (destroyed by fire in the Second World War)
Que de beautés dans l’art, à condition de pouvoir retenir ce que l’on a vu. On n’est alors jamais désoeuvré ni vraiment solitaire, jamais seul.
– Vincent Van Gogh

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