Comments by "christine paris" (@christineparis5607) on "In His Brother's Shadow: Theo van Gogh" video.

  1. I have read the letters, and they are so poignant! The younger Theo assumed a caretaker role and he and Johanna cared for him with deep affection, accepting his personality disorders and giving him the uncritical acceptance that his parents did not. After Theo died, Johanna tirelessly hunted down painting after painting and compiled a catalog of his works. There is a story that one of Van Goghs paintings he had given a farmer was being used to repair the side of a chicken coop! I believe she lived until 1925.
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  2.  @charlesmichaels6648  I did not know that was the particular painting used to repair a chicken coop! Incredible. For some reason, Van Gogh's life moves me more than any other artist, even though there are so many I admire. His work ethic, desperate loneliness, his attempts to make wherever he was a home for himself, his wrenching knowledge that others thought him strange, is so poignant. I read that a man who had been a child in the village when Van Gogh lived there, confessed that he and his friends would follow the artist, taunting him and throwing pebbles. He said that he did not realize what a broken figure he was, and later bitterly regretted his actions. I think everyone who struggles with chronic depression is probably drawn to his work...
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  3.  @charlesmichaels6648  Where I live, there is a museum where a small Van Gogh is on exhibit. Back in the day, you could walk right up to it and look closely. I used to go to the museum on my lunch hour and always visit the Van Gogh. It was of a field with a couple of indistinct figures. The coolest thing was what looked like his thumb print in the paint near the bottom. For some reason, that completely fascinated me. Actually, there were 2 Van Goghs there in the 80s, and once when I went back for a visit, one was missing. I asked what happened to it, and was told that there was never 2 paintings, just the one. The mystery of the missing Van Gogh has bothered me for 30 years. Did someone steal it? Sell it? Was it a fake? Is it hanging in the janitors garage at home? What the hell happened to it? It's going to bug me forever...
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  4.  @charlesmichaels6648  No, and it bugs the hell out of me. I think one was called "coming in from the fields" (?), but that could be just what I thought it was called. Van Gogh wasn't the most expensive artwork in the world yet, and I moved to Los Angeles in 89, then came back 4 yrs. later, and didn't get back to the museum for quite awhile. When I did visit, there were huge security changes, the painting was roped off so you couldn't get close, there were security cameras and guards. The museum had been the home of Marion Koogler McNay, who was one of those very rich, eccentric, philanthropic Texans that was determined to bring fine art to San Antonio and Texas, and she collected during the 20s and 30s, when you could still buy a picasso, FROM Picasso! After she died, the house became a museum with an art school on the property. It was all very unorganized when I worked for the estate at the art school. It was uncredited, really weird people were administering things, and no one was really in charge. The museum had almost no security. I was just an assistant to the new Public Relations team, which consisted of me, and the lady they hired for PR. There were tons of elaborate parties and fund raisers. I remember Sting and the Police showing up at one, for some inexplicable reason....they must have been touring through the South. That's why I think (just wild speculation on my part) someone either made an under the counter sale, stole the painting and sold it on the black market, or just took it home. It wouldn't have been hard to do back then, in my opinion. I'm no expert of course, I just know I spent hundreds of hours looking at TWO Van Goghs, and suddenly there had never been two, only one. There was a big arrest here a few years ago of some prominent figure who had been buying stolen art for years and years. He actually entertained quite a bit and apparently displayed well known (stolen) works of art for his friends to ooh and aah over. I remember reading it in the paper and remarking to my husband that perhaps the Van Gogh was there, but never heard.
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  5.  @charlesmichaels6648  No way, I want to live!
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