Peace and Contentment

As I write this my version of Vincent van Gogh painting of his bedroom in Arles looks down on me in my study at home. In 1992, about the same time as I was painting my version the American Pop Artist Roy Lichtenstein was painting his version. I saw this and photographed it last week in the excellent National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

This simple, tranquil painting appears to be one of the favourite paintings of the world's favourite artist. He drew it twice, painted it three times and referred to it in 13 different letters to his brother. It is the only van Gogh painting that includes his own paintings in it: in this version (hanging in Musee D'Orsay,Paris) one of the paintings is of Vincent himself. See here and here for more details.

I include the painting in my blog for four reasons;

1. self indulgence,
2. because it conveys to me emotions that are opposite of crime and fear - peace and contentment, (these were fragile emotions for van Gogh),
3. the fact that van Gogh was a blogger before his time, and
4. because there is a current exhibition of Vincent van Gogh blogs (OK letters) and pictures at the Royal Academy of Art in London.