Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers

Waldemar visits the Poets & Lovers exhibition at the National Gallery in London.

Hello and welcome
to the van Gogh Exhibition

at the National Gallery im London.

Now, the show is called
"Poets and lovers"

and what it contains is 60, yes 60,

of Van Gogh's most famous pictures,

some of which are coming
to London for the very first time

and the really interesting thing is

that everything here was painted

in the two short years that van Gogh
spent in the south of France.

He arrived in February 1888,

he left after all kinds of tragedies
in May 1890

but in those two short years
the masterpieces poured out of him.

Leading the way is his view
of the yellow house in Arles,

so this was the home
that he made for himself

and in this tiny little house

he made most of these paintings
that you see around us.

It's interesting picture
for all kinds of reasons.

This wonderful golden color is one thing

but if you see that at the back
that's the railway line

that's probably the train
that he arrived in Arles,

on the train from Paris.

This Café here
that's the Night Café in Arles,

that's where he used to go
and get drunk and play billiards

so that was right next door to the house

and interestingly you see these lumps
in the middle of the road.

You know, what those are.

They're actually road works,

because when Vincent moved
into this house

he asked for the gas to be connected up
to the house

so that he could work at night.

Gas lighting had just been
introduced in Arles.

Vincent made sure that the yellow house
was connected to it.

Now, the world which
van Gogh lived in Arles

was tiny, really tiny,

To help you visualize it,

I've set up this detailed map
of the region.

So, this here that's the big yellow house
he lived in on the corner,

and behind it, the railway station
with the train coming in.

That's just there.

Next door to it the Night Café,

the scene of many drinking
adventures by Vincent.

So, when he went out the front door,

just to the right 50 yards up the road,

that big view of the Starry Nght
that's just here

and in front of him was the big park,
the Poet's Garden

where all the lovers
would stray and meet.

And then, just past the park,
just up the road there,

that's the brothel where he used
to go with Gauguin

for what they called
their "hygienic visits".

Now, all this the whole
of van Gogh's world,

pretty much everything
you see in this show,

all of that is just a few hundred yards

of just a tiny bit of the world

that produced massive amounts
of great art.

His bedroom in Arles.

This isn't actually the first painting
he did of that.

This is something he did later,

he did a kind of recreation of it.

Once he'd had his breakdown
and things went wrong,

he painted it again.

Now I can't look at this picture
without always making a B-line

for this washstand here.

So, in the morning
Vincent would wash and shave.

This must be
where he kept his razor,

the razor with which notoriously
he would later hack away at his own ear.

Why did van Gogh choose Arles
as his south of France destination?

It's always puzzled me, I mean,

he could have gone anywhere
in the south of France,

to some very glamorous places,

but he chose Arles
which at the time was an industrial city.

It had a port full of cold ships,
dark smoky

and the only thing Arles was famous for
at the time

was the beauty of its women.

The Arlesiennes, as they were called

were supposed to be the most beautiful
women in France

and my suspicion, my theory

is that it was this that attracted
Vincent most-

He was a man desperately
searching for love

and he thought that if he came to Arles

amongst all these famously
beautiful arlesiennes

would find the partner he was seeking

and all through the show

there's so much whispering
of love going on.

Little couples under the trees,

little couples walking by the river,

little couples in the park.

And that didn't ever happe
to Vincent in real life

but it could happen in his art.

I love these Vincent's views
of the olive trees near San Rémy

where the asylum was.

There's something about olive trees,

their gnarled shape,

the way that they twist and struggle
in the dry earth.

That touched a cord with him

and for me, their kind of self-portraits,

each olive tree representing
his own struggle.

I've been looking at van Gogh
most of my adult life

and I thought I'd seen a lot

but I hadn't seen that,

I hadn't seen that,
I didn't see that.

There's a lot here
that no one has seen before.

So, there's all kinds of reasons
to come to this exhibition

but one of them
is that you'll see a van Gogh

that perhaps will be
a bit unfamiliar to you.