My wife and I are big fans of the Impressionists. In my view, art went mostly downhill in the 20th century after that period. What I had forgotten about the Scottish National Gallery is that it has a nice Impressionist wing with Cezanne, Gaugin, Degas, Monet, Van Gogh… you get the picture. Well…. you will in a minute.
This is a lesser known Van Gogh painting of cherry trees in the Spring…
On the much more famous side, we have the Monet haystacks….
And here is a sweet little picture by Van Gogh of olive trees… though goodness knows where he found those in northern Europe!
This vivid painting has some poignancy to it, for it was done while Vincent was in the asylum, as was the more famous Starry Night painting. If you don’t know the story of Van Gogh you should look it up. He was a one time seminary student who was deeply troubled by many of the tumults going on in Europe in the late 19th century, and ended up in the asylum, still painting away. Some of the pathos is well captured by Don McLean’s classic song “Vincent (Starry Starry Night).”
Here is that song….
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