Ruth Leon recommends… Van Gogh’s Cypresses – Met

Van Gogh’s Cypresses – Met

Gain a deeper understanding of Van Gogh’s artistic process through new discoveries from recent technical studies of Wheat Field with Cypresses and Cypresses in The Met collection. Hear from Museum experts about how these examinations have enriched our understanding of Van Gogh’s materials and process and shed light on his artistic vision.

This hour long documentary, made by the Met, is basically a lecture by a range of experts on Van Gogh’s paintings. It is rather dry, a lecture rather than an entertainment, but spending time with it repays the lover of his work with insights that can come only from deep scholarship and long time absorption in the work of a single artist.

The video/lecture amplifies the works in the Met’s recent exhibition of Van Gogh’s Cypresses, which closed this weekend. The contributors include Susan Alyson Stein, Englhard Curator of 19th Century Painting, Silvia A. Centeno, Research Scientist, Department of Scientific Research at The Met and Charlotte Hale, The Met’s Walter Burke Conservator of Paintings.

Read more