a cold day near Paris...
This is one of the most touching photographs in history I think. It shows two men sat at a table, out of doors, on the banks of the Seine near Paris. It looks cold, it looks as though those winter coats and hats would be welcome on such a chilly day. But the two men look relaxed and comfortable, their legs spread apart on their stools, their elbows at ease on the table. One would imagine a carafe of wine between them and a couple of half-full glasses on the table.
The young man with the beard, looking towards the camera, is Emile Bernard, poet, playwright and painter, a post-impressionist friendly with Cezanne, Gaugin and others. He lived through into the second world war, dying in Paris in 1941.
The gentleman with his back to the camera, wrapped in a thick top coat with his hat pulled well down his head, is Emile’s most famous friend. He is Vincent van Gogh.
The reason why I think this is so touching a photograph is that this is the only known photograph of Vincent as an adult that we have. There are several shots of Vincent as a teenager, and of course we have all the beautiful self-portraits of him, and portraits of him by other painters. But there is no photo of Vincent as an adult. Other than this. How enigmatic? If he would only just turn around and turn those ice-blue eyes on us? Maybe give a smile and raise his hand in a wave, before turning back to his friend?
We can feel so close to Vincent through this photograph, but – just like his paintings – we are only able to get so near. We’ll never see his face. The reason why his reputation has remained so high is in part down to the fact that although we can feel the biggest heart in the history of modern painting beating through all his work, we can never quite touch him for real.
And here, in the photograph, if he would only just glance backwards at us over his shoulder, a quick smile or a nod of his head would show that we might one day get to understand him better, get to know him even. But we won’t.
A few years ago a studio photograph of the period was reputed to be a photograph of van Gogh. It’s nonsense. It shows a man of the period with a beard, dressed for a formal photograph. It looks – when it has been reversed to face the same way as many of Vincent’s self portraits – a bit like him. But there’s not a shred of evidence to suggest it is Vincent.
This cold, shoulder-hunched, winter snapshot is all we’ve got.
