Short excursions following the (surmised) footsteps of VG in northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands... on the trail of an imaginary archive.
Auvers itself...
It's touristy, it”s picturesque, it's pleasant... but even then Van Gogh said “Auvers est bien beau, beaucoup de vieux chaumes entre autres ce que devient rare” – it has a high level of a village museum – whether it is useful to visit the supposed locations of specific paintings... in any case part of the cult: a group of orientals in a row enjoying a snack and an aperitif at sunset with a view over the cornfield that Vincent last painted... the tree roots behind protective fencing that have recently been identified creating additional root-painting courses, the many information panels to take any form of discovery out of the hands of the visitor...
The Auberge Ravoux is already too quaint and sweetly air-brushed, the back garden set up for oiled commerce... in fact already beyond its purpose... for a short visit and a few chair-photos still doable, but not for too long... run and follow the Oise back to Belgium.
(for a more detailed account, see...)
In the north there are several tracks to follow, but unclear: Van Gogh apparently walked a lot in the period that he did not write letters to the family, not even to Theo (1880) or were these destroyed?) So the scant information comes from later letters in which a brief look back in time is taken... His walk to Courrières to visit the painter Jules Breton has been clarified somewhat, but the exact route is not really known. He did write later that he had been in the region of Zola's novel Germial, so the town of Marchiennes on the Scarpe is one that also exists in real life... In Courrières itself, nothing remains from that time (except for the church) so it is difficult to map out a cult-place circuit. Other excursions are highly speculative.
The mode of transport or walking-route is also unclear... in an description of such a journey - the walk to St. Maria Horebeke to visit the Reverend Pieterzsen - J. Deweer has developed it into an interesting book, but it deviates considerably from the actual data... assumptions sometimes simply become facts and may be adopted in the future without further ado... but everyone has their own interpretation... for my part I noticed that at that time a much denser network of railway lines (and cheaper local trains) offered more possibilities than one would suspect today... For example, the line to St Denijs Boekel is a possible option... and from there on foot, instead of the entire way in a (current) straight line...(the possibility of hitching a ride on a barge is also omitted) .. His visit to Tournai is also something that encourages speculation: perhaps (also) cultural (Cathedral, Rogier van de Weyden) or personal - Protestant acquaintances? Nobody knows.
In Holland there are clearer traces – Etten-Leur, where they have (re-)dedicated the entire church to Vincent van Gogh is a good example: because Van Gogh himself left descriptions and even site plans in his letters, a tourist trail can be mapped out with the houses of the potato eaters and the mill, and the avenue to ... and and and so on.. Zundert of course, his birthplace where the former (no longer original) house has been converted into a museum with annex, with artist-residence pavilions and all kinds of satellite activities, - or in Nuenen, where a fine modernist architect's dream offers a virtual Van Gogh experience between the dotted paths to all kinds of sites mentioned...
