Vincent was pissed at the Pastor. The Pastor asked Vincent to clear the weeds in the woods behind the church.
Vincent wrote to Theo: Vincent: Theo, I was asked again to “Clear the woods of weeds, scrub the stone of stain and worship the sky to cleanse the heart.” I am 25 years old and these are the jobs for a child. How dare he ask of me this. I was mad, Theo. So I dug a deep hole in the Earth and painted a picture of leaves and twigs. I laid the painting over the hole and was happy. The pastor stepped on the painting and fell into the hole. He broke both legs, Theo. But I have discovered the power of painting. I must paint again!
Theo: Vincent, you nearly killed the pastor. And he wasn’t asking you to literally clear the wood, stone and sky. He was speaking figuratively. He was reminding you to do your inner spiritual work... to be good on Earth and worship heaven above. But the painting must have been good. He never saw it. Vincent, can you make me another painting...something similar that I can hang over the hole on my wall? Maybe you could add a human figure in the background. Just an idea for you. And if painting makes you happy, then you should paint.
Vincent did produce a painting for Theo with a similar woodsy theme. It was called Girl in Woods (1882).
Vincent writes to Theo of the painting: "The other study in the wood is of some large green beech trunks on a stretch of ground covered with dry sticks, and the little figure of a girl in white. There was the great difficulty of keeping it clear, and of getting space between the trunks standing at different distances - and the place and relative bulk of those trunks change with the perspective - to make it so that one can breathe and walk around in it, and to make you smell the fragrance of the wood. The pastor is still not walking.”
Theo: The painting is stunning, Vincent. I see what your saying about space and room to breathe. Without the girl, perspective would be lost. PS. Father said because the pastor can’t walk, he drags himself to church using his elbows while holding a bible in each hand. Religious conviction and dedication...and dirty elbows and pants.
Portrait within a Portrait
Vincent Van Gogh asked Emile Bernard to paint a portrait of Paul Gauguin, but Bernard, being intimidated by Gauguin, didn't dare. So he painted a self-portrait with a little sketch of Gauguin in the background. Van Gogh loved it. Gauguin loved it too. Gauguin did the same thing; he painted a self-portrait with Emile Bernard in the background. A brotherly, long distance camaraderie of painters was being enjoyed by those who took part. Just what Vincent wanted. Painters sharing paintings and ideas.
Van Gogh was delighted by the whole exchange. But, of course, Vincent took matters to a whole new level. Vincent, during a bout of “Vincent-ness,” painted a self-portrait and in the background he painted a mini self-portrait. Within the mini self-portrait was a mini-mini self-portrait, and, of course, within the mini-mini self-portrait was a mini-mini-mini self-portrait.
The effect was head spinning. Giles Moss, the French painter, looked at the painting while visiting Van Gogh and got such a severe case vertigo that he could not stop shaking. And he never recovered. After observing the Van Gogh self-portrait within a self-portrait within a self-portrait, Moss would walk in circles if unattended. For months after the “viewing,” his wife had to walk by his side, holding his arm to prevent spinning. Later, his wife put him in a wheelchair, thinking it would allow him mobile independence. She was wrong. While in the wheelchair, he would roll himself in tight circles then puke.
His severe case of vertigo is a landmark case in neurological studies. In 1992, the Van Gogh Estate hired lawyers and psychologists to contest the claim that Vincent’s painting caused Giles Moss's "spinning" and "shaking," out of fear that Vincent’s other paintings might be thought of as "Causing Vertigo and Vomiting."
The entire matter was dropped when Penny Moss's diary was found and offered another explanation for Giles' condition: Giles once spent 12 hours straight on the “Tea Cup” ride at the 1885 Normandy Fair. The Tea Cup ride is a double spin ride in which a series of large tea cups hold two occupants and spin rapidly in a circle. Within the collective spinning, each tea cup spins in a tight circle independently of the other tea cups. Prior to getting on the tea cup ride, Giles drank an entire bottle of Absinthe and then lost consciousness while in his spinning tea cup. Nobody could see him laying down in the giant tea cup. His companions spent hours looking for Giles while he was nearly spun to death on the ride. He was never the same after that. Poor Giles and his shaky paintbrush.
