Self-portraits by Vincent van Gogh will be the topic of the Museums à la Carte program at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts on Thursday, March 22 at 12:15 pm. The program will be presented by art historian and lecturer Charles B. Hayward, M.F.A.
The talk has been planned in conjunction with the special exhibition Old Masters to Monet: Three Centuries of French Painting from the Wadsworth Atheneum, on view at the D’Amour Museum through April 29.
While we can’t be certain that Vincent van Gogh ever embraced ancient Greece’s dictum “know thyself,” the artist’s legacy of 819 letters, 2,100 drawings and paintings, including 37 self-portraits, suggests he may have.
In February 1886 van Gogh moved to Paris and remained there for two years. While in Paris he painted roughly 230 pictures, the largest number in any comparable period in his life. No fewer than 22 of these are self-portraits, over a third created during the summer of 1887 alone.
The Wadsworth Atheneum’s van Gogh self-portrait, which is on view in the Old Masters to Monet exhibition, may be the first of this very revealing summer series. Beginning with that work, Hayward will examine the artist’s life through other revealing images he made of himself, and explore the times and locations, the motivations and influences behind each of these deeply-probing personal self-searches.
Admission to Museums à la Carte is $4 ($2 for members of the Springfield Museums). The programs are sponsored by Big Y World Class Market. Visitors are invited to bring lunch to enjoy during the program. Cookies and coffee are provided.
Free onsite parking is available. For more information about Museums à la Carte, call 413.263.6800, ext. 488.