RE: Paintings
October 6, 2015 at 12:34 pm
(This post was last modified: October 6, 2015 at 12:41 pm by c172.)
I've seen various translations for the title of this work, but it is by Van Gogh, and wikipedia calls it Sorrowing Old Man ('At Eternity's Gate'):
Sorrowing Old Man ('At Eternity's Gate') is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh [2] that he made in 1890 in Saint-Rémy de Provence based on an early lithograph.[3] The painting was completed in early May at a time when he was convalescing from a severe relapse in his health and some two months before his death, generally accepted as a suicide.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Eternity%27s_Gate
![[Image: 800px-Van_Gogh_-_Trauernder_alter_Mann.jpeg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Van_Gogh_-_Trauernder_alter_Mann.jpeg/800px-Van_Gogh_-_Trauernder_alter_Mann.jpeg)
ETA: Actually, that's the first time I have ever heard an explanation for it. I had always just assumed that the man was distraught for reasons unknown to the viewer, and perhaps even himself, as such episodes can be at times. I really related to it on that level. I planned out my own suicide on my birthday in 2007. In the end, the plan just didn't seem foolproof, so I didn't attempt it. But I was having intense emotions like are depicted in this painting. The lonely man, sitting in a chair, head in hands, bawling his eyes out uncontrollably.
Sorrowing Old Man ('At Eternity's Gate') is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh [2] that he made in 1890 in Saint-Rémy de Provence based on an early lithograph.[3] The painting was completed in early May at a time when he was convalescing from a severe relapse in his health and some two months before his death, generally accepted as a suicide.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Eternity%27s_Gate
ETA: Actually, that's the first time I have ever heard an explanation for it. I had always just assumed that the man was distraught for reasons unknown to the viewer, and perhaps even himself, as such episodes can be at times. I really related to it on that level. I planned out my own suicide on my birthday in 2007. In the end, the plan just didn't seem foolproof, so I didn't attempt it. But I was having intense emotions like are depicted in this painting. The lonely man, sitting in a chair, head in hands, bawling his eyes out uncontrollably.
"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
