Ward of Arles Hospital by Vincent Van Gogh - Essay Example

03-02 Ward of Arles Hospital by Vincent Van Gogh Vincent Van Gogh, born in 1853, was a great painter of Dutch nationality.His art profession began in 1885 and ended in 1990. After dramatic events that led to his hospitalization, Van Gogh was inspired to capture the hospital ward environment in his painting, Ward of Arles Hospital. This image has aroused immense individual and academic interests. While trying to describe the environment through his painting, he leaves a rich history of what life what was like in the nineteenth century as regards human health and French culture, with marvelous skills of art that invoke human curiosity. In order to understand this image, it is imperative that a multidimensional analysis be undertaken which includes formal, content and iconographic. Figure 1: Ward of Arles Hospital Source: http://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/Painting/722/Ward-in-the-Hospital-in-Arles.html 1889. Formal analysis The Ward of Ales is a painting done in application of numerous paints. This painting has been accomplished by use of short paint brushes and the oil on canvas technique. The painting contains a hospital ward scene with waiting bay outside. Some people are seen outside sited, others are standing while women dressed in nun clothes are moving and one man in a hat is leaving through the corridor. The central part of the image is a wide corridor that leads to the entrance, which is still the exit, of the hospital. On the sides, there are curtains- closing wardrooms with beds. The beds do not have any occupants. The front part contains a cylindrical object with tapped connection to the roof of the corridor with men sited in wooden table chairs around it. The wards and the corridor fit very well into the frame of the painting while the front part is slightly cut off by the frame. Its axis is vertical with a bird’s eye view of the objects. The lining system of the art which involves a soft one clearly distinguished the different objects in the painting. The lines used are uniform throughout the art work but only show variations with change of colors in the painting’s objects and grounds. The images of men at the foreground overlap while the approaching nuns/nurses also overlap. Two men on the right central part also overlap. The colors employed in the painting are largely brown, on the floor and wooden table chairs, and blue varying from faint to deep, on the walls and the ceiling or roof. Curtains contain a light green finishing. The texture of the painting is almost smooth as depicted by Van Gogh in April 1889. The painting presents scenery of people in the hospital ward outside. The “most distinct feature of the painting” (Feldman 30) involves the central cylindrical object where men are sited around. The application of different colors on the fore ground, painting objects and the back ground produce a good balance within the painting. Image contrast is also achieved through the employment of many features which guide a viewer excellently into understanding the scene. By application of swirling paint motions especially at the front and central parts, Van Gogh creates a dynamic feeling in the painting; especially by using big lines that swirl around parts of the image. The texture appears a little rougher on the foreground while ending up smoother at the background. The combination of the hospital wards and the people in the corridors of the hospital with ceiling objects bring a harmonious existence of the objects. The painting brings forward a great sense of unity and brings a friendly feeling. Iconographic analysis Iconographic description of an image is entails imager-viewer interaction abilities. The Ward of Arles is a beautiful and one of the most important paintings on the nineteenth century. It uses complex techniques that lead to accomplishment of marvelous effects that do not seem to lose value with time. Van Gogh relies on the people and the ward in the hospital to tell a story of being hospitalized in the Ales hospital in France. Upon first sight, one of the great thoughts that emerge is the fact that hospitals of the era rarely admitted individuals into ward beds since medical skills were not as sophisticated as modern medical skills. The absence of organization also tells more of lack of unreliability of hospital wards of the time. The presence of two women in church attire also indicate that during those times, there were no specialized care givers in the hospitals and thus this was outsourced to well-wishing organizations such as churches. The men sited in the foreground around a cylindrical object, seeming to be hopeless also tell the reader that the hospital only took in patient who was considered as not mentally fit to live in the society. From the attires in men on the painting, Van Gogh seems to communicate on French culture of the time using wardrobe. Men are mostly seen in either black or navy blue suits sited around a central cylindrical object. This culture depicts French culture of the time whereby people would often sit around central objects, reminiscent of times of sitting around a fire at nights. This central object was meant to bring people together for warmth purposes (Mansfield 25). It also depicts that at hospitals, closeness was more valued that medical attention in the healing process. The attires also seem to communicate on the French physical appearance or valuation of image. Good image of the time comprised of a uniform attire that would present an individual as either acceptable within the society or someone not to be accepted within the society. The image of acceptance seems to involve putting on attire that best looked like a suit. The culture of Ales as presented in the image by indication of wardrobe contains a contemporary depiction of culture that has not been abandoned so far. This culture is still experienced today whereby in the city of Ales, bull fighting happens and people in such attire attend. Being carried out in the streets, modern bull fighting presents a sensation whereby people enjoy the activity and then later remove tussles from a looser-bull’s horns without getting injured. This activity relates to the story of Ales hospital. While it was when he was diagnosed as mentally unfit for societal coexistence that he was admitted at the Ales hospital, bull fighting activities of modern times with removing of bull tussles relate in the sense that it does not seem a normal activity. The paint does not only seem to connect the past with the present, it does however bring into reality the beliefs of the French at the time, through lines of painting, and it communicates on the ideologies of French at the time. During the same year as of the painting, the French were to celebrate the heritage of the French revolution that had been carried out a year back. This heritage is also evident in the painting with social interactions seen in the picture. The French used the revolution as “justification of new social contracts” (Denomme 161). Content analysis The foreground is emphasized in brown color the floor of the hospital corridor, the wooden chairs, the base of the cylindrical object together with the one of the central men’s coat seen chatting are all adorned in a brown color that grazes most parts of the painting. The lines in the brown-containing parts simply create a rough feeling of continuity in the image. The uses of those linings also create an emotional feeling of the image. Lining distances create a rough feeling of attraction towards the painting’s texture. The uniform involvement of the brown grazing color throughout the paint brings a harmonious hue on the painting (D'Alleva 9). The sides of the painting are specialized in a blue and faint blue color. The color brings in coolness into the painting. The lighting effect brought in the middle part of the painting with a light yellow touch on it make the painting appear more lively than just a static image. The lighting effect makes the background part of the image become more visible and thus a viewer is able to make correct vision of the image. The choice of these colors blend extremely well to bring into attention the issue of the painter (Krippendorff 153). The navy-blue colors of the attires of the people in the image and the upper part of the cylindrical equipment compliment the blend of colors chosen by the painter in making the image appear real. The upper parts of the wall and part of the ceiling tresses are covered a blue color that creates a feeling of attraction from the viewer. The green color that grazes the lower parts of the hospital corridor walls, the curtains of the hospital wards and slight parts of the bed covers of the wads make the painting sophisticated and thus highly dynamic. The yellow color of the dresses of the nuns approaching makes them appear distinct from the rest contents of the image. Black color has been employed with caution whereby the painter might have chosen to opt it out for reasons of avoiding dullness, tension and coldness in the image. Works cited. D'Alleva, Anne. Methods and theories of art history. London, UK : Laurence King, 2005. Print. Denomme, Robert T. Unfinished revolutions: Legacies of upheaval in modern French culture. University Park, Penn. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998. Print. Feldman, Edmund Burke. Art as image and idea. New York, NY: Prentice-Hall, 1967. http://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/Painting/722/Ward-in-the-Hospital-in- Arles.html Krippendorff, Klaus. Content analysis : an introduction to its methodology, Thousand Oaks ; London ; New Delhi : Sage, 2005, cop. 2004. Mansfield, Steven L.  More than Dates and Dead People: Recovering a Christian View of History. Cumberland House Publishing, 2000. Van Gogh Gallery: Ward in the Hospital in Arles. Web March 2, 2012 Read More