梵高的另一面

Royal Academy to showcase Van Gogh's private side
备注: 此篇文章有一定难度。可以中英对照阅读。

The Guardian  选自英国《卫报》
Van Gogh's intimate letters, displayed alongside his paintings at the Royal Academy(皇家艺术院) ext year, offer a fresh view of the artist's life and opinions.
梵高的私人信件和和他的画作将一同明年在皇家学院展出，我们可以对这个艺术家的生活和观点有一番新的认识。

One of many poignant(adj.强烈的，痛苦的) moments in the correspondence – described by the curator(n.馆长) Ann Dumas as "without equal" among artists' letters – comes in June 1888, when Van Gogh remembers that even though he's down to his last 50 franc(n.法郎) note, making money is simple. "Fortunately, it's extremely easy to sell the right sort of paintings in the right sort of place to the right sort of gentleman," he writes. "You only have to go down the Rue de la Paix – there strolls, just for that reason, the good art lover."
于1888年5月的一些来往信件情节很激烈，皇家学院馆长安杜马斯说，任何其他艺术家的信件都无法与之媲美。梵高记得他当时穷困潦倒，身上只剩了50法郎，赚钱谋生也不是一件多难的事。他写道“幸运的是，在正确的地方把某些油画卖给有购买意愿的绅士是轻而易举的事，你只要沿着鲁德拉大街来回走动，寻找有艺术品味的人来买画。”

The tragedy(n.悲剧) was that, in Van Gogh's 10 years as a professional artist, art lovers wouldn't touch his paintings with a barge pole（驳船撑竿，not touch …with a barge pole不愿意）. He sold just one picture, to the artist sister of a friend. And although he dreamed of subsidizing(v.资助) other painters to follow him from the grime(n.尘垢，灰尘) of Paris to the blazing light of Provence, only one painter, Paul Gaugin, ever responded - with disastrous consequences. After an explosive row between the two, either Van Gogh cut off part of his own ear, or (according to a recent theory) the panic-stricken Gauguin did, and then fled Arles forever.
可悲的是，梵高专心作画的10年没有艺术爱好者愿意买他的油画。他只卖出了一幅画，买者是一个朋友的妹妹，她也是艺术家。梵高幻想着能资助其他画家，让他们跟随他从肮脏的巴黎走向金光灿烂的普罗旺斯，只有一个叫鲍岗亘的画家回应了他的呼唤，但是结局悲惨。梵高和鲍岗大吵了一场，不管是梵高割下了他自己的一只耳朵，还是（根据目前的理论）担惊受怕的岗亘割下了梵高的耳朵，岗亘离开了法国阿勒斯。
The letters shed(v.散发)  fascinating light（为…提供线索） on his work. One is a mournful(adj.悲哀的) description to his sister of his "very red beard, quite unkempt and sad" with a self-portrait showing exactly that; another is a cypress(n.柏树) sketched in a letter to his long-suffering brother Theo explaining how he's struggling to paint with the sombre foliage(n.树叶). One pairing of letter and painting may be his very last work, done days before his death: a comparatively cheerful missive（n.信件）to Theo, with a sketch of wheat fields under swollen clouds, and a painting, Wheatfield with Crows, in which some light breaks through.
这些信件为他的作品解读提供了可贵的线索参考。其中一封信她向他的妹妹提到他的“凌乱的红胡须，显得愁容满面”他的一幅自画像正是如此。在另一封写给深陷痛苦的弟弟泰罗的信中，他画了一个柏树的速写，意在表明它为是否给叶子涂上暗色而举棋不定。他去世的前一天写了一封信，画了一幅画，这可能是他最后的作品：这封信写给泰罗的，上面画了一片麦地，上空压下来一片巨大的云层。这是在所有写给泰罗的信件中，内容相对轻松的一封。还有一幅画，麦地上盘旋着几只乌鸦，阳光透过云层照到了麦地上。