Vincent Van Gogh’s Wheat Fields with Reaper, Auvers and Houses at Auvers are among the best known and most loved pieces in the permanent collection at the Toledo Museum of Art.
While these works are on loan in Europe, patrons can still see pieces by the Dutch artist at TMA.
It’s filled the empty gallery space with two loaned pieces by Van Gogh. One of the artist’s famous self-portraits, on loan from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and a landscape titled La Méridienne, on loan from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, take their place through February.
“With our two paintings by Van Gogh gone, we couldn’t show Van Gogh, at least not long term on the walls. And since Vincent Van Gogh is one of the best known and most beloved artists of all time, that’s a real loss for us and a real loss for the people that come visit this museum,” said Robert Schindler, the William Hutton curator of European art at the TMA.
Schindler described the Van Gogh pieces in the permanent collection.
“They are not only wonderful paintings but also important paintings,” he said. “It makes them quite desirable for other institutions, so we lent them last year to an exhibition at the DIA. Now they are in Amsterdam for an exhibition, and the exhibition will then travel to Paris.”
The loaned pieces currently on display at the museum depict two very different sides to Van Gogh’s portfolio, while still showing the recognizable style and vibrant color of his work.
“It was important for me to, A, have a really iconic painting that is stylistically easily recognizable as Van Gogh, and La Méridienne is certainly that,” Schindler said.
“And I was really keen on showing the artist himself, so showing the portrait of Van Gogh. And this is not only a portrait of Van Gogh but a self-portrait of the artist,” he continued. “Van Gogh’s self-portraits are fascinating in their own right. He made some 35 or so. They are really sort of fantastic training ground for creating portraits of people.”
Schindler said Van Gogh’s self-portraits were a way for the poor artist to polish his craft without paying the pricey fee of booking a model at that time.
“He was broke all along, so he most likely could not afford to pay models to sit for him so he painted himself. And they are these stylistic experiments; they were an exploration of sort of his own psyche,” he said.
Each piece currently at the museum is displayed with a gold frame, with La Méridienne boasting an ornate carved façade. Schindler said a lot of times artists who worked in this new style and were known outside of the “old masters” marketed their work with these special frames.
“During a time when these artists were not recognized and sort of the level of innovation that they brought was not recognized, putting frames of ‘old master paintings’ that were accepted as great art on the works that they just produced in this really new and revolutionary style was a way to elevate the artwork,” he said.
While the museum hosts a number of famous and notable paintings, Schindler said Van Gogh’s influence and recognition draws visitors daily.
“There are some iconic works [at TMA]: Monet, paintings by Rubens. The Van Goghs belong in that category,” Schindler said. “Those are some stand-up paintings and there are many more objects in the collection that are just as well known or important. But just speaking of paintings, people gravitate, people come to see these. So having Van Gogh in the collection is always great.”
Many individuals outside the museum do not get to see the behind the scenes movement of artwork within these recognized institutions across the globe. Schindler said institutions tend to gravitate toward the Toledo Museum of Art.
“Other institutions come to us and want to borrow for their own collections, and there is a quite a volume that we have. So this is a nice story that we can tell here too about the importance of the collection. We lend our paintings to important projects elsewhere and then we have an opportunity like this one,” he said.
The two loaned pieces can be seen during regular hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The museum is at 2445 Monroe St., Toledo. For more information, visit toledomuseum.org.
■ The Greater Port Clinton Area Arts Council hosts its Arts and Crafts Fest from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. The free festival brings in nearly 50 artists and crafters from around the Midwest.
Visitors can expect a day of shopping and arts along the shores of Lake Erie at Waterworks Park, 205 E. Perry St., Port Clinton. Food and children’s crafts are also available throughout the day as the GPCAAC celebrates 30 years of “incredible crafters and artisans.”
For more information, visit gpcaac.org.
■ VOD’s Here introduces meditational crafting from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. Attendees can learn how to get back to the basics of mindful, relaxing crafting.
For $25, visitors will receive materials and instructions on how to doodle paint, wrap sticks with yarn, and more. Michelle Atkinson, or VOD, hosts the crafting event at her shop at 2910 W. Central Ave., Toledo. Attendees should be 8 and older.
For more information and registration, visit vodshere.com.
■ The Toledo Museum of Art hosts a two-part jewelry workshop, starting 6 to 9 p.m. Friday. Visitors can make an earrings sampler.
Instructor Jane Lamanna leads the workshop on Friday and 6 to 9 p.m. June 16. Attendees leave the class with an assortment of hoop earrings, dangles, and posts. Registration is $120; members pay $110. No prior experience is necessary.
The Toledo Museum of Art is at 2445 Monroe St., Toledo. For more information and to register, visit toledomuseum.org.
■ Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club continues at the Toledo Museum of Art, 2445 Monroe St., Toledo through Sept. 3. It offers a look at the continued impact of the Mbari Club and Black Orpheus on the arts and artists worldwide. Admission is $10.
For more information, visit toledomuseum.org.
Send news of art items at least two weeks in advance to Shayleigh Frank at sfrank@theblade.com.
First Published June 8, 2023, 2:00 p.m.
