Van Gogh's brother

I read an article in the Hindustan Times and said to myself: "Oh no! I've been telling kids this is a painting of VanGogh himself! I've been misinforming them!"

The researchers' arguments as to why it's a picture of Vincent VanGogh's brother Theo and not a self portrait, as previously believed, are sound. So I looked around for some other news to see what the art historians were saying about it.
It seems most of them decided to agree. It's Theo, not Vincent.

In my other readings, though, I noticed something. The articles which included a picture of the painting in question were not showing the same one as the Hindustan Times, the first article I read.

Did the Hindustan Times get the wrong painting (the first one shown here is the one in the HT article)?
I believe so.
So now who's misinforming who?

Turns out I'm okay because I never told anyone anything about the particular painting that the researchers are making claims about.
Shew.
Just in case being accurate about who is who in 120 year old paintings turns out to be important...which it's probably not.

Color and madness turned happy

Did you know the color brown is associated with humility?

Did you know VanGogh drank himself to death?
Actually, there are a number of theories on what drove him over the edge. And by "edge", I'm talking about a serious drop-off into the deep end--I mean, who cuts off his own ear and then paints a picture of himself all bandaged up?
But did you know he was also a preacher for a time? And maybe the lack of care for the poor around him, for whom he was so compassionate, is what drove him mad.
Or maybe it was the paint he wouldn't stop eating.

Theories, all of them.

And color theory is what we talked about today. VanGogh was a color genius.

Today I avoided telling children that VanGogh was a drunken kook, and we focused on the product of his pain--beautiful paintings.

Pain inspires art.
Beauty inspires art.
And for us today: art inspires art.

This is some of what VanGogh's still life paintings of flowers in vases inspired in my students...

...flowers with smiles...
...vases with faces...
...analogous color schemes...
...and even a triadic harmony.

I may have gone a little deeper into the fascinating topic of color theory than I intended for my young audience--but, hey, it's really interesting stuff!
And I think they got it. It showed up in their work, anyway.

I love it when they leave saying to each other, "That was fun."

And to me: "Thanks! Thanks for teaching us, it was fun."
Thing is, they really mean it.

Art inspires happiness, too.