小插曲

       译完了文艺复兴时期画家中的“三杰”，按时间和传承顺序等因素应当接着译出与之相关的画家，如提香，伦勃朗等，但有位好友在阅读了“拉斐尔”词条后提出了想看“梵高”词条的要求，可那时我正在译“提香”，而且接下来的计划是译“伦勃朗”，但它很长，完成它要花不少时日，可能要让那位好友等得心烦。人家难得提一次要求，于是答应了。查到了“梵高“词条，好在它不长，用时不多便完成了。这纯属是一个让人高兴的小插曲。

       在当下这种浮躁的环境中， 朋友中有不少人还能有兴趣静下心来读这类相对小众的文字，实属难得，也让人颇感欣慰。我在想，虽然物质生活是人类生存的基础条件，但除了物质的东西，人在精神层面也需要不断地丰富自身，尤其是那些人文类的优秀遗产，否则，物质化的人类与那些我们定义的“动物”便没有什么差别，谁看了都会觉着面目可憎。

                                                                                                                             2021年4月5日

VAN GOGH, Dutch, Vincent (1853—1890), Dutch painter, whose highly subjective approach to his subjects, combined with his EXPRESSIVE use of color, line, and perspective, made him the fountainhead of most 20^th century EXPRESSIONIST painting. His late works, marked by swirling brushstrokes and burningly strong color, are among the most influential paintings of modern art.

文森特·梵高（1853年至1890年），荷兰画家，他对主题非常主观的处理方法，加上他富有表现力的色彩运用，使他成为了二十世纪大多数表现主义绘画的源头。他的晚期作品，以旋动的笔触和强烈的浓重色彩，成为了最具影响力的现代艺术绘画。

Life.  Vincent Willem van Gogh, the son of a Lutheran minister, was born in Groot zundert, North Brabant, the Netherlands, on March 30, 1853. His cousin was the landscape painter Anton Mauve, and two of his uncles were art dealers. At the age of 16, van Gogh began work as a salesman at the Goupil galleries in The Hague, and in 1873 he was transferred to the London office. An unhappy, love affair in England touched off van Gogh’s naturally unstable temperament, and after being transferred to Goupil’s Paris branch in 1876, he was dismissed.

生平  文森特·威廉·梵高，一位路德教牧师的儿子，1853年3月30日生于荷兰布拉班特省北部的赫罗特津德尔特。他的堂弟是风景画家安东·莫夫，而他的两位叔伯是艺术商人。在十六岁时，梵高开始在海牙的古比尔画廊作推销员，1873年，他被调往伦敦办事处。在伦敦，一段不愉快的爱情事件引发了梵高天生不稳定的性情，而1876年他被调往古比尔巴黎分部后，就被解雇了。

Increasingly drawn toward religion, van Gogh enrolled in 1877 in Greek and Latin courses in Amsterdam to prepare himself for the study of theology. When he failed the courses, his superiors sent him as a lay missionary to the Belgian mining district called the Borinage. Taking the teachings of Christ literally, he shared his meager possessions with the poor and supported the miners in their strikes. This “unorthodox” approach to fighting poverty displeased his superiors, and his mission was discontinued in 1879. After a period at this father’s home in Etten, he moved to The Hague.

梵高受到越来越多宗教的吸引，于1877年参加了在阿姆斯特丹的希腊语和拉丁语课程，为学习神学做准备。当他未能通过考试时，他的上级将他作为没有经验的传教士派往了叫做波里纳日的比利时矿区。从字面上接受了基督的教义，他将自己的微薄财产与穷人分享，并支持矿工们的罢工活动。这种对抗贫困的“非正统”做法让他的上级很生气，1879年他的使命中止了。在其父位于埃腾的家中一段时间后，他搬到了海牙。

Van Gogh had been drawing since about 1873 without showing much skill. However, at The Hague he determined to be a painter. He received some informal instruction from Mauve and began to paint and draw in earnest. He also experimented with lithography.

梵高从1873年开始画画，并没有展示出什么技巧。然而，在海牙他决心要成为一名画家。他从莫夫那里接受了一些非正式的指导，开始作画并认真地进行总结。他还试验了平板印刷术。

A desperately unhappy liaison with an alcoholic prostitute caused van Gogh to leave The Hague in 1883 and move to the province of Drenthe and then to his family in Nuenen. Here, from among the peasants, he found models congenial to his taste, and he painted them in dark, somber colors symbolic of their earthy existence. Encouraged by his brother Theo, who was employed by Goupil in Paris, van Gogh’s interest in contemporary art grew. After a few months at the Academy of Art in Antwerp in 1885, he went to Paris in February 1886. There his brother introduced him to the IMPRESSIONISTS, whose brilliant colors and studied light effects had a liberating effect on van Gogh’s style.

梵高与一名酗酒的妓女极度不愉快的关系导致了他于1883年离开了海牙，搬到了德伦特省，然后搬到了位于尼厄嫩的家。在那里，从农民中他发现了适合自己口味的模特，他将他们画成暗色，忧郁的色彩象征着他们朴实的存在。受到了受雇于巴黎古比尔画廊，他的兄弟特奥的鼓励，梵高对当代艺术的兴趣与日俱增。1885年，在安特卫普艺术学院几个月后，他于1886年2月去了巴黎。在那里，他的兄弟将他介绍给了印象派画家，他们明亮的色彩和对光线效果的研究对梵高的风格起到了解放的效果。

For a brief time van Gogh attended the Atelier Cormon, but he found that he profited more from the study of works by Delacroix, Monticelli, and the master of Japanese prints. He was also IMPRESSED by the pointillist style of Georges Seurat. The first work in which he realized his own highly personal style is the portrait Pere Tanguy (1886—1887; Musee Rodin, Paris).

一段时间，梵高参加了科尔蒙工作室，但他发现，他从研究德拉克洛瓦，蒙蒂塞利，以及日本版画大师的作品中获得了收益。他还对乔治·修拉的点彩派画家的风格印象深刻。第一部作品，他在其中认识到自己高度的个人风格就是《唐吉神父》肖像（1886年至1887年；巴黎罗丹博物馆）。

In February 1888, van Gogh moved to Arles in southern France, supported by his brother, to whom he wrote almost daily. His letters to his brother, some of which were published for the first time in the Mercure de France in 1893—1895 after van Gogh’s death, are not only strikingly honest revelations of the artist’s ideas and feelings but are literary treasures as well.

1888年2月，梵高搬到了法国南部的阿尔勒，受到他兄弟的支持，梵高几乎每天都给他写信。他写给他兄弟的信，其中一些在梵高去世后，于1893年至1895年在《法国信使》上首次刊发，它们不仅仅是对艺术家理想和情感的诚实揭示，而且也是文学的宝藏。

At Arles, van Gogh threw himself enthusiastically into painting the world about him---his house, his bedroom and its chair, the coffeehouse around the corner, the railway station and the fields behind it—as well as many portraits of his friends. He dreamed of a community of artist living together and was able to interest Paul Gauguin in going to Arles in October 1888.

在阿尔勒，梵高满腔热情地投身于描绘他周围的世界中---他的房子，他的卧室和椅子，街角的咖啡馆，火车站和车站后面的田野---以及他朋友的许多肖像。他梦想着一个艺术家一同生活的社区，而且能让保罗·高更在1888年10月有兴趣来阿尔勒。

The following February the strain of hard work, immoderate drinking, and Gauguin’s argumentative personality precipitated an attack of insanity during which van Gogh cut off part of his own ear. Gauguin fled, and in May 1889, van Gogh asked that he be committed to the asylum of Saint-Remy-de-Provence. A year later, to be under the supervision of Dr. Paul Gachet, a friend of the IMPRESSIONISTS, he moved to Auvers, where he continued to paint with hectic intensity during his lucid periods. On July 27, 1890, he shot himself and died two days later.

第二年的二月，繁重工作的压力，过度的饮酒，以及高更喜好争辩的个性使梵高突发了精神错乱，这期间，梵高切掉了他自己的一部分耳朵。高更逃离了，而在1889年，梵高要求将他送到普罗旺斯的圣雷米收容所。一年后，在一位印象派画家的朋友，保罗·加谢医生的监护下，他被送到奥弗，在那里，在他清醒时，他继续以紧张忙碌的强度绘画。1890年7月27日，他开枪自杀，两天后去世。

Work.  Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime, but his influence grew steadily after his death. His earliest works are somber, monumental studies of peasants, of which The Potato Eaters (1885; Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterloo, Netherlands), is the outstanding example. These work reflect this early taste for that which edifies in art, and his desire to glorify the peasant and the good earth. 

作品  梵高在其一生中只卖出过一幅画，但在他去世后，他的影响力却稳步增长。他最早的作品是忧郁的，是对农民不朽的研究，其中《吃土豆的人》（1885年；荷兰，奥特罗，库勒-穆勒博物馆），就是杰出的例子。这些作品反映了艺术熏陶这一早期的品味，以及他希望赞美的农民和大地。

His style underwent important changes during the years 1886—1888, when he lived in Paris. He assimilated the discoveries of IMPRESSIONISM and pointillism, and learned from Japanese woodcuts. His colors brightened, and his brushstrokes became EXPRESSIVELY free.

在1886年至1888年间，当时他住在巴黎，他的风格经历了重要的变化。他吸收了印象派和点彩派的新发现，并向日本木刻学习。他明亮的色彩，以及他的笔触已变得意味深长的自由。

It was during the last THREE years of his life that van Gogh’s style reached full maturity. He painted hundreds of pictures of various subjects. His most famous works date from this period, including The Chair and the Pipe (1888—1889, Tate Gallery, London); The Olive Grove (1889;Nelson Gallery—Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Mo.); The Starry Night (1889; Museum of Modern Art, New York); Café at Night (1888; Kroller-Muller, Otterloo); and Portrait of Dr. Cachet (1890; Louvre, Paris). The pictures of this last period created a revolution in modern painting, and Fauvism and German EXPRESSIONISM were strongly influenced by his work.

在他生命的最后三年里，梵高的风格达到了完全成熟。他画了几百幅各种主题的画。他最著名的作品就出自这个时期，包括《椅子与烟斗》（1888年至1889年，伦敦，泰特美术馆）；《橄榄树林》（1889年；纳尔逊美术馆---密苏里州，堪萨斯城阿特金斯博物馆）；《星月夜》（1889年；纽约现代艺术博物馆）；《夜间咖啡馆》（1888年；奥特罗，库勒-穆勒博物馆）；和《加谢医生的肖像》（1890年；巴黎卢浮宫）。这最后时期的绘画创造了现代绘画的变革，而且野兽派与德国表现主义深受他作品的影响。

                                          ALFRED NEUMEYER,

                                        阿尔弗雷德·诺伊迈耶

                             Author of “The Search for Meaning in Modern Art”

                                   “寻找现代艺术的意义”的作者

                                                   2021年4月5日译

（译者注：该词条位列《大美百科全书》1985年版，第27卷，第898页至899页）