Conversations with Van Gogh - The Roaring Success

VG: Have you decided to work on another painter?

HS: No.

VG: So what was that supposed to be showing?

HS: The strangeness of your perspective and the movement within the picture.

VG: My perspectives are not strange.

HS: Well, yes, yes they are. The chair for example, the dimension is wrong alongside the bed and the table.

VG: The chair is exactly correct for what I wish to portray.

HS: Which is what?

Silence

HS: What is it you are trying to convey?

VG: Is it the meaning behind my work you are supposed to be showing?

HS: No. But. It might help to know it.

VG: Well once again you are entirely missing the point. The work is really for you to interpret. What do you see when you look at the picture?

HS: A bedroom.

VG: Well that’s a roaring success then because that happens to be exactly what I painted.

HS: You are mocking me.

VG: No, you are mocking me. What do you see?

HS: I see…I see bright, vivid colours. A movement within the painting as if the room is not solid or still. A sort of wobbliness. Fast brush strokes. The picture seems to warp. The window seems to encroach into the picture. And perspectives that look wrong.

VG: …