"Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart" by Russ Ramsey

Every so often I read a book about which I can only say good things. Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart by Russ Ramsey is such a book. 

And this is after his previous book, Rembrandt Is in the Wind, which I thought might be difficult to top. Ramsey proved me wrong. That book looked at how to love and appreciate art through the eyes of faith. His latest does the next step – what art teaches us about being alive, with all the sorrow, tragedy, change, and upheaval we experience. 

 

Every chapter is gem, filled with insights about the featured artist and artworks.

 

Rough Sea with Wreckage by N.M.W. Turner

He starts with Gustave Dore and da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (which only achieved its worldwide renown because it was stolen and hidden for two years), Rembrandt can teach us about the power of suffering. J.M.W. Turner speaks to abrupt change in one’s life; his art changed dramatically after a trip to Italy and both revolutionized British painting and anticipated Impressionism. Albert Bierstadt of the Hudson River School spoke to the beautiful and the sublime in his art. Van Gogh stewarded both his pain and that of others (and it’s not just about his ear). Edgar Degas suffered with macular degeneration throughout his painting career (and he knew it). Norman Rockwell not only chronicled traditional American values; he also demonstrated how racism and violence were part of those values. 

 

The chapter on Van Gogh mentions the room the artist prepared at the Yellow House for his friend Gauguin and the two paintings of sunflowers on the wall. I saw those two paintings hung together as Gauguin would have seen them this past September at the Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers exhibition at the National Gallery in London.

 

Each chapter offers wisdom and understanding. Two in particular spoke to the general subject of art and art criticism.

 

First, Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656) was a woman working in the virtually all-man’s world of painting. In the last 30 years, she’s become a feminist icon, with lots of books and exhibitions about the artist herself and what she painted. But as Ramsey points out, interpreting Gentileschi by the standards and needs of our own time diminishes her as both a woman and an artist. In effect, she becomes something of a one-dimensional political cartoon. Ramsey explores what she achieved in her own time, despite setbacks, betrayals, and disparagement – and that’s far more important than what she’s reduced to today.

 

Russ Ramsey

Second, the book’s concluding chapter is the most personal, a moving tribute to the place of art in Ramsey’s own life. He and his daughter too a trip to Amsterdam in 2023 to see the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Rembrandt House. At the Rijksmuseum, he heads straight to the Hall of Honor, which contains some of the museum’s highlights, including The Night Watch by Rembrandt (I saw it in 1999; it’s an astonishing painting). But his daughter finds the painting that was so influential in Ramsey’s becoming a minister (and he tells the story of how). And he didn’t know the painting was there. 

 

Ramsey is a pastor, author, and speaker. He’s previously published Struck: One Christian’s Reflections on Encountering Death, The Advent of the Lamb of God, The Passion of the King of Glory, The Mission of the Body of Christ, and Rembrandt Is in the Wind.  A native of Indiana, he is a graduate of Taylor University and received his M.Div. and Th.M. degrees from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis. He lives in Nashville with his family.

 

I loved Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart. It’s written by someone with a lifelong love affair with art (except for Donatello; you have to read the first appendix to find out why). He sees art through the eyes of his Christian faith, and he understands how art can illuminate his faith. It’s a wonderful book.

 

Related:

 

Rembrandt Is in the Wind by Russ Ramsey.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

Silence of the labs: How a censorship campaign failed to kill a COVID origin story – Jonathan Turley at The Hill. 

 

London Films – Capturing 100 Years of Change – A London Inheritance.

 

Basic Principles of Pitching – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

From the Top of the Hill – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.