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| THE NETHERLANDS AND BELGIUM 2006: Trip Report |
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| The next day was culture day. We started with the Rijks Museum, about a kilometer stroll from our apartment. We were aware of the major artists, Rembrandt, Vermeer and so on, and the prices such works fetch at auction, but had never really understood why. We wanted to see the originals and find out what made them special. |
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The originals are stunning. The metal shines like real polished metal with all its reflections. The tablecloth with the folds has the texture of a real cloth. The crumbs in the cake and bread are perfect. The mind boggles at the technical skill needed to achieve that with a paint brush.
The picture is totally realistic, but at the same time idealized. The effect could not be captured with a photograph because the composition is too perfect to have existed, except in the mind of the artist.
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| The gallery was quiet, and the security unobtrusive so we could get as close to the pictures as we wanted. |
| The Van Gogh museum is only a couple of hundred yards away. He wasn't recognized in his lifetime but his brother and sister in law realized his genius and kept a collection of over 300 paintings intact until it was taken over by the state. His style changed and improved markedly in the last couple of years of his life when his mental illness was developing and until his eventual suicide. |
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