28 November
Saturday evening
Wanted to write to you with a few more impressions of Antwerp.
This morning I went for a really good walk in the pouring rain, an expedition with the object of fetching my things from the customs office. The different entrepôts and hangars on the wharves are very fine.
I’ve already walked in all directions around these docks and wharves several times. It’s a strange contrast, particularly when one comes from the sand and the heath and the tranquillity of a country village and hasn’t been in anything but quiet surroundings for a long time. It’s an incomprehensible confusion.
One of De Goncourt’s sayings was ‘Japonaiserie for ever’. Well, these docks are one huge Japonaiserie, fantastic, singular, strange — at least so one can see them.
I’d like to walk with you there to find out whether we look at things the same way.
One could do anything there, townscapes — figures of the most diverse character — the ships as the central subject with water and sky in delicate grey — but above all — Japonaiseries.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Vincent, you really did capture the vitality, energy and life of this urban town. I suspect this is where you became fascinated with the Japanese woodblocks as Antwerp was the point of entry for all the exotic asian goods. I know that after arriving in 1885 in Antwerp you never returned to the Netherlands. You might like to know that they now have a museum just for you, called the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Sometimes new ideas take awhile for the majority to understand and accept. They get you now, Vincent.
great post as usual .. thanks .. you just gave me a few more ideas to play with