London, August 26 (ANI): An historian has finally solved the puzzle about two stained glass windows that inspired Vincent van Gogh and had baffled the historians for almost 150 years.
Experts have been searching for the location of the windows ever since the post-impressionist painter wrote about seeing their designs in London in 1876.
For more than a century, no one had a clue which windows he was referring to but now Max Donnelly has finally traced them to a remote village in Hampshire.
After a bit of detective work, Donnelly found the two, foot-feet high windows to St Andrew's church in Owslebury near Winchester.
William Carnegie, the 8th Earl of Northesk, commissioned the windows to show his wife and daughter who both pre-deceased him.
His daughter, Lady Margaret Carnegie, is depicted as a young Virgin Mary and his wife Georgina as an older Virgin Mary. Each window has a religious inscription.
Dutchman van Gogh, who was deeply religious, saw the designs at Cottier and Company when he was working for a clergyman and wrote to his brother Theo about them.
He wrote: "I saw sketches for two church windows. In the middle of one of the windows the portrait of an elderly lady, such a noble face, with the words 'Thy will be done' inscribed above.
"In the other window, the portrait of her daughter, with the words 'Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," he added.
Final confirmation of the link came when Donnelly discovered an old family album in which were pasted photos of the family members and copies of the designs that van Gogh had seen.
"I actually stumbled on the windows when I was writing an article about Daniel Cottier. I saw a reference to them at the church in Owslebury and managed to get some photographs of them," the Daily Mail quoted Donnelly as saying.
"It was then that bells started ringing and it happened to be about the same time as an exhibition of van Gogh's letters at the Royal Academy.
"And although the letter of his mentioning the sketches was not among them, it reminded me about the letter that he had written to his brother," Donnelly added.
Donnelly's article about the discovery is published in the next edition of Burlington Magazine. (ANI)
|
|
Comments:
