Window on Infinity - Room 09
Ensemble
Van Gogh to Verheyen: seekers of light
In paintings such as Zwarte Zomer (Black Summer) and Permeke, Jef Verheyen paints his perception of the Flemish atmosphere, which is rather dark. Later in the 1960s, he travels to Brazil, Mexico, Tunisia, Spain, Italy and France in search of light, which is everywhere different. A northerner in search of southern light: Vincent van Gogh went on the same quest before him. In a letter written in Provence in 1889, Van Gogh writes to his brother about the southern light: ‘Perhaps my journey into the south will bear fruit, however, because the difference of the stronger light, the blue sky, teaches one to see, but especially and only if one looks at it for a long time. (…) one must first and gradually accustom one’s eyes to the different light.’ During his travels, Verheyen also writes in his letters about the enchantment of the light. ‘Everything shimmers here!’ He tries to render the essence of those impressions on canvas.
