Thursday, February 09, 2017

Vincent Van Gogh's Terriermen



Vincent van Gogh painted this scene in 1889 and titled it "Two Diggers Among Trees," but it could just as well have been called The Terriermen.  Today, it is located in the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, Michigan.

1 comment:

Anton said...

Given where Vincent painted this picture and the tree roots involved it's quite possible that they are looking for that most delicious and prized of all the ectomycorrhizal fungi the "trifola d'Alba Madonna", or white truffle. The tree has clearly been felled so they are waisting no time digging amongst it's roots close to the bough. Normally they wouldn't disturb the roots so close to the tree as without a living healthy tree whose roots are the nurturing mother of all truffles they would have no truffles. Or do they simply want the entire stump to make more useful wooden clogs, or for scarce precious fuel for burning? Clearly peasants the actual tree was probably owned by the landowner. Vincent van Gogh, pronounced Goh - chchchc (the latter part as though emitting a lump of phlegm from the throat, the former like baboon coughing loudly once). As most Dutchmen would freely admit their language is like most, a work in progress, however a soft "Van Go" is like a flat piano, painful to the very heart of the ears soul.