Vincent Van Gogh is admitted to a mental asylum, outside Saint-Rémy in Provence.
文森特·梵高住进了普罗旺斯郊外的
He would spend just over a year there.
圣雷米疗养院 他将要在那儿待上一年多
It was originally planned that he’d go to a large, public institution in Marseille
他本来计划去位于马赛市中心的
with over a thousand patients,
一个有着超过一千患者的
right in the heart of the city.
大型公共疗养院
If he had, there is no chance that he would have produced the extraordinary work he did.
如果他去了 就不会创造出他的杰作
In the small asylum at St-Remy, with only 41 patients,
在这所小得仅有41名患者的圣雷米疗养院
Vincent would be treated with kindness and understanding.
文森特得到了善意的对待和理解
The doctors quickly realised that the only way Vincent would survive,
医生们很快意识到唯一能让文森特活下去的方法
was if he given the space and the freedom to paint and create.
就是给予他绘画和创作的空间和自由
Art would keep him alive.
是艺术让他活了下来
As other patients screamed through the night,
当其他的病人在夜间嚎叫
Vincent’s Creativity and work ethic was stronger than ever.
文森特的创造力和职业道德感达到了巅峰
He spent every waking hour painting,
他无时无刻不在绘画
and on the whole, producing mostly optimistic landscapes.
最终 创造出了最绚丽的景色
He always worked extremely quickly,
他总是画得很快
often finishing a painting in just a few hours.
通常仅仅几个小时就能完成一幅作品
Incredibly, considering his circumstances,
让人难以置信的是 鉴于他的身体状况
he finished at least 150 paintings during his stay at the asylum.
他在疗养院的日子里 竟然完成了150多幅画作
That is about one painting every other day.
大约是每隔一天完成一幅
And it was on 18th June 1889 that he painted The Starry Night.
在1889年6月18日 他画出了《星月夜》
In popular culture, Vincent Van Gogh is often seen as the archetypal mad crazed artist,
在主流文化中 文森特·梵高经常被视为 典型的狂热艺术家
and although he did have extreme manic episodes,
尽管他的极端狂热也曾发作过
most of the time he was lucid and rational.
但大多数时候他还是冷静理性的
Vincent was incredibly intelligent and well read,
文森特才智过人 博览群书
he was so knowledgeable about art and artists.
是一位对艺术极有造诣的艺术家
He was articulate and spoke four languages.
他口齿伶俐 精通四门语言
He also had life long friends, who he met or wrote to regularly.
他也有毕生挚友 经常与他们见面 通信
But he struggled to understand his place in the world.
但他依旧挣扎于寻找在世上的容身之所
After a particularly difficult period living with Paul Gauguin,
在与保罗·高更一起度过了一段艰难的时光之后
he suffered an attack of acute mania,
他患上了急性狂躁症
culminating in hallucinations and hearing voices,
最终出现幻觉和幻听
which led to him cutting off his own ear.
这导致他割下了自己的耳朵
The doctors at the asylum diagnosed epilepsy.
疗养院的医生诊断其患上了癫痫
In all probability he also had what today we call bi-polar, with manic episodes
很可能他也有我们今天所说的躁郁症
and auditory hallucinations, as well as syphilis.
伴有躁狂 幻听 还有梅毒
He called his fellow patients his “companions in misfortune”
他把同院的患者称为“不幸的同伴”
and recent discoveries show us that Vincent was probably the sanest patient at St-Remy.
最新的发现表明文森特可能是疗养院最清醒的病人
Over all, the asylum had a positive effect on him
总之 他在疗养院受益良多
and he was well enough to paint about 75% of the time.
他四分之三的时间都在作画
One visitor, when he came to see Vincent,
有个探望者来看梵高
found him to be in perfect physical and mental health.
发现他的身体和精神状态极佳
After he left the asylum, Vincent went to Paris to visit his brother Theo,
离开疗养院后 文森特去巴黎看望他的弟弟提奥
whose wife Jo remarked on how healthy he looked.
提奥的妻子乔说他看上去很健康
In the asylum, he was drinking a lot less, no absinthe,
在疗养院 他很少喝酒了 没有苦艾酒
no complicated romances, and a regular routine with three meals a day.
也没有风花雪月 只有规律的一日三餐
Isolation turned out to be good for him, and with no outside distractions,
与世隔绝对他来说是有好处的 没有外界的干扰
Vincent, always a hard worker, would channel all his energy into his work.
文森特 一心扑在绘画上 辛勤地工作着
When we think of 19th century asylums,
我们谈起19世纪的疗养院时
we think of them as horrific institutions.
常视它们为恐怖机构
but the founder of the St. Remy asylum, was a progressive,
但是圣雷米疗养院的创始人是一位革新人士
who believed that being surrounded by nature was good for troubled minds,
他相信融入大自然对患者大有裨益
and had planted extensive gardens.
因此建了一个很大的花园
He also believed in the healing power of art and music.
他也相信艺术和音乐的治愈力量
Of course it was not easy for Vincent,
当然 这对文森特来说并不容易
and he suffered manic attacks when he was unable to paint,
他深受精神疾病的折磨 无法安心作画
but it could have been a lot worse.
但情况并没有糟到哪里去
His brother Theo, who was paying for the treatment,
提奥帮他支付了住院费
insisted that the asylum allow Vincent to paint,
并坚持让疗养院允许他绘画
and he was given a dedicated studio.
由此文森特有了一间精致的画室
His paintings are so often seen as a descent into madness,
他的画作常被视为一种疯狂的堕落
but his work drove him and energized him.
但是绘画给予了他动力 激励着他
He created these images despite his mental illness, not because of it.
使他能够不受精神疾病的影响而创造了这些意象
As Vincent was led into his sparse cell on the first day,
当文森特第一天被领到狭小的阁楼时
he must have been terrified,
他一定惊恐万分吧
but also reassured to find that,
但令人欣慰的是
although his window had bars, the view was spectacular,
尽管有栅栏 但是窗外的风景引人入胜
wheat fields glowed in the sun, with olive groves and vineyards receding into the distant foothills
麦田在阳光下闪闪发光 橄榄林和葡萄园
of a low mountain range called les Alpilles.
逐渐延伸到远处阿尔卑斯山的低矮山脉上
Initially he portrayed the world he saw from this room,
他在疗养院的许多绘画作品 最初都是
the subject of many paintings at Saint-Rémy.
以他在房间里看到的景象为题材
But within weeks he would be allowed to wander around the dramatic countryside alone.
但数周后他就被允许独自到梦幻般的田野里散步
The morning after his arrival at the asylum,
在他抵达疗养院的次日清晨
Vincent went into the walled garden;
文森特就去了后花园
set up his easel and by lunchtime had painted this,
支好画架 并在午餐时完成了这个
the first of his asylum masterpieces.
他在疗养院的第一幅杰作
Vincent van Gogh was a largely self-taught artist
文森特·梵高是一个自学成才的画家
who didn’t pick up a paintbrush until he was 30 years old.
直到30岁他才拿起画笔
And just seven years later, he would be dead.
仅仅七年后 他就去世了
It was really his last four years
在他生命的最后四年
where he developed the style we would come to know him by,
他创造出了我们所了解的绘画风格
and these were also his most prolific years.
这也是他最多产的时期
Once he found his way, he was making up for lost time.
当他找到了自我 就开始弥补逝去的时间
Vincent’s two years in Paris up until February 1888,
直到1888年2月 文森特在巴黎的两年时光
are widely seen as laying the foundation for his later unique style,
人们普遍认为这为他后期独特的风格奠定了基础
exposing him to the influence of impressionists such as Monet and Pissarro
不仅让他受到了莫奈和毕萨罗等印象派画家的影响
but also a younger generation of artists including Paul Signac, Émile Bernard and Toulouse-Lautrec,
还有新生代的艺术家 包括保罗·西格纳克 埃米尔·伯纳德和图卢兹-劳特雷克
who would all remain, life long friends.
这些都成为他毕生的挚友
Like many of that generation, he was influenced by Japanese prints,
像那个时代的很多人一样 他也受日本版画的影响
which, along with his Paris years, would have a transformative effect on his work,
这对他在巴黎那几年的作品有着变革性的影响
and lay the foundations for radical works like The Starry Night.
为他之后的重要作品如《星月夜》奠定了基础
We know for a fact that Vincent was an admirer of Hokusai’s The Great Wave
文森特是葛饰北斋《神奈川冲浪里》的仰慕者
and here we can make comparisons not only between the composition,
在此我们可以从两者之间的构图
but also between the rich blue tones of Hokusai’s tempestuous seas,
以及葛饰北斋大片的蓝色基调下的波涛汹涌
and the turbulent skies of Starry Night.
和诡异璀璨的星月夜之间做出比较
For the final five years of his career,
在他绘画生涯的最后五年
the bright new palette takes over from his previous dark muted colour scheme.
明亮欢快的色彩取代了之前的暗淡沉郁的色调
A period that coincided with the invention of many new synthetic pigments that Vincent took advantage of.
那段时期文森特恰好利用了新的合成颜料
Colour above all, was Vincent’s visual vocabulary.
首先 色彩是文森特的视觉语言
With these later works we see more and more Japanese influence:
在随后的作品中我们可以窥见其受日本影响之深
Blocks of pure colour, dark outlines, no shadows,
大片的单色块 黑色的描边 没有阴影
unusual cropping and distorted perspective.
不同寻常的剪裁和扭曲的透视关系
“今早我在日出前看了很久窗外的田野 除了一颗很大的星星之外一无所有。” 致提奥 1889年6月2日
This was just one of many letters Vincent wrote to friends
这是文森特写给朋友的其中一封信
that mentioned a “starry sky” and it was something he had planned for a while.
里面提到了他计划已久的“星月夜”
The Starry Night depicts the view from his asylum window on the upper floor.
《星月夜》描绘了他透过阁楼窗户 看到的疗养院的景色
He had already painted the view dozens of times, but this time it was a nocturne,
他已经多次画过这样的景象了 但这次是夜景
which, as he couldn’t paint in the dark, meant it was painted from memory during the day in his ground-floor studio.
由于无法在黑暗中作画 意味着这是白天他在一楼的画室里凭借记忆画出来的
The views he painted from his window, are all linked by the diagonal line
他画的窗外的景象都被从右边沿着对角线
coming in from the right depicting the low rolling hills.
横亘的低矮起伏的山丘连接在一起
In reality, the cypress trees are much smaller
在现实中 柏树要更矮小
and are beyond the far wall enclosing the wheat field.
并在远方包围着麦田的围墙之外
For Starry Night, Vincent brings the tree much closer to the picture plane.
在《星月夜》中 文森特将这棵树在画面上拉近了
This reminds us of the tight cropping we see in Japanese prints.
这让我们想起在日本版画中看到的紧凑裁剪
The Cypress tree was a newly discovered motif for Vincent,
柏树对文森特来说是个新的主题
and are seen as a symbol of death in Mediterranean culture.
而且在地中海文化中经常被视为死亡的象征
Here, the tree shoots up into the sky, linking heaven and earth.
在这幅画里 柏树直插云霄 连接了天空和大地
Like the impressionists, Vincent had always insisted on working directly from nature,
如同印象派画家那样 梵高坚持在大自然中直接创作
but a few months earlier, Paul Gauguin had tried to persuade him to paint from his imagination.
但几个月前 保罗·高更试着去说服他用想象来作画
Vincent resisted then, but in the asylum,
文森特拒绝了 但在自由受限
with limited freedom, it was a necessity.
的疗养院 这却成为了必然
In this highly charged picture, he would create in paint
在这幅激情澎湃的画中 他创造了一些
something we cannot see or touch, something immaterial.
我们目力所不及的 无法感知的虚幻的事物
He would use paint to show a sky that is electric.
他用颜料展示了令人叹为观止的天空
That is how we imagine the night sky to be.
那正是我们想象中夜空的样子
This is a critical time for art, when artists are shifting from the narrative
这是艺术界重要的时刻 艺术家们正从写实
to expressing themselves with a new way of seeing.
转换到用一种新的视角表达自己的方式上
Vincent’s work is paving the way for modern art.
文森特的作品为现代艺术指明了道路
Is this an accurate depiction of the stars, on or around June the 18th?
这是对6月18日左右的星空准确的描绘吗？
Astronomers have worked out that the moon that night was actually almost full,
天文学家们研究发现那晚实际上是满月
rather than the crescent moon we see in the painting.
而不是我们在画里看到的新月
And Venus, the brightest star, was only visible just before dawn,
此外 最亮的金星也只是在拂晓时分隐约可见
by which time the moon was not visible from Vincent’s room.
而在那时文森特在房间里是看不到月亮的
On this re-creation, we can see the constellation Aries was also visible.
在这幅图上 白羊座也清晰可见
I think the Starry night is an amalgamation of night-time and dawn views from his window.
在我看来《星月夜》是窗外黄昏和黎明景象的融合
The sky is painted with Vincent’s signature short brush strokes of thick IMPASTO.
文森特用他标志性的浓墨重彩的短笔触来描绘天空
We can see how he applies the impasto technique,
我们可以看到他是如何运用厚涂技巧的
painting so thickly, sometimes straight from the tube,
画得如此厚重 有时直接把颜料管按上去的
spreading paint like butter with a palette knife.
用调色刀把黄油似的颜料推开
It is these paint heavy, stabbing brush strokes,
正是这种厚重的点触画法
that distinguishes Vincent from the other post-impressionists.
让文森特在后期印象派画家中脱颖而出
A few weeks before, Vincent, in a manic episode, had tried to poison himself,
几周前 文森特的精神疾病发作时 曾试图
by swallowing paint and turpentine.
喝下颜料和松节油来毒死自己
Literally, killing himself with colour,
也就是 用色彩来结束自己的生命
and now he was using the same tubes to produce this.
而现在他同样以色彩来画这幅画
Colour was Vincent’s way of communicating,
色彩是梵高表达的方式
and he had an innate and even avant-garde tendency
而且他先天具有甚至是前卫的
towards colours that were expressive and intense.
对富有张力和浓烈色彩的感知力
He had learned about complimentary Colour theory
在看过鲁本斯
after seeing paintings by Rubens and in particular Delacroix.
尤其德拉克洛瓦的作品后 他学习了备受推崇的色彩理论
In Paris, Vincent went to see this ceiling mural by Delacroix in the Louvre,
在巴黎 文森特去卢浮宫 看了德拉克洛瓦的天花板壁画
and it was a revelation how bright contrasting colours could work together.
它是对比色融合在一起的完美呈现
Vincent read everything he could on Delacroix’s colour theories,
他对德拉克洛瓦的色彩理论了然于胸
which uses opposite colours on the colour wheel,
即 通过用色彩轮上的对比色
a combination which gives high contrast and high impact,
形成一种有着强烈对比和冲击力的结合体
for example: red and green , or blue and orange.
例如：红配绿 蓝配橙
The impressionists in Paris gave him looser, lighter brush strokes,
受巴黎印象派画家的影响 他的笔触更加明亮轻快
and the pointillist, Seurat, introduced him to optical mixing:
点彩画家秀拉向他介绍了光学混合
pure colours blended by the eye to form a coherent image.
单一的色彩与眼睛相融合形成了一派和谐的画面
His brother Theo would later say that The Starry Night was style over substance,
他的弟弟提奥之后说《星月夜》是风格重于实质
but just how stylized are Vincent’s swirling galaxies?
但文森特那涡旋星系到底有多风格迥异呢？
If we look at a modern image of the Whirlpool galaxy,
如果我们看现在的涡旋星系
it bears a striking resemblance to Vincent’s stars.
它与文森特的星空极其相似
But could he have known about spiral galaxies back in 1889?
难道在1889年他就已经知道螺旋星云了吗？
This drawing made by the English astronomer Lord Rosse in 1850
这张1850年英国天文学家罗斯伯爵的草图
was reproduced as an etching in a French astronomy book,
被复刻成一幅在法国天文书刊里的版画
which had caused a sensation.
引起了不小的轰动
Vincent, who was passionate about astronomy, had even met the author in Paris.
热衷于天文学的文森特甚至也在巴黎遇见过罗斯伯爵
The white band hanging over the hills is almost certainly the morning mist.
山峦上笼罩的白色条带可以肯定是清晨的薄雾
By the time he painted The Starry Night,
他创作《星月夜》时
he was allowed out for walks to explore the area alone,
已经被允许独自外出闲逛
and it was on one of his walks he drew this bird’s eye view of the village.
也正是在一次外出散步中他画下了村子的鸟瞰图
He places the village in the valley even though it was not visible from Vincent’s room
文森特把村庄画在山谷中 尽管他无法在房间里
or from his studio, and was in fact in the opposite direction.
或画室里看到 这实际上是在相反方向的景象
He shows a dozen or so houses, whereas there were in fact hundreds.
他画了十几间房子 而实际上有数百间之多
He has the houses lit by impossibly bright gas lamps,
他用无比明亮的煤油灯点亮了所有的房子
as a device to balance out the yellow stars.
与金黄的星辰遥相呼应
Vincent paints an idealized village, and it bears no resemblance to the real one,
文森特画的村子是理想中的 与真实的毫无相似之处
or even the domed church of St-Remy.
甚至是圣雷米的圆顶教堂
The pitched roof he portrays is more reminiscent of the Dutch churches he knew well.
他描绘的斜屋顶更令人想起他所熟悉的荷兰教堂
I wonder if he was also thinking of the little childhood church in Nuenen, where his father was the preacher.
我想他是否想起了童年时 父亲在纽南当牧师时所在的那个小教堂
Like all great paintings, The Starry Night has been interpreted in many ways,
像众多伟大的画作一样 《星月夜》有很多的解读
notably concerning his religious beliefs.
大都是关于他的宗教信仰的
Although Vincent became an evangelical preacher in his twenties, he later rejected Christianity.
尽管文森特在二十多岁时成为了一名福音派传教士 但他后来并未皈依基督教
But when Vincent lost his faith, he transferred many of his ideas into his art.
当文森特信仰破灭后 他在艺术中注入了许多自己的思想
Hard work and the appreciation of nature were seen as part of the worship of God
生活的磨炼和对自然的赞美在他从小耳濡目染的
in the Protestant tradition in which he was raised.
新教传统中被视为对上帝崇拜的一部分
His art had always emphasised the changing and renewing power of the seasons,
他的作品中总是强调季节更替的力量
and there was no harder working artist than Vincent.
也没有比文森特更兢兢业业的画家了
In less than a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings,
在十年内 他创作了2100幅作品 包括860幅油画
most of which date from the last two years of his life.
大多数都是在他生命最后两年里完成的
He spoke of art as a new kind of religion, a way to console people,
他认为艺术是宗教的新形式 是一种慰藉人们的方式
and The Starry night in particular reflected these beliefs.
尤其是《星月夜》反映了他的这些信仰
Nature for him was a source of the infinite, and the stars had a deep spiritual meaning.
自然对他来说是无尽的源泉 星辰也有着深刻的精神含义
Stars that must have comforted Vincent as he gazed at the night sky from his cell.
当文森特在阁楼遥望夜空时 星辰一定给予了他很大的慰藉
Vincent van Gogh would dismiss his most famous painting as a “failure” and maybe if he lived longer,
如果文森特·梵高活得久一点 或许他会把他最著名的画作斥为“败笔”
he would have painted over it, as he did with so many of his paintings he considered “failures”.
他就会在上面作画 就像他对许多他认为是“败笔”的画所做的那样
He was released from the asylum, and he moved to the village of Auvers, 20 kilometres north of Paris,
出院后 他搬到了在巴黎北边20km的奥维尔小镇
and two months later he shot himself.
两个月后他拿枪口对准了自己
It took Vincent thirty-six hours to die, which meant Theo, the brother who supported him both financially and emotionally,
三十六小时后文森特去世了 在经济和情感上都支持着他的提奥
was at his side when he died.
在他临死前一直守着他
Theo himself was to die just six months after Vincent.
文森特去世六个月后提奥也去世了
It is a myth than Vincent was unrecognised in his lifetime.
文森特竟然一生都没得到重视 多么荒谬啊
He was already considered an important artist by his peers.
同侪视他为重要的艺术家
His work had been shown in an exhibition in Brussels
他的作品在布鲁塞尔的展会上展览
alongside Toulouse Lautrec, Cezanne and Renoir.
与图卢兹·劳特雷克 塞尚和雷诺阿并驾齐驱
“The Red Vineyard” had sold for the decent sum of 400 francs.
《红葡萄园》卖出了400法郎的高价
A major art critic had just published an article on him,
一位重要的艺术评论家为他发表了一篇文章
and only two months before his death,
仅仅在他去世之前的两个月
ten of his works went on display in a major show in Paris, attended by the president of France.
他的十件作品在巴黎一个大型展览会上展出 而且法国总统也参加了
Vincent Van Gogh was on the verge of success,
文森特·梵高一直在成功的边缘徘徊
and may have killed himself at the very moment he was going to become what he had always wanted.
可能就在他即将心想事成的那一刻自杀了