Saint Paul & Saint Vincent.

Van Gogh and Gauguin
The Search for Sacred Art
Deborah Silverman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $60, 494 pp.

Deborah Silverman's intelligent new book, Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Search for Sacred Art, asserts the importance of the Christian church in the development of nineteenth- and twentieth-century art by investigating the religious underpinnings of two of modernism's most venerated figures. Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) and Vincent van Gogh (1853-90) are the star-crossed partners of late-nineteenth-century modernism. Meeting in Paris, both sought to advance beyond realism to a realm of symbolic representation. Gauguin went first to Brittany, then Tahiti, in search of inspiration; van Gogh went south to Arles in search of the sun where he dreamed of a brotherhood of artists with Gauguin at the helm. Gauguin, whose economic difficulties were overwhelming, was invited to join Vincent in Arles where from October to December 1888, the two artists shared living space, painting and arguing about what and how to paint. Finally, in a dramatic explosion following a violent argument with Gauguin, van Gogh cut off part of his ear and delivered it to a prostitute. As Silverman convincingly argues, the collision of these two artistic visions is also a collision of religious and social beliefs.

Choosing the months in Arles as the epicenter of her narrative, Silverman delves deeply into each man's religious background. Her first chapter focuses on two early self-portraits that the artists dedicated to each other as gifts. As each believed deeply in the power of symbolic portrayal, the portraits reveal much more than physical likeness. Her exploration of why van Gogh represents himself as a Buddhist monk, while Gauguin portrays himself as a social outcast, is trenchant and sure. The argument that she posits here--that the artists differ fundamentally in their visions of the artist's place in society and in their differing views of Christ--is a profound one. In later years, Gauguin would portray himself as Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, still following the impulse to oppose the material world while van Gogh would studiously avoid any martyr's role; ironically the martyr's palm has been given to him posthumously.

In another chapter devoted to two important paintings that predate the artists' experiment in living together--van Gogh's Sower (1888) and Gauguin's Vision after the Sermon: Jacob Wrestling with an Angel (also 1888)--Silverman convincingly lays out the aesthetic perspective and religious fervor of each artist. While it is no surprise that van Gogh's Sower, inspired by the example of Jean-Francois Millet, elevates the common man to a near ecstatic level, or that Gauguin's Vision after the Sermon presents a miracle of faith, the author's research transforms these old ideas into insightful commentary. Using these paintings, she defines the distinct path that each artist would take to achieve a sacred art (described by each as symbolism). Again her insight is to investigate the theological sources for Gauguin's "flight to metaphysical mystery" in his youthful studies at the Petit Seminarie de la Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin where Bishop Dupanloup (an educational reformer) stressed what Silverman terms "idealist antinaturalism." Similarly, she uncovers a connection between van Gogh's efforts to "naturalize divinity" and the importance of emotional piety, personal humility, and social service in the religious beliefs of his parents who themselves were adherents of the reformed movement know as the Groningen School.

The choice of van Gogh and Gauguin as the subjects of this investigation is by no means arbitrary. The son of a Dutch minister, van Gogh experimented with Protestant Evangelism before turning to art. Gauguin is equally well placed to warrant the investigation of his religious roots. His preoccupation with the sins of carnality, his exploration of Catholic iconography in a modern context, and his late anti-Catholic writings suggest an ongoing interior dialogue with the church. Silverman's rigorous analysis, which includes important new research as well as the comparative discussions of paintings by the two artists, establishes a role for what William James distinguished as institutional religion--as opposed to personal religion, long since acknowledged as a source for abstract art--in a previously secular arena. Of course, the danger of such a weighty insight is that it may cause one to lose perspective. Searching for proof of institutional religion in two artists who no longer practiced the faiths of their childhoods is an inexact science. Gauguin is the easier target, in part because of his use of Christian imagery and his ongoing confrontation with Catholicism. Van Gogh, however, who never visibly aligned with or distanced himself from Dutch Reformed Protestantism or battled against it in print, is more difficult to assess in such terms. While most would agree that his search for the sacred was embodied in his paintings, it is hard to attribute, as Silverman does, the characteristics of his style--the thickly applied paint, the framing devices, and the woven textures of his compositions--to Protestant ideals of labor and individual worth. Rather they can be viewed as artistic choices made by a sophisticated individual conversant with the history of art as well as the arts and crafts of his own time. The final chapter of her book, which focuses on van Gogh's metier, provides a weak ending to an otherwise excellent investigation.

Both van Gogh and Gauguin have suffered from the one-dimensional portraits that have evolved from their status as icons of modernism. Van Gogh's artistic ambition to create what he called "an art of feeling," generally attributed to his own sensitivity to human suffering, should now be seen in the context of a broader cultural philosophy. Similarly, to see Gauguin in the context of Catholic thought, to understand his visions of heaven and hell in the context of a seminary education, is to realize how deep his division between reality and the realm of the imagination cuts. Certainly these two artists will always remain mysterious, but Silverman's key to Gauguin's vanitas and van Gogh's ecstatic vision is a valuable addition to the study of modern art. Not incidentally, the book is also an introduction to the study of popular piety in nineteenth-century France and Holland. Silverman's hope that this book will encourage viewers to "look differently at van Gogh's and Gauguin's works" is too modest. She will succeed in encouraging readers to view the art of the nineteenth century with new eyes.

Donna Gustafson is curator of exhibitions at the American Federation of Arts.