"Looking into the grey-green sea with the long white lines of the waves"
Vincent van Gogh
In 1882, Vincent Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo: "How much good it does a person if one is in a gloomy mood to walk on the empty beach and look into the grey-green sea with the long white lines of the waves."
Today, I was on the beach but not in a gloomy mood. Of course, my spirit is seldom like Vincent's hallmark mood, but I was jet-lagged, which I can only assume Vincent seldom was. Nor were there long white lines of the waves. It was low tide, so the beach was wider than usual, and the cold kept many people indoors.
The beauty of nature
I share Vincent's passion for the outdoors and for appreciating the beauty of what nature shows us daily. And I do share a love for his paintings, although I share it likely more with his admirers than with the painter himself; Vincent remained all his life very self-critical and never stopped trying to improve his skills.
This summer, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam combined in a posting on social media this quote with one of Vincent's paintings. Not that he was referring specifically to this painting (as he often does refer to his latest work in letters to his brother), but Van Gogh painted it in the same year he wrote these lines. It's called View of the Sea at Scheveningen (1882).
My father was born there in 1926, and his passport still showed Scheveningen as his birthplace long after The Hague had absorbed it. But he didn't see the fishing ships on the beach as Van Gogh saw them. In 1894, a massive storm destroyed the fishermen's fleet on the beach. It finally convinced policymakers to agree to build a harbor so that ships did not have to land on the beach. The women still wore the traditional dress in Vincent's days. When my father grew up there, many women still wore it. And even I remember from the 1980s and perhaps 1990s that there were still a few women wearing the traditional costume of Scheveningen.
Panorama Mesdag
If you're ever in The Hague, you can time-travel back to the early 1880s when Van Gogh painted this painting, since another painter, Hendrik Willem Mesdag, created a unique panorama of Scheveningen that you can still visit in nearby The Hague. It's a cylindrical painting 120 meters long, 14 meters high, and about 40 meters in diameter. You can stand in the middle, look around you in every direction, and see Scheveningen of 140 years ago.
This newsletter has a more extended introduction than I had in mind. I'm posting today only because I wrote in my last newsletter from Ottawa that I looked forward to walking on the beach of my island again and that I would send you a photo. I took the picture in the opening of the article around noon today. Shortly afterward, I took the next three shots; one with wooden poles to protect the island from erosion and two more in the nearby dunes.
That's it for today. My jet lag reminds me to go to sleep, and I will listen to that call even though I know I will probably lie awake until just before I need to get out. It will pass soon, I'm sure. I wish you a beautiful week.
If you got this far, please read this too:
I write this newsletter because I believe we can do better on this beautiful but fragile planet.
Please consider supporting this initiative by taking a paid subscription. We need your help to continue making this newsletter available to everyone.
Recent newsletter:
And here is more about The Hague:
Notes:
https://www.vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let292/letter.html#translation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panorama_Mesdag
Words don’t need frames for the enchantment, but reasons embracing passions and moments.
“...Then life seems almost enchanted after all.” Vincent Van Gogh
Your photos of your beautiful island are soothing, lovely in every way. The way you embrace this place brings you peace, it would appear. Hold it dear. It is a rare thing to find and keep. Looking forward to your next posts. Safe travels!