View source for At Eternity's Gate

{{short description|Oil painting by Vincent van Gogh}}
{{for|the 2018 film|At Eternity's Gate (film)}}
{{Infobox artwork
| image_file=At Eternity's Gate - Vincent Van Gogh.jpg
| title=Sorrowing Old Man ('At Eternity's Gate')
| alt= An elderly man with a bald head is sitting on a yellow chair by his fire. There is a low fire in the grate. He is dressed in blue clothes. He is holding his head in his hands.
| artist=[[Vincent van Gogh]]
| year=1890
| medium=[[Oil painting|Oil on canvas]]
| catalogue={{Flatlist}}
*[[Jacob Baart de la Faille|F702]]
*[[Jan Hulsker|JH1967]]
{{Endflatlist}}
| height_metric=80
| width_metric=64
| height_imperial=31.5
| width_imperial=21.2
| metric_unit=cm
| imperial_unit=in
| city=[[Otterlo]]
| museum=[[Kröller-Müller Museum]]<ref>[http://www.kmm.nl/object/KM%20111.041/Treurende-oude-man-At-Eternitys-Gate?lang=en Sorrowing old man ('At Eternity's Gate')], [[Kröller-Müller Museum]]{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
}}
	
'''''Sorrowing Old Man (At Eternity's Gate)''''' is an oil painting by [[Vincent van Gogh]] that he made in 1890 in [[Saint-Rémy de Provence]] based on an early [[lithograph]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kmm.nl/object/KM%20111.041/Sorrowing-old-man-At-Eternitys-Gate?artist%3DVincent+van+Gogh+%281853+-+1890%29%26characteristic%3D%26characteristic_type%3DPainting%26van%3D1890%26tot%3D1890%26start%3D0%26fromsearch%3D1 |title=Treurende oude man ('At Eternity's Gate') - Kröller-Müller Museum |access-date=13 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228040333/http://www.kmm.nl/object/KM%20111.041/Sorrowing-old-man-At-Eternitys-Gate?artist=Vincent%20van%20Gogh%20%281853%20-%201890%29&characteristic=&characteristic_type=Painting&van=1890&tot=1890&start=0&fromsearch=1 |archive-date=28 December 2013 }}</ref><ref name="Letter 288">{{cite web|title=To Theo van Gogh. The Hague, Sunday, 26 and Monday, 27 November 1882|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let288/letter.html|work=Vincent van Gogh: The Letters|publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]]}}</ref> The painting was completed in early May at a time when he was convalescing from a severe relapse in his health some two months before [[Death of Vincent van Gogh|his death]], which is generally accepted as a suicide.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hulsker|first=Jan|title=The Complete Van Gogh: Paintings, Drawings, Sketches|year=1986|publisher=[[Random House]]|isbn=0-517-44867-X|page=444}}</ref>

In the 1970 ''[[catalogue raisonné]]'', it was given the title '''''Worn Out: At Eternity's Gate'''''.<ref>{{cite book|last=de la Faille|first=Jacob Baart|title=The Works of Vincent van Gogh|year=1970|publisher= Meulenhoff|location=Amsterdam|page=274|oclc=300160639}}</ref>

==Lithograph==
The lithograph was based on a pencil drawing ''Worn Out'', one of a series of studies he made in 1882 of a pensioner and war veteran, [[Adrianus Jacobus Zuyderland (Van Gogh series)|Adrianus Jacobus Zuyderland]], at a local almshouse in [[The Hague]] and itself a reworking of a drawing and watercolour he had made the previous year.<ref name= "Letter 172">{{cite web|title=To Theo van Gogh. Etten, mid-September 1881|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let172/letter.html|work=Vincent van Gogh: The Letters|publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]]}}</ref> The inspiration for ''Worn Out'' was [[Hubert von Herkomer| Hubert von Herkomer's]] ''Sunday at the Chelsea Hospital'', an immensely popular print depicting an old war veteran slumped dead that went on to become an acclaimed painting at the [[Royal Academy]], ''[[The Last Muster]]'', that Van Gogh had seen in 1875 when in England.<ref>{{cite web|last=von Herkomer |first=Hubert |title=The Last Muster |url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/collections/thelastmuster.asp |publisher=[[Lady Lever Art Gallery]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120423225329/http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/collections/thelastmuster.asp |archive-date=23 April 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Korda|first=Andrea|title=The Streets as Art Galleries: Hubert Herkomer, William Powell Frith, and the Artistic Advertisement|url=http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/index.php/spring12/korda-on-the-streets-as-art-galleries-hubert-herkomer-william-powell-frith-and-the-artistic-advertisement|publisher=Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide}}</ref><ref name="Naifeh & White Smith">{{cite book|title=Van Gogh: The Life|year=2011|publisher=[[Random House]]|first1=Steven|last1=Naifeh|first2=Gregory|last2= White Smith|isbn=978-0-375-50748-9|url=http://www.randomhouse.com/book/119583/van-gogh-by-steven-naifeh-and-gregory-white-smith|page=318}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Notes 233|url= http://www.vangoghbiography.com/notes.php?valuesearch=313|work=Van Gogh: The Life|publisher=VanGoghBiography.com}}</ref> Van Gogh wrote of his drawing:<ref name= "Letter 286">{{cite web|title=To Theo van Gogh. The Hague, Friday, 24 November 1882|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let286/letter.html|work=Vincent van Gogh: The Letters|publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]]}}</ref>{{Quote|text=Today and yesterday I drew two figures of an old man with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. I did it of Schuitemaker once and always kept the drawing, because I wanted to do it better another time. Perhaps I'll also do a lithograph of it. What a fine sight an old working man makes, in his patched [[bombazine]] suit with his bald head.}}

Van Gogh's first attempt at the lithograph followed just two days later. He wrote:<ref name="Letter 288"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Notes 341, 342|url= http://vangoghbiography.com/notes.php?valuesearch=318|work=Van Gogh: The Life|publisher=VanGoghBiography.com}}</ref> {{Quote|text=It seems to me that a painter has a duty to try to put an idea into his work. I was trying to say this in this print—but I can't say it as beautifully, as strikingly as reality, of which this is only a dim reflection seen in a dark mirror—that it seems to me that one of the strongest pieces of evidence for the existence of 'something on high' in which Millet believed, namely in the existence of a God and an eternity, is the unutterably moving quality that there can be in the expression of an old man like that, without his being aware of it perhaps, as he sits so quietly in the corner of his hearth. At the same time something precious, something noble, that can't be meant for the worms. ... This is far from all theology—simply the fact that the poorest woodcutter, heath farmer or miner can have moments of emotion and mood that give him a sense of an eternal home that he is close to.}}

Later, in a rare expression of his own religious feelings, he wrote expressly about this lithograph and two other drawings also posed by Zuyderland, of an old man reading a Bible and saying grace ([[#From_the_1880s|below]]) respectively:<ref name= "Letter 294">{{cite web|title= Letter 294: To Theo van Gogh. The Hague, between about Wednesday, 13 and about Monday, 18 December 1882|url= http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let294/letter.html|work=Vincent van Gogh: The Letters|publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]]|at= Note 4}}</ref><ref>Hulsker (1980) p. 69.</ref><ref>Erickson (1998) [https://archive.org/details/ateternitysgate00eric/page/77 <!-- quote=van gogh "while van gogh sought a meaningful experience of faith. --> p. 77.]</ref>{{Quote|text= My intention with these two and with the first old man is one and the same, namely to express the special mood of Christmas and New Year. ... Leaving aside whether or not one agrees with the form, it's something one respects if it's sincere, and for my part I can fully share in it and even feel a need for it, at least in the sense that, just as much as an old man of that kind, I have a feeling of belief in something on high even if I don't know exactly who or what will be there.}}

Seven impressions of the lithograph are known, of which one is annotated ''At Eternity's Gate''. The same theme is taken up again in two later 1883 studies of a seated woman.

In 2021, a drawing in a private collection in the Netherlands since 1910 was authenticated as a preliminary study for the original pencil drawing ''Worn Out'' by the [[Van Gogh Museum]] and put on display.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=Mark |title=Pencil drawing of old man identified as Van Gogh work |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/sep/16/pencil-drawing-of-old-man-identified-as-van-gogh-work |access-date=16 September 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=16 September 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bailey |first1=Martin |title=New Van Gogh discovery: first version of despairing man that was bought for £6—and then hidden away for more than a century |journal=The Art Newspaper |date=16 September 2021 |url= https://www.theartnewspaper.com/blog/van-gogh-discovery-the-first-version-of-worn-out-drawing |access-date=20 September 2021}}</ref> The Van Gogh Museum had previously been aware of the existence of the study for some time.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Meedendorp |first1=Teio |title=Study for 'Worn out': a newly discovered Van Gogh drawing |journal=The Burlington Magazine |date=October 2021 |volume=163 |page=918 (n. 5) |url=https://issuu.com/burlington/docs/meedendorp_140921 |access-date=20 September 2021}}</ref>

===Commentary===

Writing about ''At Eternity's Gate'' in 1998, the American theologian Kathleen Powers Erickson remarked:<ref>{{cite book|last=Erickson|first=Kathleen Powers|title=At Eternity's Gate: The Spiritual Vision of Vincent Van Goh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sz0Pla9mLSYC&q=Belief+in+a+%22life+beyond+the+grave%22+is+central+to+one+of+van+Gogh%27s+first+accomplished+lithographs&pg=PA86|isbn=9780802849786|year=1998|publisher=William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company }}</ref> {{Quote|text=Belief in a "life beyond the grave" is central to one of van Gogh's first accomplished lithographs, ''At Eternity's Gate'' ... Executed at The Hague in 1882, it depicts an old man seated by a fire, his head buried in his hands. Near the end of his life Van Gogh recreated this image in oil, while recuperating in the asylum at St. Rémy. Bent over with his fists clenched against a face hidden in utter frustration, the subject appears engulfed in grief. Certainly, the work would convey an image of total despair had it not been for the English title Van Gogh  gave it, ''At Eternity's Gate''. It demonstrates that even in his deepest moments of sorrow and pain, Van Gogh clung to a faith in God and eternity, which he tried to express in his work. ...}}

==Genesis==
[[File:Vincent van Gogh - Portrait of Doctor Félix Rey (F500).jpg|thumb|left|upright|''Portrait of Doctor Félix Rey'' (F500, JH1659), oil on canvas 1889, [[Pushkin Museum]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vggallery.com/painting/p_0500.htm|title=Portrait of Doctor Félix Rey | author=Brooks, D |work=The Vincent van Gogh Gallery, endorsed by Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam | publisher=David Brooks (self-published) |access-date=23 February 2011}}</ref> Rey disliked his portrait and gave it away.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vggallery.com/misc/archives/rey.htm|title=Dr. Félix Rey, interviewed by Max Braumann (1928) | author=Brooks, D |work=The Vincent van Gogh Gallery, endorsed by Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam | publisher=David Brooks (self-published) |access-date=23 February 2011}}</ref>]]

Vincent van Gogh [[Vincent van Gogh's health|suffered from some form of mental illness]], acutely during the last two years of his life. The official diagnosis furnished by the [[Hospital in Arles (Van Gogh series)|hospital in Arles]] that Van Gogh was taken to on 24 December 1888, [[Vincent van Gogh chronology#1888|following the celebrated incident involving his ear]], was "acute mania with generalised delirium".<ref>{{cite web|title=Concordance, lists, bibliography: Documentation|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/documentation.html#id8May1889|work=Vincent van Gogh: The Letters|publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]]|access-date=23 February 2012}}</ref> [[Portraits by Vincent van Gogh#Doctor Rey|Dr. Félix Rey]], a young intern at the hospital, also suggested "a kind of epilepsy" he characterised as ''mental'' epilepsy.<ref>Naifeh and Smith (2011), 701 ''ff.'', 729, 749</ref>

There is no agreement today over a modern diagnosis of Van Gogh's illness. Suggestions include [[epilepsy]] and [[bipolar disorder]], possibly exacerbated by excessive [[absinthe]] drinking, heavy smoking and venereal disease. Symptoms were varied, but in their most severe manifestations they involved attacks of confusion and unconsciousness followed by periods of stupor and incoherence during which he was generally unable to paint, draw, or even to write letters.<ref>Hulsker (1980), 390</ref><ref>Naifeh and Smith (2011), 707 ''ff.'', 814 - 816</ref> It was such an attack that first led him to being hospitalised at Arles, and following a later relapse, he had himself committed to the asylum at Saint-Rémy in May 1889, where he remained for the most part until May 1890.

On 22 February 1890, Van Gogh suffered his most severe relapse, an episode [[Jan Hulsker]] called the longest and saddest of his life, and one which lasted some nine weeks through to late April.<ref>Hulsker (1980), 404</ref> During this time, he was only able to write to his brother [[Theo van Gogh (art dealer)|Theo]] once, in March 1890, and then only briefly to say he was totally stupefied (''totalement abruti'') and unable to write.<ref>{{cite web|title=To Theo van Gogh. Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, on or about Monday, 17 March 1890|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let857/letter.html|work=Vincent van Gogh: The Letters|publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]]|access-date=16 February 2012}}</ref> He did not write to Theo again until late April, but that letter makes it clear that he had been able to paint and draw a little during this time, despite his sadness and melancholy:<ref>{{cite web|title=To Theo van Gogh. Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Tuesday, 29 April 1890|url=http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let863/letter.html|work=Vincent van Gogh: The Letters|publisher=[[Van Gogh Museum]]|access-date=16 February 2012}}</ref><ref>Pomerans (2003), 483</ref> {{Quote|text=What can I tell you of these two last months, things aren't going well at all, I'm more sad and bored than I could tell you, and I no longer know what point I'm at ... While I was ill I nevertheless still did a few small canvases from memory which you'll see later, [[Houses at Auvers#.22Reminisces of the North.22|memories from the north]] [''souvenirs du nord''] ... so melancholy do I feel.}} It is in these drawings and paintings that Hulsker sees unmistakable signs of his mental collapse, otherwise rare in his work.<ref>Hulsker (1980), 442</ref>

It is not clear whether ''Sorrowing Old Man ('At Eternity's Gate')'' is one of the canvases referred to in his April letter. Hulsker remarks that it would have been remarkable for Van Gogh to have copied his lithograph so faithfully from memory. Nevertheless, the painting is clearly a return to the past, and both the 1970 ''catalogue raisonné'' and Hulsker cite the painting as ''fecit'' May 1890 at Saint-Rémy.

==From the 1880s==
<gallery widths="140px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Hubert von Herkomer 1871 - Sunday at the Chelsea Hospital (The Graphic).jpg|[[Hubert von Herkomer]] - ''[[Sunday at the Chelsea Hospital]]'' (1871), also known as ''[[The Last Muster]]''
File:Vincent van Gogh - Prayer Before the Meal F1002.jpg|''Prayer Before the Meal'', pencil, black chalk, ink, heightened with white, December 1882, [[Private collection]], Switzerland (F 1002, JH 281).<ref name= "Letter 294"/>
File:Vincent van Gogh - Peasant Sitting by the Fireplace (F863).jpg|''Peasant Sitting by the Fireplace ('Worn Out')'', (F863, JH34), watercolor, 1881, P. and N. de Boer Foundation, Amsterdam<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vggallery.com/watercolours/p_0863.htm|title=''Peasant Sitting by the Fireplace ('Worn Out')'' | author=Brooks, D |work=The Vincent van Gogh Gallery, endorsed by Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam | publisher=David Brooks (self-published) |access-date=19 February 2011}}</ref>
File:Vincent van Gogh - Worn Out (F997).jpg|''Worn Out'' (F997, JH267), pencil on watercolor paper, 1882, [[Van Gogh Museum]]<ref>[http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=5251&collection=619&lang=en ''Worn Out''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516092730/http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=5251&collection=619&lang=en |date=2013-05-16 }}, [[Van Gogh Museum]], retrieved 18 February 2012</ref>
File:Old Man with his Head in his Hands (At Eternity's Gate).jpg|''Old Man with his Head in his Hands ("At Eternity's Gate")'' (F1662, JH268), lithograph, 1882, various collections, including [[Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art]], whose version illustrated is annotated by the artist in ink at lower left: ''At Eternity's Gate''<ref>[http://www.vggallery.com/graphicworks/p_1662.htm ''Old Man with his Head in his Hands ("At Eternity's Gate")''], The Vincent Van Gogh Gallery, retrieved 18 February 2012.]</ref>
File:Sorrowful old man - Vincent Van Gogh.jpg|''Sorrowful old man'' (F998, JH269) pencil, black lithographic crayon, wash, white opaque watercolour, on watercolour paper, 1882, [[Kröller-Müller Museum]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Sorrowful old man |url=http://www.kmm.nl/object/KM%20124.396/Sorrowful-old-man |publisher=[[Kröller-Müller Museum]] |access-date=22 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111001170518/http://www.kmm.nl/object/KM%20124.396/Sorrowful-old-man |archive-date=1 October 2011 }}</ref>
File:Vincent van Gogh - Mourning WomanSeated on a Basket (F1060).jpg|''Mourning Woman Seated on a Basket'' (F1060, JH326), black lithographic crayon, grey wash, white and grey opaque watercolour, traces of squaring, on watercolour paper, 1883, [[Kröller-Müller Museum]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Mourning Woman Seated on a Basket |url=http://www.kmm.nl/object/KM%20123.495/Mourning-woman-seated-on-a-basket |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130222133503/http://www.kmm.nl/object/KM%20123.495/Mourning-woman-seated-on-a-basket |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 February 2013 |publisher=[[Kröller-Müller Museum]] |access-date=22 February 2011 }}</ref> 
File:Vincent van Gogh - Weeping Woman (F1069).jpg|''Weeping Woman'' (F1069, JH325), Black and white chalk, with brush and stumping, brush and black and grey wash, and traces of graphite, over a brush and brown ink underdrawing on ivory wove paper, 1883, [[Art Institute of Chicago]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Weeping Woman|url=http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/59774|publisher=[[Art Institute of Chicago]]|access-date=22 February 2011}}</ref> 
</gallery>
{{-}}

==See also==
* [[List of works by Vincent van Gogh]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
* Erickson, Kathleen Powers. ''At Eternity's Gate: The Spiritual Vision of Vincent Van Gogh''. [[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.]], 1998. {{ISBN|978-0-8028-3856-8}}
* [[Jacob Baart de la Faille|de la Faille, Jacob-Baart]]. ''The Works of Vincent Van Gogh: His Paintings and Drawings''. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1970. {{ISBN|978-1-55660-811-7}}
* Hulsker, Jan. ''The Complete Van Gogh''. Oxford: Phaidon, 1980. {{ISBN|0-7148-2028-8}}
* Naifeh, Steven; Smith, Gregory White. ''Van Gogh: The Life''. Profile Books, 2011. {{ISBN|978-1-84668-010-6}}
* Pomerans, Arnold. ''The Letters of Vincent van Gogh''. Penguin Classics, 2003. {{ISBN|978-0-14-044674-6}}

==External links==
{{YouTube|HRVcOVzWerA|Surprise Van Gogh Drawing Now on Display at Museum}}

{{Vincent van Gogh}}{{ACArt}}
[[Category:Paintings by Vincent van Gogh|At Eternity's Gate]]
[[Category:1890 paintings|At Eternity's Gate]]
[[Category:Collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum]]
[[Category:Oil on canvas paintings]]
[[Category:Psychological stress]]
[[Category:Portraits of men]]