The Church at Auvers-sur-Oise, 1890
Van Gogh’s final two months were spent in the quiet village of Auvers-sur-Oise. Perhaps sensing his time would be short, the artist produced seventy paintings in a tremendous burst of activity. These late works, which include this depiction of the local 13th-century church, are some of his most fearless and expressive. The quietude one expects from a church is nowhere to be found here. Stretching to reach the top of the canvas, the Gothic forms not only ascend, but unfold outward in distorted accordion-like pleats, challenging our ideas of structure with an impossibly sinuous monumentality. Pushing against a dense cobalt sky, the building’s stone façade, windows, and rooflines pulsate and interact with uncontainable color and energy. Van Gogh may have been recalling the northern churches and landscapes of his youth, but in this encounter, he must surely have been confronting his own struggles with religious faith and the uncertainty of his future.
Based upon the expressive character of Church at Auvers-sur-Oise, some viewers have attributed anthropomorphic qualities to it, believing that the upper windows represent eyes. You be the judge. But it’s no wonder, given the painting’s fantastical appearance and context at the end of the painter’s life, that writers for the British sci-fi TV series Doctor Who would feature it in a storyline. And, while the fan-favorite 2010 episode “Vincent and the Doctor” clearly takes creative license – it is a series about a space-traveling Time Lord, after all – the show manages to weave together several true-ish threads about Van Gogh’s art and life into a narrative arc that is both suspenseful and extremely poignant.