No one asked the 19th century farmers how hard it was to harvest their crops on that day in 1888, but painting the scene apparently took an awful lot out of Vincent Van Gogh:
Amazingly, most of The Harvest was completed in a single day, requiring great effort and concentration under the noonday sun. Vincent wrote to his brother Theo that after returning from the fields “my brain is so tired”. He explained: “One’s mind is extremely stretched, like an actor on the stage in a difficult role—where you have to think of a thousand things at the same time.” In the evening “the only thing that comforts and distracts... is to stun oneself by taking a stiff drink or smoking very heavily”.
~ Martin Bailey, The Art Newspaper, The Harvest: painted in a single summer's day, here's why this is Van Gogh’s finest landscape
On Wednesday, the Duluth-Superior Camera Club is inviting folks to join them at the Rose Garden for the "golden hour," and to stop and smell -- and take pictures of -- the roses. The meet-up starts at 6:00pm.
Then Saturday morning at 10:00am, you can stop by another park (Leif Erickson, this time) and try your hand at a temporary art installation with the Exhibiting Artist Workshop: Measure the Earth with Tia Keobounpheng.
