by Michael Winters
The Vision after the Sermon (Jacob and the Angel) by Paul Gaugin (1888)
Art, faith and wrestling share a lot in common. After painting The Vision after the Sermon (Jacob and the Angel) in 1888, Paul Gaugin wrote a letter to Vincent van Gogh:
“…I have just painted a religious picture, very clumsily; but it interested me and I like it. I wanted to give it to the church of Pont-Aven. Naturally they don’t want it. A group of Breton women are praying, their costumes a very intense black. The bonnets a very luminous yellowy-white….. An apple tree cuts across the canvas, dark purple with its foliage drawn in masses like emerald green clouds with greenish yellow chinks of sunlight. The ground (pure vermilion). In the church it darkens and becomes a browny red. The angel is dressed in violent ultramarine blue and Jacob in bottle green. The angel’s wings pure chrome yellow. The angel’s hair chrome and the feet flesh orange…”
In this letter, you can hear Gaugin’s love of painting. Of course, in his day and age he couldn’t send easily send a pic to his friend, so he describes the painting in words. As he vividly names the colors and shapes, you can sense the joy he takes in the unique qualities of each.
You can also hear Gaugin wrestling with his own abilities. Though he admits liking the painting, he says he painted it “very clumsily.” He wrestles not only with his skill but also with the problem of others’ reception of the work. He offered the painting to the church of Pont-Aven, but he writes (cynically?), “Naturally they don’t want it.”
Along the creative journey we must wrestle with our abilities and with offering our work to the public. Our Christian friends might not even value our work. The gallery, or record producer, or publisher we wish wanted our work may not want it.
We can find ourselves like Jacob in Gaugin’s painting and in Genesis 32, on a wilderness journey trying to find our place, wrestling with everything. Maybe, like Jacob, without even knowing it, we’ve been wrestling with God.
Thanks to My Daily Art Display for pointing to the story of Gaugin’s painting. This post originally existed as a newsletter sent to Arts Feedback Group participants. You can learn more about Arts Feedback here.