Portrait
(Van Gogh, 1887)
He has staring (accusingly meditative)
introspective eyes
a bristly beard, a blue-
striped coat, & a gaily-cocked line-splodged
(green yellow & ochre - similar to his nose & ears) hat.
Under bright sun in a cornfield with
larks crows he wanders
backwards & forwards
excitedly over the canvas
BRILLIANTLY.
He's thus very rich.
[Vincent lives on crusts
on something from a bottle in a brothel
continually on rejections.]
Mostly he's angry or mad
but he sings & shouts . . .
Everyday he lollops off into the fields.
Very quickly he paints for himself a new sky:
he walks instantly on a never-before-seen earth:
& immediately inhabits -- startled –
an astonishing heaven!
Note
Ochre perhaps is not entirely right for his hat, & gaily cocked is an exaggeration, but his nose is strikingly in tune with his eyes & there's a twirl in his ear correctly balancing the beard & hat.
This mixed-up carefully sculptured person obviously was frequently angry & mad; but surely not so the other one, the artist, out in the fields happily astonished, singing & shouting?