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SP6 S A T U R D A Y P O S T NATIONAL POST, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2004

WHEAT FIELD WITH CROWS, BY VINCENT VAN GOGH, AFP/GETTY IMAGES; BELOW, SELF PORTRAIT, COURTESY INSTITUT VAN GOGH. Will Vincent get his wish? about Auberge Ravoux.” The fol- Vincent Van Gogh said that someday he’d me a knowing look, then taps light- shoot up impishly — “I would B Y S H E I L A G H M C E V E N U E lowing year, he heard it was up for ly on my shoulder: “Don’t go away, like to talk to him. In Auvers-sur-Oise, France sale. Several prospective pur- like to have a show in a café. Now, the I have more I want to tell you .” “You see, my idea is simple. We chasers (including Pierre Cardin) While he heads for the man’s take our painting on a tour of the As dreams go, it certainly was a were said to be interested. But the proprietor of the café where he spent his table, I take the opportunity to world. I will have my people build simple one. Yet, it would prove owner was impressed by Janssens’s polish off the remains of Auberge an exact replica of Vincent’s room tragically elusive to Vincent Van passion to preserve the soul of the final days says he’d like to give him one. Ravoux’s delicious gigot d’ag- — you know, like a stage set that Gogh. But now, the Belgian own- café and the deal was signed. neau, which I have been happily can be knocked down and moved er of a small café in France has Then began a long and intense savouring. A few minutes later from town to town. Then we will made it his mission to make Vin- period of research that saw the Janssens plops himself back hang the real Van Gogh painting cent’s modest wish come true. café carefully restored to the way down at my table, but not before there, just as it will be when we Dominique-Charles Janssens, a it had been 100 years earlier. he’s worked the room a bit. will have it here. friendly man with salt-and-pep- Properties adjacent to the site had “Do you know where it is that “Then, my idea is to ask le plus per stubble on his chin, leans to- to be purchased to prevent their you are sitting?” he asks brightly. bel hôtel du monde” — here the wards me conspiratorially: “Peo- falling into the hands of fast-food I give him a quizzical look. arms stretch wide — “to help le ple tell me I’m crazy,” he says, and souvenir vendors. After an in- “I am saying here. Oui, oui, right plus petit hôtel du monde” — here “but, you see, I have a plan.” vestment that would eventually here.” He slaps the table with the thumb and forefinger pinch to- I’m on a sketching holiday in Au- total US$15-million (contributed palm of his hand. “It is here that gether. “And we can say we are the vers-sur-Oise, a little town just 30 by Janssens, his family and a fam- Vincent’s body was lying before smallest because” — big shrug — km north of Paris, which is how I ily friend ), the Auberge Ravoux they buried him. And Theo and “we have only one room, and that come to be having lunch and chat- reopened in 1993. Since then, art Vincent’s friends put the paint- is the room of Vincent. So you see, ting with Janssens at his café, the lovers from around the world ings all around him” —he makes a I would prefer Four Seasons hotel charming Auberge Ravoux. have come to Auvers to see Vin- sweeping gesture — “comme ça.” because it really is le plus bel. Like many plans, Janssens’s in- cent’s room (because of the sui- Really? Non? And they are in all the big volves a global strategy, the Inter- cide, it was never rented out again “Mais, bien sûr,” Janssens assures cities of the world. Do you see?” net and a team of shareholders. — one can still see the nail holes in me. “Now, what was I telling you? I do see. There’s even a potential role for a the walls where he hung his paint- Ah yes, the shares. So, this is how it Now Janssens is in full flight, certain Canadian hotelier. ings) and to dine on simple Even today, Auvers is very much a “The fields of Auvers.” works: You will invest, say, $75. “For example, we bring the Van It’s a story that begins in 1985, the French fare in the intimacy of the Van Gogh landscape, so little has Of course, there remains the Then you will be given a key. And Gogh to Four Seasons in Toronto day Janssens, then marketing di- café where he once ate. changed. To walk through Auvers small problem of raising the this is the key to Vincent’s room. — perhaps for a week, maybe rector of a French multinational Now Jannsens is ready to is to walk through the paintings — US$38.7-million dollars it will But here it gets to be fun. You see, it more. The hotel makes for us a food conglomerate, had a serious mount the little show that Van Church at Auvers, Town Hall, cost to purchase the painting. But will be an Internet key, and because gala evening, and lots of people car accident while passing through Gogh always wanted. Houses at Auvers, Daubigny’s Gar- Janssens is optimistic. you will be shareholder, you will come to see the Van Gogh and Auvers-sur-Oise. He was intrigued There is a popular misconception den to name just a few. Up the hill Removing his tweed jacket, he have the exclusive right to see your buy shares in the painting. After to learn that his accident had oc- that Van Gogh died in the south of is the cemetery where Vincent is lays out his strategy: “I’ve been painting hanging in Vincent’s room the gala, the public will want to curred a few metres from the little France, at Arles. In many ways this buried in a simple ivy-covered negotiating with some very large anytime you want. You can show it see the Van Gogh, too, so they will inn where Van Gogh had died. So, has been lucky for Auvers, for it has grave. (Theo, who died six months companies — you know, airline to your friends, if you like. They will come there and buy some shares. while convalescing, he passed the protected the town from excessive later, lies next to him.) There’s a companies, Internet companies, see it on the Web cam in — com- “Then we move to another Four time reading the letters Vincent commercialization and the hordes stone wall behind Vincent’s head- credit-card companies, that sort ment dit-on? — real time. Now, if Seasons in another big city — New had written to his beloved brother, of tourists who overwhelm stone and just beyond the wall lies of thing. My idea is to make it a you give a lot, say, $750,000, then York, San Francisco, Tokyo.” He Theo, who had been the artist’s sole Provence. Still, with some the site of his ominous Wheat Field joint venture between France and OK, you will have your name en- takes a breath. “Do you see how emotional and financial support. 400,000 visitors each year — with Crows. The fields are still the Netherlands.” graved on a plaque on the door out- perfect it would be? Not just for One letter in particular touched Janssens insists they are “pilgrims, there —and so are the crows. Now comes the surprise. “The side Vincent’s room.” us, of course, but for the grand hô- Janssens. Vincent had written, not tourists” — Auvers does enjoy But, of course, to see the paint- plan is to sell shares in the paint- But how will he publicize his tel, too. Imagine how great is pub- “Someday I believe I will find a way its share of renown. ings themselves, you have to go to ing,” he says, with a hint of mis- plan, I ask. licité for Four Seasons to have Van to have a show of my own in a café.” Van Gogh’s painting career was Paris or Amsterdam. And that is chief. “Donor shares, that is.” “That’s the other part of the Gogh there! Do you see it? Grand Vincent never got his show. On surprisingly short, just 10 years. why Janssens is determined to And who would he sell them to? strategy. You are from Canada, hotel is helping little hotel, and to- July 27, 1890, a few weeks after the but the frenzy of creativity pro- buy a Van Gogh for Auvers, and “Oh, just normal people. People non? Toronto, non? But that man gether they are making Vincent fi- letter was sent, he shot himself in duced some 2,000 works of art. At hang it in the café, or rather, in like you.” lives in Toronto — n’est-ce pas? — nally to have his show at the café.” the chest in a field on the edge of Auvers — where he had moved to Vincent’s room upstairs. The lunch crowd is finishing up the one who has Four Seasons ho- Leaning back in his chair, town, then staggered back to the to be close to Theo, who lived in “There is a very beautiful paint- the remains of their meals and tel. I am right, non?” Janssens closes his eyes, imagin- tiny garret he’d leased above the Paris — he completed 70 paintings ing — a small one,” Janssens says, Janssens hops up from the table, You must mean Isadore Sharp, I ing it all. “Oh, yes,” he says quietly. café at the Auberge Ravoux. Two and drawings in 70 days: scenes of as he pours a little more wine. “Would you excuse me, please, just venture. “I think it is perfect.” days later, aged 37, he died. village life, gardens, thatched cot- “It’s in a private collection, lying for a moment. I want to have a “Oui, oui. Do you know him?” T For more information contact “I was so moved by these letters — tages and wheat fields, and por- in a vault somewhere in Zurich. It word with that man over there by Well, no, not personally. Do [email protected] the humanity of this man,” says traits of the locals, including his could be available.” the window. Un journaliste, je you? Saturday Post Janssens, “so I make inquiries friend Dr. Gachet. The subject? crois, from Tokyo.” Janssens gives “Mais, non...but,” — eyebrows [email protected] It was a frenzy of creativity: At Auvers-sur-Oise, in the 70 days before he died, Van Gogh produced 70 paintings and drawings

LEFT, COURTESY OF INSTITUT VAN GOGH; RIGHT, PHOTOGRAPH BY CAECILIA DI MONTIGLIARI. Auberge owner Arthur Ravoux (far left) in 1890. His daughter, Adeline, 13, whom Van Gogh painted, is in the doorway. Today, Auberge Ravoux is owned by Dominique-Charles Janssens, who carries on the tradition.

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