Sunflowers, cornfields, earlobe carpaccio: this much we all know about Vincent van Gogh. Did you know, though, that the artist spent the years 1873 to 1875 in London working for a Covent Garden art dealer, during which time he lodged for a few fateful months at 87 Hackford Road, SW9?
In 2012 the sale of this knackered, three-storey house made the news when businessman and art lover James Wang paid £565,000 for it. A Van Gogh fan, Wang was quick to note that his investment was cheaper than a painting by the artist (which, using an estate agent's logic, tells us that property prices in the area still have some way to go). Two years later, London-based artist Saskia Olde Wolbers is about to unveil a new work in the space.
Commissioned by the country's most adventurous art producers, Artangel, it will lead visitors around the crumbling building before its renovation. 'It was exciting to be given the keys,' says Olde Wolbers, 'but there's a real responsibility of working with such a famous character as Van Gogh, especially as I've fictionalised his time in London.'
Titled 'Yes, These Eyes Are the Windows', the sound piece is inspired in part by Van Gogh's time in the house, a period during which his life's pattern of unwelcome romantic advance followed by destructive selfadmonishment was established. It was here that the 19-year-old Vincent became smitten with his landlady's daughter, Eugénie Loyer, who was already engaged to someone else. He left the house, under a cloud, in 1874.
Olde Wolbers, who came to prominence when she scooped the 2004 Becks Futures prize, is known for installations that morph fact and fiction together with sci-fi-inflected visuals. For this project she's concentrated on sound alone, because 'the house is itself like a set,' but her story is typically entangled.
Relayed as a series of correspondences via speakers concealed in the interior, it begins in the 1970s when, thanks to the detective work of a local postman, the house was linked to Van Gogh and saved from demolition. It then leads you back to a fictional letter written by Van Gogh's landlady to his employer. 'It's sort of an eviction letter for Van Gogh,' Olde Wolbers explains.
‘It's sort of an eviction letter for Van Gogh’
A Dutch artist working in London, Olde Wolbers is quick to dispel any further similarities between herself and her subject. But she admits that, subconsciously, Van Gogh's London home probably called out to her as she cycled past on her way to the studio every day. 'I grew up very near to where Van Gogh is from and while I was never that interested in him when I was younger, the more you start to research him the more you realise he's an incredibly multifaceted character, not just this self-taught madman who cut off his ear. That's kind of what the story is about as well, this mythologising of Van Gogh. He's got an incredible pull on people. Every day when I'm at the house working, there's always somebody outside being photographed in front of the plaque.'
Naturally, a great part of the work's appeal will be that you get to snoop round
the home of one of art history's giants. Some will be disappointed that the decor is more 1960s than 1860s, but there are many authentic Victorian fixtures that Van Gogh would have known - even an outside loo. 'It's not a historical reconstruction of any kind,' Olde Wolbers says. 'It's a story. One in which the house speaks for itself.'
