"Vincent Van Gogh." Bird's Nest ", Nuenen, 1885. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Van Gogh's studio has accumulated many things: tools, plants, pieces of moss, hats and caps, stuffed birds. His sister, Lys, describes what the room looked like: “In one of the corners was a tree that was found dead, apparently in a thunderstorm, and completely dry. Its branches were pruned and put in a bath with the ground; in the crown of this tree was a whole collection of all sorts of nests, which appeared there as a result of wanderings around the world, which the artist collected and preserved. Even the children from Nuenen could earn ten cents from Van Gogh for each nest they received.

Parts of this collection of thirty different bird nests appeared on five canvases.

My collection so far consists of a single nest that I found on a balcony, built by unknown people in a bunch of branches brought from Karelia. Therefore, the other three nests had to be invented from fur leggings and tights ...

photo Katerina Consulova

#isolation "