Bargue’s Drawing Course

A course followed by Van Gogh. I was definitely intrigued. The Art Students League Library had a copy and I had quick look once before class. But there were no copies available at the usual stores and the ones that were were at exorbitant rates. I stumbled across the Dahesh museum store (while surfing :P) which had only a few left and managed to get my sister to pick it up for me. It was for my birthday this year. I had to wait till I met her in June but I didnt care. When she confirmed she’d picked it up I was thrilled.

I was waiting to do them perfectly and spent a month just thinking about them! Decided to make an attempt now instead of waiting for perfection from the get go. I could always repeat them later. Started late last month and have gone through almost 4 plates. I’ll keep adding the ones I complete to this post.

If you’d like to see someone who is doing the same course methodically and with interesting and articulate thoughts and posts, have a look at Learning to see. He’s even put up a review of the book and you can see the first five plates and his copies on the site. In fact bookmark the blog. You wont regret it, there’s lots to learn from his posts.

And I’ve just discovered while putting the links together from this post that I’m doing it all wrong!! I’m going to read that chapter carefully in the morning. I too had barely glanced at it as I was impatient to get started. A quality that got a mention in all my school reports as a quality to be curbed but it looks like after 40+ years its still very much there!

The museum store is out of stock but a reprint is planned and if you’re interested, you could send them an email at museumshop@daheshmuseum.org to be informed when it becomes available again.