File talk:Vincent van Gogh - Old Man in Sorrow (On the Threshold of Eternity).jpg

Removed Category "Sorrow in art"

I have removed this category because the image is not a depiction of sorrow, but on the contrary of mortal frailty and the divine as van Gogh expressly stated in his letters. See the Wikipeida article At Eternity's Gate. The title "Sorrowing Old Man" is an unfortunate one bestowed on it by the Kröller-Müller Museum when the painting passed into its hands ex heirs of the Bremner collection in 1970, probably because they already had a drawing of a woman burying her face in her hands that they had named Mourning Woman Seated on a Basket. In the two acknowledged catalogue raisonnés it is listed respectively as Worn Out: At Eternity's Gate and Old Man with His Head in his Hands.

It is extremely unfortunate that this painting has become iconic in Wikipedia, and thus throughout the internet, as a depiction of mental anguish. There seems to be no remedy likely in the avaiable future. I hope, at least, that this entirely misconceived, and I suspect mischievous, fiction need not be repeated here.

Thank you. RobvanderWaal (talk) 11:28, 9 April 2012 (UTC)