(AFP) – Sep 4, 2008

VIENNA (AFP) — An exhibition that opens Thursday at Vienna's Albertina Museum sheds new light on the influence the drawings by Vincent van Gogh had on his unique style of painting.

"It's the first time that Van Gogh drawings and paintings are exhibited together like this," said Albertina curator Klaus Albrecht Schroeder.

He brought together some 160 works for the show, which is the first in Austria dedicated to the Dutch artist in 50 years.

A late bloomer, Van Gogh took interest in art in 1880 at the age of 27 and initially planned to work as an illustrator and sketch artist before he turned to painting three years later.

Dark and melancholic before his contact with the Impressionist crowd in Paris in 1885 added a little colour to his works, Van Gogh's drawings soon revealed "an artistic maturity that his paintings would only gain in the last four years of his life," Schroeder told AFP.

It was during these few productive years -- which included anxiety attacks and stays in France in Arles, at the psychiatric centre in Saint-Remy-de-Provence and in Auvers-sur-Oise where he would commit suicide in July 1890 -- that Van Gogh produced most of his works and revolutionised the history of painting.

But more than his liberal use of colour, it was his graphic style, strongly inspired by Japanese prints and drawings, that set the stage for 20th century art, from decorative art to expressionism, according to Schroeder.

"Van Gogh painted with a brush, as he would with pen and ink: the use of graphic structures inspired by sketching gave him a foundation that allowed him to go beyond impressionism," he said.

"His drawings were never studies, nor details: they formed a separate body of work -- even if it was indistinguishable from his paintings -- and were always ahead in terms of pushing the envelope."

The Albertina has drawn from some 60 collections around the world, including the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, to set up this new show. It includes about a hundred drawings and sketches and over 50 paintings.

The influence of graphic art on the Dutch master's style is especially evident in his "Portrait of Joseph Roulin", which he painted in Arles in 1888, and in the landscapes he painted during his time in Auvers-sur-Oise.

"The draughtsman (in Van Gogh) was long eclipsed by the painter," said Schroeder, noting that until now the two components of his work had been always exhibited separately.

"We wanted to emphasise an aspect that has been overshadowed but that is absolutely fundamental to Van Gogh's work."

"Van Gogh - Heartfelt Lines" was insured for three billion euros (4.35 billion dollars), a record for Europe in recent years.

Some 400,000 visitors are expected to see the exhibition, which runs from September 5 to December 8.

The Albertina exhibit will also run in parallel with another one at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) entitled "Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night", from September 21 to January 5, 2009.

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