An object lesson in egoic behavior comes by way of a recently authenticated Van Gogh original.
Museum de Fundatie, a small museum in a small Dutch town 70 miles east of Amsterdam called Zwolle began showing what is now known to be Van Gogh's "Le Blute-Fin Mill" yesterday (pictured). It will remain on display through July 4th.
The painting and its former owner will remain forever linked by a checkered past.
"Le Blute-Fin Mill" was previously owned by an art collector and curator named Dirk Hannema, who bought it in 1975 from an unsuspecting Paris art dealer for the equivalent of $2,700. Hannema later insured the painting for around $43,000.
Upon his death in 1984, the entirety of Hannema's collection became the nucleus for the Museum de Fundatie.
Hennema's claim of Van Gogh authorship went unsubstantiated for so long because of his poor standing in the art world.
His career showed great promise early on. At the age of 26, he was director of Rotterdam's famed Boijmans Museum. In 1937, however, his reputation suffered decline when he purchased a Vermeer that was later confirmed to be a forgery.
During World War II, the Nazis saw fit to put Hennema in charge of all the museums in Holland. After the war, he was arrested as a collaborator and stood trial, but was not convicted.
Hennema was known as one who was always trying to hit a home run, always looking for that undetected gem from one of the great masters.
Spiritual Teacher Eckhart Tolle says this approach is of the ego. He writes:
Greatness is a mental abstraction and a favorite fantasy of the ego. The paradox is that the foundation for greatness is honoring the small things of the present moment instead of pursuing the idea of greatness. (A New Earth, p. 266)
In general terms, when we set our sights on greatness, we miss the little things that need to be done--and done with quality--to achieve greatness. Or to stick with our metaphor, when we have our sights set on the outfield, we miss the ball altogether.
In Hennema's case, experts have finally confirmed, he connected on one ball that actually cleared the fence.
Not only is the painting he discovered languishing in an art dealers shop original, but according to Louis van Tilborgh, curator of research at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum, "Le Blute-Fin Mill" is an unusual addition to the artist's opus due to the comparatively large size of the human figures in the scene.
Unfortunately for Hennema, it took 26 years after his death to regain some of the reputation his pursuit of greatness cost him.
This is a poignant story...Dirk Hennema was desperately seeking for glory and it eluded him, when in fact all the while he was in possession of an unrecognized treasure. Eckhart opens his Power of Now with the parable of the man who is a beggar, holding out his baseball cap and asking for change, when all the while he sits on a box full of gold without realizing it. We feel poor and look for hand-outs in the form of worldly fame and external validation, while we possess the infinite wealth of being without realizing it. I like the quote that you post from New Earth about greatness and I think I will go read that entire section. Thanks for an insightful posting Todd.
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