There's a reason I saved Vincent Van Gogh for my final post on artists featured in Harlequin's Shadow. Unlike the others, he was not mentioned in canon. Instead, all the Easter eggs refer to previous Caffrey Conversation stories.
Warning for spoilers to Harlequin's Shadow
For Van Gogh, most of the eggs have designs of a night sky and stars. The painting Starry Night is itself an Easter egg for Peter's interest in astronomy. In The Queen's Jewels, Peter and El take Neal to Albany to spend Thanksgiving with Peter's parents. There Neal discovers to his great delight that when Peter was a boy, he made a paint-by-numbers version of Starry Night. It's still displayed on the wall of the basement rec room.
Van Gogh next pops up in Cinereous Skies when Arkham Neal muses about "Vincent," a popular song of the era by Don McLean. The lyrics begin with "Starry, starry, night" and end on a somber note with reflections on Vincent Van Gogh's death. Neal compares the song with his own precarious situation.
In Harlequin's Shadow when Neal's on the sailboat off Cape May, he thinks back on the scene and wonders if Henry planted it to inspire him to dance with Sara under a starry sky. Is Neal also concerned about the more ominous message? Was Diana unwittingly foreshadowing a darker period not only for his character but for him too?
Late in the story, what was speculation turns into legitimate fear. Astrena enters Neal's mind, toying with him as she has with so many artists before. The painting that she makes Neal dream about is based on Wheatfield with Crows, one of the last works Van Gogh painted before committing suicide. That can't be a good omen.
Related posts:
Harlequin's Shadow on Archive of Our Own
Harlequin's Shadow on FanFiction
Grreat post.
ReplyDeleteLike the connection to the Pinterest board. Good collection of images.
ReplyDeleteThanks! For this story, having a site to display images has worked out especially well.
ReplyDelete