The Van Gogh Pietà Painting in Elementary Series Episode The Leviathan

Summary: The Van Gogh Pietà painting is found under a $40 lithograph and returned by Sherlock Holmes in Elementary series episode The Leviathan Dec. 13, 2012.

Pietà (left) by 19th century Dutch post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh (March 30, 1853-July 29, 1890), first (1889) of two (1890) inspired by 19th century French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix's (April 26, 1798-Aug. 13, 1863) 1850 Pietà (right):
van Gogh Pietà: The Yorck Project, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Delacroix Pietà: Art Gallery ErgsArt - by ErgSap (Art Gallery ErgsArt), Public Domain, via Flickr

The Van Gogh Pietà painting assists the plot in The Leviathan Dec. 13, 2012, as stolen artwork in episode 10 of the first season in the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) series Elementary.

Episode writers Corinne Brinkerhoff, Robert Doherty and Craig Sweeny brutally bring the basically blue-, green-, pink-, white-, yellow-brushed oil on canvas from museum into private collections. They consider Vincent van Gogh's (March 30, 1853-July 29, 1890) colorful composition a cherished component of the fictitious Aster Museum of Modern Art in New York. They deliver the dramatic depiction to New York-domiciled businessman Peter Kent who, as Le Chevalier (The Cavalier) during dark-hearted days, dabbled in dark-driven, daunting, devious derring-do.

Perhaps director Peter Werner enlists the Van Gogh Pietà painting to express elliptically another Mary's (Freda Foh Shen) empathy for her child, Joan Watson (Lucy Liu).

Van Gogh Museum visitors in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Vatican Museums visitors in Vatican City, Italy, find respective 1889 and 1890 versions of Pietà (After Delacroix).

Both versions get as venues the Saint-Paul Asylum (Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, "Saint Paul of [the] Mausoleum [Monastery]") in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Arles arrondissement, Bouches-du-Rhône department, Provence-Alpes-Côtes d'Azur region, southern France. The Van Gogh Museum has the 1889 version held by Vincent's brother, Theodorus van Gogh (May 1, 1857-Jan. 25, 1891), contemporary Dutch and French art dealer. Vatican Museums room 2 includes the 1890 version for Vincent's sister, Wilhelmina Jacoba van Gogh (March 16, 1862-May 17, 1941), National Exhibition of Women's Work organizer.

Online catalogues judge the Van Gogh Pietà painting duo as 73- by 60.5-centimeter (28.74- by 23.82-inch) and 47.5- by 34-centimeter (18.7- by 13.38-inch) oils from 1889-1890.

Size keeps the 1889 version likelier as The Leviathan's Van Gogh Pietà despite the New York diocese's donating the 1890 version to Vatican Museums in 1973.

Both versions lead viewers into blue-, gray-, green-, yellow-layered skies behind grassy blue-green and rocky red-brown grounds around and beneath a blue-cloaked, dressed and hooded Mary. The Van Gogh Pietà painting mingles blue, green and yellow for Christ's sheet and blue, green, pink and yellow for Christ's bared abdomen, arms and chest. Some viewers note resemblances between the red-bearded, red-headed Christ and Vincent whereas others notice similarities to Eugène Delacroix's (April 26, 1798-Aug. 13, 1863) original, smaller-headed model.

Both Van Gogh Pietà painting versions originate among the copies that Vincent offered himself of favorite works by favorite artists during his last years in France.

Vincent's copies pinpointed Émile Bernard, Virginie Breton, Honoré Daumier, Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Doré, Keisai Eisen, Utagawa Hiroshige, Jacob Jordaens, Jean-François Millet and Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn.

One painting by Delacroix and one sketch by Rembrandt (July 15, 1606-Oct. 4, 1669) queue up as inspirations and models for Vincent's two most religious paintings. The Van Gogh Pietà painting reveals a mirror image of a black-and-white lithograph of a 35- by 27-centimeter (13.78- by 10.63-inch) oil on canvas from 1850. Delacroix's rough brushstrokes show a blue-dressed, red-cloaked, tan-hooded Mary behind a white-sheeted Christ's left shoulder against black-blue, gray-white skies above a brown, gray-green, rocky, somber landscape.

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) turns over the Van Gogh Pietà painting after tackling Leviathan code-related transcripts "in the company of a masterpiece" of motherly love.

In CBS Elementary's "Leviathan" (season 1 episode 10), Captain Gregson (Aidan Quinn) oversees recovered jewelry while Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) quietly keeps recovered Vincent van Gogh Pietà in tube under his left arm, planning for its return to fictitious Aster Museum later rather than sooner: Elementary @ElementaryCBS, via Facebook Dec. 21, 2012

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Vincent van Gogh's Pietà (left), first (1889) of two (1890) inspired by 19th century French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix's 1850 Pietà (right):
van Gogh Pietà: The Yorck Project, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_Willem_van_Gogh_083.jpg
Delacroix Pietà: Art Gallery ErgsArt - by ErgSap (Art Gallery ErgsArt), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/ergsart/22294463636/

In CBS Elementary's "Leviathan" (season 1 episode 10), Captain Gregson (Aidan Quinn) oversees recovered jewelry while Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) quietly keeps recovered Vincent van Gogh Pietà in tube under his left arm, planning for its return to fictitious Aster Museum later than than sooner: Elementary @ElementaryCBS, via Facebook Dec. 21, 2012, @ https://www.facebook.com/ElementaryCBS/photos/a.151627898295663.14686.151013691690417/205135642944888

For further information:

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London England: George Newnes Ltd., 1892.
Available via Project Gutenberg @ http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1661/1661-h/1661-h.htm

Elementary: The First Season. Los Angeles CA: Paramount Pictures Corporation, Dec. 13, 2012.

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 December 2012. “Edward Hopper Painting Western Motel in Elementary Series' Leviathan.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/12/edward-hopper-painting-western-motel-in.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 29 September 2012. "Are Lesser Clovers Sherlock's Lucky Shamrocks on Elementary's Pilot?" Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/09/are-lesser-clovers-sherlocks-lucky.html

"Pietà." Nasjonalmuseet > Collection > Explore Collection > Artists, Architects and Designers > D > Delacroix, Eugène.
Available @ http://samling.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/object/NG.M.01179

"Pietà (After Delacroix)." Van Gogh Museum > English > Meet Vincent > Explore the Collection > Vincent van Gogh.
Available @ https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0168V1962

"Vincent van Gogh, Pietà." Musei Vaticani > Collections > Museums > Collection of Contemporary Art > Room 2 Van Gogh Gauguin Medardo Rosso.
Available @ http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/collezione-d_arte-contemporanea/sala-2--van-gogh--gauguin--medardo-rosso/vincent-van-gogh--pieta.html