WHO WAS VINCENT VAN GOGH?
Vincent Van Gogh was born 30. March 1853, in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands, and became one of the worlds most famous and influential in western art. Vincent was a post-impressionist painter, and he created about 2100 artworks and 860 oil paintings. His paintings are characterised by bold colours and impulsive, dramatic and expressive brushwork and contributed to the foundations of modern art.
How did Vincent grow up?
He was born in an upper-middle-class. Vincent as a child was quiet, thoughtful and severe, but he also liked to draw. His mother encouraged him to draw from an early age. When he started school, he felt abandoned and wanted to come home. Instead, he got sent to another school, something that made him began to become deeply unhappy.
At age 15, Vincent's family was struggling financially. He quit school and went to work at his uncle Cornelis' art dealership Goupil & Cie., as an art dealer. He got transferred to London and got work in a Gallery, and at this time in life, he was visiting a lot of galleries during his spare time. Vincent had a good time; he also felt in love with his landlady's daughter. He proposed to his girlfriend, but she rejected him, and it made Vincent heartbroken. This rejection made him throw all his books, except the bible and made him devoted his life to God. He became outraged and said to the customers to buy "worthless art", that made him fired. Vincent became very depressed and started to have hard times with his mental health.
In 1880 Vincent moved to Brussel and became an artist. His art helped him to stay emotionally balanced, and in 1885 he began work on, what is considered, as his first masterpiece, "Potato Eaters".
The year 1881 was a turn in his life. He had started to paint again; at the same time, he also moved back to his parents. His painting did not give him much or any money, so his brother Theo supported him financially. The brothers exchanged letters from 1872 until 1890, where most of Vincent's thoughts and theories about art has been captured.
Vincent develops his paintings:
In 1886 he moved to Paris, and his painting also started to develop at this time. Vincent met members of the avant-garde who were reacting against the impressionist sensibility. Vincent created a new method for still life and local landscapes. His colours became brighter, and his unique painting style became fully realised during his stay in France in 1888. This period he painted olive trees, wheat fields and sunflowers.
Vincent's early painting work was mostly still lifes and depictions. He was inspired by colour and light, and he studied with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Camille Pissarro and others.
What happened with Vincent's health?
As said, Vincent struggled with his health, and his mental stability became worse. He had a few psychotic episodes and delusions. His mental health also had an impact on his physical health as he did not eat and drink properly. A friendship with his friend Gauguin ended, after Vincent after a confrontation with a razor, in anger, cut off his left ear himself. After this episode, he spent a lot of time in psychiatric hospitals. He still had hard times, and his depression continued.
Was Vincent a successful artist?
Today his paintings are very famous and one of the most prominent artist. During his lifetime he was unsuccessful, and actually, he was considered a madman and a failure.
27. July 1890 Vincent shot himself in the chest with a Lefaucheux revolver and died two days later of the injuries. After his suicide people looked at him as a misunderstood genius, the artist "where discourses on madness and creativity converge".
Early 20th century his reputation began to grow, as elements in his painting style came to be incorporated by the Fauves and German Expressionists. Vincent became remembered as an important but tragic painter, with a personality of a romantic ideal of the tortured artist.
In Amsterdam, the Van Gogh Museum has the world's most extensive collection of his paintings and drawings. His paintings are one of the worlds most expensive that have ever been sold.
Vincent Van Gogh's most famous paintings:
"Sunflowers"
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In Arles, France, Vincent painted two series of sunflowers; four between August and September 1881, and one in January 1889. Yellow sunflowers in a vase, a still life painting, made on canvas with oil paintings.
"Irises"
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In 1889 Vincent began painting Irises, from the plants and flowers he found in the asylum's garden.
"Self-Portrait"
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Over ten years, Vincent created more than 43 self-portraits, both drawings and paintings. He said, "I am looking for a deeper likeness than that obtained by a photographer". The painting is oil on canvas painted in September 1889.
"The Bedroom"
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A painting of his bedroom in the yellow house. He prepared the room himself with simple furniture and with his work on the wall. The bright colours were meant to express absolute "repose" or "sleep".
"Starry Night"
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It was painted in June 1889 and describes the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rèmy-de-Provence just before sunrise, with the addition of a real village.
"Terrace at Night"
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Painted in September 1888 with oil painting on canvas. Also known as The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, and, when first exhibited in 1891, was entitled Coffeehouse, in the evening (Café, le soir).
"Potato Eaters"
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Vincent said; "What I think about my own work is that the painting of the peasants eating potatoes that I did in Nuenen is after all the best thing I did". He wanted to create a painting to show peasants as they really were. He deliberately chose coarse and ugly models, thinking that they would be natural and unspoiled in his finished work.
"The Night Cafe"
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He tried to express the idea that the cafè is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad or commit a crime. Expression of the power of darkness in a low public house, by soft Louis XV green and malachite, contrasts with yellow-green and harsh blue-greens. All of this in an atmosphere like a devil's furnace.
"Self-Portrait without Beard"
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In September 1889 Vincent painted, probably his last, self-portrait without a beard. It is oil on canvas painting. When he created this artwork, it was at the time in his life when he had been going through personal difficulties, due to a cruel situation with his close friend Gauguin, when Vincent cut off his ear himself.