Vincent van Gogh

Carlos JimenezOctober 4, 2003

Van Gogh

Van Gogh «van GOH or van GAWKH», Vincent (1853-1890), was a Dutch painter. He is one of the most famous painters in modern art. But during his lifetime, he received little recognition and sold only one painting.

Van Gogh

Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in Groot-Zundert, near Breda, the Netherlands. When he was 16, he went to The Hague to work for his uncle, an art dealer. Vincent's brother Theo, to whom he was devoted, stayed in the family art business and eventually became Vincent’s dealer.

Van Gogh

His father was a Protestant pastor, and van Gogh first trained for the ministry, but he abandoned his studies in 1878 and went to work as a lay preacher among the impoverished miners of the grim Borinage district in Belgium.

He remained in the Borinage, suffering acute poverty and a spiritual crisis, until 1880, when he found that art was his vocation and the means by which he could bring consolation to humanity.

Early Works

In 1880, van Gogh turned to painting as a profession. His early works were still lifes and scenes of peasant life done in dark colors.

Although he often suffered from extreme poverty and undernourishment, his output in the ten remaining years of his life was prodigious: about 800 paintings and a similar number of drawings.

The Potato Eaters

Nuenen, April or Sept.- Oct., 1885

Oil on canvas, 32 ¼ x 45 inches

The Weaver

1884

Pen and Pencil Heightened with White on Thin Wove Paper

11 x 16 inches

Japonaiserie: Flowering Plum Tree

Paris: Sept. – Oct., 1887 Oil on canvas, 55 x 46 cm

Experimenting

Van Gogh was largely self-taught as an artist, although he received help from his cousin, Mauve.

In 1886, van Gogh went to Paris. He became part of the intellectual excitement of the Paris art scene through contact with such French painters as Camille Pissarro, Emile Bernard, Paul Gauguin, and Georges Seurat. He experimented with Impressionism and other modern art styles and painted scenes of suburban and city life. He also started to collect Japanese prints, which profoundly influenced his work.

Impressionism

Van Gogh became obsessed by the symbolic and expressive values of colors and began to use them for this purpose rather than, as did the Impressionists, for the reproduction of visual appearances, atmosphere, and light.

The impressionist style of painting is characterized chiefly by concentration on the general impression produced by a scene or object and the use of unmixed primary colors and small strokes to simulate actual reflected light.

The Night Café in The Place Lamartine in Arles

Arles, September 1888

Oil on canvas, 27 ½ x 35 inches

The Sower

Arles, June 1888

Oil on canvas, 25 ¼ x 31 ¾ inches

The Visit

In 1888, Gauguin visited van Gogh in Arles. Van Gogh prepared for his arrival by dedicating himself to a series of sunflower paintings to welcome his colleague. All though van Gogh and Gauguin were friends, many times their views on art were opposing and caused many arguments.

The visit ended with a final argument that led to the infamous episode in which Van Gogh threatened Gauguin with a razor and then mutilated his ear.

Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers

Arles, January 1889

Oil on canvas, 37 ½ x 28 ¾ inches

Starry Night Over the Rhone Arles, September 1888Oil on canvas, 28 ½ x 36 ¼ inches

Cypresses With Two Female Figures

Saint-Remy, June 1889

Oil on canvas, 36 ¼ x 28 ¾ inches

Depression

In 1889, he became a voluntary patient at the St. Remy asylum, where he continued to paint, often making copies of artists he admired.

He moved to Auvers, to be closer to Theo in 1890 - his last 70 days spent in a hectic program of painting. Van Gogh spent the last 19 months of his life fighting a mental illness that has never been firmly diagnosed. During this time, periods of deep depression alternated with periods of staggering productivity. Realizing that his agonizing mental condition would not improve, van Gogh committed suicide on July 29, 1890.

Portrait of Doctor Gachet

Auvers-sur-Oise, June 1890

Oil on canvas, 68 x 57 cm

The Starry Night (1889)Oil on canvas29 x 36 1/4 in.

Images and Sources

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/V/vangogh.html

http://www.worldbookonline.com/wbol/wbAuth/jsp/wbArticle.jsp?/na/ar/co/ar580700.htm

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/

Music

Frederic Chopin - Nocturne in C MinorDon McLean - Stary Stary Night

Credits