Vincent van Gogh Carlos Jimenez October 4, 2003

Van Gogh Van Gogh «van GOH or van GAWKH», Vincent ( ), 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 1888 Oil 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 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, Portrait of Doctor Gachet Auvers-sur-Oise, June 1890 Oil on canvas, 68 x 57 cm

The Starry Night (1889) Oil on canvas 29 x 36 1/4 in.

Images and Sources o/ar htm Music Frederic Chopin - Nocturne in C Minor Don McLean - Stary Stary Night Credits