VINCENT VAN GOGH

 It means or it implies to a group of artists who passed through an Impressionist phase but were somehow dissatisfied with the limitation of the style and went beyond it in various direction.  These group of artists were not anti- impressionists, but since they moved beyond the ideals of impressionism, hence they are termed as Post- impressionists.

 He was the son of a pastor ( priest), and that was the reason his upbringing was in a religious and cultured atmosphere.  Van gogh was highly emotional boy and lacked self-confidence. He suffered from acute depression perhaps because of had two unsuitable and unhappy romances and 1880, when he finally decided to become an artist, before that he worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher.

 He was the first great Dutch painter since the seventeenth century.  He died very young at the age of 32.  His early interests were in literature and religion.  He believed that Impressionism did not provide the artist with enough freedom to express his emotions.

 He remained in Belgium to study art. He wanted to to give happiness by creating beauty through his paintings.  The works of his early Dutch period are somber-toned, sharply lit, genre paintings of which the most famous is "The Potato Eaters" (1885). In that year van Gogh went to Antwerp where he discovered the works of Rubens and purchased many Japanese prints.

 Character interested him more than appearance, since this was more of his interest, he is sometimes called an Expressionist.  He taught the Expressionist to see things from the inside- the emotional aspect of a painting, which is also considered as the biggest contribution of Van Gogh to modern art.  Van Gogh’s paintings are among today’s best- known images.  His reproductions of works sell in millions.  The contrast between his failure and rejection

 And his success after his death is notorious.  Van Gogh wrote almost 600 letters to his brother Theo, who was an art dealer, and we know a lot about him from those letters.  In his life span, he was supported by his brother, both financially and emotionally.  n 1886 he went to Paris to join his brother Théo, the manager of Goupil's gallery. In Paris, van Gogh studied with Cormon, inevitably met Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin, and began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists. His nervous temperament made him a difficult companion and night-long discussions combined with painting all day undermined his health.PissarroMonetGauguin

 He was among the first artists to be influenced by the Japanese wood-block prints.  He used simplified designs and forms.  Applied flat colours, steep perspectives and suppression of shadows.  He was a unique artist who worked with a sense of urgency which often caused him a great deal of stress.  He work was bold and the dramatic brush strokes gave a feeling of movement to his works.  His lyrical brush strokes expressed deep emotions.  It´s thought that he often used paint straight from the tube (impasto) and in the 70 days leading up to his death, he averaged one painting per day.

 The predominance of the colour yellow is seen in his works which depict his love for everything.  Despite his use of bold and loud colours his paintings touch an emotional cord.  He at times used to apply colour directly with tube onto the canvas.  He worked at remarkable speed without going much into detail.  His painting the “Potato- Eaters” is from his early painting days.(made in 1885)

 This painting grew out of the portrait studies of peasants that Van Gogh made around Nuenen.  Their faces and hands are big, gnarled, earthy, as if they had been made out of the ground they dig. Their simple supper is sacramental; they are grave, intent and somehow excited, as if they get more pleasure and social communion from this meal of potatoes and coffee than the rich man takes from his exquisite feast.

 The young woman's eyes looking at, presumably, her husband are extraordinary. There's adoration in them; for all their back-breaking toil, Van Gogh implies, these people are sexually alive. There's a bond, too, between the older couple to the right. The girl with her back to us completes the circle around the table.  Above everything is the cartoonish red and yellow flame of the oil lamp creating a pool of warmth within the cavernous, mineral-grey space that represents night, terror, the cold world. For all their community, these people are aware of the harshness of their lives; the man on the left is lost in thought, as is the woman pouring coffee. They might be thinking of injustice.

 He did a lot of portraits in his artistic career and that included a lot of self-portraits as well.

 Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear, Easel and Japanese Print, January 1889, Oil on canvas, 60 × 49 cm., Courtauld Institute Galleries, London

 Bed Room In Arles, 1888, Van Gogh Museum

 Still Life with twelve sunflowers, 1888

 The Starry Night, 1889, The museum of modern art, New York.

  THE END