vincent van gogh 1853

Name:  Vincent Willem van Gogh

Born: 30 March 1853

Died:  29 July 1890

Home Town:  Zundert, Netherlands

Style:  Post –impressionism / Modern Art

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Exhibited:  National Gallery

Why I like him:  I am absolutely drawn to Sunflowers and Chair.  I love the way he uses colour and texture in his painting utilising simple objects to depict deep messages.  I enjoyed getting up close to his work to see the deep brush strokes and finger prints.

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History: 

•Not commercially successful

•He struggled with poverty and severe depression.  Thought to be Bi-Polar

•Committed suicide at the age of 37 by gunshot

•During his early education he had been taught at home, attended boarding school where he felt deeply unhappy and later in life referred to his childhood as ‘austere and cold, and sterile’

•After completing his training, he was sent to London.  Here he enjoyed studying masters such as Constable and Turner.  These were some of his happiest times.

•He returned to the Netherlands and became increasingly religious

•He became a missionary and gave up his living space to a homeless person and slept on straw.  The church authorities dismissed him for ‘undermining the dignity of the priesthood’

•His first major work was The Potato Eaters – it was dark and the characters ugly.  Not in keeping with the impressionism work that was in Paris at the time

•Having lived a life of poverty living on bread, coffee and tobacco, he moved to Paris and became interested in Japanese paintings.  Here he met Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Seurat

•After arguing with his brother Theo, he moved to southern France to the Yellow House. Where he wanted to display his work. 

•VG invited Gauguin to stay in the Yellow House with hope of friendship and starting an artists collective.   To welcome him, VG produced 3 pictures of Sunflowers.

•On recommendation from Gauguin, Van Gogh started painting from memory, but it didn’t come naturally.  Gauguin painted a portrait picture of Van Gogh.

•Van Gogh admired Gauguin, but Gauguin was arrogant and domineering.  VG described the atmosphere as ‘excessive tension’.  And the relationship quickly descended into crisis point.

•Gauguin suffered with several instances of threatening behaviour and decided to leave.  VG was devastated.  After an altercation, Gauguin left the building and VG followed but couldn’t find Gaugin anywhere.  He went back to the House where he had an assault of voices causing him to sever his left ear with a razor.  He bandaged his wound and wrapped his ear and delivered the package to a woman in the brothel that he frequented.   Police found him unconscious the following morning and took him to hospital.

•Following his breakdown, the police recommended hospital care.  He was allowed home where he suffered with hallucinations and became known locally as the ‘redheaded madman’ and the Yellow House was closed.

•He checked himself into an asylum in Provance where the clinic and its gardens became the subject matter in his paintings often characterised with swirls. Such as Starry Night, Valley with a ploughman seen from above, etc.  With limited subject matter, he turned to his own interpretation of others paintings such as The Sower,  Noon Day Rest and Prisoners’ Round.  He entered his greatest depression painting memories of his past.  During this time he painted Sorrowing Old Man.

•Wheatfield with Crows was one of his last pieces of work depicting his deep melancholy and extreme loneliness.

•It is thought that Tree Roots was being worked on hours before his death.  He shot himself in the chest and died 30 hours later from the infection from the wound.  His last words were ‘The sadness will last forever’.