Vincent van Gogh was a famous Dutch artist and major Post-Impressionist painter. His works, which are notable for their rough beauty, emotional honesty and bold color, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art. Van Gogh created landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits. It was after Vincent's death, that his works became astoundingly popular, especially in the late 20th century.
Background
Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in Groot-Zundert, a village close to Breda, in the province of North Brabant of the southern Netherlands (present-day Zundert, Netherlands). He was the oldest surviving child of Theodorus van Gogh, a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, and Anna Cornelia Carbentus.
Vincent had five siblings - two brothers and three sisters - Theodorus, Cornelius, Anna, Elisabeth and Willemina. The Van Gogh family were closely involved in each other's lives. They kept in contact and offered each other encouragement, advice and help.
Education
Vincent's interest in art began at an early age. He began to draw as a child and continued making drawings throughout the years, leading to his decision to become an artist.
Van Gogh attended Zundert village school from 1860, where the single Catholic teacher taught around 200 pupils. From 1861, he and his sister, Anna, were taught at home by a governess. Vincent's education at home lasted until October 1, 1864, when he went to Jan Provily's boarding school in Zevenbergen. On September 15, 1866, Vincent went to the new middle school, Willem II College in Tilburg, which he finished in 1868.
Vincent van Gogh did not receive a proper higher education during his lifetime. However, in his later years, he attended particular courses. In May 1877, with a support of his family, van Gogh went to Amsterdam to study Theology. He failed the exam and left the city in July 1878. After that, he undertook, but failed again, a three-month course at the Vlaamsche Opleidingsschool, a Protestant missionary school in Laeken.
By 1880, van Gogh had decided to live his life as an artist. He traveled to Brussels in autumn of that year to attend the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, where he was registered on November 15, 1880. At the Académie, he studied Anatomy and the standard rules of modeling and perspective.
Finally, in autumn 1885, van Gogh moved to Antwerp, where he attended courses at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts until February of 1886.
Vincent van Gogh started his career as an art dealer in July 1869. Although he was quite successful in doing this job at first, van Gogh eventually lost his interest towards that business. Initially, he got a job at his uncle Cornelis' firm of art dealers in The Hague - Goupil & Cie. By that time, van Gogh had become fluent in French, German and English, as well as Dutch.
In June of 1873, van Gogh was transferred to the Groupil Gallery in London. There, he fell in love with English culture. He visited art galleries in his spare time and also became a fan of the writings of Charles Dickens and George Eliot.
From May 1875 until April 1876, Vincent worked in Paris for Goupil as well. Daily contact with works of art aroused his artistic sensibility, and he soon formed a taste for Rembrandt, Frans Hals and other Dutch masters, although his preference was for two contemporary French painters, Jean-François Millet and Camille Corot, whose influence was to last throughout his life. It was at that time, that van Gogh began to dislike art dealing. Moreover, his approach to life darkened, when his love was rejected by a London girl in 1874. His burning desire for human affection thwarted, he became increasingly solitary.
Vincent worked as a language teacher and lay preacher in England and, in 1877, worked for a bookseller in Dordrecht, Netherlands. Impelled by a longing to serve humanity, he envisaged entering the ministry and took up theology; however, he abandoned this project in 1878 for short-term training as an evangelist in Brussels. A conflict with authority ensued, when he disputed the orthodox doctrinal approach. Failing to get an appointment after three months, he left to do missionary work among the impoverished population of the Borinage, a coal-mining region in southwestern Belgium. There, in the winter of 1879-1880, he experienced the first great spiritual crisis of his life. Living among the poor, he gave away all his worldly goods in an impassioned moment; he was thereupon dismissed by church authorities for a too-literal interpretation of Christian teaching. Penniless and feeling, that his faith was destroyed, he sank into despair and withdrew from everyone.
In the fall of 1880, van Gogh decided to move to Brussels and become an artist. Though he had no formal art training, his brother, Theo, offered to support him financially. During the first four years of this period, while acquiring technical proficiency, he confined himself almost entirely to drawings and watercolours. After studying drawing at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Vincent moved to his father's parsonage in Etten, Netherlands, and began to work from nature. At that time, he often used his neighbors as subjects for his works.
While living with his parents, van Gogh worked hard and methodically, but soon perceived the difficulty of self-training and the need to seek the guidance of more experienced artists. Late in 1881, he settled down in The Hague to work with a Dutch landscape painter, Anton Mauve, who introduced Vincent to painting in both oil and watercolor and lent him money to set up a studio, but the two soon quarreled. Nonetheless, van Gogh did not give up and that same year he began to paint in oil.
Over the next years, van Gogh was moving around the country, trying to find his place as an artist. In 1883, the urge to be "alone with nature" and with peasants took him to Drenthe, an isolated part of the northern Netherlands, frequented by Mauve and other Dutch artists, where he spent three months before returning home, which was then in Nuenen, another village in the Brabant. He remained in Nuenen during most of 1884 and 1885, and during these years his art grew bolder and more assured. Vincent painted three types of subjects - still life, landscape and figure - all interrelated by their reference to the daily life of peasants, to the hardships they endured and to the countryside they cultivated. Émile Zola's "Germinal" (1885), a novel about the coal-mining region of France, greatly impressed van Gogh, and sociological criticism is implicit in many of his pictures from this period; "Weavers" and "The Potato Eaters" are the brightest works from that period.
Eventually, however, Vincent felt too isolated in Nuenen. His understanding of the possibilities of painting was evolving rapidly; from studying Hals he learned to portray the freshness of a visual impression, while the works of Paolo Veronese and Eugène Delacroix taught him, that colour can express something by itself. This led to his enthusiasm for Peter Paul Rubens and inspired his sudden departure for Antwerp, Belgium, where the greatest number of Rubens's works could be seen.
The revelation of Rubens's mode of direct notation and of his ability to express a mood by a combination of colours proved decisive in the development of van Gogh's style. Simultaneously, van Gogh discovered Japanese prints and Impressionist painting. All these sources influenced him more than the academic principles, taught at the Antwerp Academy, where he was enrolled. His refusal to follow the academy's dictates led to disputes, and, after three months, he left precipitately, in 1886, to join Theo in Paris. There, still concerned with improving his drawing, van Gogh met Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin and others, who were to play historic roles in modern art. They opened his eyes to the latest developments in French painting. At the same time, Theo introduced him to Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat and other artists of the Impressionist group.
It's also worth noting, that the changes, that his painting underwent in Paris between the spring of 1886 and February 1888, led to the creation of his personal idiom and style of brushwork. His palette at last became colourful, his vision less traditional and his tonalities lighter, as may be seen in his first paintings of Montmartre. In 1887, Vincent adopted elements of Pointillism, a technique, in which a multitude of small colored dots are applied to the canvas such that, when seen from a distance, they create an optical blend of hues. Towards the end of the year, Vincent arranged an exhibition of paintings in the Grand-Bouillon Restaurant du Chalet. Discussions on art, artists and their social situations, that started during this exhibition, continued and expanded to include visitors to the show, which led to a rather favorable outcome.
By the beginning of 1888, van Gogh's Post-Impressionist style had crystallized, resulting in such masterpieces, as "Portrait of Père Tanguy" and "Self-Portrait in Front of the Easel", as well as in some landscapes of the Parisian suburbs.
After Paris, by the end of 1888, van Gogh had decided to move to Arles. There, he was looking forward to found the so-called "Workshop of the South", featuring artists, who would work for "future generations". However, at the end of the year, he began to alternate between fits of madness and lucidity and was sent to the asylum in Saint-Rémy for treatment.
In May 1890, van Gogh left the clinic in Saint-Rémy to move nearer the physician, Dr. Paul Gachet, in Auvers-sur-Oise, where he stayed until his death. In July 1890, Van Gogh completed two paintings of "Daubigny's Garden", one of which is likely to be his final work.
Vincent van Gogh, generally considered the greatest artist after Rembrandt van Rijn, was one of the most outstanding Post-Impressionist painters in the history of Western art. The striking colour, emphatic brushwork and contoured forms of his work powerfully influenced the current of Expressionism in modern art. In part because of his extensive published letters, van Gogh has also been mythologized in the popular imagination as the quintessential tortured artist.
Van Gogh's art became astoundingly popular after his death, especially in the late 20th century, when his work was sold for record-breaking sums at auctions around the world and was featured in blockbuster touring exhibitions. Some of his works, including "Portrait of Doctor Gachet", "Portrait of Joseph Roulin" and "Irises", were sold for over $100 million (today's equivalent). His other notable works include "Sorrow", "Sunflowers", "Bedroom in Arles", "The Starry Night" and "Wheatfield with Crows".
It's worth mentioning, that, in 2007, a group of Dutch historians compiled the "Canon of Dutch History" to be taught in schools and included van Gogh as one of the fifty topics of the canon, alongside other national icons, such as Rembrandt and De Stijl.
Also, van Gogh's legacy is honoured by a museum in his name, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which holds the world's largest collection of his paintings and drawings.
Woman near a Window twice, Man with Winnow, Sower and Woman with Broom
1881
Man, Standing with Arms Folded
1882
Trees and Undergrowth
1887
Sculpture And Still Life With Cabbage and Clogs
1881
Carpenter, Seen from the Back
1882
Old Man with his Head in his Hands, Half-Figure
1882
Beach and Boats
1882
Orphan Man, Standing
1882
Sower
1881
Gasworks
1882
Man Putting Potatoes in a Sack
1881
Route
1881
Digger
1881
Man, Sitting, Reading a Book
1882
Factory
1882
Farmer Sitting at the Fireside and Reading
1881
Diggers in Torn-Up Street
1882
French Peasant Woman Suckling Her Baby after Dalou
1881
Sower
1881
Farmer Leaning on his Spade
1881
Figure of a Woman with Unfinished Chair
1882
Orphan Man with Long Overcoat Cleaning Boots
1882
Church Pew with Worshippers
1882
Near the Hearth
1881
Milk Jug
1862
Girl near the Stove, Grinding Coffee
1882
Orphan Man in Sunday Clothes with Eye Bandage
1882
Baby in a Carriage
1882
Small House on a Road with Pollard Willows
1881
The Angelus (after Millet)
1880
Beach and Sea
1882
Carpenter
1882
Girl Kneeling in Front of a Bucket
1881
Carpenter's Yard and Laundry
1882
Mother at the Cradle and Child Sitting on the Floor
1881
Miners in the Snow at Dawn
1880
Sower with Basket
1881
Girl Standing, Knitting
1882
Girl Kneeling
1881
Vicarage and Church at Etten
1876
A Carpenter with Apron
1882
Man, Standing, Reading a Book
1882
Man with Pipe and Eye Bandage
1882
Sower with Hand in Sack
1881
Man Sitting by the Stove The Pauper
1882
Orphan Man with Cap, Seen from the Back
1882
Bent Figure of a Woman Sien
1882
Bench in a Wood
1882
Old Man in a Tail-Coat
1882
Peasant Sitting by the Fireplace (Worn Out)
1881
Nude Woman, Half-Length
1882
Peasant with a Stick
1881
Bending Woman
1882
Sower
1881
Carpenter
1881
Scheveningen Woman Sewing
1881
Corinthian Capital
1863
Man with Top Hat
1882
Scheveningen Woman Standing
1881
Unfinished Sketch of an Interior with a Pan Above the Fire
1881
Peasant Girl Standing
1881
Bench with Four Persons
1882
Man Carrying Peat
1882
Fisherman with Basket on his Back
1882
Mills in the Neighbourhood of Dordrecht
1877
Bent Figure of a Woman
1882
Field with Thunderstorm
1881
Donkey Cart with Boy and Scheveningen Woman
1882
Orphan Man with Cap, Eating
1882
Old Man Warming Himself
1881
Town d'Avray: L'Etang au Batelier
1875
Girl Carrying a Loaf of Bread
1882
Man with Winnow
1881
Miners
1880
Orphan Man with Cap and Stick
1882
Woman Sitting at the Fireside
1881
Woman Sewing
1881
Road with Pollard Willows
1881
View of The Hague ("Paddemoes")
1882
Digger
1881
Reaper with Sickle (after Millet)
1881
painting
Almond Blossoms
1890
Bedroom in Arles
1888
Cafe Terrace at Night
1888
Irises
1889
Portrait of Dr. Gachet
Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear
1889
Sunflowers
1888
The Potato Eaters
1885
The Starry Night
1889
Wheatfield with Cypresses
1889
Van Gogh Self-Portrait
1889
Olive Trees
1889
Wheatfield with Crows
1890
The Yellow House
1888
Starry Night Over the Rhône
1888
The Red Vineyard
1888
Field with Plowing Farmers
1889
Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat
1890
The Church at Auvers
1890
Garden of the Asylum
1889
Le Moulin de Blute-Fin
1886
Portrait of Père Tanguy
1887
Pink Peach Tree
1888
Sunset at Montmajour
1888
Avenue of Poplars in Autumn
1884
Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette
1886
Autumn Landscape with Four Trees
1885
Old Woman with a Shawl and a Walking-Stick
1882
Girl in the Woods
1882
Meadows near Rijswijk
1882
Cluster of Old Houses with the New Church in The Hague
1882
Scheveningen Woman Knitting
1881
Peasant Woman Sowing with a Basket
1881
Old Woman Asleep after Rops
1873
Carpenter's Workshop, Seen From the Artist's Studio
1882
Meadow, in the Background New Church
1882
Four Men Cutting Wood
1882
Boy Cutting Grass with a Sickle
1881
Bench with Three Persons
1882
Still Life with Beer Mug and Fruit
1881
Beach at Scheveningen in Calm Weather
1882
Dunes
1882
Woman Grinding Coffee
1881
Beach with People Walking and Boats
1882
Woman Mending Stockings
1881
Fisherman on the Beach
1882
Meadows near Rijswijk and the Schenkweg
1882
Fisherman's Wife on the Beach
1882
Religion
Van Gogh was a religious person, although his beliefs did change with time. As the son of a minister, van Gogh naturally had a Christian upbringing. His father was a Protestant minister and belonged to a part of the church with a moderate, liberal perspective. Vincent initially wanted to follow in his father's footsteps, but soon realised, that they had strongly differing beliefs. Instead of being borne out of doctrine, Vincent thought, that belief should be founded in human emotions and, primarily, the emotions of people from the lower social classes. Vincent ultimately came to see nature and human history as jointly symbolising "God". Not a defined god, but "something up there" - something, that can't be named.
It's worth noting, that in his early years, Vincent spent time as a Protestant missionary in southern Belgium.
Politics
Vincent van Gogh did not have very strong political views. He did not have any at all in fact. He was much more concerned with religious and artistic matters and never expressed his opinion on politics.
Views
Van Gogh's dedication to articulating the inner spirituality of man and nature led to a fusion of style and content, that resulted in dramatic, imaginative, rhythmic and emotional canvases, that convey far more than the mere appearance of the subject. He used an impulsive, gestural application of paint and symbolic colors to express subjective emotions. These methods and practice came to define many subsequent modern movements from Fauvism to Abstract Expressionism.
Vincent's views on painting itself could be described with his own quote. He said: "Real painters do not paint things as they are - they paint them as they themselves feel them to be."
Quotations:
"It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done."
"I dream my painting and I paint my dream."
"Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all."
"There is nothing more truly artistic, than to love people."
"A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke."
"I don't know anything with certainty, but seeing the stars makes me dream."
"I put my heart and soul into my work and I have lost my mind in the process."
Personality
Throughout his whole life, Vincent was a gloomy, unhappy man. According to his brother, Theo, Vincent's last words were "The sadness will last forever."
Physical Characteristics:
Vincent van Gogh was a man of unstable moods. He suffered from recurrent psychotic episodes during the last 2 years of his extraordinary life and committed suicide at the age of 37.
Some physicians believe, that van Gogh had borderline personality disorder. His impulsivity, variable moods, self-destructive behavior, fear of abandonment, an unbalanced self-image, as well as authority conflicts and other complicated relationships are hard evidence for this suggestion.
After having been physically and psychologically unstable, Vincent cut off his ear and offered it to a prostitute.
Besides, van Gogh suffered from fainting spells and seizures.
Quotes from others about the person
"Oh yes! He loved yellow, did good Vincent. When the two of us were together in Arles, both of us insane, and constantly at war over beautiful colours, I adored red; where could I find a perfect vermilion?" - Paul Gauguin, an artist, on Vincent van Gogh
"At the beginning of the twentieth century, van Gogh gave the Expressionists a new painterly language, that enabled them to go beyond surface appearance and penetrate deeper essential truths. This beautiful and intelligent exhibition places van Gogh, where he firmly belongs; as the trailblazer of modern art." - Sue Hubbard, a notable art critic, on van Gogh's influence on contemporary art
Interests
Writers
George Eliot, Charles Dickens and Harriet Beecher Stowe
Artists
Jean François Millet, Rembrandt, Honoré Daumier
Connections
Vincent van Gogh experienced three failed romantic relationships in his life, namely with Eugenie Loyer, Cornelia (Kee) Adriana Vos-Stricker and Clasina Maria Hoornik. However, none of the women accepted his love.
Father:
Theodorus van Gogh
Theodorus van Gogh (February 2, 1822 - March 26, 1885) was a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church.
Mother:
Anna Cornelia Carbentus
Anna Cornelia Carbentus (September 10, 1819 - April 29, 1907) was a pleasant woman and good mother with a talent for drawing. She passed her enthusiasm for art to her son, Vincent, at an early age and was always supportive of his work.
Brother:
Theo van Gogh
Theo van Gogh (May 1, 1857 - January 23, 1891) was an art dealer and one of Vincent's closest friends and confidants. Theo worked for the Goupil Gallery, which later became Boussod, Valadon & Cie. After moving to the Brussels office and then the London office, Theo settled down in The Hague office, where he became a successful art dealer. In 1881, he was made a manager of the branch in Paris. In April of 1889, he married Jo Bonger and the two gave birth to a baby, Vincent Willem, the following year.
Theo supported his older brother, Vincent, financially and emotionally, allowing Vincent to completely devote himself to his art. At various times, Vincent lived with or near Theo. Following Vincent's death, Theo's health quickly deteriorated and he died just months later.
Brother:
Cornelius van Gogh
Cornelius van Gogh (May 17, 1867 - April 24, 1900) was 14 years younger, than brother, Vincent. He was still just a child, when Vincent and Theo went to work for the Goupil & Cie art dealers. Unlike his older brothers, he did not join the art world. Instead, Cornelius became an apprentice at the engineering works of Egbert Haverkamp Begemann in Holland in 1884. He spent some time, working in a factory, before leaving, in 1889, for an area near Johannesburg, South Africa, where he worked for Cornucopia Gold Company. He worked as a civil servant for the Netherlands South African Railway Company and, in 1898, married Anna Catherine Fuchs. Unfortunately, the marriage only lasted eight months. Cornelius was a volunteer in the Anglo-Boer War and was listed as having been killed in action, though some reports say, that he committed suicide in 1900.
Sister:
Anna van Gogh
Anna van Gogh (February 17, 1855 - September 30, 1930) was the second born child, following Vincent. She studied at the boarding school in Leeuwarden. From 1874 to 1876, Anna lived in London, England, and then, for a time, taught French in Welwyn. In 1877, she worked for the Van Houten family as a lady's companion and eventually married her son, Joan Marius van Houten, in 1878. The couple had two daughters.
Anna was not especially close with Vincent; however, he did care a great deal for her. However, after their father's death, in 1885, the two became completely estranged.
Sister:
Elisabeth Huberta van Gogh
Elisabeth Huberta van Gogh (May 16, 1859 - November 29, 1936) attended a boarding school in Leeuwarden in 1873 and later moved to a boarding school in Tiel. In 1880, she served as a companion and caretaker of Catharina Marianne Louise van Willes in Soesterberg. Catharina died in 1889 and, two years later, Elisabeth married Catharina's widower, Jean Philippe Theodore de Quesne van Bruchem. The couple had one child out of wedlock, followed by four more children after they married.
Elisabeth was a writer of poetry and prose and made her debut in 1908. However, she made a name for herself, when she wrote a book about her brother, Vincent. The book, "Personal Reminiscences of an Artist", was first published in 1910. However, it became quite controversial due to a number of discrepancies.
Sister:
Willemina Jacoba (Wil) van Gogh
Willemina Jacoba (Wil) van Gogh (March 16, 1862 - May 17, 1941) was Vincent's youngest sister. As a young teen, she spent time with her sister, Anna, in England. She attended a private school in Den Bosch from 1879-1880 and then took on work as a nanny. Willemina never married and never had any children, but instead lived with her mother. She worked briefly as a nurse in the Walloon hospital in Leiden, nursing the sick.
Willemina was an early feminist and joined a committee for the "National exhibition of women's work", which eventually helped to establish the Dutch national bureau for women's work. She was the closest sister to Vincent, as well as the only sister, with whom he corresponded frequently.
In her later years, Willemina shared similar psychological ailments with Vincent. On December 4, 1902, Wil was admitted to the psychiatric institution in Veldwijk, where she stayed until her death in 1941 at the age of 79.
Cousin:
Cornelia (Kee) Adriana Vos-Stricker
Cornelia (Kee) Adriana Vos-Stricker (March 21, 1846 - 1918) was Vincent's cousin, the daughter of van Gogh's mother's older sister and Johannes Stricker, an aunt and uncle, who had shown kindness to the struggling artist. While van Gogh was living with the family in Etten, Netherlands, he fell in love with Kee, who had recently become widowed and was raising her 8-year-old son on her own. Kee, however, did not return his feelings, though van Gogh was quite persistent, even following her response of "never, no, never" to his marriage proposal.
Friend:
Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin (June 7, 1848 - May 8, 1903) was a French post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of color and Synthetist style, that were distinct from Impressionism.
Vincent's friendship with Gauguin ended after a confrontation with a razor, when, in a rage, he severed part of his own left ear.
Partner:
Eugenie Loyer
Eugenie Loyer was the daughter of Vincent's landlady, when he lived in London. When he decided to propose to her, Eugenie turned him down.
Partner:
Clasina Maria Hoornik
Clasina Maria Hoornik, whom Vincent called Sien (February 22, 1850 - November 22, 1904), was a Hagenaar prostitute. Vincent lived with her during much of his time in The Hague, namely from 1881 to 1883.
Friend:
John Russell
John Russell (June 16, 1858 - April 30, 1930) was an Australian impressionist painter. Born and raised in Sydney, Russell moved to Europe in his late teenage years to attend art school. There, he befriended fellow pupil, Vincent van Gogh, and, in 1886, painted the first oil portrait of the artist, now held at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
References
Van Gogh: The Life
This work, written by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, represents an exquisitely detailed, compellingly readable and ultimately heartbreaking portrait of creative genius, Vincent van Gogh.
2011
The Letters of Vincent van Gogh
A new selection of Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gough's letters, "The Letters of Vincent van Gogh", put a human face on one of the most haunting figures in modern Western culture. In this Penguin Classics edition, the letters are selected and edited by Ronald de Leeuw and translated by Arnold Pomerans.
1914
Vincent and Theo: The van Gogh Brothers
The deep and enduring friendship between Vincent and Theo van Gogh shaped both brothers' lives. Confidant, champion, sympathizer, friend, Theo supported Vincent as he struggled to find his path in life. They shared everything, swapping stories of lovers and friends, successes and disappointments, dreams and ambitions. Meticulously researched, drawing on the 658 letters Vincent wrote to Theo during his lifetime, Deborah Heiligman weaves a tale of two lives intertwined and the love of the van Gogh brothers.
Dear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent van Gogh
Each night, Vincent van Gogh put pen to paper and poured out his heart through letters to his brother, Theo. Van Gogh's letters lay bare his deepest feelings, as well as his everyday concerns and his views of the world of art.
