|
Cafe Terrace at Night Van gogh |
Vincent Van Gogh has become known as one of the most tragic figures
in world art. Despite the fact that he was not famous during his
lifetime, only a few years after his death, his style started to have a
major impact on the artistic movement. Currently, his paintings sold for
record amounts. Van Gogh himself envisioned it, he wrote: "Nobody can
do anything with the fact that no one buys my paintings. But the time
will come when people will realize that their value is more than the
cost of paint."
Vincent Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in a
small Dutch village of Groot-Zundert in a family of Teodorus the cleric
and his wife Anna Karbentus. Exactly one year before that Anna gave
birth to a dead child, named Vincent, a coincidence which might had a
negative impact on his mind later and became one of the reasons for the
loss of Van Gogh mental health.
A Vincent had a happy childhood
spent in the progressive-minded family, surrounded by thebeautiful
nature of the village. He was the eldest of six children: Anna (1855),
Theo (1857), Vilhemena (1862) and Cornelius (1866), who also tragically
committed suicide being even younger than Vincent, aged 34 years. The
career of Vincent in the artistic world began at age 16 when he began to
sell paintings of other artists. His three uncles were occupied with
selling pictures. Following their example in 1869 he entered the company
Goupil renowned French art dealer company, and worked in its offices in
Europe. In 1873 there was his first emotional crisis , he loved the
girl who was already engaged to another person. After Eugenie Loyer
rejected him, he felt the first attack of melancholy, which turned into a
depression. As a result of his conduct, his work began to suffer, and
in 1876 he was dismissed for incompetence, and then went to Amsterdam to
study theology, but he did not pass the exam and went to missionary
school in Brussels.
|
Self Portrait 2 1887 |
After finishing school Van Gogh went to
Borinage, a poor mining region of Belgium, where he was very much
facilitate the lives of people around him. His life in this period was
modest to the extreme, he lived in barracks, sleeping on straw, there
was almost no difference from the lives of poor miners. Despite
intolerable conditions Vincent begins to paint. Many workers, whom he
met in Belgium, inspired him and he made many drawings, inspired by the
style of Jean-Francois Millet (1814-1875), he even made a few copies of
his works. The theme of god-fearing, hard working people is reflected in
the best-known work "potato eater". Returning from Brussels in 1881 and
living for a while with his parents, he was again suffering from the
undivided love, this time to a widowed cousin, who soon gave him a clear
message that she was not interested in him.
Rejected and suffered
from depression, Vincent did find the strength to move forward and
settled in The Hague, where he begins to explore the art of Anton Mauve,
he begins to explore different styles in art, and does a lot of
reading. More than others he loved Dikens, Zola and Hugo. Months spent
working and studying have been very helpful in creating his unique
style. At the same time, he meets a local woman, Sienna Hoornik. She was
a mother, a prostitute pregnant with her second child, when she met
Vincent. She is present in several of his drawings at the time
(including "Sorrow"). In 1883, Van Gogh leaves her feeling guilty later,
also suffering from the fact that his brother Theo stops to give him
financial support.
|
Vincent Van gogh starry night |
In November 1885 Van Gogh comes to the Academy
of Arts in Antwerp, which he leaves in a few months because of
disagreements with teachers, believed that he had not sufficiently high
standard of drawing. However, staying at the Academy had a lasting
effect on his work, presenting it to the work of Rubens, and modifying
his previous concept of color. From the dark tones, it gradually turns
to a lighter and easier. In spring 1886, after leaving the Academy,
Vincent moved to Paris to his brother. The brothers spend two years
together, during this period of great creativity Vincent influenced
byworks, sold by his brother, who was still working at Goupil, namely
the works of Pissarro, Sisley, Guillamin. He also becomes acquainted
with the work of Toulouse-Lautrec, and is interested in Japanese art,
the influence of which can be seen in some of his works of that period.
In February 1888 Vincent left his brother and Paris and moved to the
village. "I'll go somewhere to the south, so as not to see all this
accumulation of artists which bothers me,"- he writes.
He moved to
the province, where creates some of his most famous works such as
Sunflowers. He lived in Arles, reminding him to Japan and did not cease
to admire the beauty of this southern province, travelling a lot in the
province. "Now my colors are very bright - sky blue, orange, pink,
bright yellow, light green, light wine, violet", - he writes to her
sister. During the spring, he paints blooming trees, dozens of
paintings, flushed with tender southern sun. In a letter to his brother
Theo he writes: "I have never had such a wonderful opportunity to work.
Nature is very beautiful, I can not paint as beautifully, but it touches
me so much that I do not think about the rules." He works continuously
and the only thing that saddens him - a constant shortage of money and
paints.
|
Starry Night over the Rhone, |
During his stay in Arles, Gauguin arrives, who is also
intended to settle in the province, but after several months of living
together two artists strongly fight and Gauguin left. This altercation
resulted in the Vincent cuts off your ear. The tragic altercation
occurred on Dec. 23, 1888. December 24, Van Gogh was admitted to
hospital in Arles, suffering from recurrent attacks of insanity.
However, January 7, Van Gogh did leave the hospital and returned home
with a great desire to continue working. Over the next year, he
repeatedly comes to the hospital, but sometimes his mind clears and he
paints pictures, the theme for which are located right in the garden
around him: "I work with materials, found here in the garden which is
purple irises and lilac bush. " During this period he wrote the famous
landscapes with cypresses and olive trees, still life with flowers. In
1890 he moved to the north, in Auvers: "Auvers is very beautiful. Here,
among other things, a lot of thatches, which is becoming a rarity." He
continues to paint.
|
vase with fourteen sunflowers |
The last picture of Van Gogh was the one with
wheat field and black birds over it, he expressed his "sadness and
extreme loneliness."
Great artist tragically passed away on July
27, 1890, he shot himself. But he did not die immediately, but two days
later, at the hands of his brother Theo.
In the seven years of
intense creativity, he has created over 800 paintings and 700 drawings.
But brighter than all, his talent opened in the landscape, following his
choleric temperament. For the whole life he sold only one picture to a
friend, the artist and nobody thought could not admit then that his
"Irises" will be sold at auction in 1987 in New York for 53 million
dollars.
|
Irises Saint Remy |
Wonderful words said about the works of Van Gogh Ogtay
Mirbo: " His life was not long. He never was professionally satisfied
with his work. He wanted more, he dreamed of the impossible. We shall
love Vincent Van Gogh and revere his memory, because he was really true
and great artist."