Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853-1890) is one of the most famous artists in the world. He was able to sell only one painting during his lifetime. And this is despite the fact that he started his career as a painting dealer, and his brother Theo was a successful art dealer. But after his death, he became one of the most expensive artists who got recognition on all continents. The Japanese consider him the only European who understood the Japanese soul.
He was born in the Netherlands, in the family of a preacher, Vincent also prepared for religious activity and eventually found his way to «preaching» – painting. In the last ten years of his life, he painted about 2,100 paintings, of which about 800 were oil paints. This creative path was taken despite the total lack of money and complete lack of understanding on the part of contemporaries.
Vincent’s name is shrouded in mysteries and legends. The most popular theses: «artist who cut off his ear», «committed suicide», «mentally ill». But, let’s not belittle the person of Vincent with such things. Yes, he cut off his ear (most likely during a quarrel with Gauguin, so as not to hear his reproaches), he had mental disorders, was aware of this and was treated. The version of suicide is now increasingly rejected. There is evidence that Vincent was wounded in the field by boys who were shooting cans. He did not want to spoil the lives of teenagers and said that he shot in himself. To better understand van Gogh, you should read his letters to his brother Theo and to friends. The feeling of being in confession is guaranteed to you.
So, here are a few paintings from the artist’s huge work that (no exaggeration) changed the world.
Let’s start with the painting «Potato Eaters» (1885), which was painted even before moving to France. This is one of the most famous paintings of Van Gogh’s early period. He painted in dark colors the unhappy, poor peasants who survive only due to the fact that they have simple products like potatoes. Van Gogh began his creative journey by researching miner’s life. He went down into the mines to understand these people. Such actions caused surprise and misunderstanding on the part of both his family and the miners. Vincent worked on the painting for quite a long time, creating more and more new sketches, trying to convey the depressing mood of people.
After moving to France, Van Gogh changed his palette to a brighter one, and the subjects of his paintings to more optimistic ones.
«Sunflowers» (1888) is a series of paintings that became Van Gogh’s signature. He believed that painting should be done in the south, where there is a lot of sun, and the colors play and shimmer in the sun as brightly as possible. With these thoughts, Vincent moved to Paris in 1886, and later to Arles. It was in Arles that he created his best works.
The artist started working on «Sunflowers» in Paris. He conceived a series of thirteen paintings (he would not have time to finish them), which would symbolize Christ and the twelve apostles. In the Netherlands, the sunflower is considered a symbol of loyalty. This is due to the fact that the sunflower turns his head towards the sun all the time. In Paris, Vincent met Gauguin and sincerely admired him. Paul Gauguin spent his childhood in Peru, where the sunflower is a national symbol. Archaeological excavations confirm that in the territory of Peru, sunflowers were grown more than 2,000 years ago. In the traditional religion of the Incas, it was a symbol of the Sun God. Actually, the plant got to Europe after the discovery of America. Vincent gave the first two Paris paintings to Gauguin.
Van Gogh dreamed of going further south, to Arles, to set up an artistic commune there and worked together with other artists of the latest trends, led by Gauguin. In Arles, the artist continued to work on «Sunflowers». He painted them in vases, selects sunflowers at different stages of ripening. Vincent aimed to show the life cycle of a sunflower. But his painting was not cause Gauguin’s approval and this event was once again harm his mental health. In Arles, Vincent was a frequent visitor to the psychiatric clinic.
«Café Terrace at Night» (1888) is another beautiful painting from the period of his work in Arles. Van Gogh managed to paint the night without using black paint. The bright yellow color emitted by the lanterns works beautifully in contrast with the purple sky, which is full of giant yellow stars.
In the same year, Vincent painted «The Yellow House» (1888). This house was to become a home for artists who would agree to live in a creative commune. Van Gogh rented 4 rooms in the right wing of the house on Place Lamartine. He repaired and furnished the rooms on his own. In the painting, the house looks slightly tilted. For a long time it was believed that this was done due to the artist’s lack of knowledge in the field of building architectural objects. However, documents for this house were recently found, from which it becomes clear that it was in a disrepair state and the walls had indeed already bent down. The angle of inclination in the painting completely coincides with the architects’ calculations on the found drawings.
«The Bedroom» («Bedroom in Arles») (1888) – is a famous painting of Vincent’s room in the yellow house. This painting exists in three versions. The main difference between them is the depiction of various paintings on the walls above the bed.
In the first version, Japanese engravings, portraits of his friends – Eugene Bosch and Paul-Eugene Millet and the painting «Rocks with Oak Tree» hang on the wall. The painting is currently kept in The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
The second version of the painting shows Japanese engravings, a self-portrait of the artist and «The rocks with Oak tree». Another portrait on the wall is still unknown. Now the painting is kept inTthe Art Institute of Chicago.
The third version of the picture is a copy of the second version of the picture. It was stored in Japan for a long time, and since 1959 it held by the Musée d’Orsay.
The bedroom in Arles creates the impression of a cozy home. Van Gogh probably wanted to get this effect. Next to this painting, you can literally feel the warmth of a home hearth. But already a fragment from this interior «Van Gogh’s Chair» (1888) (The National Gallery, London) evokes completely different emotions.
Van Gogh painted many self-portraits. But in my subjective opinion, this chair is his best self-portrait. This is a kind of reflection of the inner state of the artist. This lonely, uncomfortable chair depicts all the mental pain, loneliness, total misunderstanding with the world that accompanied Vincent all his life. These feelings deepened every year. Looking at «Van Gogh’s Chair» the heart literally squeezes from pain and pity.
«Van Gogh’s Chair» is a paired painting to the work «Gauguin’s Chair» (1888) (Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam). Both paintings were painted almost simultaneously. Van Gogh’s chair itself was painted on one of the canvases that Paul Gauguin brought to Arles.
During this period, the artists quarreled all the time. Vincent understood that all his efforts were in vain, and the dreams about a joint artistic study were falling apart. Gauguin’s chair has a completely different emotional color. There is a candle on it, the flame of which seems to indicate the creative fire that Vincent saw in Gauguin. The difference between a simple rustic chair and a much more comfortable and elegant chair is impressive. This is how Van Gogh saw himself and his friend Paul.
Another iconic painting by Van Gogh, «The Starry Night» (1889) (Museum of Modern Art, New York), was painted after a conflict with Gauguin and the infamous incident of losing part of his left ear. After a quarrel with Gauguin, Vincent ended up in a psychiatric clinic, and here he created one of his best paintings. It is here that he made full use of his characteristic brush stroke, which pulls the viewer into the painting like a whirlpool. The painting was painted in one day and depicts the view from the window of Vincent’s chamber.
«The Starry Night» creates the impression that the sky is in continuous motion. A special stroke that forms a vortex. It is more a picture of space than a believable starry sky. This is a picture of the whirlwind of the inner world of a sick artist.
You can learn more about the work of Van Gogh and other post-impressionist artists at our online lectures. Register for the «History of European Art» course and discover a new, exciting world for yourself.
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У меня синдром Стендаля сегодня. Утром ходили в Падуанский баптистерий. Смотрели фрески Менабуя. А после обеда у нас было посещение каппелы Скровеньи. Теперь я понимаю , что сделал Джотто для мира. Очень меня все это впечатлило в живую. Привет передала.
Мир прекрасен. Падуя очень понравилась:) спасибо за лекции Света!
Lily Golovchak
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