Vincent van Gogh: Biography

Vincent van Gogh, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-
Zundert, Holland. The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured
atmosphere, Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. Between 1860
and 1880, when he finally decided to become an artist, van Gogh had had two
unsuitable and unhappy romances and had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a
bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in the Borinage (a dreary mining district in
Belgium), where he was dismissed for overzealousness. He remained in Belgium to
study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty. 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.

In 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. He decided to go south to Arles where he hoped
his friends would join him and help found a school of art. Gauguin did join him but with
disastrous results. Near the end of 1888, an incident led Gauguin to ultimately leave Arles.
Van Gogh pursued him with an open razor, was stopped by Gauguin, but ended up cutting a
portion of his own ear lobe off. Van Gogh then began to alternate between fits of madness and
lucidity and was sent to the asylum in Saint-Remy for treatment.

In May of 1890, he seemed much better and went to live in Auvers-sur-Oise under the
watchful eye of Dr. Gachet. Two months later he was dead, having shot himself "for the good
of all." During his brief career he had sold one painting. Van Gogh's finest works were
produced in less than three years in a technique that grew more and more impassioned in
brushstroke, in symbolic and intense color, in surface tension, and in the movement and
vibration of form and line. Van Gogh's inimitable fusion of form and content is powerful;
dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and emotional, for the artist was completely
absorbed in the effort to explain either his struggle against madness or his comprehension of
the spiritual essence of man and nature.

Vincent van Gogh Paintings

Between November of 1881 and July of 1890, Vincent van Gogh painted almost 900
paintings. Since his death, he has become one of the most famous painters in the world. Van
Gogh’s paintings have captured the minds and hearts of millions of art lovers and have made
art lovers of those new to world of art. The following excerpts are from letters that Van Gogh
wrote expressing how he evolved as a painter. There are also links to pages describing some
of Vincent van Gogh's most famous paintings, Starry Night, Sunflowers, Irises, Poppies, and
The Potato Eaters, in great detail.

In December of 1881, at the age of 28 just as he began his first paintings Vincent wrote to his
brother Theo about becoming a painter,
“Theo, I am so very happy with my paintbox, and I think my getting it now, after having
drawn almost exclusively for at least a year, better than if I had started with it immediately…

For, Theo, with painting my real career begins. Don't you think I am right to consider it so?”

Van Gogh worked at a feverish pace costing him money, causing him mental and physical
stress and leaving him no time for any other source of income. But he was persistent. In a
letter from March of 1882, Van Gogh wrote again to his brother Theo,

“Although I find myself in financial difficulties, I nevertheless have the feeling that there is
nothing more solid than a `handicraft' in the literal sense of working with one's hands. If you
became a painter, one of the things that would surprise you is that painting and everything
connected with it is quite hard work in physical terms. Leaving aside the mental exertion, the
hard thought, it demands considerable physical effort, and that day after day.”

In the same letter to Theo from 1882, Van Gogh writes, “There are two ways of thinking
about painting, how not to do it and how to do it: how to do it - with much drawing and little
colour; how not to do it - with much colour and little drawing.

Van Gogh firmly believed that to be a great painter you had to first master drawing before
adding color. Over the years Van Gogh clearly mastered drawing and began to use more
color. In time, one of the most recognizable aspects of Van Gogh’s paintings became his bold
use of color.

About a year before his death Van Gogh predicted that there would be a great “painter of the
future” who would know how to use color like no one else and would become the future of
painting. He expressed this in a letter to his brother Theo in May of 1888,

“As for me, I shall go on working, and here and there something of my work will prove of
lasting value - but who will there be to achieve for figure painting what Claude Monet has
achieved for landscape? However, you must feel, as I do, that someone like that is on the way
- Rodin? - he does not use colour - it won't be him. But the painter of the future will be a
colourist the like of which has never yet been seen.

But I'm sure I am right to think that it will come in a later generation, and it is up to us to do
all we can to encourage it, without question or complaint.”

During his lifetime Van Gogh was never famous as a painter and struggled to make a living as
an artist. Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime The Red Vineyard. This
painting sold in Brussels for 400 Francs only a few months before his death.

Vincent van Gogh died at the age of 37 bringing his career as a painter to an end, but
beginning his legacy as the great painter of the future who inspired the world.

About a week after his death, Van Gogh’s brother Theo wrote to his sister Elizabeth about
Van Gogh’s legacy as a great artist,

“In the last letter which he wrote me and which dates from some four days before his death, it
says, “I try to do as well as certain painters whom I have greatly loved and admired.” People
should realize that he was a great artist, something which often coincides with being a great
human being. In the course of time this will surely be acknowledged, and many will regret his
early death.”

Artistic Influences
Possibly one of the greatest artistic influences on Vincent van Gogh was Paul Gauguin. Van
Gogh and Gauguin met in Paris in November of 1887. Van Gogh had organized an art exhibit
from those who Van Gogh called the Impressionists of the Petit Boulevard. After seeing the
exhibit Gauguin arranged to trade one of his paintings from Martinique for two of Van Gogh's
Sunflowers studies.

In February of 1888, Van Gogh decided to move to Arles in Southern France and begin what
he called the Studio of the South. His plan for the studio was for it to be an artist colony
where artists could work together and inspire each other. As an Art dealer, his brother Theo
agreed to try to sell their work. Van Gogh rented four rooms in a building on the Place
Lamartine in May. This building, known as the "Yellow House," was to be his Studio of the
South.

In order to help persuade Gauguin to move to the Studio of the South, Theo provided a 250
franc monthly allowance in exchange for one of Gauguin's paintings each month. Vincent
began painting sunflowers to decorate Gauguin's bedroom. These sunflowers would later
become one of his signature pieces.

During their time together in Arles Gauguin bought a bale of jute from which both artists used
for their canvases. This coarse material caused them both to apply the paint more thickly and
to use heavier brush strokes. Van Gogh and Gauguin also painted similar subjects in Arles
such as landscapes and people in the village.

On December 23, 1888 Van Gogh, in a fit of insanity, pursued Gauguin with a knife and
threatened him intensely. Later that day Van Gogh returned to their house and cut off a piece
of his ear lobe then offered it to a prostitute as a gift. Gauguin swiftly left Arles for Paris.

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.html