Van Gogh

I love learning about artists and what they did with their lives.  And I realized I haven't put a post on here in awhile that spotlights and artist and that makes me sad.  So here we go!  This time, I wanted to do someone that I absolutely adore.  Vincent Van Gogh.  Born in 1853, died in 1890, and one of the most well-know post-impressionist painters.  Van Gogh was a Dutch painter by birth, but traveled around Europe throughout his life, with his journey ending just outside of Paris. 

At age 16, Vincent began working for an art dealer, Goupil & Co.  This is the same art dealer that his brother, Theo, would work for later.  Theo and Vincent were very close and Theo financially supported Vincent throughout his short life.  There are hundreds of letters written between the two of them, and this is where most of the information about Vincent comes from.  At age 20, the firm moved Vincent from London and later to Paris.  It was then that he became increasingly interested in becoming a minister.  Not long after, Goupil & Co fired him for lack of motivation.  He spent the next few years pursuing a career in the church, but after 6 months his pay was dropped but he continued on anyways.  He lived in a small mining town and became very worried about the miners living conditions.  It was during this time that he started fiddling around with charcoal drawings. 

A couple of years later, he took the advice from his brother and started painting in earnest.  He lived in Belgium where he took painting lessons.  The most famous of his paintings during that early period was "The Potato Eaters".  You may notice the absence of bright colors, which is typical for his later work.  But during this period, he mainly used earthy tones and sharply lit. 

Shortly after he finished this painting, he moved to Paris where he lived with his brother, Theo.  While in Paris, Vincent met some of the most prominent painters of the day.  The list includes Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Bernard, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Gauguin.  Gauguin was later to become a good friend to Vincent.  Vincent bought a house in Arles, France where Gauguin later accompanied him.  They both lived in the house for a short while and painted a lot.  It was in this "yellow house"  that Vincent painted a majority of his sunflowers.  As a tribute to my mother, who loves sunflowers, I have to post a picture of one of the most famous from that collection - "Vase with Twelve Sunflowers"

While spending all this time together, Gauguin even painted Van Gogh painting a sunflower.  Here is "The Painter of Sunflowers".

It wasn't long until the two painters started fighting.  One thing that fueled the fire was Van Gogh admired Gauguin greatly and wanted to be treated as an equal, but Gauguin was too arrogant.  Van Gogh (who most likely battled with bipolar disorder most of his life) was afraid Gauguin was going to leave him, so he confronted him with a razor blade, but dismayed at what he was doing, he ran off to a brothel, cut off a portion of his own ear, wrapped it in newspaper, and handed it to a prostitute for safe keeping.

The only painting  Van Gogh ever sold was called "The Red Vineyard".  It was created in 1888, 2 years before his death.  It's sad to think that he probably didn't realize what an impact he was making on society and how well known he would become.

Vincent van Gogh now exchanged painting dots for small stripes. He suffered from depression, and in 1889 on his own request Van Gogh was admitted to the psychiatric center in France. During his stay here the clinic and its garden became his main subject. Pencil strokes changed again, now into spiral curves.  

In May 1890, Vincent moved to a different clinic where he could be under the watch of the physician Paul Gachet.  Gachet had treated artists before and was recommended to Vincent by Pissaro.  His depression, however, continued to get worse.  On July 27, 1890, Vincent Van Gogh shot himself in the chest.  Two days later, with Theo at his side, Vincent uttered his final words "La tristesse durera toujours" translated - The sadness will last forever.  Theo, unable to come to terms with the death of his brother died 6 months later and his grave was placed next to his brothers.

In one decade, Van Gogh produced over 2,000 pieces of art.  The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is dedicated to Van Gogh's work and that of his contemporaries. On May 15, 1990 his Portrait of Doctor Gachet was sold for $82.5 million at Christie's, thus establishing a new price record.

 It's interesting to think that Van Gogh didn't know what he was giving the world while he was alive.  Most artists don't become famous until after they have died, which I find sad.  Hopefully they know what they have given the world now they are in the afterlife.  I want so badly to talk to these people and see how they view the world.  Van Gogh's most famous painting "Starry Night" can be viewed in many different ways.  I found one article that I like a lot.  It talked about how Starry Night wasn't just a painting.  Van Gogh was a religious man, almost to a fault.  Some people say that having eleven stars is no accident.  In Genesis 37:9 it states "And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me."  I like to think that, even though Van Gogh had such a deep depression in this life, that he still had faith in God.  That he wasn't scared of dying because he knew there was something after this life.  That all the beautiful paintings in this world are just a glimpse of the beauty to come.