This photo of Vincent, taken at age 19, it is only one of four photographs of the painter known to exist. |
Vincent van Gogh (30 March 1853 - 29 July 1890) Vincent van Gogh was born near Brabant, the son of a minister.
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This photo of Vincent, taken at age 19, it is only one of four photographs of the painter known to exist. |
Vincent van Gogh (30 March 1853 - 29 July 1890) Vincent van Gogh was born near Brabant, the son of a minister.
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Photos of Goupil's in the Hague
(He worked in London) In 1869, he got a position at the art dealers, Goupil and Co. in The Hague, through his uncle, and worked with them until he was dismissed from the London office in 1873. |
Sketch 1876 |
He worked as a schoolmaster in England (1876), before training for the ministry at Amsterdam University (1877).
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Houses near Islesworth England 1876 |
 After he failed to get a post in the Church, he went to live as an independent missionary among the Borinage miners. |
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Amsterdam 1881
Anton Mauve (1838 - 1888) This prolific and popular Dutch realist painter's wife
was van Gogh's cousin. In December, 1881 Vincent went to Amsterdam
to study with Mauve. When Mauve looked critically at Vincent first
attempt at a still life, he told Vincent: "I always thought you rather
dull, but now I see it isn't true." It was at this point that Vincent embarked
on a new journey--to be a painter.
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Anton Mauve (Dutch, 1838-1888), Entering the Fold, c. 1885-8, drawing and watercolor on paper, 505 x 60.3 cm, Tate Gallery, London. Vincent's relationship with Anton Mauve was a valuable one, though extremely turbulent as well. Vincent was incapable of accepting any form of criticism about his works and, to make matters worse, Mauve strongly disapproved of Vincent's relationship with the prostitute, Sien. Eventually Mauve would break off communications with Vincent altogether. |
 Under an Umbrella February 1882 |
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 Seated Girl April 1883 |
34. Beach at Scheveningen in Stormy Weather August 1882
53. Interior with a Weaver & Child January-February 1884
54. Weaver & Spinning Wheel March 1884
62. Peasant Woman Peeling Potatoes February 1885
65. Study of Three Hands for Potato Eaters 1885
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He was largely self-taught as an artist, although he received help from his cousin, Mauve. His first works were heavily painted, mud-colored and clumsy attempts to represent the life of the poor (e.g. Potato-Eaters, 1885, Amsterdam), influenced by one of his artistic heroes, Millet. |
He moved to Paris in 1886, living with his devoted brother,
Theo, who as a dealer introduced him to artists like Gauguin,
Pissarro,
Seurat and
Toulouse-Lautrec.
In Paris, he discovered color as well as the divisionist ideas which helped
to create the distinctive dashed brushstrokes of his later work (e.g. Pere
Tanguy, 1887, Paris). He moved to Arles, in the south of France, in
1888, hoping to establish an artists' colony there, and was immediately
struck by the hot reds and yellows of the Mediterranean, which he increasingly
used symbolically to represent his own moods (e.g. Sunflowers,
1888, London, National Gallery). He was joined briefly by Gauguin in October
1888, and managed in some works to combine his own ideas with the latter's
Synthetism (e.g. The Sower, 1888, Amsterdam), but the visit was not a success.
A final argument led to the infamous episode in which Van Gogh mutilated
his ear.
"In 1889, he became
a voluntary patient at the St. Remy asylum, where he continued to paint,
often making copies of artists he admired. His palette softened to mauves
and pinks, but his brushwork was increasingly agitated, the dashes constructed
into swirling, twisted shapes, often seen as symbolic of his mental state
(e.g. Ravine,
1889, Otterlo). He moved to Auvers, to be closer to Theo in 1890 - his
last 70 days spent in a hectic program of painting. He died, having sold
only one work, following a botched suicide attempt. His life is detailed
in a series of letters to his brother (published 1959)."
- From "The
Bulfinch Guide to Art History"
