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Who was Vincent van Gogh?

Vincent van Gogh

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Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch painter, generally considered to be the greatest after  Rembrandt van Rijn , and one of the greatest of the  Post-Impressionists . He sold only one artwork during his life, but in the century after his death he became perhaps the most recognized painter of all time.

What did Vincent van Gogh accomplish?

During his 10-year artistic career, Vincent van Gogh created a vivid personal style, noted for its striking colour, emphatic brushwork, and contoured forms. His achievement is all the more remarkable for the brevity of his career and considering the poverty and mental illness that dogged him.

What were Vincent van Gogh’s jobs?

Vincent van Gogh’s career as an artist was extremely short, lasting only the 10 years from 1880 to 1890. Before that he had various occupations, including art dealer , language teacher, lay preacher, bookseller, and missionary worker.

How was Vincent van Gogh influential?

The work of Vincent van Gogh exerted a powerful influence on the development of much modern painting, notably Expressionism , in particular on the works of the  Fauve  painters,  Chaim Soutine , and the German Expressionists. 

What is Vincent van Gogh remembered for?

Vincent van Gogh is remembered for both the striking colour, emphatic brushwork, and contoured forms of his art and for the turmoil of his personal life. In part because of his extensive published letters, van Gogh has been mythologized in the popular imagination as the quintessential tortured artist.

News •

Vincent van Gogh (born March 30, 1853, Zundert, Netherlands—died July 29, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris, France) was a Dutch painter, generally considered the greatest after Rembrandt van Rijn , and one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionists . The striking color, emphatic brushwork, and contoured forms of his work powerfully influenced the current of Expressionism in modern art. Van Gogh’s art became astoundingly popular after his death, especially in the late 20th century, when his work sold for record-breaking sums at auctions around the world and was featured in blockbuster touring exhibitions. In part because of his extensive published letters, van Gogh has also been mythologized in the popular imagination as the quintessential tortured artist.

Van Gogh, the eldest of six children of a Protestant pastor, was born and reared in a small village in the Brabant region of the southern Netherlands. He was a quiet, self-contained youth , spending his free time wandering the countryside to observe nature. At 16 he was apprenticed to The Hague branch of the art dealers Goupil and Co., of which his uncle was a partner.

Van Gogh worked for Goupil in London from 1873 to May 1875 and in Paris from that date until April 1876. Daily contact with works of art aroused his artistic sensibility, and he soon formed a taste for Rembrandt , Frans Hals , and other Dutch masters, although his preference was for two contemporary French painters, Jean-François Millet and Camille Corot , whose influence was to last throughout his life. Van Gogh disliked art dealing. Moreover, his approach to life darkened when his love was rejected by a London girl in 1874. His burning desire for human affection thwarted, he became increasingly solitary. He worked as a language teacher and lay preacher in England and, in 1877, worked for a bookseller in Dordrecht , Netherlands . Impelled by a longing to serve humanity, he envisaged entering the ministry and took up theology; however, he abandoned this project in 1878 for short-term training as an evangelist in Brussels . A conflict with authority ensued when he disputed the orthodox doctrinal approach. Failing to get an appointment after three months, he left to do missionary work among the impoverished population of the Borinage , a coal-mining region in southwestern Belgium. There, in the winter of 1879–80, he experienced the first great spiritual crisis of his life. Living among the poor, he gave away all his worldly goods in an impassioned moment; he was thereupon dismissed by church authorities for a too-literal interpretation of Christian teaching.

Penniless and feeling that his faith was destroyed, he sank into despair and withdrew from everyone. “They think I’m a madman,” he told an acquaintance, “because I wanted to be a true Christian. They turned me out like a dog, saying that I was causing a scandal.” It was then that van Gogh began to draw seriously, thereby discovering in 1880 his true vocation as an artist. Van Gogh decided that his mission from then on would be to bring consolation to humanity through art. “I want to give the wretched a brotherly message,” he explained to his brother Theo. “When I sign [my paintings] ‘Vincent,’ it is as one of them.” This realization of his creative powers restored his self-confidence.

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh was one of the world’s greatest artists, with paintings such as ‘Starry Night’ and ‘Sunflowers,’ though he was unknown until after his death.

(1853-1890)

Who Was Vincent van Gogh?

Vincent van Gogh was a post-Impressionist painter whose work — notable for its beauty, emotion and color — highly influenced 20th-century art. He struggled with mental illness and remained poor and virtually unknown throughout his life.

Early Life and Family

Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. Van Gogh’s father, Theodorus van Gogh, was an austere country minister, and his mother, Anna Cornelia Carbentus, was a moody artist whose love of nature, drawing and watercolors was transferred to her son.

Van Gogh was born exactly one year after his parents' first son, also named Vincent, was stillborn. At a young age — with his name and birthdate already etched on his dead brother's headstone — van Gogh was melancholy.

Theo van Gogh

The eldest of six living children, van Gogh had two younger brothers (Theo, who worked as an art dealer and supported his older brother’s art, and Cor) and three younger sisters (Anna, Elizabeth and Willemien).

Theo van Gogh would later play an important role in his older brother's life as a confidant, supporter and art dealer.

Early Life and Education

At age 15, van Gogh's family was struggling financially, and he was forced to leave school and go to work. He got a job at his Uncle Cornelis' art dealership, Goupil & Cie., a firm of art dealers in The Hague. By this time, van Gogh was fluent in French, German and English, as well as his native Dutch.

In June of 1873, van Gogh was transferred to the Groupil Gallery in London. There, he fell in love with English culture. He visited art galleries in his spare time, and also became a fan of the writings of Charles Dickens and George Eliot.

He also fell in love with his landlady's daughter, Eugenie Loyer. When she rejected his marriage proposal, van Gogh suffered a breakdown. He threw away all his books except for the Bible, and devoted his life to God. He became angry with people at work, telling customers not to buy the "worthless art," and was eventually fired.

Life as a Preacher

Van Gogh then taught in a Methodist boys' school, and also preached to the congregation. Although raised in a religious family, it wasn't until this time that he seriously began to consider devoting his life to the church

Hoping to become a minister, he prepared to take the entrance exam to the School of Theology in Amsterdam. After a year of studying diligently, he refused to take the Latin exams, calling Latin a "dead language" of poor people, and was subsequently denied entrance.

The same thing happened at the Church of Belgium: In the winter of 1878, van Gogh volunteered to move to an impoverished coal mine in the south of Belgium, a place where preachers were usually sent as punishment. He preached and ministered to the sick, and also drew pictures of the miners and their families, who called him "Christ of the Coal Mines."

The evangelical committees were not as pleased. They disagreed with van Gogh's lifestyle, which had begun to take on a tone of martyrdom. They refused to renew van Gogh's contract, and he was forced to find another occupation.

Finding Solace in Art

In the fall of 1880, van Gogh decided to move to Brussels and become an artist. Though he had no formal art training, his brother Theo offered to support van Gogh financially.

He began taking lessons on his own, studying books like Travaux des champs by Jean-François Millet and Cours de dessin by Charles Bargue.

Van Gogh's art helped him stay emotionally balanced. In 1885, he began work on what is considered to be his first masterpiece, "Potato Eaters." Theo, who by this time living in Paris, believed the painting would not be well-received in the French capital, where Impressionism had become the trend.

Nevertheless, van Gogh decided to move to Paris, and showed up at Theo's house uninvited. In March 1886, Theo welcomed his brother into his small apartment.

In Paris, van Gogh first saw Impressionist art, and he was inspired by the color and light. He began studying with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , Camille Pissarro and others.

To save money, he and his friends posed for each other instead of hiring models. Van Gogh was passionate, and he argued with other painters about their works, alienating those who became tired of his bickering.

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Van Gogh's love life was nothing short of disastrous: He was attracted to women in trouble, thinking he could help them. When he fell in love with his recently widowed cousin, Kate, she was repulsed and fled to her home in Amsterdam.

Van Gogh then moved to The Hague and fell in love with Clasina Maria Hoornik, an alcoholic prostitute. She became his companion, mistress and model.

When Hoornik went back to prostitution, van Gogh became utterly depressed. In 1882, his family threatened to cut off his money unless he left Hoornik and The Hague.

Van Gogh left in mid-September of that year to travel to Drenthe, a somewhat desolate district in the Netherlands. For the next six weeks, he lived a nomadic life, moving throughout the region while drawing and painting the landscape and its people.

Van Gogh became influenced by Japanese art and began studying Eastern philosophy to enhance his art and life. He dreamed of traveling there, but was told by Toulouse-Lautrec that the light in the village of Arles was just like the light in Japan.

In February 1888, van Gogh boarded a train to the south of France. He moved into a now-famous "yellow house" and spent his money on paint rather than food.

Vincent van Gogh completed more than 2,100 works, consisting of 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings and sketches.

Several of his paintings now rank among the most expensive in the world; "Irises" sold for a record $53.9 million, and his "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" sold for $82.5 million. A few of van Gogh’s most well-known artworks include:

'Starry Night'

Van Gogh painted "The Starry Night" in the asylum where he was staying in Saint-Rémy, France, in 1889, the year before his death. “This morning I saw the countryside from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big,” he wrote to his brother Theo.

A combination of imagination, memory, emotion and observation, the oil painting on canvas depicts an expressive swirling night sky and a sleeping village, with a large flame-like cypress, thought to represent the bridge between life and death, looming in the foreground. The painting is currently housed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, NY.

'Sunflowers'

Van Gogh painted two series of sunflowers in Arles, France: four between August and September 1888 and one in January 1889; the versions and replicas are debated among art historians.

The oil paintings on canvas, which depict wilting yellow sunflowers in a vase, are now displayed at museums in London, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Munich and Philadelphia.

In 1889, after entering an asylum in Saint-Rémy, France, van Gogh began painting Irises, working from the plants and flowers he found in the asylum's garden. Critics believe the painting was influenced by Japanese woodblock prints.

French critic Octave Mirbeau, the painting's first owner and an early supporter of Van Gogh, remarked, "How well he has understood the exquisite nature of flowers!"

'Self-Portrait'

Over the course of 10 years, van Gogh created more than 43 self-portraits as both paintings and drawings. "I am looking for a deeper likeness than that obtained by a photographer," he wrote to his sister.

"People say, and I am willing to believe it, that it is hard to know yourself. But it is not easy to paint yourself, either. The portraits painted by Rembrandt are more than a view of nature, they are more like a revelation,” he later wrote to his brother.

Van Gogh's self-portraits are now displayed in museums around the world, including in Washington, D.C., Paris, New York and Amsterdam.

Van Gogh's Ear

In December 1888, van Gogh was living on coffee, bread and absinthe in Arles, France, and he found himself feeling sick and strange.

Before long, it became apparent that in addition to suffering from physical illness, his psychological health was declining. Around this time, he is known to have sipped on turpentine and eaten paint.

His brother Theo was worried, and he offered Paul Gauguin money to go watch over Vincent in Arles. Within a month, van Gogh and Gauguin were arguing constantly, and one night, Gauguin walked out. Van Gogh followed him, and when Gauguin turned around, he saw van Gogh holding a razor in his hand.

Hours later, van Gogh went to the local brothel and paid for a prostitute named Rachel. With blood pouring from his hand, he offered her his ear, asking her to "keep this object carefully."

The police found van Gogh in his room the next morning, and admitted him to the Hôtel-Dieu hospital. Theo arrived on Christmas Day to see van Gogh, who was weak from blood loss and having violent seizures.

The doctors assured Theo that his brother would live and would be taken good care of, and on January 7, 1889, van Gogh was released from the hospital.

He remained, however, alone and depressed. For hope, he turned to painting and nature, but could not find peace and was hospitalized again. He would paint at the yellow house during the day and return to the hospital at night.

Van Gogh decided to move to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence after the people of Arles signed a petition saying that he was dangerous.

On May 8, 1889, he began painting in the hospital gardens. In November 1889, he was invited to exhibit his paintings in Brussels. He sent six paintings, including "Irises" and "Starry Night."

On January 31, 1890, Theo and his wife, Johanna, gave birth to a boy and named him Vincent Willem van Gogh after Theo's brother. Around this time, Theo sold van Gogh's "The Red Vineyards" painting for 400 francs.

Also around this time, Dr. Paul Gachet, who lived in Auvers, about 20 miles north of Paris, agreed to take van Gogh as his patient. Van Gogh moved to Auvers and rented a room.

On July 27, 1890, Vincent van Gogh went out to paint in the morning carrying a loaded pistol and shot himself in the chest, but the bullet did not kill him. He was found bleeding in his room.

Van Gogh was distraught about his future because, in May of that year, his brother Theo had visited and spoke to him about needing to be stricter with his finances. Van Gogh took that to mean Theo was no longer interested in selling his art.

Van Gogh was taken to a nearby hospital and his doctors sent for Theo, who arrived to find his brother sitting up in bed and smoking a pipe. They spent the next couple of days talking together, and then van Gogh asked Theo to take him home.

On July 29, 1890, Vincent van Gogh died in the arms of his brother Theo. He was only 37 years old.

Theo, who was suffering from syphilis and weakened by his brother's death, died six months after his brother in a Dutch asylum. He was buried in Utrecht, but in 1914 Theo's wife, Johanna, who was a dedicated supporter of van Gogh's works, had Theo's body reburied in the Auvers cemetery next to Vincent.

Theo's wife Johanna then collected as many of van Gogh's paintings as she could, but discovered that many had been destroyed or lost, as van Gogh's own mother had thrown away crates full of his art.

On March 17, 1901, 71 of van Gogh's paintings were displayed at a show in Paris, and his fame grew enormously. His mother lived long enough to see her son hailed as an artistic genius. Today, Vincent van Gogh is considered one of the greatest artists in human history.

Van Gogh Museum

In 1973, the Van Gogh Museum opened its doors in Amsterdam to make the works of Vincent van Gogh accessible to the public. The museum houses more than 200 van Gogh paintings, 500 drawings and 750 written documents including letters to Vincent’s brother Theo. It features self-portraits, “The Potato Eaters,” “The Bedroom” and “Sunflowers.”

In September 2013, the museum discovered and unveiled a van Gogh painting of a landscape entitled "Sunset at Montmajour.” Before coming under the possession of the Van Gogh Museum, a Norwegian industrialist owned the painting and stored it away in his attic, having thought that it wasn't authentic.

The painting is believed to have been created by van Gogh in 1888 — around the same time that his artwork "Sunflowers" was made — just two years before his death.

Watch "Vincent Van Gogh: A Stroke of Genius" on HISTORY Vault

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Vincent van Gogh
• Birth Year: 1853
• Birth date: March 30, 1853
• Birth City: Zundert
• Birth Country: Netherlands
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Vincent van Gogh was one of the world’s greatest artists, with paintings such as ‘Starry Night’ and ‘Sunflowers,’ though he was unknown until after his death.
• Astrological Sign: Aries
• Brussels Academy
• Nacionalities
• Interesting Facts
• Some of van Gogh's most famous works include "Starry Night," "Irises," and "Sunflowers."
• In a moment of instability, Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear and offered it to a prostitute.
• Van Gogh died in France at age 37 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
• Death Year: 1890
• Death date: July 29, 1890
• Death City: Auvers-sur-Oise
• Death Country: France

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CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Vincent van Gogh Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/artists/vincent-van-gogh
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: March 4, 2020
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014
• As for me, I am rather often uneasy in my mind, because I think that my life has not been calm enough; all those bitter disappointments, adversities, changes keep me from developing fully and naturally in my artistic career.
• I am a fanatic! I feel a power within me…a fire that I may not quench, but must keep ablaze.
• I get very cross when people tell me that it is dangerous to put out to sea. There is safety in the very heart of danger.
• I want to paint what I feel, and feel what I paint.
• As my work is, so am I.
• The love of art is the undoing of true love.
• When one has fire within oneself, one cannot keep bottling [it] up—better to burn than to burst. What is in will out.
• For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.
• I do not say that my work is good, but it's the least bad that I can do. All the rest, relations with people, is very secondary, because I have no talent for that. I can't help it.
• What is wrought in sorrow lives for all time.
• What I draw, I see clearly. In these [drawings] I can talk with enthusiasm. I have found a voice.
• Enjoy yourself too much rather than too little, and don't take art or love too seriously.
• But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.

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Vincent van gogh (1853–1890).

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Department of European Paintings , The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 2004 (originally published) March 2010 (last revised)

Vincent van Gogh, the eldest son of a Dutch Reformed minister and a bookseller’s daughter, pursued various vocations, including that of an art dealer and clergyman, before deciding to become an artist at the age of twenty-seven. Over the course of his decade-long career (1880–90), he produced nearly 900 paintings and more than 1,100 works on paper. Ironically, in 1890, he modestly assessed his artistic legacy as of “very secondary” importance.

Largely self-taught, Van Gogh gained his footing as an artist by zealously copying prints and studying nineteenth-century drawing manuals and lesson books, such as Charles Bargue’s Exercises au fusain and cours de dessin . He felt that it was necessary to master black and white before working with color, and first concentrated on learning the rudiments of figure drawing and rendering landscapes in correct perspective. In 1882, he moved from his parents’ home in Etten to the Hague, where he received some formal instruction from his cousin, Anton Mauve, a leading Hague School artist. That same year, he executed his first independent works in watercolor and ventured into oil painting; he also enjoyed his first earnings as an artist: his uncle, the art dealer Cornelis Marinus van Gogh, commissioned two sets of drawings of Hague townscapes for which Van Gogh chose to depict such everyday sites as views of the railway station, gasworks, and nursery gardens ( 1972.118.281 ).

Van Gogh’s admiration for the Barbizon artists, in particular Jean-François Millet, influenced his decision to paint rural life. In the winter of 1884–85, while living with his parents in Nuenen, he painted more than forty studies of peasant heads, which culminated in his first multifigured, large-scale composition ( The Potato Eaters , Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam); in this gritty portrayal of a peasant family at mealtime, Van Gogh wrote that he sought to express that they “have tilled the earth themselves with the same hands they are putting in the dish.” Its dark palette and coarse application of paint typify works from the artist’s Nuenen period ( 67.187.70b ;  1984.393 ).

Interested in honing his skills as a figure painter, Van Gogh left the Netherlands in late 1885 to study at the Antwerp Academy in Belgium. Three months later, he departed for Paris, where he lived with his brother Theo, an art dealer with the firm of Boussod, Valadon et Cie, and for a time attended classes at Fernand Cormon’s studio. Van Gogh’s style underwent a major transformation during his two-year stay in Paris (February 1886–February 1888). There he saw the work of the Impressionists first-hand and also witnessed the latest innovations by the Neo-Impressionists Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. In response, Van Gogh lightened his palette and experimented with the broken brushstrokes of the Impressionists as well as the pointillist touch of the Neo-Impressionists, as evidenced in the handling of his Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat ( 67.187.70a ), which was painted in the summer of 1887 on the reverse of an earlier peasant study ( 67.187.70b ). In Paris, he executed more than twenty self-portraits that reflect his ongoing exploration of complementary color contrasts and a bolder style.

In February 1888, Van Gogh departed Paris for the south of France, hoping to establish a community of artists in Arles. Captivated by the clarity of light and the vibrant colors of the Provençal spring, Van Gogh produced fourteen paintings of orchards in less than a month, painting outdoors and varying his style and technique. The composition and calligraphic handling of The Flowering Orchard ( 56.13 ) suggest the influence of Japanese prints , which Van Gogh collected. The artist’s debt to ukiyo-e prints is also apparent in the reed pen drawings he made in Arles, distinguished by their great verve and linear invention ( 48.190.1 ). In August, he painted the still lifes Oleanders ( 62.24 ) and Shoes ( 1992.374 ); each work resonates with the artist’s personal symbolism. For Van Gogh, oleanders were joyous and life-affirming (much like the sunflower); he reinforced their significance with the compositional prominence accorded to Émile Zola’s 1884 novel La joie de vivre . The still life of unlaced shoes, which Van Gogh had apparently hung in Paul Gauguin ‘s “yellow room” at Arles, suggested, to Gauguin, the artist himself—he saw them as emblematic of Van Gogh’s itinerant existence.

Gauguin joined Van Gogh in Arles in October and abruptly departed in late December 1888, a move precipitated by Van Gogh’s breakdown, during which he cut off part of his left ear with a razor. Upon his return from the hospital in January, he resumed working on a portrait of the wife of the postmaster Joseph Roulin; although he painted all the members of the Roulin family, Van Gogh produced five versions of Madame Roulin as La Berceuse , shown holding the rope that rocks her newborn daughter’s cradle ( 1996.435 ). He envisioned her portrait as the central panel of a triptych, flanked by paintings of sunflowers. For Van Gogh, her image transcended portraiture, symbolically resonating as a modern Madonna; of its palette, which ranges from ocher to vermilion and malachite, Van Gogh expressed his desire that it “sing a lullaby with color,” underscoring the expressive role of color in his art.

Fearing another breakdown, Van Gogh voluntarily entered the asylum at nearby Saint-Rémy in May 1889, where, over the course of the next year, he painted some 150 canvases. His initial confinement to the grounds of the hospital is reflected in his imagery, from his depictions of its corridors ( 48.190.2 ) to the irises and lilacs of its walled garden, visible from the window of the spare room he was allotted to use as a studio. Venturing beyond the grounds of the hospital, he painted the surrounding countryside, devoting series to its olive groves ( 1998.325.1 ) and cypresses, which he saw as characteristic of Provence. In June, he produced two paintings of cypresses, rendered in thick, impastoed layers of paint ( 49.30 ; Cypresses , Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo), likening the form of a cypress to an Egyptian obelisk in a letter to his brother Theo. These evocative trees figure prominently in a landscape, produced the same month ( 1993.132 ). Van Gogh regarded this work, with its sun-drenched wheat field undulating in the wind, as one of his “best” summer canvases. At Saint-Rémy, he also painted copies of works by such artists as Delacroix, Rembrandt , and Millet, using black-and-white photographs and prints. In fall and winter 1889–90, he executed twenty-one copies after Millet ( 64.165.2 ); he described his copies as “interpretations” or “translations,” comparing his role as an artist to that of a musician playing music written by another composer. During his last week at the asylum, he extended his repertoire of still life by painting four bouquets of Irises ( 58.187 ) and Roses ( 1993.400.5 ) as a final series comparable to the sunflower decoration he made earlier in Arles.

After a year at Saint-Rémy, Van Gogh left, in May 1890, to settle in Auvers-sur-Oise, where he was near his brother Theo in Paris and under the care of Dr. Paul Gachet, a homeopathic physician and amateur painter. In just over two months, Van Gogh averaged a painting a day; however, on July 27, 1890, he shot himself in the chest in a wheat field; he died two days later. His artistic legacy is preserved in the paintings and drawings he left behind, as well as in his voluminous correspondence, primarily with Theo, which lays bare his working methods and artistic intentions and serves as a reminder of his brother’s pivotal role as a mainstay of support throughout his career.

By the time of his death in 1890, Van Gogh’s work had begun to attract critical attention. His paintings were featured at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris between 1888 and 1890 and with Les XX in Brussels in 1890. As Gauguin wrote to him, his recent works, on view at the Indépendants in Paris, were regarded by many artists as “the most remarkable” in the show; and one of his paintings sold from the 1890 exhibition in Brussels. In January 1890, the critic Albert Aurier published the first full-length article on Van Gogh, aligning his art with the nascent Symbolist movement and highlighting the originality and intensity of his artistic vision. By the outbreak of World War I, with the discovery of his genius by the Fauves and German Expressionists, Vincent van Gogh had already come to be regarded as a vanguard figure in the history of modern art.

Department of European Paintings. “Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890).” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gogh/hd_gogh.htm (originally published October 2004, last revised March 2010)

Further Reading

Brooks, David. Vincent van Gogh: The Complete Works . CD-ROM. Sharon, Mass.: Barewalls Publications, 2002.

Dorn, Roland, et al. Van Gogh Face to Face: The Portraits . New York: Thames & Hudson, 2000.

Druick, Douglas W., et al. Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South . Exhibition catalogue. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2001.

Ives, Colta, et al. Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings . Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. See on MetPublications

Kendall, Richard. Van Gogh's Van Gogh's: Masterpieces from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam . Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1998.

The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh . 3 vols. Boston: Bullfinch Press, 2000.

Pickvance, Ronald. Van Gogh in Arles . New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1984. See on MetPublications

Pickvance, Ronald. Van Gogh in Saint-Rémy and Auvers . New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986. See on MetPublications

Selected and edited by Ronald de Leeuw. The Letters of Vincent van Gogh . London: Penguin, 2006.

Stein, Susan Alyson, ed. Van Gogh: A Retrospective . New York: New Line Books, 2006.

Stolwijk, Chris, and Richard Thomson. Theo van Gogh . Amsterdam: Van Gogh Museum, 1999.

Vincent van Gogh: The Letters. Online resource.

Additional Essays by Department of European Paintings

• Department of European Paintings. “ The Rediscovery of Classical Antiquity .” (October 2002)
• Department of European Paintings. “ Architecture in Renaissance Italy .” (October 2002)
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Biography of Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh received a fragmentary education: one year at the village school in Zundert, two years at a boarding school in Zevenbergen, and eighteen months at a high school in Tilburg. At sixteen he began working at the Hague gallery of the French art dealers Goupil et Cie., in which his uncle Vincent was a partner. His brother Theo, who was born 1 May 1857, later worked for the same firm. In 1873 Goupil's transferred Vincent to London, and two years later they moved him to Paris, where he lost all ambition to become an art dealer. Instead, he immersed himself in religion, threw out his modern, worldly book, and became "daffy with piety", in the words of his sister Elisabeth. He took little interest in his work, and was dismissed from his job at the beginning of 1876.

Van Gogh then took a post as an assistant teacher in England, but, disappointed by the lack of prospects, returned to Holland at the end of the year. He now decided to follow in his father's footsteps and become a clergyman. Although disturbed by his fanaticism and odd behavior, his parents agreed to pay for the private lessons he would need to gain admission to the university. This proved to be another false start. Van Gogh abandoned the lessons, and after brief training as an evangelist went to the Borinage coal-mining region in the south of Belgium. His ministry among the miners led him to identify deeply with the workers and their families. In 1897, however, his appointment was not renewed, and his parents despaired, regarding him as a social misfit. In an unguarded moment, his father even spoke of committing him to a mental asylum.

Vincent, too, was at his wits' end, and after a long period of solitary soul-searching in the Borinage he decided to follow Theo's advice and become an artist. His earlier desire to help his fellowman was an evangelist gradually developed into an urge, as he later wrote, to leave mankind "some memento in the form of drawings of paintings - not made to please any particular movement, but to express a sincere human feeling."

His parents could not go along with this latest change of course, and financial responsibility for Vincent passed to his brother Theo, who was now working in the Paris gallery of Boussod, Valadon et Cie., the successor to Goupil's. It was because of Theo's loyal support that Van Gogh later came to regard his oeuvre as the fruits of his brother's efforts on his behalf. A lengthy correspondence between the two brothers (which began in August 1872) would continue until the last days of Vincent's life.

When Van Gogh decided to become an artist, no one, not even himself, suspected that he had extraordinary gifts. His evolution from an inept but impassioned novice into a truly original master was remarkably rapid. He eventually proved to have an exceptional feel for bold, harmonious color effects, and an infallible instinct for choosing simple but memorable compositions.

In order to prepare for his new career, Van Gogh went to Brussels to study at the academy, but left after only nine months. There he got to know Anthon van Rappard, who was to be his most important artist friend during his Dutch period.

In April 1881, Van Gogh went to live with his parents in Etten in North Brabant, where he set himself the task of learning how to draw. He experimented endlessly with all sorts of drawing materials, and concentrated on mastering technical aspects of his craft like perspective, anatomy, and physiognomy. Most of his subjects were taken from peasant life.

At the end of 1881 he moved to The Hague, and there, too, he concentrated mainly on drawing. At first he took lessons from Anton Mauve, his cousin by marriage, but the two soon fell out, partly because Mauve was scandalized by Vincent's relationship with Sien Hoornik, a pregnant prostitute who already had an illegitimate child. Van Gogh made a few paintings while in The Hague , but drawing was his main passion. In order to achieve his ambition of becoming a figure painter, he drew from the live model whenever he could.

In September 1883 he decided to break off the relationship with Sien and follow in the footsteps of artists like Van Rappard and Mauve by trying his luck in the picturesque eastern province of Drenthe, which was fairly inaccessible in those days. After three months, however, a lack of both drawing materials and models forced him to leave. He decided once again to move in with his parents, who were now living in the North Brabant village of Nuenen, near Eindhoven.

In Nuenen, Van Gogh first began painting regularly, modeling himself chiefly on the French painter Jean-Francois Millet (1814 - 1875), who was famous throughout Europe for his scenes of the harsh life of peasants. Van Gogh set to work with an iron will, depicting the life of the villagers and humble workers. he made numerous scenes of weavers. In May 1884, he moved into rooms he had rented from the sacristan of local Catholic church, one of which he used as his studio.

At the end of 1884 he began painting and drawing a major series of heads and work-roughened peasant hands in preparation for a large and complex figure piece that he was planning. In April 1885 this period of study came to fruition in the masterpiece of his Dutch period, The Potato Eaters

In the summer of that year, he made a large number of drawings of the peasants working in the fields. The supply of models dried up, however, when the local priest forbade his parishioners to pose for the vicar's son. He turned to painting landscape instead, inspired in part by a visit to recently opened Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

I feel - a failure. That's it as far as I'm concerned - I feel that this is the destiny that I accept, that will never change. ”

He nevertheless continued working hard during his two months in Auvers, producing dozens of paintings and drawings. On 27 July 1890, Vincent van Gogh was shot in the stomach, and passed away in the early morning of 29 July 1890 in his room at the Auberge Ravoux in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise. Although official history maintains that Van Gogh committed suicide, the latest research reveals that Van Gogh's death might be caused by an accident.

Theo, who had stored the bulk of Vincent's work in Paris, died six months later. His widow, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger (1862 - 1925), returned to Holland with the collection, and dedicated herself to getting her brother-in-law the recognition he deserved. In 1914, with his fame assured, she published Vincent van Gogh's letters between the two brothers.

The Starry Night

Café Terrace at Night

Vincent van Gogh's Letters

Van Gogh Self Portrait

The Starry Night over the Rhone

Wheatfield with Crows

The Night Cafe

The Potato Eaters

The Yellow House

Almond Blossom

The Church at Auvers

At Eternity's Gate by Vincent van Gogh

Portrait of Dr. Gachet

Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin by Vincent van Gogh

Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) was a Dutch post-impressionist artist whose paintings are amongst the most popular and recognizable in history. His dramatic brushwork, exuberant palette, and mastery at capturing moments in time and light revolutionised art. Only recognised at the end of his life, his struggles and triumphs have coloured exactly what we imagine it is to be an artist.

Works like Sunflowers , Café Terrace at Night , and The Starry Night have transcended the world of painting to become iconic symbols, not only of a single artist but a whole time period and art movement. Van Gogh's unique way of looking at the world was ahead of its time with the consequence that, unable to earn a living from his work or reconcile his doubts as to the value of his achievements and overcome his mental crisis, he committed suicide, alone and penniless. Not only did van Gogh leave the world the great gift of his visionary paintings but his letters, written to his younger brother Theo (1857-1891) and others, give us a fascinating and, at times, heartbreaking insight into how Vincent battled rejection, indifference, and self-harm to achieve his goals in art and life.

Van Gogh painted around 870 oil paintings in his short career, as well as sketches and watercolours. In addition, we have a tremendous amount of detail on what Vincent got up to when he was not painting thanks to him being a prolific letter writer. The artist wrote over 650 letters to Theo, and 41 replies survive from Theo. His younger brother helped him financially and with materials throughout his career; he also gave advice regarding his art and kept Vincent up-to-date with developments in the art world. Another 100 or so letters survive written to other relatives and artists. Many letters contain sketches that can reveal the planning stage of paintings and their dates. Then there are the 43 self-portraits. Neither the letters nor the portraits are unbiased, naturally, but they mean we can pursue the career of the artist from multiple directions besides mere paint and canvas.

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853 in Groot-Zundert, the Netherlands. His mother was Anna Cornelia Carbentus (1819-1907) and his father, Theodorus (1822-1885), was a pastor in the Dutch Reformed Church. Significantly, three of Vincent's uncles worked in the art trade . Vincent did well at school in Zevenbergen and Tilburg, and he took an interest in drawing. His drawing master at Tilburg, C. C. Huysmans, not only encouraged Vincent to copy old paintings, as was standard practice, but also, unusually, to copy nature. None of his surviving early drawings suggests the great talent within. In July 1869, Vincent joined the firm Goupil & Cie in the Hague branch. The company sold art prints and originals. Vincent did well, and in January 1873, he was transferred to the Brussels branch. In June, he moved to the London branch. Vincent continued to sketch, visited the capital's many galleries, and developed a taste for English poetry.

Between 1874 and 1875, Vincent transferred to the Paris branch of Goupil's, then returned to London, then was back in Paris. All was not well, and he was dismissed in the spring of 1876. Next followed a teaching post in Ramsgate, England , and then a teaching role under the auspices of a Reverend Jones, which saw him preach in various villages outside London. Unable, it seems, to settle anywhere for very long, Vincent next turned up selling books in Dordrecht as 1876 came to a close. By now intent on a career in the Church, Vincent moved to Amsterdam in May 1877 to prepare for the theological entrance exam. Meanwhile, he continued to sketch, this time focussing on landscapes.

Van Gogh seems to have been determined to bring some kind of religious consolation to the peasantry, and in July 1878, he tried to become an evangelical missionary. Spending three months training in Brussels, Vincent was a poor speaker and was not given a post, but he went anyway to a mining town in the Borinage region of Belgium in December 1878. Eventually gaining official support, Vincent then promptly lost it in July 1879 when it was discovered he had given away practically all of his belongings to the poor. Vincent continued on his one-man mission for another 12 months until his religious zeal was quenched. His art continued in sketch form, especially of miners, and he studied art theory books to improve his draughtsmanship. At some point in 1879, he made the definitive decision to become a full-time artist. By October 1880, he was back in Brussels and hoping to join the Academy of Art there, but he soon ran out of cash and was obliged to return to his parents' home in Etten in April 1881. By 1882, a trip to The Hague and his artist cousin Anton Mauve (a prominent member of The Hague School) had given Vincent the courage to begin to paint in watercolours, a move encouraged by Theo. It was in this period that Vincent's advances towards his cousin Kee Vos-Stricker were rebuffed. A brief visit home ended with a quarrel with his father, possibly over Vincent not wanting to attend church anymore. Back in The Hague and with the help of Mauve, Vincent set up his first studio.

Vincent van Gogh: A Gallery of 30 Paintings

A full-time artist.

With his attic studio at Shenkweg, The Hague, Vincent began to use as a model a seamstress and former prostitute, Clasina Maria Hoornik (called Sien). Vincent and Sien then lived together, the artist also supporting Sien's mother and his model's two children, an act of kindness which neither his parents nor fellow artists in The Hague approved of. Cousin Mauve withdrew his support, perhaps not impressed with Vincent's progress and after the two had argued on how to improve the technical side of his drawing. Vincent continued his own methodology, studying illustrations and experimenting in lithography. One typical sketch of this period is an old man with his head in his hands in despair; Vincent gave it the title At Eternity's Gate . A mark of his progress was a commission from his uncle Cornelis Marinus for a series of views of The Hague. Then, a visit from Theo in August 1882, who brought him the supplies, led to a move into oil painting. This was a risk since oil paints were expensive, but Vincent persevered, and his letters show that he revelled in the exploration of colours.

Theo was now essentially paying for Vincent's living costs, and to lessen the burden in September 1883, the artist moved to a cheaper location, Drenthe, leaving behind Sien. Not staying long, Vincent moved around the Netherlands, painting landscapes and labourers at work in the fields.

In December 1883, Vincent was back with his parents at Nuenen, although his studio was in the village. Theodorus van Gogh died in March 1885, and this put further strain on the artist's relationship with his family. He continued to paint, notably winter scenes and local weavers. A commission came for six sketches of peasant life, an all too rare case of Vincent contributing to his living costs, which were now being met by Theo with regular monthly payments. Another small source of cash was Vincent teaching a handful of local artists. Another episode of unrequited love hit Vincent when his marriage proposal to Margot Begemann, a neighbour, was refused, largely because of the disapproval of her family. Artistically, Vincent's work was maturing, and in April 1885, he produced his first great canvas, The Potato Eaters , a work he himself highly valued. He was also experimenting with brighter colours. In November 1885, Vincent was looking for new ideas, and he left for Antwerp, then in March 1886, after an unsuccessful stint studying at the Academy, he moved on to the very centre of the European art world in the late 19th century: Paris.

Vincent joined up with Theo in Paris, and the pair shared an apartment for the next two years. From his arrival in March, Vincent visited galleries, and he learnt first-hand from fellow artists of the new movement in art – impressionism – and its preoccupation with light and capturing a particular scene at a particular moment with quick brushstrokes and dramatic colours. Vincent studied under the painter Félix Cormon, copying plaster casts and exploring colours in still life works of flowers. He also encountered the Japanese prints that had become popular in Europe and which he greatly admired for their boldness of colour and composition. He painted panoramas of Paris, especially Montmartre, a whole series of windmills, and the first of his many self-portraits.

Vincent struggled to get any of his paintings exhibited, except by friends of the impressionists like "Père" Tanguy (1825-1894), who owned an art supplies shop in Montmartre, accepting paintings as payment for materials. Vincent painted Tanguy three times. Vincent organised his own exhibition of modern artists in the rooms of a restaurant in November-December 1887, showing many of his own paintings and by fellow artists like Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). A few of the other works were sold, but none of Vincent's. The artist did sell a still life to a dealer in this period, and he often paid for meals in cafés by giving the proprietor a painting. His now-famous Self-portrait with Grey Hat (1887-8) belongs to this period, and the bold brushstrokes and use of colours demonstrate what is yet to come.

Southern France

Tired of the rivalry between artists in Paris and seeking warmer weather to boost his frail health, Vincent moved to Arles in the south of France in February 1888, where he began by far the most productive period of his career, rattling off countless paintings. While not isolated from company, Vincent did struggle to make meaningful relations with southern artists. Instead, he befriended people like Joseph Roulin, the local postman who he painted several times.

Vincent was impressed with the sunlight of southern France, and his palette was now bright and bold. The subjects are much simpler in composition than previous works (although he curiously ignored the many Roman ruins of the region). In the spring, he captured blossom trees in works like Pink Peach Trees . As summer came on, the sun and yellow fields were brilliantly captured in such works as the Sower with Setting Sun . He painted seascapes and captured more local colour at Sainte-Maries-de-la-Mer. Arles, though, dominates with scenes depicted in fiercely contrasting and saturated colours like the yellow and blue of the Café Terrace at Night and the red and green of The Night Café . By August, he had begun his startling series of sunflowers, created as a mere decoration for his home, the Yellow House. September's Starry Night over the Rhône shows that the artist is undaunted by the practicalities of impressionistic plein air (open-air) painting. His colours are now intense, the form and space are often exaggerated. Vivid monochrome backgrounds, often textured to contrast with the smoother main subject, mix with swirling brushstrokes of liberally-applied paint. He has blended impressionism with symbolism, where a painting is created to provoke the imagination and prompt an emotional response from the viewer. The inimitable van Gogh style has arrived.

Mental Instability

Vincent hoped to form an artist's community in Arles, and he invited such young painters as Gauguin and Emile Bernard (1868-1941). The former did come to Arles in October 1888, and the pair lived and worked together, both funded by Theo. The two painters influenced each other – Vincent's bright colours on Gauguin's palette, and Gauguin's encouragement that the Dutchman experiment with different subjects. Cooped up indoors as the mistral wind blew, the two strong characters often clashed, especially over art; Vincent described their arguments as "electric," and Gauguin describes even threats of violence. The crisis came on 23 December. After yet another argument, Gauguin spent the night in a hotel, and when he returned to the Yellow House the next morning, he was surprised to see the police. During the night, Vincent had cut off a part of his ear and presented it to a local prostitute. He was sent to hospital, and Theo was summoned from Paris. Gauguin left Arles immediately after the incident. Vincent put the attack down to a fever and lack of nutrition; by January, he was back painting, but more attacks of his illness, whatever it was, would follow.

In May 1889, Vincent voluntarily admitted himself to the asylum of Saint- Paul -de-Mausole in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Still the artist suffered attacks, but in between, he was permitted to continue painting. Like his spirits, Vincent's palette is now noticeably muted. Perhaps this return to more sober works was an attempt to recapture his earlier ambition of becoming a painter of northern peasant life. It may also be significant that he now created a new version of The Potato Eaters . Doctors at the asylum diagnosed the artist's illness as epilepsy. Studies in the 20th and 21st century have come up with other theories for the artist's mental instability, notably schizophrenia or the effects of syphilis (he was treated for a venereal disease while in The Hague) or overconsumption of absinthe or a combination of all four maladies. In his own letters, Vincent mentions "the artist's madness" (LT 574), but he makes little connection between his illness and his work; he treats them as being quite independent.

Making some improvement healthwise, Vincent was permitted to paint in the nearby fields and olive orchards, but another attack occurred during which he ate some of his oil paints. Intermittent attacks followed through to February 1890, and the recovery periods lengthened. In May 1890, following consultation with Theo and on the advice of Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Vincent went to consult with Dr Paul Gachet (1828-1909) in Auvers-sur-Oise in northern France. Gachet was a physician, heart specialist, and advocate of homoeopathy, he was also a good friend of the impressionists. Vincent stayed in a local inn and regularly visited Gachet, painting his portrait and the many flowers in his garden. Perhaps sensitive to an end of things, the artist was more prolific than ever, painting a new canvas almost every day.

Death & Legacy

On 27 July, van Gogh, after painting in a field, suffered another attack. He shot himself in the chest with a pistol but managed to drag himself back to his inn. Theo was once again called. Vincent was still alive when his brother arrived, but he died from his wound in the morning of 29 July. An added tragedy was that the artist was just beginning to arouse the interest of art critics. A few months prior to his death, some of Vincent's works had been exhibited in Paris and Brussels (where he sold a painting). The fallen artist was buried in the cemetery of Auvers.

Vincent van Gogh's works were exhibited from as early as the 1890s in Amsterdam, Paris, and elsewhere as the symbolism movement took off. Van Gogh came to be seen by some as a bridge between impressionism, with its concern with transient light and colour, and expressionism, which saw artists attempt to convey their exaggerated inner emotional turmoil. He is generally classed as a post-impressionist painter, someone who uses the techniques of impressionism but is also interested in symbolism and permanent emotional expression in their work. Whatever group he is placed within in the history of art, the public and collectors were in no doubt as to the value of his contribution. Van Gogh's paintings have commanded a price tag of millions of dollars at auctions from the mid-20th century onwards.

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Van Gogh is much more than just an artist, though. His choice to sign some of his paintings with a simple 'Vincent' has, along with his instantly recognisable style, his candid letters, and painful struggles with mental health, given the artist's life an intimacy that has helped personalise the relationship between artist and viewer like no other. The 'mad genius,' the 'tortured artist,' and the 'unrecognised talent' are all ideas that the van Gogh myth has contributed to world art and culture regardless of their validity. Few artists have captured our imaginations and intrigued us just as much by their lives as by their art like Vincent van Gogh has. This empathy is, perhaps, no accident, for it is precisely what Vincent strived to achieve: "I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart" (LT 218D).

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Bibliography

• Bouruet Aubortot, Veronique. Impressionism. Flammarion, 2017.
• Denvir, Bernard. Post-Impressionism . Thames & Hudson, 1992.
• Howard, Michael. Encyclopedia of Impressionism. Thunder Bay Pr, 1997.
• McQuillan, Melissa & Van Gogh, Vincent. Van Gogh . Thames & Hudson, 1989.
• Metzger, Rainer & Walther, Ingo F. Van Gogh. La obra completa - pintura . TASCHEN, 2015.
• Roe, Sue. The Private Lives of the Impressionists. Harper Perennial, 2007.
• Thomson, Belinda. Impressionism. Thames & Hudson, 2022.
• Van Gogh, Vincent (ed. Leeuw). The Letters of Vincent van Gogh . Penguin Classics, 1998.

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Cartwright, Mark. " Vincent van Gogh ." World History Encyclopedia . Last modified March 17, 2022. https://www.worldhistory.org/Vincent_van_Gogh/.

Cartwright, Mark. " Vincent van Gogh ." World History Encyclopedia . World History Encyclopedia, 17 Mar 2022. Web. 22 Oct 2024.

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