Artist van gogh paintings biography. Biography of van gogh. Trip to London. An important stage in life

Vincent Willem Van Gogh (1853-1890) is a famous Dutch artist who, with his work, had a huge impact on the painting of the XIX-XX centuries. His career was short-lived, only ten years, but during this time he managed to create about 2100 paintings, of which 860 were painted in oil. He worked in the artistic direction of post-impressionism. He painted portraits, landscapes, still lifes, self-portraits. He lived in poverty and constant anxiety, lost his mind and committed suicide, only after that critics appreciated his great work.

Birth and family

Vincent was born in the southern Dutch province of North Brabant, which is located near the border with Belgium. There was a small village Grot-Zundert, where the future great artist was born on March 30, 1853.

His father, Theodore Van Gogh, born in 1822, was a Protestant pastor.
Mom, Anna Cornelia Carbentus, was from The Hague, which is located in the west of the Netherlands. Her father bound and sold books.

In total, seven children were born in the family, Vincent was the second, but the oldest, because the first child died. The name Vincent, meaning "winner", was intended for the first son, mother and father dreamed that he would grow up, become successful in life and glorify their family. That was the name of my paternal grandfather, who served all his life in the Protestant church. But after a month and a half from birth, the child died, his death was a heavy blow, the parents were inconsolable in their grief. However, a year passed and they had a second baby, whom it was decided to name again Vincent in honor of his deceased brother. He became that great winner who brought glory to the name Van Gogh.

Two years after the birth of Vincent, a girl named Anna Cornelia appeared in the family. In 1857, the boy Theodorus (Theo) was born, who later became a famous dealer of paintings in Holland, in 1859 the sister of Elizabeth Hubert (Liz), in 1862 another sister of Willemin Jacob (Wil), and in 1867 the boy Cornelis (Cor) ...

Childhood

Among all the children, Vincent was the most tedious, difficult and wayward, distinguished by strange manners, for which he often received punishments. The governess, who was involved in raising children, loved Vincent less than the others and did not believe that something worthwhile could come out of him.

He grew up gloomy and lonely. While the rest of the children ran around the house and prevented his father from preparing for the pastor's sermon, Vincent retired. He went to wander around the countryside, carefully examining the plants and flowers, weaving braids from woolen threads, combining bright shades and admiring the play of colors.

However, as soon as Vincent left the family environment and found himself among people, he became a completely different child. Among the villagers, completely different sides of his character were manifested - modesty, good nature, compassion, friendliness, courtesy. People saw in him a sweet, quiet, thoughtful and serious child.

Surprisingly, such duality then pursued the artist until the end of his days. He really wanted to have a family and children, but he lived his life alone. He worked for people, and they answered him with ridicule.

Among the brothers and sisters, Vincent was the closest to Theo, their friendship lasted until the artist's last breath. Van Gogh himself recalled his childhood as empty, cold and gloomy.

Education

When Vincent was seven years old, his parents sent him to study at a village school. However, a year later they were taken away from there, and the boy received his education at home from the governess.

In the fall of 1864, he was taken to a boarding school, which was located 20 kilometers from his native village, in the town of Zevenbergen. Departure from his home left a deep impression on the boy, he suffered greatly and remembered this all his life. During this period, Van Gogh made his first sketches and copies of lithographs.

Two years later, he was transferred to another boarding school, it was the college of Willem II in the city of Tilburg. Best of all, the teenager was given foreign languages, and here he began to learn drawing.

In the early spring of 1868, while his studies had not yet ended, Vincent dropped out of college and went home to his parents. This was the end of his formal education. Parents were very worried that their son had grown up so unsociable. They were also worried that Vincent was not attracted to any profession. As soon as the father started a conversation with him about the need to work, the son agreed with him, shortly answering: "Of course, work is a necessary condition for human existence."

Youth

Van Gogh's father served all his life in not very prestigious parishes, so he dreamed that his son would have a good high-paying job. He turned to his brother, whose name was also Vincent, to help arrange young Van Gogh somewhere. Uncle Saint used to work in a large art and trade firm, but he had already retired and was gradually engaged in the sale of paintings in The Hague. However, he remained in touch, and in the summer of 1869 he gave his nephew his recommendations and helped to get a job in the Hague branch of the firm "Gupil".

Here Vincent completed his initial training as a picture dealer and began to work with great zeal. He showed good results, and in the summer of 1873 the guy was transferred to the London branch from this company.

Every day, due to the nature of his service, he had to deal with works of art, and the guy began to understand painting perfectly, and not only understand, but also deeply appreciate it. On weekends, he went to city galleries, antique shops and museums, where he admired the works of French artists Jules Breton and Jean-François Millet. I tried to draw myself, but then, looking at each new drawing, I grinned with displeasure.

In London, he lived in an apartment with the widow of the priest, Ursula Loyer. Vincent fell in love with the owner's daughter Eugene. But the girl's young boy, who speaks bad English, caused only a sense of fun. Van Gogh invited Eugenia to become his wife. She gave a sharp refusal, saying that she had been engaged for a long time, and he, a provincial Flemish, was not interesting to her. Vincent received such a blow for the first time, but the consequences of this mental wound remained for life.

Young Van Gogh was crushed, he did not want to work or live. Vincent wrote in letters to his brother Theo that only God helps him to survive, and, probably, he will become a priest, like his grandfather and father.

In the late spring of 1875, Vincent was transferred to work in Paris. But the lost interest in life led to the fact that he was fired due to poor performance of his duties, even the patronage of Uncle Sent did not help. Van Gogh returned to London, where he worked for some time in a boarding school as an unpaid teacher.

Finding yourself

In 1878, Vincent went home to the Netherlands. He was already 25 years old, and he had not yet decided how to continue to live. Parents sent their son to Amsterdam, where he settled with Uncle Jan and began to diligently prepare for entering the university at the Faculty of Theology. Very soon, the study disappointed young Van Gogh, he wanted to be as useful as possible for ordinary people, and he decided to leave for the south of Belgium.

Vincent came to the Borinage mining area as a priest. He rescued miners who fell under the rubble, held conversations with dying people, read sermons to miners. With the last money he bought wax and lamp oil, tore his clothes into bandages. He did not have the slightest idea about medicine, but he helped hopeless patients, and soon they began to consider him "out of this world."

At the same time, Vincent constantly had a desire to draw. He wanted to jot down on paper every object that came along the way. But Van Gogh understood that drawing would distract him from his main business and decided not to start. Every time he wanted to pick up a brush or pencil, he said a firm "no".

He had nothing. He could not even think about women after Evgenia's refusal. Theo's younger brother helped Vincent with money. Relatives insisted that it was time to give up their sermons, which did not bring income and return to life, to acquire a home and family.

Creative way

In the end, Vincent decided to listen to the reproaches of his relatives, he left the sermons and determined for himself the only desired and true path in life - drawing. In this case, he had no experience, but as Van Gogh himself said: "Where there is a desire, there will be a way out." He began to master the technique of drawing, study the laws of perspective, for the sake of art he was ready to endure all sorts of hardships.

In 1880, Brother Theo helped Vincent financially so that he could go to Brussels to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. After studying there for four months, Van Gogh had a fight with the teacher and went home to his parents. At this time, his cousin Kee Vos-Stricker was staying with them, with whom Vincent tried to establish a love relationship. The woman who liked him rejected him again. Unable to suffer any more failures on the love front, Van Gogh decided to forever tie up with attempts to create a family and devote his life only to drawing.

He moved to The Hague, where the landscape painter Anton Mauve became his teacher in the world of painting. Van Gogh still had no money, Theo supported him. Vincent began to work very hard to thank his younger brother for his kindness and patronage. He walked a lot around the city, studying every little thing, especially the artist was interested in the poor quarters. This is how his first paintings "Backyards" and "Roofs" appeared. View from Van Gogh's workshop ”.

Soon from The Hague, Vincent left for the province of Drenthe in the north-east of the Netherlands. There he rented a hotel hut, equipped it as a workshop and painted landscapes from morning to night. He was also very interested in the topic of peasants, their everyday life and work.

The lack of art education still affected the paintings of Van Gogh, it was problematic for him to depict human figures. This is how his own style developed, in which a person was deprived of graceful, smooth, measured movements, he seemed to merge with nature and became an integral part of it. This approach is clearly visible in his paintings:

• "A peasant woman at the hearth";
• “Two Women in the Moorland”;
• "Digging Peasant Woman";
• "Villagers Planting Potatoes";
• “Two women in the forest”;
• "Two peasant women digging potatoes."

In 1886, the artist moved from Drenthe to Paris to live with his brother. This fruitful period was marked in the work of Van Gogh by the fact that his palette became much lighter. Previously, in his paintings, earthy colors prevailed, but now there is a purity of blue, red, golden yellow colors:

• "Exterior of a restaurant in Asnieres";
• "Bridges along the Seine at Asnier";
• "Daddy Tanguy";
• "On the outskirts of Paris";
• Factories in Asnieres;
• Sunset in Montmartre;
• "Corner of the Park d'Argenson in Asnieres";
• "Courtyard of the hospital in Henri".

Unfortunately, the public did not accept or buy Van Gogh's paintings in any way. This inflicted mental anguish on the artist. But he continued to work day and night, while he could sit for weeks on end only on tobacco, absinthe and coffee.

The last years of life and death

The consumption of large amounts of absinthe as a result led to the development of mental disorders. Once during an attack, Vincent cut off a lobe on his ear, after which he was placed in a psychiatric hospital in a violent ward.

In the spring of 1889, he was transferred to an institution for the mentally ill in Saint-Remy-de-Provence. Here he lived for a year, during which time he painted about 150 paintings.

At the end of 1889, his work first aroused genuine interest at the Brussels exhibition, and in January 1890 an enthusiastic article about Van Gogh's paintings was published. However, the artist was no longer happy with anything.

At the beginning of 1890 he was released from the clinic, and Van Gogh came to his brother. He managed to write his famous canvases:

• "Rural road with cypresses";
• Street and Staircase at Auvers;
• "Wheat field with crows".

And on July 27, 1890, Vincent shot himself with a revolver he bought to scare away birds while drawing. He missed and missed the heart, so he died only a day and a half later, on July 29, from blood loss. He left quietly without saying a word. Everything that he wanted to say to this world, Van Gogh depicted on his canvases. Exactly six months later, his younger brother Theo died.

During the artist's lifetime, only fourteen of his paintings were sold. A hundred years later, his work was included in the list of the most expensive paintings sold in the world. For example, Self-Portrait with a Cut Off Ear and a Pipe was sold to a private collection in the late 1990s for $ 90 million.

"Starry Night" is recognized as one of the most successful works of the artist. It was created in 1889 when Vincent was in a mental hospital. A masterpiece measuring 73.7 cm x 92.1 cm painted in the style of post-impressionism on canvas with oil.

The magical view of the night sky over a fictional city is best viewed from a distance. The artist often painted pictures using the impasto technique, creating large strokes that do not add up to a single image close up.

There are cypresses in the foreground, but the main element in the picture is the beautiful starry sky, which seems so endless compared to a small town.

The painting is part of the New York collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Sunflowers

The artist created this famous painting in 1889. It is filled with light and emotion. However, critics consider too bright yellow colors a manifestation of mental illness, which the genius already suffered at that time.

Sunflowers carelessly placed in a vase are drawn with vitality, you want to fix them in a vase. They evoke strong feelings, as if trying to lead the viewer into the irrational world of an inflamed imagination. Vincent said that some of the plots are prompted by a voice that sounds from within, and he has to draw to drown out these sounds.

The painting was painted on canvas in oil using thick strokes to create a three-dimensional image.

The work is kept in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

Irises

A wonderful painting by Van Gogh, painted in 1889 in a clinic for the mentally ill, depicts a fragment of a field with flowers, in which irises are the basis of the composition.

The style of the work differs from his other works, gloomy and pessimistic. It is cheerful and light, similar to the technique of Japanese prints with thin contours, original foreshortening and unrealistically drawn areas filled with one color.

The objects in the picture are static, but the gaze unconsciously rushes to the upper left. A feature of the picture is its symmetrical composition, in which the irises are located in the middle line, and the flowers in the upper left corner are combined with the ground.

This ingenious piece can be seen at the Getty Museum in California.

Night cafe

The painting, painted in 1888, shows the interior of a cafe next to the train station in the city of Arles.

The ingenious idea is that the emotional state associated with this place is conveyed through color accents. In the future, this style will be called expressionism. As Van Gogh explained, he wanted to convey the atmosphere of the moral decline of drunks and hopeless loneliness with the help of green.

The red color of the walls symbolizes horror and confusion, while yellow reflects the stuffy, suffocating, cigarette smoke-filled environment.

Fuzzy silhouettes and careless outlines of objects create the feeling that the viewer is looking at everything that happens in the cafe through the eyes of one of the tipsy visitors.

Blooming almond branches

In the year of his death, Van Gogh created a wonderful piece, distinguished by its gentleness and serenity. The artist dedicated this picture to his newborn nephew. Almond flowers represent the beginning of a new life, as they are among the first to bloom.

The composition of the painting and the characteristic clear contours are inspired by Japanese motives. Vincent once confessed to his brother that he considers this work to be his most important masterpiece.

Potato eaters

The sad realism of this work leaves a feeling of desperate melancholy and doom for a long time. The canvas was written in 1885 and belongs to the initial period of Van Gogh's work. In the picture, the artist depicted a peasant family of de Groot, with whom he often communicated.

Reflecting the harsh rural life, Van Gogh uses somber colors in shades of green. He paints with heavy, aggressive strokes, depicting calloused working hands and wrinkled, pensive faces.

The picture is filled with deep symbolism. The dim light of the lamp embodies dying hope, and the bars on the windows show that there is no way out of this beggarly existence. Van Gogh's idea was to convey that, despite the difficult life, these are honest and worthy people.

Starry night over the Rhone

The view of the Rhone embankment is displayed on the canvas in a variety of shades of blue, echoing with the bright yellow lights of the city and pale yellow stars. Work on the painting took Van Gogh a year and was completed in 1888.

The Big Dipper and the Polar Star are burning in the blue night sky, a luminous city lies in the distance, and an elderly couple leisurely strolls along the river in the foreground.

Night scenes have always fascinated the artist, delighting in beauty and mystery. He used his favorite technique, painting with oil paints on canvas in large volumetric strokes.

Now this priceless masterpiece pleases art lovers at the Musée d'Orsay, located in Paris.

Wheat field with crows

The painting is considered the last work of the genius, created two weeks before the suicide. Van Gogh conveyed anxiety and attempts to find the right path. The atmosphere of the picture is gloomy and oppressive.

A dark sky hangs over a bright yellow field, which depicts a crossroads. So the artist expressed anxiety and indecision, arguing which path of the three to prefer. And in the sky black birds are approaching menacingly, personifying the impending misfortune. Rough, messy oil paint strokes create a dynamic image that reflects excitement and emotional turmoil.

The original is at the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Self-portrait with cut off ear and pipe

Having once again quarreled with Gauguin, the artist cut off part of his ear, then was sent to a hospital, where a self-portrait was painted. This relatively small painting measuring 51 x 45 cm was created for the purpose of introspection.

Bright colors are in disharmony with each other, and the sight of Van Gogh himself expresses an awareness of guilt, fatigue and torment from powerlessness to resist his condition. Most of all, Van Gogh's gaze, filled with madness and detachment, directed into emptiness, attracts attention.

The painting is presented in the Private Collection of Niarchos in Chicago.

Road with cypress and star

The idea to paint a picture with a view of night nature and cypresses came to Vincent in 1888 in Arles, but he realized it only two years later, shortly before his death.

Cypresses fascinated the artist with the perfection of their lines and form. The premonition of impending death is embodied in a metaphor projecting human life on the scale of the universe.

On the right in the sky, a growing month is visible, on the left is a fading pale star that has practically disappeared from the canvas, and in the middle a cypress grows, dividing them as a line between the beginning and the end of existence.

The tree is so tall that the top goes beyond the canvas, as if trying to reach infinity.

Red vineyards in Arles

The expressive nature of the south of France gave Vincent Van Gogh a great plot. The villagers gathered grapes against the background of the sunset sun, in the rays of which the grape leaves shone red, and the sky seemed golden.

This bright show inspired the genius with its colorfulness and symbolism. He saw the harvesting process as the personification of the cyclical nature and vitality that manifests itself in hard work.

Van Gogh uses pure colors, applying them to the canvas with contrasting strokes.

Those wishing to see this picture can go to the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin.

Night cafe terrace

Van Gogh demonstrates his mastery of color in this memorable painting, created in 1888 in Arles. During this period, the artist often preferred yellow in his works.

The lively cafe evokes joyful and light feelings. On a warm summer night, life is in full swing in it. Van Gogh brilliantly depicted the night without the use of black paint.

He conveyed the dark using blue hues, ranging from the light blue of the building above the cafe to the dark blue of the houses in the background. The bright yellow terrace contrasts with the dark background for a luminous effect.

The canvas is in the Dutch Museum Kreller-Müller.

Shoes

Van Gogh embodied an unusual plot for the painting in the summer of 1886, while in Paris. He was looking for a pair of shoes for a long time, suitable for the image in the picture. Finally Vincent found them at a flea market. Refined and repaired for sale, they belonged to some kind of worker.

But the artist did not rush to immediately draw a picture from them. Putting them on in rainy weather, he walked for a long time through mud and puddles. Upon returning home, Van Gogh captured them on canvas in this form.

The brilliant painter saw in them not just old junk, but the embodiment of the hard lot of workers who preserve their nobility and dignity. Later, this picture became the subject of various analogies, including in relation to the life of the artist himself.

Auvers Church

Van Gogh in the spring of 1890 settled in a village near Paris called Auvers-sur-Oise, living there the last months of his life.

Painted on canvas in oil, the Gothic church occupies the main place in the picture and is distinguished by high detailing of all elements of the building. The painting shows a woman walking towards the church. It is drawn superficially, since it plays a secondary role.

The most striking and controversial feature is the dissonance between the bright sunny meadow covered with grass and the dark night sky, which causes disagreement about the time of day depicted in the picture.

When the artist died, the painting was transferred to his friend Paul Gachet, then kept in the Louvre. Now you can admire it in the Orsay Museum.

Sea view at Scheveningen

The painting is one of the artist's earliest paints. On it, Vincent captured a storm raging on the sea. The work on the work took place in difficult weather conditions: because of the strong wind, sand was constantly rising from the ground. Having made a sketch, Van Gogh completed it already indoors. But small particles of sand adhered to the painting, and they had to be cleaned off.

The canvas depicts the state of nature during a storm: gloomy clouds hanging over the sea, through which small rays of the sun break through, illuminating the waves. The silhouettes of people and boats appear blurry due to low light. The gray-green sky and the sea almost merge, and the yellowish coast stands out only slightly.

The painting is part of the collection of the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

On December 23, 1888, the now world famous post-impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh lost his ear. There are several versions of what happened, however, Van Gogh's whole life was full of absurd and very strange facts.

Van Gogh wanted to follow in his father's footsteps - to become a preacher

Van Gogh dreamed of becoming, like his father, a priest. He even completed a compulsory missionary training in an evangelical school. He lived for about a year in the outback among the miners.

But it turned out that the rules for admission have changed, and the Dutch have to pay tuition fees. Missionary Van Gogh took offense and after that decided to leave religion and become an artist. However, his choice was not accidental. Vincent's uncle was a partner of the then largest art dealer company "Gupil".

Van Gogh began to paint only at the age of 27

Van Gogh began to draw in adulthood, when he was 27 years old. Contrary to popular belief, he was not such a "genius dilettante" like the conductor Pirosmani or the customs officer Russo. By that time, Vincent Van Gogh was an experienced art dealer and entered first at the Academy of Arts in Brussels, and later at the Antwerp Academy of Arts. True, he studied there for only three months, until he left for Paris, where he became acquainted with the Impressionists, including s.

Van Gogh began with "peasant" painting like "The Potato Eaters". But his brother Theo, who knew a lot about art and supported Vincent financially throughout his life, managed to convince him that "light painting" was created for success, and the public will definitely appreciate it.

The artist's palette has a medical explanation

The abundance of yellow spots of different shades in the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, according to scientists, has a medical explanation. There is a version that such a vision of the world is caused by a large number of epilepsy drugs consumed by him. Attacks of this disease appeared in him in the last years of his life due to hard work, a riotous lifestyle and the abuse of absinthe.

The most expensive painting by Van Gogh was in Goering's collection

For more than 10 years, Winesnt van Gogh's painting "The Portrait of Dr. Gachet" held the title of the most expensive painting in the world. Japanese businessman Ryoey Saito, owner of a large paper company, bought this painting at Christie's in 1990 for $ 82 million. The owner of the painting indicated in his will that the painting should be cremated with him after his death. In 1996, Ryoey Saito died. It is known for certain that the painting was not burned, but where exactly it is now is unknown. It is believed that the artist painted 2 versions of the picture.

However, this is just one fact from the history of "Portrait of Dr. Gachet". It is known that after the exhibition "Degenerate Art" in Munich in 1938, this painting was acquired for his collection by the Nazi Goering. True, he soon sold it to a certain Dutch collector, and then the painting ended up in the United States, where it was until Saito acquired it.

Van Gogh is one of the most abducted artists

In December 2013, the FBI published the top 10 high-profile thefts of genius art with the aim of helping the public to assist in solving crimes. The most valuable on this list are 2 paintings by Van Gogh - "View of the Sea at Schewingen" and "Church in Nyunen", which are estimated at $ 30 million each. Both of these paintings were stolen in 2002 from the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. It is known that two men were arrested as suspects in the theft, but it was not possible to prove their guilt.

In 2013, Vincent Van Gogh's painting "Poppies" was stolen from the Museum of Muhammad Mahmoud Khalil in Egypt due to the negligence of the leadership, which is estimated by experts at $ 50 million. The painting has not yet been returned.

Van Gogh's ear could have been cut off by Gauguin

The story of the ear raises doubts among many biographers of Vincent Van Gogh. The fact is that if the artist cut off his ear at the root, he would die from blood loss. Only the earlobe was cut off from the artist. There is a record of this in the preserved medical report.

There is a version that the incident with the cut off ear occurred during a quarrel between Van Gogh and Gauguin. Gauguin, experienced in sailor fights, slashed Van Gogh in the ear, and he had a seizure from stress. Later, trying to whitewash himself, Gauguin came up with a story about how Van Gogh chased him in a fit of madness with a razor and crippled himself.

Unknown paintings by Van Gogh are still found today

This fall, the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam identified a new painting belonging to the great master. The painting "Sunset at Montmajour", according to the researchers, was painted by Van Gogh in 1888. An exceptional find is made by the fact that the canvas belongs to the period that art critics consider the pinnacle of the artist's work. The discovery was made using methods such as comparison of style, colors, techniques, computer analysis of the canvas, X-ray photographs and the study of Van Gogh's letters.

The painting "Sunset at Montmajour" is currently on display at the artist's museum in Amsterdam in the exhibition "Van Gogh at Work".

Vincent Willem van Gogh 1853-1890

Great Dutch artist. Biography and pictures.

Van Gogh. Art over the abyss

He lived hard and joylessly, suffering from mental disorders, was especially friendly with his brother Theo, adored sunflowers and cut off his own ear, which he did not fail to portray in his self-portrait - that is, perhaps, all that can be attributed to common information about the great Van Gogh. Meanwhile, this artist can be compared to some incomprehensible universe, woven of contradictions, sensuality, expression and disappointment, a universe that was very difficult to comprehend, and it seems that Van Gogh himself did not cope with this task.

Years of tossing like stepping stones to madness

Art for Vincent Van Gogh was akin to a lifeline, to which he held on to the waves of cruel reality. Absolutely not socialized, somehow cut off from the whole world, he chose for himself the only possible form of existence - through painting.

His life cannot be called simple - unlike his family, where from time immemorial everyone was either antique dealers or were in spiritual service, Van Gogh strove to find his place in life, and hardly succeeded in that. At first, he seemed to be not averse to continuing the family tradition, but believing that the traders were ruining art, he made sure that he was fired. Wherever Van Gogh studied, he was expelled everywhere due to his hot temper and strange behavior. His first love for a dowager cousin led to the fact that he was forced to leave his family, and cohabitation with a pregnant prostitute completely paved the gap between the artist and his family. Each of these events in Van Gogh's life cycle left deep mental wounds that did not hesitate to affect his mental health.

Surprisingly, this person did not have a full-fledged art education, which had a number of conflicting consequences. On the one hand, Van Gogh felt that he lacked skills and abilities, but on the other hand, creative freedom, not chained in academic canons, allowed him to mix watercolor, sepia, oil in one work, leading to an amazing color scheme. It is noteworthy that the painter even noted that talent is not needed for art, the main thing is to work hard.

From Antwerp to Paris

Van Gogh arrived in Antwerp after dramatic events - living in the province of Drent, where the artist became interested in the peasant theme ("Weaver", "Peasant at Work", etc.), however, the local pastor forbade residents to pose for a strange young man, and soon demanded his expulsion ... In a new place, Vincent began to attend classes at the Academy of Arts and improve, especially in the field of writing people. Although today the artist is perceived as a genius landscape painter and master of still life, Van Gogh himself has always repeated that he is a specialist in human figures.
In the same town, the only painting created according to the classical traditional canons - "The Potato Eaters" was created, striking in its emotionality and hidden meanings.

In 1886, on the advice of his brother, the artist comes to Paris - Theo, who sells paintings and antiques, seeks to immediately involve Vincent in creative bohemia. The painter meets Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas, Pissarro, Gauguin, discovering the magical world of impressionist aesthetics. Joining almost his like-minded people, Van Gogh presents his paintings at opposition exhibitions, but his works, to the great dismay of the master, do not find their buyers.

From the negative, Van Gogh again escapes into art - he studies Degas's theory of colors, comprehends the nuances of oriental frescoes, is interested in various styles and trends. The master worked so hard that in just a year he created more than 230 works, including "Still Life with Flowers in a Bronze Vase", the expressive series "Shoes", "Bread Field with Poppy and Lark", "Self-portrait in a gray felt hat" and others.

It was this period of creativity that became decisive for the formation of the artist's style, with its characteristic curved line, rich rich color, small strokes and a simplified form when conveying atmospheric and light nuances.

The proverbial ear and the sunset of days

Frustrated by the misunderstanding of the public, Van Gogh decides to move to Arles, a place in the south of France. He was overwhelmed with ambitious thoughts to found a new direction in the visual arts, calling it the "school of the South." In pursuit of the same goal, another talented and strange master, Paul Gauguin, joins Vincent. Here the painters have created a number of wonderful works. For Van Gogh, these are "View of Arles with Irises", "Blooming Orchard", "Summer Evening near Arles, etc.

The artists' friendship, as well as the school, did not work out. Despite the enormous reverence from Van Gogh, Gauguin was irritated by the sloppiness of his comrade, incoherence and irascibility. Their story ended tragically - Van Gogh attacked Gauguin with a knife and he miraculously survived. Frustrated by this event, and perfectly aware that something was wrong with him, Van Gogh cuts off his earlobe and ends up in a clinic for people with mental disorders for a long time.

Doom in this man was combined with sober clarity. It was at such moments that Van Gogh realized that perhaps the disease would eat up his mind to the end, and therefore he worked with even greater zeal. His paintings now sounded even more tragic and impulsive. "Van Gogh's Bedroom", "Starry Night", "Irises", a number of self-portraits (including the most famous one with a bandage on a wounded ear), "Walk of Prisoners", etc. - all these works were created during a difficult time for Van Gogh.

In 1890, Van Gogh leaves the San Remy hospital, seeking support from his beloved Theo. Living with his brother's family in Auvers, Vincent works on everyday subjects, so the poetic "Country road with cypresses" and "Landscape near Auvers on a rainy day" appear. However, the painter has conflicting feelings, seeing how Theo is worried about his daughter's illness and the loss of his job. Vincent begins to consider himself a burden to this welcoming family.

Sad thoughts led to fatal actions - on July 27, Van Gogh shot himself with a revolver while walking across the field. The bullet passed the heart, and the mortally wounded artist was able to return to the hotel, sending for his brother. They talked and talked with Theo, until at night the artist said goodbye to this full of colors, but such a hopeless world for him forever.

He was released only 37 years old, and during that time the ingenious master was able to sell only one painting. But sometimes you can see better from afar, and today we recognize the genius of this artist and his invaluable contribution to the history of world art.

All paintings by Vincent Van Gogh on the site vangogen.ru. Detailed biography of the artist. Description and analysis of pictures.

When Vincent Van Gogh, 37, died on July 29, 1890, his work was almost unknown. Today, his paintings are staggering amounts and adorn the best museums in the world.

125 years after the death of the great Dutch painter, the time has come to learn more about him and dispel some of the myths with which, like the whole history of art, his biography is full.

He changed several jobs before becoming an artist.

The son of a minister, Van Gogh began working at the age of 16. His uncle took him as a trainee for the position of an art dealer in The Hague. He traveled to London and Paris, where the firm's offices were located. In 1876 he was fired. After that, he worked for some time as a school teacher in England, then as a bookstore seller. From 1878 he served as a preacher in Belgium. Van Gogh was in need, he had to sleep on the floor, but less than a year later he was fired from this post. Only after that did he finally become an artist and never changed his occupation. In this field, he became famous, however, posthumously.

Van Gogh's career as an artist was short

In 1881, the Dutch self-taught artist returned to the Netherlands, where he devoted himself to painting. He was financially and financially supported by his younger brother Theodore, a successful art dealer. In 1886, the brothers settled in Paris, and these two years in the French capital turned out to be fateful. Van Gogh took part in exhibitions of the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists, he began to use a light and bright palette, experimenting with methods of applying brush strokes. The artist spent the last two years of his life in the south of France, where he created a number of his most famous paintings.

Over the course of his ten-year career, he has sold only a few of more than 850 paintings. His drawings (there are about 1300 of them left) were then unclaimed.

Most likely, he did not cut off his ear.

In February 1888, after living in Paris for two years, Van Gogh moved to the south of France, to the city of Arles, where he hoped to found a community of artists. He was accompanied by Paul Gauguin, with whom they became friends in Paris. The officially accepted version of events is as follows:

On the night of December 23, 1888, they quarreled, and Gauguin left. Van Gogh, armed with a razor, pursued his friend, but without catching up, he returned home and in frustration partially cut off his left ear, then wrapped it in a newspaper and gave it to some prostitute.

In 2009, two German scientists published a book in which it was suggested that Gauguin, being a good swordsman, cut off part of Van Gogh's ear with a saber during a duel. According to this theory, Van Gogh, in the name of friendship, agreed to hide the truth, otherwise Gauguin would have been threatened with prison.

The most famous paintings were written by him in a psychiatric clinic.

In May 1889, Van Gogh sought help from the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole Psychiatric Hospital, located in a former convent in Saint-Remy-de-Provence in southern France. Initially, the artist was diagnosed with epilepsy, but the examination also revealed bipolar disorder, alcoholism and metabolic disorders. The treatment consisted mainly of taking baths. He stayed in the hospital for a year and painted a number of landscapes there. More than a hundred paintings from this period include some of his most famous works, such as Starry Night (acquired by the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1941) and Irises (bought by an Australian industrialist in 1987 for a record $ 53.9 million)