Everyone knows the Dutch painter. The difficult fate was reflected in his paintings, which became famous only after the death of the artist. He created over 200 paintings and over 500 drawings, carefully preserved by his brother, and later his wife and nephew, and devoted to the museum. Van Gogh lived a short life, but in his life there were many interesting stories that are passed down from generation to generation.

ear story

The most interesting story that excites the minds of contemporaries is about severed ear. But it is reliably known that the artist cut off only his earlobe. What prompted him to do this? And how did it really happen? The most reliable version is that during a quarrel with the French painter Gauguin, Van Gogh attacked him with a razor. But Gauguin turned out to be more dodgy and managed to stop him.


The quarrel was over a woman, and a worried Van Gogh cut off his own earlobe that very night. The cut off earlobe was presented by the artist to this woman – she was a prostitute. This event occurred at the moment of insanity from the frequent use of absinthe - a tincture of bitter wormwood, with a large use of which hallucinations, aggressiveness, and a change in consciousness occur.

Two births of Van Gogh

The Dutch pastor had his first child in 1852, named Vincent, but he died a few weeks later. And a year later, on the day of March 30, 1953, a boy is born again, whom they also decide to call Vincent van Gogh.

Understanding life

Working in different places and constantly watching the hard lot of the poor, the son of a Protestant pastor decided to also become a priest and celebrate masses in favor of the poor. He helped the poor, cared for the sick, taught children, painted at night to earn money. The artist decided to write a petition for better working conditions for the poor, but he was refused. He realized that sermons play no role in the fight against the hard lot of the poor. The young priest leaves home, distributes all his savings to those in need, and as a result, he is deprived of the priesthood. All this was reflected in the mental state of the artist and later decided the whole fate of Van Gogh.

Van Gogh's inspiration

Van Gogh was inspired by a French artist millet, who in his paintings depicted the hard lot of the poor, their work and plight in society. Van Gogh painted from Millet's black and white drawings, conveying his gaze into them. The difference is that Van Gogh's paintings are bright, expressive, in contrast to the melancholic works of Millet. Van Gogh imagined the life of the poor, as they saw themselves, their attitude to work - this is what ensures their life, as a reverence for the hard lot that contributes to their existence. Their faces express gratitude to the land that gave the harvest. Gratitude to the harvest that now lies on their table.

Extraordinary vision of color

Van Gogh was able to mix colors on his canvases as no one else had done before him. He mixed warm colors with cold ones, primary colors with complementary ones, and achieved amazing effects. The main color of his paintings is yellow. Yellow field, yellow sun, yellow hat, yellow flowers. Yellow color expresses energy, uplift, creative inspiration. Surrounding himself with yellow, he tried to escape from life's troubles, paint life in bright colors. It is claimed that by drinking absinthe, a person sees the world as through a yellow prism. Perhaps that is why its yellow color is even brighter than ordinary yellow.
Yellow was combined with blue, purple, blue-black. A strange combination - combinations of madness.

Sunflowers in Van Gogh's painting

The artist created 10 paintings with sunflowers. They are in a vase: three, twelve, five, cut sunflowers, sunflowers with roses. 10 canvases have been proven to belong to the painter’s brush, another canvas has not been confirmed, they believe that this is a copy. It is known from letters to his brother that Van Gogh loved sunflowers and considered them his flowers. The yellow sunflower represents friendship and hope. He wanted to decorate the “yellow house” inside with them. Because there were very white walls, which he complained to his brother Theo.

friendship with brother

Van Gogh had five brothers and sisters, but he kept in touch and was friends only with his brother Theo. They corresponded and exchanged information. More than 900 letters from the artist have been found, and most of them are addressed to his brother. Theo helped him with money. At the time of a serious condition, he determined him to the clinic. He was with him in the last days of his life.

Attitude towards family life

Having experienced disappointments in love, Van Gogh decides for himself that the artist should devote himself to painting. And that's why he uses random connections.

"Starlight Night"

In a state of severe depression, the artist went to a psychiatric clinic, where a room was assigned to him. And there he painted his paintings. There he created one of the most recognizable paintings " Starlight Night". Characterizing the color scheme and the quality of the strokes, it is confirmed that the picture was painted by a person experiencing loneliness, vulnerable, with mood swings to the depressive. He painted the picture from memory, which is rare for his manner, and confirms his serious condition.

Painter's disease

Numerous scientific studies have failed to provide a medical opinion on Van Gogh's disease. It was claimed that he was ill with epilepsy, or schizophrenia, but there is no medical confirmation of this. His aunt had epilepsy and his sister had schizophrenia. More and more confirmation finds the answer in the constant depression of the artist. He was oppressed by the hard work of the miners, he was worried about the hard lot of the plowmen, and that he could not help them in any way.

Van Gogh's suicide

Van Gogh committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart with a revolver. The bullet missed the heart, and he came home and went to bed. He lived for two more days and died at the age of 37, without waiting for the recognition of his work. During the funeral, only a few people walked behind the coffin.

Vincent Van Gogh. This name is familiar to every student. Even in childhood, we joked among ourselves “you draw like Van Gogh”! or “well, you are Picasso!”… After all, only the one whose name will forever remain in the history of not only painting and world art, but also humanity is immortal.

Against the backdrop of the fate of European artists, the life path of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) stands out in that he discovered his craving for art quite late. Until the age of 30, Vincent did not suspect that painting would become the ultimate meaning of his life. The vocation ripens in him slowly, in order to break out like an explosion. At the cost of labor almost on the verge of human capabilities, which will become the lot of his entire remaining life, during the years 1885-1887, Vincent will be able to develop his own individual and unique style, which in the future will be called "impasto". His artistic style will contribute to the rooting in European art of one of the most sincere, sensitive, humane and emotional trends - expressionism. But, most importantly, it will become the source of his work, his paintings and graphics.

Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in the family of a Protestant pastor, in the Dutch province of North Brabant, in the village of Grotto Zundert, where his father was in the service. The family environment determined a lot in the fate of Vincent. The Van Gogh family was ancient, known since the 17th century. In the era of Vincent van Gogh, there were two traditional family activities: one of the representatives of this family was necessarily engaged in church activities, and someone in the art trade. Vincent was the eldest, but not the first child in the family. A year earlier, he was born, but his brother died soon after. The second son was named in memory of the deceased by Vincent Willem. After him, five more children appeared, but only with one of them would the future artist be connected by close fraternal ties until the last day of his life. It would not be an exaggeration to say that without the support of his younger brother Theo, Vincent van Gogh as an artist would hardly have taken place.

In 1869, Van Gogh moved to The Hague and began to trade paintings in the Goupil firm and reproductions of works of art. Vincent works actively and conscientiously, in his free time he reads a lot and visits museums, and draws a little. In 1873, Vincent begins a correspondence with his brother Theo, which will last until his death. In our time, the letters of the brothers are published in a book called “Van Gogh. Letters to Brother Theo” and you can buy it in almost any good bookstore. These letters are moving evidence of Vincent's inner spiritual life, his searches and mistakes, joys and disappointments, despair and hopes.

In 1875, Vincent was assigned to Paris. He regularly visits the Louvre and the Luxembourg Museum, exhibitions of contemporary artists. By this time, he is already drawing himself, but nothing foreshadows that art will soon become an all-consuming passion. In Paris, there is a turning point in his spiritual development: Van Gogh is very fond of religion. Many researchers attribute this condition to the unhappy and one-sided love that Vincent experienced in London. Much later, in one of his letters to Theo, the artist, analyzing his illness, notes that mental illness is their family trait.

From January 1879, Vincent received a position as a preacher in Vama, a village located in the Borinage, an area in southern Belgium, the center of the coal industry. He is deeply struck by the extreme poverty in which the miners and their families live. A deep conflict begins, which opens Van Gogh's eyes to one truth - the ministers of the official church are not at all interested in truly alleviating the plight of people who find themselves in inhuman conditions.

Having fully understood this sanctimonious position, Van Gogh experiences another deep disappointment, breaks with the church and makes his final life choice - to serve people with his art.

Van Gogh and Paris

Van Gogh's last visits to Paris were related to his work at Goupil. However, never before had the artistic life of Paris had a noticeable influence on his work. This time Van Gogh's stay in Paris lasts from March 1886 to February 1888. These are two extremely eventful years in the artist's life. During this short period, he masters the impressionistic and neo-impressionistic techniques, which contributes to the lightening of his own color palette. The artist, who arrived from Holland, turns into one of the most original representatives of the Parisian avant-garde, whose innovation breaks from within all the conventions that fetter the enormous expressive possibilities of color as such.

In Paris, Van Gogh communicates with Camille Pissarro, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Emile Bernard and Georges Seurat and other young painters, as well as with the paint dealer and collector dad Tanguy.

last years of life

By the end of 1889, at this difficult time for himself, aggravated by fits of insanity, mental disorders and a craving for suicide, Van Gogh received an invitation to take part in the exhibition of the Salon des Indépendants, organized in Brussels. At the end of November, Vincent sends 6 paintings there. On May 17, 1890, Theo has a plan to settle Vincent in the town of Auvers-sur-Oise under the supervision of Dr. Gachet, who was fond of painting and was a friend of the Impressionists. Van Gogh's condition is improving, he works hard, paints portraits of his new acquaintances, landscapes.

July 6, 1890 Van Gogh arrives in Paris to Theo. Albert Aurier and Toulouse-Lautrec visit Theo's house to meet him.

From the last letter to Theo, Van Gogh says: “... Through me, you took part in the creation of some canvases that even in a storm keep my peace. Well, I paid with my life for my work, and it cost me half my sanity, that's right… But I'm not sorry.”

Thus ended the life of one of the greatest artists not only of the 19th century, but of the entire history of art as a whole.

Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1953 in Grot-Zundert in the province of North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands, in the family of the Protestant pastor Theodor van Gogh. His mother Anna Cornelia was from The Hague, where her father ran a bookstore. In addition to Vincent, the family had six more children. Of all the children, the younger brother Theodorus (Theo) can be noted, he was four years younger than Vincent and the brothers were closely connected all their lives. At the age of seven, Vincent was sent to a village school, but a year later, his parents transferred their son to home education. Since October 1, 1864, Vincent has been studying at a boarding school in Zevenbergen, located 20 km from his parents' house. Two years later, on September 15, 1866, Van Gogh was transferred to the boarding college named after Willem II in Tilburg. Already in 1868, Vincent left this educational institution. Although by all indications, learning was easy for him, Vincent easily mastered three languages ​​- German, French and English, he recalled this period of his life as something gloomy, empty and cold.
Since July 1869, Van Gogh began work in the Hague branch of Goupil & Cie, owned by his uncle Vincent, the company is engaged in the sale of works of art. For the first three years of work as an art dealer.

Vincent Van Gogh
1866

Vincent settled in well, constant work with paintings plus frequent visits to local museums / art galleries made Van Gogh a good expert with his opinion. The works of Jean-Francois Millet and Jules Breton were very significant for the artist, and he repeatedly wrote this in his letters. In 1873, Vincent was sent to work for the London branch of Goupil & Cie. In London, he is defeated on a personal front, a certain Carolina Haanebik, with whom Van Gogh was in love, rejects his proposal. Vincent is greatly shaken, he devotes less time to work and more to Bible study. In 1874, Vincent was sent for three months to the Paris branch of the company, upon his return to London, the artist became even more isolated. In the spring of 1875, Van Gogh again in the Paris branch, he begins to paint himself, very often visits the Louvre and the Salon. The work finally fades into the background and in 1876 Vincent was fired from Goupil & Cie.
Van Gogh returns to England, where he takes an unpaid position as a teacher at a school in Ramsgate. In the summer of 1876 he moved to a school in Isleworth, near London, as a teacher and assistant pastor. Perhaps at this moment it comes to the idea to continue following in the footsteps of his father and become a preacher for the poor, there are different opinions about the motives for such a choice. In early November 1876, Vincent read his first sermon to the parishioners, describing it in his letter to his brother. In December 1876, Van Gogh visits his parents for Christmas, they persuade him not to return to England. In the spring, Vincent gets a job in a bookshop in Dordrecht, Van Gogh has no interest in working in the shop, he is more often busy with his sketches and translating texts from the Bible into French, German and English. From May 1877 to June 1878 Vincent lived in Amsterdam with his uncle, Admiral Jan van Gogh. With the help of another relative of his, the famous theologian Johannes Stricker, Vincent has been preparing all this time to enter the theological faculty. In July 1878, Vincent entered the preaching course at the Protestant missionary school of pastor Bokma in Laeken near Brussels, there are versions that Van Gogh was expelled from this course before his graduation, due to his temper. From December 1878 to the summer of 1879 Van Gogh became a very active missionary in the village of Patuage in the Borinage, in a very poor mining area in southern Belgium. Different researchers of Van Gogh's life have different assessments of Vincent's involvement in the hard life of the local population, but the fact that he was very active and persistent is undeniable. In the evenings, Vincent drew maps of Palestine, and this is how he tried to earn his living. The stormy activity of the young missionary did not go unnoticed, and the local Evangelical Society offered him a salary of fifty francs. By the autumn of 1879, two circumstances had developed that knocked Vincent off balance and put an end to his desire to become a preacher. Firstly, tuition fees were introduced in the evangelical school, and according to some versions, it was the possibility of free education that became the reason why Van Gogh suffered six months of deprivation in Paturazh. Secondly, Vincent wrote a letter to the mine board on behalf of the miners about improving working conditions, the mine management was dissatisfied with the letter, and the local Committee of the Protestant Church removed Vincent from his post.

Vincent Van Gogh
1872

Being in a difficult emotional state, Vincent, with the support of his brother Theo, decides to take up painting seriously, for which, in early 1880, he goes to Brussels, where he attends classes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. After a year of classes, Vincent returns to his parents' house. There he falls in love with his cousin, the widow Kay Vos-Stricker, who was visiting his parents. But all those close to him are against his passion, and Vincent, having lost faith in arranging his personal life, goes to The Hague, where he is drawn into painting with renewed vigor. Van Gogh's mentor was his distant relative, the artist of the Hague school Anton Mauve. Vincent writes a lot, because he himself adhered to the idea that in painting the main thing is not talent, but constant practice and diligence. Another attempt to create a semblance of a family fails miserably. Since his chosen one is a pregnant street woman Christine, whom Vincent met on the street. For a while she became his model, her difficult nature and his impulsive nature could not exist side by side. Communication with Christine was the last straw, Van Gogh broke off relations with relatives, except for Theo. The artist goes to the province of Drenthe, in the south of the Netherlands. There, the artist rents a house, which he uses as a workshop. Doing a lot of work bias towards portraits and scenes of the life of peasants. The first significant work, The Potato Eaters, was created in Drenthe. Until the autumn of 1885, Vincent worked hard, but the artist had a conflict with the local pastor and Van Gogh soon left for Antwerp. In Antwerp, Vincent again goes to painting classes, this time at the Academy of Fine Arts.
In February 1886, Van Gogh moved to Paris to live with his brother Theo, who was already successfully working as an art dealer at Goupil & Cie. Vincent begins attending classes with the famous teacher Fernand Cormon, where he studies the techniques of impressionism and Japanese prints that were fashionable at that time. Through his brother, he meets Camille Pissarro, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Emile Bernard, Paul Gauguin and Edgar Degas. The most important thing for Van Gogh in Paris is that he falls into his environment and this gives a strong impetus to his development. In Paris, Vincent arranges his "exhibition" in the interior of the Tambourine cafe, owned by the Italian Agostina Sagatori - she was the model for several of Van Gogh's works. Vincent received a lot of negative feedback on his work and this prompted him to further study the theory of color (based on the work of Eugene Delacroix). The palette in Van Gogh's works changes to a lighter and richer one, bright and pure colors appear. Despite the fact that the level of Van Gogh's skill has grown his work is not in demand, this fact constantly frustrates the artist. In Paris, Vincent created more than two hundred and thirty works.
By February 1888, Vincent, driven by the idea of ​​​​creating a brotherhood of artists "Workshop of the South", went to the south of France in Arles. With the advent of spring, Van Gogh begins to work hard, not forgetting his idea from the "Workshop of the South". In Vincent's opinion, one of the key figures of the brotherhood of artists was to be Paul Gauguin, and therefore Van Gogh constantly writes to Gauguin with invitations to come to Arles. Gauguin refused to be persuaded to come, often referring to financial difficulties, but in the end, on October 25, 1888, he arrived in Arles to Van Gogh. The artist very often work together, but their speed and approach to work differ. Perhaps the fundamental point in the conflict between the two artists was the issue of the "Workshop of the South", but nevertheless, on December 23, 1888, an event took place that is known to everyone. After another quarrel with Gauguin, Vincent appeared at one of Arles' nightclubs and handed a handkerchief with part of his earlobe to a woman named Rachel, after which he left.

Perhaps this is a photograph of Vincent van Gogh
1886

In the morning, the police found Vincent in his room in a serious condition, in the opinion of the police, Van Gogh was a danger to himself and others. Vincent was rushed to the Arles hospital. Gauguin left Arles on the same day, informing his brother Theo about what had happened.
There are several versions of what happened - perhaps this behavior of Van Gogh was caused by the frequent use of absinthe, perhaps this is a consequence of a mental disorder, perhaps this was done by Vincent in a fit of repentance. There is a version that Gauguin (being rather sharp and having experience as a sailor) cut off part of Van Gogh's earlobe in a skirmish; recently discovered diaries of Rachel herself, who knew both artists well, speak in favor of this version. In the hospital, Vincent's condition worsened and he was placed in a ward with violent patients diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy. After the incident with Van Gogh's ear, about a week had passed and Vincent had almost returned to normal. Van Gogh is recovering quickly and is ready to work. Meanwhile, in March, about thirty residents of Arles write a complaint to the mayor of the city with a request to save them from the company of Vincent van Gogh. The artist is urged to go for treatment. In early May 1889, Van Gogh goes to the asylum for the mentally ill of St. Paul of Mausoleum near Saint-Remy-de-Provence. There he has the opportunity to work under the supervision of staff, some paintings of that period were made within the walls of the clinic, one of the most famous "Starry Night" . In total, during his stay in Saint-Remy, the artist created more than one hundred and fifty works. Van Gogh's condition in the clinic changes with periods from recovery and intensive work, to apathy and a deep crisis, at the end of 1889 the artist attempts suicide by swallowing colors.
Vincent leaves the clinic in the first half of May 1890, visits Paris for three days, where he stays with Theo and meets his wife and son, and then moves to Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris. In Auvers, Vincent rents a hotel room, but after a while he decides to move to the four Ravou's cafe, where a small room in the attic was rented out. July 27, 1890 Vincent van Gogh goes to the fields to work in the open air. But a few hours later he returns with a wound to his room at Ravu. He tells the Ravs that he shot himself and they call Dr. Gachet. The doctor reports the incident to his brother Theo, who arrives immediately. For what reason no action was taken to save the wounded Van Gogh is unknown, but on the night of July 29, 1890, Vincent Van Gogh died from blood loss. Vincent's tomb is located in Auvers-sur-Oise. Brother Theo spent all this time with Vincent. Theo himself survived Vincent by only six months and died in the Netherlands. In 1914, Theo's ashes were reburied next to Vincent's grave, and Theo's wife planted ivy on the grave, as a sign of the inseparability of the two brothers. The colossal fame of Vincent has a strong foundation - his brother Theo, it was he who constantly supplied Vincent with funds and sometimes directed his brother. Without Theo's efforts, no one would ever have known about the brilliant Dutchman Vincent van Gogh.

Born March 30, 1853 in the small village of Groot-Zunderte, the Netherlands - July 29, 1890 Auvers-sur-Oise, France - a post-impressionist artist whose creations made a tremendous impression on the painters of the twentieth century. He began painting canvases at the age of 27, cramming his rich creative path into one decade. Remaining invisible to the critics of his time, he created over 2,000 works, including landscapes, still lifes, self-portraits, flower arrangements, as well as a riot of wheat gold and bright, rich colors of irises.

self-portrait

Van Gogh's childhood

The first child who survived childbirth was Vincent, born in the family of the clergyman Theodor van Gogh and his wife Cornelia. Before him, Theodore and Cornelia had another child who, to the great grief of the family, was born dead. Four years later, on May 1, 1857, Theodorus van Gogh was born, Vincent had another family member Cornelis Vincent on May 17, 1867 and three sisters - Anna Cornelia on February 17, 1855, Elisabeth Huberta on May 16, 1859 and Willemina Jacob on March 16 1862. Young Van Gogh differed from many peers in his peaceful disposition and calm nature. He practically never spent his leisure time with other children, but despite this, fellow tribesmen spoke of him as a soft-hearted, kind, benevolent, sympathetic, sweet and well-behaved boy.

Youth and education

At the age of 7, he was sent to study at a school, from which he was soon sent home to study with a teacher. In early October 1864, he was sent to a boarding school located more than 20 km from his native village, this event left an unhealed scar in his mind, which he even remembered when he became a mature man. A few years later, in September 1866, he changed his field of study to the college of Willem II in Tilburg. This educational institution shows his talent for philology, later he demonstrates excellent knowledge of various foreign languages, in the same educational institution he attends the first art courses. In 1868, he discarded the need for education and returned to his native land.

Work in a trading company and missionary work

It so happened that the male representatives of the Van Gogh family, according to tradition, were either spiritual shepherds or art merchants. Therefore, in 1869, almost immediately after returning home, he became a personnel officer at the Hague enterprise Goupil & Co., which specialized in the sale of works of art. Possessing a genuine interest in the mastery of depicting the environment, Vincent becomes a regular in creative houses and galleries, enriching his inner world with the paintings of Jean-Francois Millet and Jules Breton. As a result of daily visits to such institutions that kept the wonderful creations of various artists, he began to be well versed in painting and drawing and understood their significance in human life.

In 1873, he received a promotion and changed his place of residence and earnings to the London branch, where he spent two years of hard work. During this period, for the first time in his life, Vincent was denied courtship by the daughter of a tenant in London, who was the subject of a draughtsman's sigh, such an event shattered his self-confidence. The shadow of this failure followed on the heels of the artist all the short years of his life. A heart injury prompted Vincent to study theology in Amsterdam, which he never graduated from, becoming a preacher in a poor Belgian mining town, Borinage. His excessive zeal in helping people played a cruel joke on him, the church, deciding that he was too eccentric, removed him and imposed a ban on his sermons.

Vincent Van Gogh. "Morning. Going to work"

The beginning of the path as an artist

Trying to find shelter from the prostration that followed the incident at the Borinage, Van Gogh took up painting, making plans for the further development of his fine art. He believed that an artist did not have to be talented at all, just countless hours of practice, so he studied on his own for most of his life. Some of the first paintings by Van Gogh belong to a peculiar direction of realism. His inability to correctly paint the human body formed the basis of his unusual, innovative style. The Potato Eaters was the first painting by him to become significant in his work in 1885. All canvases of this period of time were painted in gloomy, muted tones, describing the spiritual state of the artist and his anxieties. At the end of 1885, he suddenly changed his place of residence to Paris, where his brother Theodore lived, persecuted by a preacher who vehemently forbade the peasants to pose for him, considering it immoral.

The heyday of Van Gogh

With the beginning of the Parisian era, Van Gogh's creative world also began to change the colors of his palette, which favorably influenced the paintings he created and his productivity. The draftsman went to the lectures of the outstanding teacher and mentor Fernand Cormon, began to study impressionism, Japanese engraving, synthetic creations of Paul Gauguin, with whom he later became friends. Having found like-minded people, he gained tremendous momentum in his work over the period from 1886 to 1887. He painted about two hundred and forty works of painting, including the well-known "Shoes", "Papa Tanguy", "Bridge over the Seine". His unusual performance stood out among the Impressionists with whom he worked and was the beginning of the emerging Post-Impressionist style.

Unfortunately, despite his breakthrough in the development of his own creativity, the audience still did not assimilate his style. This state of affairs greatly hurt the subtle nature of the artist, and he decided to move to Arles in the south of France. After that, he initiates an attempt to realize his idea with the artists' settlement, in which he gives the main role to Gauguin, who, unfortunately, did not share his impulse, which led to a big quarrel between them.

mental breakdown

On the evening of December 23, Vincent tried to kill the sleeping Gauguin with a razor blade, who, by incredible chance, woke up at that very moment and was able to stop him. That same night, he cut off his earlobe, thus punishing himself. In the morning of the next day, in connection with the current events, he was hidden in a psychiatric hospital, the local doctors claimed that this condition was provoked by excessive drinking of absinthe. The inhabitants of Arles decided to prevent Van Gogh's return and filed a petition to the measure to ban him from entering the neighborhood.

The last years of life and creativity

Immediately after being discharged from the hospital, he went to Auvers-sur-Oise. He arrived in a new city with a letter of recommendation addressed to Paul Gachet. The professor of psychiatric and cardiac sciences took art very seriously. The collector became interested in the creative perception of Vincent, who has a "live mind". This year was a turning point when the atypical work of the painter was recognized by his colleagues, for the first time a review was written about the Red Vineyards in Arles, but the artist was absolutely not interested in this event.

The performance smoothly turned into a depressing and depressing round dance, and the themes were frightened by dark and frightening motives. July 1890 was the date of birth of the masterpiece "Wheat Field with Crows" which became one of his most famous works. On July 27, a terrible thing happened, by pure chance the artist received a bullet wound while going on a glider, and after 29 hours he died from excessive blood loss in the arms of his brother Theodore. Among his most famous works "Sunflowers", "Irises", "Starry Night", "Wheat Field with Crows" we can see the whole life path and experiences of Vincent van Gogh, which do not leave him until the end of his days.

– While living in London, Van Gogh acquired a top hat, which, as he mentioned in one of his letters home, “it is absolutely impossible to do without.”

A crater on Mercury is named after Van Gogh.

— Featured on a 1974 Belgian postage stamp.

- Vincent Van Gogh Street in the town of Auvers-sur-Oise is named after him, where the artist spent the last days of his life.

Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch. Vincent Willem van Gogh; March 30, 1853, Grotto-Zundert, near Breda, the Netherlands - July 29, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France) was a Dutch post-impressionist painter.

Biography of Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh was born in the Dutch town of Groot-Sundert on March 30, 1853. Van Gogh was the first child in the family (not counting the brother who was born dead). His father's name was Theodore Wang Gogh, and his mother's name was Karnelia. They had a large family: 2 sons and three daughters. In the Van Gogh family, all men, one way or another, dealt with paintings, or served the church. Already by 1869, without even finishing school, he began working in a company that sold paintings. In truth, Van Gogh was not good at selling paintings, but he had an unbounded love for painting, and he was also good at languages. In 1873, at the age of 20, he came to London, where he spent 2 years that changed his whole life.

In London, Van Gogh lived happily ever after. He had a very good salary, which was enough to visit various art galleries and museums. He even bought himself a top hat, which was simply indispensable in London. Everything went to the fact that Van Gogh could become a successful merchant, but ... as often happens, love, yes, love, got in the way of his career. Van Gogh fell unconsciously in love with the daughter of his landlady, but after learning that she was already engaged, he became very withdrawn into himself, became indifferent to his work. When he returned to Paris he was fired.

In 1877, Van Gogh began to live again in Holland, and increasingly found solace in religion. After moving to Amsterdam, he began to study as a priest, but soon dropped out, as the situation at the faculty did not suit him.

In 1886, at the beginning of March, Van Gogh moved to Paris to his brother Theo, and lived in his apartment. There he takes painting lessons from Fernand Cormon, and meets such personalities as Pissarro, Gauguin and many other artists. Very quickly he forgets all the darkness of Dutch life, and quickly gains respect as an artist. He draws clearly, brightly in the style of impressionism and post-impressionism.

Vincent Van Gogh, after spending 3 months in an evangelical school, which was located in Brussels, he became a preacher. He distributed money and clothes to the needy poor, although he himself was not well off. This aroused the suspicion of the authorities of the church, and his activities were banned. He did not lose heart, and found solace in drawing.

By the age of 27, Van Gogh understood what his calling in this life was, and decided that he must become an artist at all costs. Although Van Gogh took drawing lessons, he can be safely considered self-taught, because he himself studied many books, self-study books, copied paintings by famous artists. At first he thought of becoming an illustrator, but then, when he took lessons from his artist relative Anton Mouve, he painted his first works in oils.

It seems that life began to improve, but again Van Gogh began to be haunted by failures, and love ones at that.

His cousin Kay Vos became a widow. He liked her very much, but he received a refusal, which he experienced for a long time. In addition, because of Kei, he quarreled very seriously with his father. This quarrel was the reason for Vincent's move to The Hague. It was there that he met Clazina Maria Hoornik, who was a girl of easy virtue. Van Gogh lived with her for almost a year, and more than once he had to be treated for sexually transmitted diseases. He wanted to save this poor woman, and even considered marrying her. But then his family intervened, and thoughts of marriage were simply dispelled.

Returning to his homeland to his parents, who by that time had already moved to Nyonen, his skills began to improve.

He spent 2 years in his homeland. In 1885 Vincent settled in Antwerp, where he attended classes at the Academy of Arts. Then, in 1886, Van Gogh returned to Paris again, to his brother Theo, who throughout his life helped him, both morally and financially. France became the second home for Van Gogh. This is where he lived for the rest of his life. He didn't feel like a stranger. Van Gogh drank a lot and had a very explosive temper. He could be called a person who is difficult to deal with.

In 1888 he moved to Arles. The locals were not happy to see him in their town, which was located in the south of France. They considered him an abnormal lunatic. Despite this, Vincent found friends here, and felt quite good. Over time, he got the idea to create a settlement for artists here, which he shared with his friend Gauguin. Everything was going well, but there was a quarrel between the artists. Van Gogh rushed at Gauguin, who had already become an enemy, with a razor. Gauguin barely blew his legs, miraculously surviving. From the anger of failure, Van Gogh cut off part of his left ear. After spending 2 weeks in a psychiatric clinic, he returned there again in 1889, as he began to suffer from hallucinations.

In May 1890, he finally left the asylum for the mentally ill and went to Paris to his brother Theo and his wife, who had just given birth to a boy, who was named Vincent in honor of his uncle. Life began to improve, and Van Gogh was even happy, but his illness returned again. On July 27, 1890, Vincent van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a pistol. He died in the arms of his brother Theo, who loved him very much. Six months later, Theo also died. The brothers are buried in the Auvers cemetery nearby.

Creativity Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890) is considered a great Dutch painter who had a very strong influence on impressionism in art. His works, created in a ten-year period, amaze with their color, negligence and roughness of the brushstroke, images of a mentally ill man, exhausted by suffering, who committed suicide.

Van Gogh became one of the greatest post-impressionist painters.

He can be considered self-taught, because. studied painting, copying the paintings of old masters. During his life in the Netherlands, Van G. painted pictures about the nature, work and life of peasants and workers, which he observed around (“The Potato Eaters”).

In 1886 he moved to Paris, entered the studio of F. Cormon, where he met A. Toulouse-Lautrec and E. Bernard. Under the influence of Impressionist painting and Japanese engraving, the artist's style changed: an intense color scheme and a wide, energetic brushstroke, characteristic of the late Van G. ("Clichy Boulevard", "Portrait of Papa Tanguy"), appeared.

In 1888 he moved to the south of France, to the town of Arles. It was the most fruitful period of the artist's work. During his life, Van G. created more than 800 paintings and 700 drawings in various genres, but his talent manifested itself most clearly in the landscape: it was in it that his choleric explosive temperament found an outlet. The moving, nervous pictorial texture of his paintings reflected the state of mind of the artist: he suffered from a mental illness, which eventually led him to suicide.

Features of creativity

“Much remains unclear and controversial to date in the pathography of this severe bionegative personality. We can assume syphilitic provocation of schizo-epileptic psychosis. His feverish creativity is quite comparable to the increased productivity of the brain before the onset of a syphilitic disease of the brain, as was the case with Nietzsche, Maupassant, Schumann. Van Gogh is a good example of how a mediocre talent, thanks to psychosis, turned into an internationally recognized genius.

“The peculiar bipolarity, so clearly expressed in the life and psychosis of this remarkable patient, is expressed in parallel in his artistic work. In essence, the style of his works remains the same all the time. Only winding lines are repeated more and more often, giving his paintings a spirit of unbridledness, which reaches its climax in his last work, where the upward aspiration and the inevitability of destruction, fall, annihilation are clearly emphasized. These two movements - the movement of ascent and the movement of falling - form the structural basis of epileptic manifestations, just as the two poles form the basis of the epileptoid constitution.

“Van Gogh painted brilliant paintings in between attacks. And the main secret of his genius was the extraordinary purity of consciousness and a special creative upsurge that arose as a result of his illness between attacks. F.M. also wrote about this special state of consciousness. Dostoevsky, who at one time suffered from similar attacks of a mysterious mental disorder.

Bright colors of Van Gogh

Dreaming of a brotherhood of artists and collective creativity, he completely forgot that he himself was an incorrigible individualist, irreconcilable to the point of restraint in matters of life and art. But therein lay his strength. You need to have a sufficiently trained eye to distinguish Monet's paintings from those of Sisley, for example. But only once having seen the “Red Vineyards”, you will never confuse the works of Van Gogh with anyone else. Each line and stroke is the expression of his personality.

The dominant impressionist system is color. In the pictorial system, Van Gogh's manner, everything is equal and crumpled into one inimitable bright ensemble: rhythm, color, texture, line, form.

At first glance, this is somewhat of a stretch. Do the “red vineyards” push around with the unheard-of intensity color, is not the ringing chord of blue cobalt in the “Sea in Saint-Marie” active, is it not the dazzlingly pure and sonorous colors of the “Landscape in Auvers after the rain”, next to which, any impressionistic picture looks hopelessly faded?

Exaggeratedly bright, these colors have the ability to sound in any intonation throughout the entire emotional range - from burning pain to the most delicate shades of joy. The sounding colors either intertwine into a softly and subtly harmonized melody, or rear up in an ear-piercing dissonance. Just as in music there is a minor and major system, so the colors of the Vangogh palette are divided in two. For Van Gogh, cold and warm are like life and death. At the head of the opposing camps - yellow and blue, both colors - are deeply symbolic. However, this "symbolism" has the same living flesh as Vangogh's ideal of beauty.

Van Gogh saw a certain bright beginning in the yellow paint, from soft lemon to intense orange. The color of the sun and ripened bread in his understanding was the color of joy, solar warmth, human kindness, benevolence, love and happiness - all that in his understanding was included in the concept of "life". Opposite in meaning, blue, from blue to almost black-lead, is the color of sadness, infinity, longing, despair, mental anguish, fatal inevitability and, ultimately, death. Van Gogh's late paintings are the arena of the clash of these two colors. They are like a struggle between good and evil, daylight and night twilight, hope and despair. The emotional and psychological possibilities of color are the subject of Van Gogh's constant reflections: “I hope to make a discovery in this area, for example, to express the feelings of two lovers by combining two additional colors, mixing and opposing them, by the mysterious vibration of related tones. Or to express the idea that has arisen in the brain with the radiance of a light tone against a dark background…”.

Speaking of Van Gogh, Tugendhold noted: "... the notes of his experiences are the graphic rhythms of things and the reciprocal heartbeats." The concept of rest is unknown to Vangogh art. His element is movement.

In the eyes of Van Gogh, it is the same life, which means the ability to think, feel, empathize. Take a look at the painting of the "red vineyards". The strokes, thrown onto the canvas by a swift hand, run, rush, collide, scatter again. Similar to dashes, dots, blots, commas, they are a transcript of Vangogh's vision. From their cascades and whirlpools, simplified and expressive forms are born. They are a line that forms into a drawing. Their relief, sometimes barely outlined, sometimes piled up in massive clumps, like plowed earth, forms a delightful, picturesque texture. And out of all this, a huge image arises: in the hot heat of the sun, like sinners on fire, vines wriggle, trying to break away from the fat purple earth, to escape from the hands of the winegrowers, and now the peaceful bustle of harvesting looks like a fight between man and nature.

So, it means that color still dominates? But aren't these colors at the same time rhythm, line, form, and texture? This is the most important feature of the pictorial language of Van Gogh, in which he speaks to us through his paintings.

It is often believed that Vangogh painting is a kind of uncontrollable emotional element, spurred on by unbridled insight. This delusion is “helped” by the originality of Van Gogh’s artistic manner, which really seems to be spontaneous, but in fact it is subtly calculated, thought out: “Work and sober calculation, the mind is extremely tense, like an actor’s when playing a difficult role, when you have to think about a thousand things within one half hour….”

Van Gogh's heritage and innovation

Van Gogh heritage

• [Mother's sister] “... Seizures of epilepsy, which indicates a severe nervous heredity, affecting Anna Cornelia herself. Naturally gentle and loving, she is prone to sudden outbursts of anger.
• [Brother Theo] "...died six months after Vincent's suicide in the insane asylum in Utrecht, having lived for 33 years."
• "None of Van Gogh's brothers and sisters had epilepsy, while it is absolutely certain that the younger sister suffered from schizophrenia and spent 32 years in a psychiatric hospital."

The human soul ... not cathedrals

Let's turn to Van Gogh:

“I prefer to paint the eyes of people, not cathedrals… the human soul, even the soul of an unfortunate beggar or a street girl, in my opinion, is much more interesting.”

“Those who write peasant life will stand the test of time better than the makers of cardinal devices and harems written in Paris.” “I will remain myself, and even in raw works I will say strict, rude, but truthful things.” “The worker against the bourgeois is not as well founded as the third estate against the other two a hundred years ago.”

Could a person who in these and a thousand similar statements so explained the meaning of life and art count on success with “the powers that be? ". The bourgeois environment uprooted Van Gogh.

Against rejection, Van Gogh had the only weapon - confidence in the correctness of the chosen path and work.

“Art is a struggle… it is better to do nothing than to express yourself weakly.” "You have to work like a few blacks." Even a half-starved existence is turned into a stimulus for creativity: “In the severe trials of poverty, you learn to look at things with completely different eyes.”

The bourgeois public does not forgive innovation, and Van Gogh was an innovator in the most direct and true sense of the word. His reading of the sublime and beautiful went through an understanding of the inner essence of objects and phenomena: from as insignificant as torn shoes to crushing cosmic hurricanes. The ability to present these seemingly disparate values ​​on an equally huge artistic scale put Van Gogh not only outside the official aesthetic concept of academic artists, but also forced him to go beyond the scope of impressionistic painting.

Quotes by Vincent van Gogh

(from letters to brother Theo)

• There is nothing more artistic than loving people.
• When something in you says: "You are not an artist," immediately begin to write, my boy - only in this way will you silence this inner voice. The one who, having heard it, runs to his friends and complains about his misfortune, loses part of his courage, part of the best that is in him.
• And one should not take one's shortcomings too close to one's heart, for the one who does not have them still suffers from one thing - the absence of shortcomings; but he who thinks he has attained perfect wisdom will do well to become foolish again.
• A man carries a bright flame in his soul, but no one wants to bask near it; passers-by notice only the smoke leaving through the chimney, and pass on their way.
• When reading books, as well as looking at pictures, one should neither doubt nor hesitate: one must be self-confident and find beautiful that which is beautiful.
• What is drawing? How are they mastered? This is the ability to break through the iron wall that stands between what you feel and what you can do. How is it possible to get through such a wall? In my opinion, it is useless to beat your head against it, you need to slowly and patiently dig in and gouge it.
• Blessed is he who has found his work.
• I prefer not to say anything at all than to express myself indistinctly.
• I admit, I also need beauty and sublimity, but even more something else, for example: kindness, responsiveness, tenderness.
• You are a realist yourself, so bear with my realism.
• A person only needs to unfailingly love what is worthy of love, and not squander his feeling on insignificant, unworthy and insignificant things.
• It is impossible for melancholy to stagnate in our souls, like water in a swamp.
• When I see the weak being trampled on, I begin to question the value of what is called progress and civilization.

Bibliography

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