In what year did Van Gogh live? Brief biography of Vincent van Gogh. Childhood and early years

According to sociologists, three artists are the most famous in the world: Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. Leonardo is “responsible” for the art of the Old Masters, Van Gogh for the impressionists and post-impressionists of the 19th century, and Picasso for the abstract and modernists of the 20th century. Moreover, if Leonardo appears in the eyes of the public not so much as a painter, but as a universal genius, and Picasso as a fashionable “ socialite" And public figure- a fighter for peace, then Van Gogh personifies the artist. He is considered a lone crazy genius and a martyr who did not think about fame and money. However, this image, to which everyone is accustomed, is nothing more than a myth that was used to “promote” Van Gogh and sell his paintings at a profit.

The legend about the artist is based on a true fact - he took up painting when he was already a mature man, and in just ten years he “ran” the path from a novice artist to a master who revolutionized the idea of ​​fine art. All this, even during Van Gogh’s lifetime, was perceived as a “miracle” with no real explanation. The artist’s biography was not replete with adventures, such as the fate of Paul Gauguin, who managed to be both a stockbroker and a sailor, and died of leprosy, exotic for the European man in the street, on the no less exotic Hiva Oa, one of the Marquesas Islands. Van Gogh was a “boring worker”, and, except for the strange mental attacks that appeared in him shortly before his death, and this death itself as a result of a suicide attempt, the myth-makers had nothing to cling to. But these few “trump cards” were played by real masters of their craft.

The main creator of the Legend of the Master was the German gallery owner and art critic Julius Meyer-Graefe. He quickly realized the scale of the great Dutchman’s genius, and most importantly, the market potential of his paintings. In 1893, a twenty-six-year-old gallery owner purchased the painting “A Couple in Love” and started thinking about “advertising” a promising product. Possessing a lively pen, Meyer-Graefe decided to write a biography of the artist that would be attractive to collectors and art lovers. He did not find him alive and therefore was “free” from personal impressions that burdened the master’s contemporaries. In addition, Van Gogh was born and raised in Holland, and finally developed as a painter in France. In Germany, where Meyer-Graefe began to introduce the legend, no one knew anything about the artist, and the gallery owner and art critic began with “ clean slate" He did not immediately “find” the image of that crazy lone genius that everyone now knows. At first, Meyer’s Van Gogh was a “healthy man of the people,” and his work was “harmony between art and life” and the herald of a new Grand style, which Meyer-Graefe considered modern. But modernism fizzled out in a matter of years, and Van Gogh, under the pen of an enterprising German, “retrained” as an avant-garde rebel who led the fight against mossy academic realists. Van Gogh the anarchist was popular in the circles of artistic bohemia, but scared off the average person. And only the “third edition” of the legend satisfied everyone. In a 1921 “scientific monograph” entitled “Vincent”, with an unusual subtitle for literature of this kind, “The Novel of the God-Seeker,” Meyer-Graefe presented to the public a holy madman whose hand was guided by God. The highlight of this “biography” was the story of a severed ear and creative madness that elevated a small, lonely man like Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin to the heights of genius.

Vincent Van Gogh. 1873

The real Vincent Van Gogh had little in common with "Vincent" Meyer-Graefe. To begin with, he graduated from a prestigious private gymnasium, spoke and wrote fluently in three languages, read a lot, which earned him the nickname Spinoza in Parisian artistic circles. Van Gogh had a large family behind him, who never left him without support, although they were not happy with his experiments. His grandfather was a renowned bookbinder of ancient manuscripts, working for several European courts, three of his uncles were successful art dealers, and one was an admiral and port master in Antwerp, in his house he lived while studying in that city. The real Van Gogh was a rather sober and pragmatic person.

For example, one of the central “God-seeking” episodes of the “going to the people” legend was the fact that in 1879 Van Gogh was a preacher in the Belgian mining district of Borinage. What Meyer-Graefe and his followers didn’t come up with! Here there is a “break with the environment” and “the desire to suffer along with the wretched and beggars.” Everything is explained simply. Vincent decided to follow in his father's footsteps and become a priest. In order to be ordained, it was necessary to study at the seminary for five years. Or - take an accelerated course in three years at an evangelical school using a simplified program, and even for free. All this was preceded by a mandatory six-month “experience” as a missionary in the outback. So Van Gogh went to the miners. Of course, he was a humanist, he tried to help these people, but he did not even think about getting close to them, always remaining a member of the middle class. After serving his sentence in Borinage, Van Gogh decided to enroll in an evangelical school, and then it turned out that the rules had changed and Dutchmen like him, unlike the Flemings, had to pay tuition. After this, the offended “missionary” left religion and decided to become an artist.

And this choice is also not accidental. Van Gogh was a professional art dealer - an art dealer in the largest company "Goupil". His partner in it was his uncle Vincent, after whom the young Dutchman was named. He patronized him. Goupil played a leading role in Europe in the trade of old masters and solid modern academic paintings, but was not afraid to sell “moderate innovators” like the Barbizons. For 7 years Van Gogh made a difficult career based on family traditions antique business. From the Amsterdam branch he moved first to The Hague, then to London and finally to the firm's headquarters in Paris. Over the years, the nephew of the co-owner of Gupil went through a serious school, learned the basic European museums and many closed private collections, he became a real expert in painting not only by Rembrandt and the small Dutch, but also by the French - from Ingres to Delacroix. “Being surrounded by paintings,” he wrote, “I was inflamed with a frantic love for them, reaching the point of frenzy.” His idol was French artist Jean François Millet, who became famous at that time for his “peasant” paintings, which Goupil sold at prices of tens of thousands of francs.

The artist's brother Theodore Van Gogh

Van Gogh was going to become such a successful “writer of the everyday life of the lower classes” like Millet, using his knowledge of the life of miners and peasants, gleaned from the Borinage. Contrary to legend, art dealer Van Gogh was not a brilliant amateur like such “Sunday artists” as customs officer Rousseau or conductor Pirosmani. Having behind him a fundamental acquaintance with the history and theory of art, as well as with the practice of trading in it, the persistent Dutchman, at the age of twenty-seven, began a systematic study of the craft of painting. He began by drawing using the latest special textbooks, which were sent to him by art dealers from all over Europe. Van Gogh's hand was placed by his relative, the artist from The Hague Anton Mauwe, to whom the grateful student later dedicated one of his paintings. Van Gogh even entered first the Brussels and then the Antwerp Academy of Arts, where he studied for three months until he went to Paris.

The newly-minted artist was persuaded to go there in 1886 by his younger brother Theodore. This successful art dealer, who was on the rise, played a key role in the fate of the master. Theo advised Vincent to give up “peasant” painting, explaining that it was already a “plowed field.” And, besides, “black paintings” like “The Potato Eaters” have always sold worse than light and joyful art. Another thing is the “light painting” of the Impressionists, literally created for success: all sunshine and celebration. The public will definitely appreciate it sooner or later.

Theo Seer

So Van Gogh ended up in the capital of the “new art” - Paris and, on Theo’s advice, he entered the private studio of Fernand Cormon, which was then a “training ground” for a new generation of experimental artists. There, the Dutchman became close friends with such future pillars of post-impressionism as Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Emile Bernard and Lucien Pissarro. Van Gogh studied anatomy, painted from plaster casts and literally absorbed all the new ideas that were seething in Paris.

Theo introduces him to leading art critics and his artist clients, among whom were not only the established Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas, but also the “rising stars” Signac and Gauguin. By the time Vincent arrived in Paris, his brother was the head of the “experimental” branch of Goupil in Montmartre. A man with a keen sense of new things and an excellent businessman, Theo was one of the first to see the advance new era in art. He persuaded the conservative leadership of Gupil to allow him to take the risk of engaging in the trade of “light painting”. In the gallery, Theo held personal exhibitions of Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet and other impressionists, to whom Paris began to gradually get used to. One floor above, in his own apartment, he organized “changing exhibitions” of paintings by daring youth, which “Goupil” was afraid to show officially. This was the prototype of the elite “apartment exhibitions” that became fashionable in the 20th century, and Vincent’s works became their highlight.

Back in 1884, the Van Gogh brothers entered into an agreement among themselves. Theo, in exchange for Vincent's paintings, pays him 220 francs a month and provides him with brushes, canvases and paints best quality. By the way, thanks to this, Van Gogh’s paintings, unlike the works of Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec, who painted on anything due to lack of money, were so well preserved. 220 francs was a quarter of the monthly salary of a doctor or lawyer. Postman Joseph Roulin in Arles, whom legend made something of a patron of the “beggar” Van Gogh, received half as much and, unlike the lonely artist, fed a family with three children. Van Gogh even had enough money to create a collection of Japanese prints. In addition, Theo supplied his brother with “overall clothes”: blouses and famous hats, necessary books and reproductions. He also paid for Vincent's treatment.

None of this was simple charity. The brothers drew up an ambitious plan - to create a market for paintings by the Post-Impressionists, the generation of artists that replaced Monet and his friends. Moreover, with Vincent Van Gogh as one of the leaders of this generation. To combine the seemingly incompatible - the risky avant-garde art of the bohemian world and commercial success in the spirit of the respectable Goupil. Here they were almost a century ahead of their time: only Andy Warhol and other American pop-partyists managed to immediately get rich from avant-garde art.

"Unrecognized"

Overall, Vincent van Gogh's position was unique. He worked as a contract artist for an art dealer, who was one of the key figures in the “light painting” market. And this art dealer was his brother. The restless vagabond Gauguin, for example, could only dream of such a situation. Moreover, Vincent was not a simple puppet in the hands of businessman Theo. Nor was he unmercenary, who did not want to sell his paintings to profane people, which he gave away freely to “kindred souls,” as Meyer-Graefe wrote. Van Gogh, like any normal person, wanted recognition not from distant descendants, but during his lifetime. Confessions, an important sign of which for him was money. And being a former art dealer himself, he knew how to achieve this.

One of the main themes of his letters to Theo is not at all God-seeking, but discussions about what needs to be done in order to profitably sell paintings, and which paintings will quickly find their way to the heart of the buyer. To promote himself on the market, he came up with an impeccable formula: “Nothing will help us sell our paintings better than their recognition.” good decoration for middle class homes." To clearly show how Post-Impressionist paintings would “look” in a bourgeois interior, Van Gogh himself organized two exhibitions in the Tambourine cafe and the La Forche restaurant in Paris in 1887 and even sold several works from them. Later, the legend played up this fact as an act of despair of the artist, whom no one wanted to let into normal exhibitions.

Meanwhile, he is a regular participant in exhibitions at the Salon of Independents and the Free Theater - the most fashionable places Parisian intellectuals of that time. His paintings are exhibited by art dealers Arsene Portier, George Thomas, Pierre Martin and Tanguy. The great Cezanne got the opportunity to show his work at a personal exhibition only at the age of 56, after almost four decades of hard labor. While the works of Vincent, an artist with six years of experience, could be seen at any time at Theo’s “apartment exhibition”, where the entire artistic elite of the capital of the art world, Paris, visited.

The real Van Gogh is least like the hermit from the legend. He belongs among the leading artists of the era, the most convincing evidence of which is several portraits of the Dutchman painted by Toulouse-Lautrec, Roussel, and Bernard. Lucien Pissarro depicted him talking with the most influential art critic of those years, Fenelon. Camille Pissarro remembered Van Gogh for the fact that he did not hesitate to stop the person he needed on the street and show his paintings right next to the wall of some house. It is simply impossible to imagine the real hermit Cezanne in such a situation.

The legend firmly established the idea that Van Gogh was unrecognized, that during his lifetime only one of his paintings, “Red Vineyards in Arles,” was sold, which now hangs in the Moscow Museum fine arts named after A.S. Pushkin. In fact, the sale of this painting from an exhibition in Brussels in 1890 for 400 francs was Van Gogh's breakthrough into the world of serious prices. He sold no worse than his contemporaries Seurat or Gauguin. According to documents, it is known that fourteen works were bought from the artist. The first to do so was a family friend, the Dutch art dealer Tersteeg, in February 1882, and Vincent wrote to Theo: “The first sheep has crossed the bridge.” In reality, there were more sales; there is simply no accurate evidence of the rest.

As for unrecognized status, since 1888 famous critics Gustave Kahn and Felix Fenelon, in their reviews of “independent” exhibitions, as the avant-garde artists were called then, highlight the fresh and vibrant works of Van Gogh. The critic Octave Mirbeau advised Rodin to buy his paintings. They were in the collection of such a discerning connoisseur as Edgar Degas. During his lifetime, Vincent read in the Mercure de France newspaper that he was a great artist, the heir of Rembrandt and Hals. I wrote this in my entire article dedicated to creativity“the amazing Dutchman”, the rising star of the “new criticism” Henri Aurier. He intended to create a biography of Van Gogh, but unfortunately died of tuberculosis shortly after the death of the artist himself.

But Meyer-Graefe published a “biography”, and in it he especially described the “intuitive, free from the shackles of reason” process of Van Gogh’s creativity.

“Vincent painted in a blind, unconscious rapture. His temperament spilled out onto the canvas. The trees screamed, the clouds hunted each other. The sun gaped like a blinding hole leading to chaos.”

The easiest way to refute this idea of ​​​​Van Gogh is in the words of the artist himself: “Great is created not only by impulsive action, but also by the complicity of many things that were brought to a single whole... With art, as with everything else: great is not something sometimes random, but must be created by persistent willpower.”

The vast majority of Van Gogh’s letters are devoted to issues of the “kitchen” of painting: setting tasks, materials, technique. The case is almost unprecedented in the history of art. The Dutchman was a real workaholic and argued: “In art you have to work like several blacks and peel off your skin.” At the end of his life, he really painted very quickly; he could complete a painting from start to finish in two hours. But at the same time he kept repeating his favorite expression American artist Whistler: “I did it in two hours, but I worked for years to do something worthwhile in those two hours.”

Van Gogh did not write on a whim - he worked long and hard on the same motif. In the city of Arles, where he set up his workshop after leaving Paris, he began a series of 30 works connected by the common creative task of “Contrast”. Contrast in color, thematic, composition. For example, pandan "Cafe in Arles" and "Room in Arles". In the first picture there is darkness and tension, in the second there is light and harmony. In the same row there are several variants of his famous “Sunflowers”. The entire series was conceived as an example of decorating a “middle class home.” We have thoughtful creative and market strategies from start to finish. After looking at his paintings at the “independent” exhibition, Gauguin wrote: “You are the only thinking artist of all.”

The cornerstone of the Van Gogh legend is his madness. Allegedly, only it allowed him to look into such depths that are inaccessible to mere mortals. But the artist was not half-mad with flashes of genius from his youth. Periods of depression, accompanied by seizures similar to epilepsy, for which he was treated in a psychiatric clinic, began only in the last year and a half of his life. Doctors saw this as the effect of absinthe, an alcoholic drink infused with wormwood, whose destructive effect on nervous system became known only in the 20th century. Moreover, it was precisely during the period of exacerbation of the disease that the artist could not write. So mental disorder did not “help” Van Gogh’s genius, but hindered it.

Very doubtful famous story with an ear. It turned out that Van Gogh could not cut it off at the root, he would simply bleed to death, because he was given help only 10 hours after the incident. Only his lobe was cut off, as stated in the medical report. And who did it? There is a version that this happened during a quarrel with Gauguin that took place that day. Experienced in sailor fights, Gauguin slashed Van Gogh in the ear, and he had a nervous attack from the whole experience. Later, to justify his behavior, Gauguin made up a story that Van Gogh, in a fit of madness, chased him with a razor in his hands, and then injured himself.

Even the painting “Room in Arles,” whose curved space was considered to capture Van Gogh’s insane state, turned out to be surprisingly realistic. Plans were found for the house in which the artist lived in Arles. The walls and ceiling of his home were indeed sloping. Van Gogh never painted by moonlight with candles attached to his hat. But the creators of the legend always handled facts freely. For example, they declared the ominous painting “Wheat Field”, with a road stretching into the distance covered by a flock of ravens, to be the master’s last painting, predicting his death. But it is well known that after it he wrote a whole series of works where the ill-fated field is depicted as compressed.

The “know-how” of the main author of the Van Gogh myth, Julius Meyer-Graeff, is not just a lie, but a presentation of fictitious events mixed with genuine facts, and even in the form of an impeccable scientific work. For example, a true fact - Van Gogh loved to work under open air because he could not stand the smell of turpentine, which is used to dilute paints, - the “biographer” used it as the basis for a fantastic version of the reason for the master’s suicide. Allegedly, Van Gogh fell in love with the sun, the source of his inspiration, and did not allow himself to cover his head with a hat while standing under its burning rays. All his hair burned off, the sun baked his unprotected skull, he went crazy and committed suicide. Van Gogh's later self-portraits and images of the dead artist taken by his friends show that he did not lose any hair on his head until his death.

"Epiphanies of the Holy Fool"

Van Gogh shot himself on July 27, 1890, after his mental crisis seemed to have been overcome. Shortly before this, he was discharged from the clinic with the conclusion: “Recovered.” The very fact that the owner of the furnished rooms in Auvers, where Van Gogh lived in the last months of his life, entrusted him with a revolver, which the artist needed to scare away crows while working on sketches, suggests that he behaved absolutely normally. Today, doctors agree that suicide did not occur during a seizure, but was the result of a confluence of external circumstances. Theo got married, had a child, and Vincent was depressed by the thought that his brother would only be concerned with his family, and not with their plan to conquer the art world.

After the fatal shot, Van Gogh lived for two more days, was surprisingly calm and steadfastly endured suffering. He died in the arms of his inconsolable brother, who was never able to recover from this loss and died six months later. The Goupil company sold for next to nothing all the works of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists that Theo Van Gogh had accumulated in a gallery in Montmartre, and closed the experiment with “light painting.” Theo's widow Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger took Vincent van Gogh's paintings to Holland. Only at the beginning of the 20th century did the great Dutchman achieve total fame. According to experts, if not for the almost simultaneous early death of both brothers, this would have happened back in the mid-1890s and Van Gogh would have been a very rich man. But fate decreed otherwise. People like Meyer-Graefe began to reap the fruits of the labors of the great painter Vincent and the great gallery owner Theo.

Who did Vincent possess?

The novel about the God-seeker “Vincent” by an enterprising German came in handy in the context of the collapse of ideals after the massacre of the First World War. A martyr to art and a madman, whose mystical creativity appeared under the pen of Meyer-Graefe as something like a new religion, this Van Gogh captured the imagination of both jaded intellectuals and unsophisticated ordinary people. The legend pushed into the background not only the biography of the real artist, but also distorted the idea of ​​his paintings. They were seen as some kind of mishmash of colors, in which the prophetic “insights” of the holy fool were discerned. Meyer-Graefe turned into the main connoisseur of the “mystical Dutchman” and began not only to trade in Van Gogh’s paintings, but also to issue certificates of authenticity for large sums of money for works that appeared under Van Gogh’s name on the art market.

In the mid-1920s, a certain Otto Wacker came to him, speaking with erotic dancing in Berlin cabarets under the pseudonym Olinto Lovel. He showed several paintings signed "Vincent", painted in the spirit of the legend. Meyer-Graefe was delighted and immediately confirmed their authenticity. In total, Wacker, who opened his own gallery in the fashionable Potsdamerplatz district, put more than 30 Van Goghs on the market until rumors spread that they were fakes. Since we were talking about very a large amount, the police intervened in the matter. At the trial, the dancer-gallery owner told a tale of “provenance”, which he “fed” his gullible clients. He allegedly acquired the paintings from a Russian aristocrat, who bought them at the beginning of the century, and during the revolution managed to take them from Russia to Switzerland. Vacker did not name him, claiming that the Bolsheviks, embittered by the loss of the “national treasure,” would destroy the aristocrat’s family remaining in Soviet Russia.

In the battle of experts that unfolded in April 1932 in the courtroom of the Berlin district of Moabit, Meyer-Graefe and his supporters stood strongly for the authenticity of the Wacker Van Goghs. But the police raided the studio of the dancer’s brother and father, who were artists, and found 16 brand-new Van Goghs. Technological examination showed that they are identical to the sold paintings. In addition, chemists found that when creating the “paintings of the Russian aristocrat,” paints were used that appeared only after Van Gogh’s death. Having learned about this, one of the “experts” who supported Meyer-Graefe and Wacker said to the stunned judge: “How do you know that after his death Vincent did not inhabit a congenial body and is not still creating?”

Wacker received three years in prison, and Meyer-Graefe's reputation was destroyed. He soon died, but the legend, despite everything, continues to live to this day. It was on its basis that the American writer Irving Stone wrote his bestseller “Lust for Life” in 1934, and the Hollywood director Vincente Minnelli made a film about Van Gogh in 1956. The role of the artist was played by actor Kirk Douglas. The film earned an Oscar and finally established in the minds of millions of people the image of a half-mad genius who took upon himself all the sins of the world. Then the American period in the canonization of Van Gogh was replaced by the Japanese.

In the country rising sun Thanks to legend, the great Dutchman began to be considered something between a Buddhist monk and a samurai who committed hara-kiri. In 1987, the Yasuda company bought Van Gogh's Sunflowers at an auction in London for $40 million. Three years later, eccentric billionaire Ryoto Saito, who associated himself with the Vincent of legend, paid $82 million at an auction in New York for Van Gogh's Portrait of Doctor Gachet. For a whole decade it was the most expensive painting in the world. According to Saito’s will, she was supposed to be burned with him after his death, but the creditors of the Japanese man, who was bankrupt by that time, did not allow this to happen.

While the world was rocked by scandals surrounding the name of Van Gogh, art historians, restorers, archivists and even doctors, step by step, explored the true life and work of the artist. Huge role The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam played a role in this, created in 1972 on the basis of a collection given to Holland by Theo Van Gogh's son, who bore the name of his great uncle. The museum began checking all Van Gogh's paintings in the world, weeding out several dozen fakes, and did a great job of preparing a scientific publication of the brothers' correspondence.

But, despite the enormous efforts of both the museum staff and such luminaries of Van Gogh studies as the Canadian Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharova or the Dutchman Jan Halsker, the legend of Van Gogh does not die. It lives its own life, giving rise to new films, books and performances about the “mad saint Vincent”, who has nothing in common with the great worker and pioneer of new paths in art, Vincent Van Gogh. This is how a person works: a romantic fairy tale is always more attractive to him than the “prose of life,” no matter how great it may be.

For the Impressionists, one of the main objects of display was man. His image was interpreted in such a way that he asserted himself in the struggle with his environment and himself painfully, heavily, straining his inner strength to the limit. This side of Post-Impressionist art is best seen in the work of Vincent Van Gogh.

Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) is considered a great Dutch artist who had a very strong influence on impressionism in art. His works, created over a ten-year period, are striking in their color, carelessness and roughness of strokes, and images of a mentally ill person, exhausted by suffering, who committed suicide. Vincent van Gogh was born in 1853 in Holland. He was named after his deceased brother, who was born a year before him on the same day. Therefore, it always seemed to him that he was replacing someone else. Timidity, shyness, and an overly sensitive nature alienated him from his classmates, and his only friend was his older brother Theo, with whom they vowed not to separate as children. Vincent was 27 when he finally realized that he wanted to become an artist. “I can’t tell you how happy I am that I started drawing again. I often thought about it, but I thought that drawing was beyond my capabilities.” This is how Vincent wrote to Theo.

Van Gogh, a Dutchman by nationality, came to France as an established artist who depicted the people and nature of his homeland. Van Gogh was practically self-taught, although he used the advice of A. Mauve. But to an even greater extent than the recommendations of the modern Dutch painter, acquaintance with the works and reproductions of Rembrandt, Delacour, Daumier and Millet played a role in the formation of Van Gogh. The painting itself, which he turned to after trying different professions(a salesman in a salon, a teacher, a preacher), he understood it as something that brought to the people no longer the word of a sermon, but an artistic image.

One of famous paintings Van Gogh - “The Potato Eaters” (1885). In a dark, gloomy room, five people are sitting at a table: two men, two women and a girl visible from the back. A kerosene lamp hanging from above illuminates thin, tired faces and large, tired hands. The peasants' meager meal was a plate of boiled potatoes and liquid coffee. The images of people combine monumental grandeur and compassion, living in a wide open eyes, intensely raised triangles of eyebrows, wrinkles that are clearly visible even on young faces.

Arrival in Paris in 1886 introduced significant adjustments to Van Gogh’s work, without changing its basic essence. The artist is still full of sympathy and love for the little man, but this man is already different - a resident of the French capital, an artist himself.

The change in Van Gogh's style was to a certain extent dictated by a change in his ideological position. In the very general view his view of the world at that time can be considered more joyful and bright than in Holland. This side of his work is especially well revealed in landscapes and still lifes. Ordinary Montmarte restaurants with their restaurants and cafes, thin leafless trees - all this acquires an impressionistic trepidation from Van Gogh, painted in light soft tones. Some works can be compared in terms of sophistication and precision of colorful combinations with the paintings of Van Gogh's compatriot, Vermeer of Delft.

A new period of Van Gogh’s work begins after moving to Arles in 1888. At first, the artist saw in the nature of Provence, in the people inhabiting this region, the embodiment of his dream of a “promised land,” associated in his imagination with Japan. It was in Provence that Van Gogh hoped to create the “Southern Atelier,” a workshop where brother artists would work together, opposing the power of money and the dictatorship of art dealers.

The feeling of joy that overwhelmed Van Gogh forced him to work tirelessly. The artist depicted blossoming fruit trees, bridges across canals, and a sea covered with ripening plain grain. He wrote, sometimes recalling his favorite Japanese prints. However, soon all associations with what he had seen became a thing of the past; without looking for the beaten path, he discovered Provence for himself and people. And it is quite natural that the theme of labor, which was organic for Van Gogh, entered this world of nature. Against the backdrop of a plowed field and a huge solar disk, a peasant appeared scattering seeds (“The Sower”, 1888), while women gathering the harvest were lost in the autumn vineyard (“Red Vineyard”, 1888). The artist’s close attention began to be attracted to images of humble workers (“Doctor Ray”, 1889; “Lullaby”, 1889; Portrait of the Postman Roulin, 1889). If we look at the works created in Arles, we can see how the artist gradually loses the feeling of the harmony of existence.

Perhaps nothing characterizes the artist’s state of mind at this time as clearly as his self-portraits. He sees himself every time new, changed. In the self-portrait “Worshipper of Buddha” (1888) dedicated to Gauguin, in the almost ascetic appearance of the artist with accentuated slanted eyes and protruding cheekbones, with a shaved head and a chin covered with prickly stubble, there are features of a pariah, a renegade, rejected by society, which Van Gogh and Van Gogh saw in themselves. Gauguin. In “Self-Portrait with a Cut Off Ear,” Van Gogh seems to gain new strength. Physical suffering seemed to remove spiritual suffering. And now the artist, having bandaged his ear, calmly puffs on his pipe. A hat with a piece of fur in front is firmly pulled down over the forehead.

The Dutch tradition is felt by Van Gogh in his commitment to the interior, but he interprets it in a completely new way. Painted one after the other in 1888, “The Night Cafe” and “Room in Arles” are equally humanized by the artist. It does not obey the logic of arranged objects and flowing artificial or natural light. He makes them serve himself, the expression of his internal state. The space that actively draws in, as if sucking the viewer into the composition, the unreality of the flickering light, the distant, small figures isolated from each other - in all this there is Van Gogh’s “trappedness”, his tragedy, the utmost tension of strength.

A stay in a mental hospital in Saint-Rémy in the south of France and two months in Auvers near Paris - this is how it goes Last year Van Gogh's life, cut short by a tragic gunshot. He is still at work all the time: flowers, figures of guards appear on the canvases, speaking of an undying love for life and at the same time of a growing internal tragedy.

Sometimes everyday life and enlightenment burst into this wavering world, but in the same Auvers such tragic compositions as “Portrait of Doctor Gachet” or “Church in Auvers” are born, in which everything speaks of the artist’s near end.

“Portrait of Doctor Gachet” depicts homeopathic physician Paul Ferdinand Gachet, a specialist in mental illness and author of a study on melancholia. On behalf of the artist's brother, Theo, he treated Van Gogh during his life in Antwerp. Gradually, a relationship was established between them not as a patient and a doctor, but as friends who deeply respect each other.

One of the characteristic documents of the era, rich in all kinds of diaries, memoirs, letters, are Van Gogh's letters, primarily to his brother Theo. The greatness of the handwritten legacy left by Van Gogh is given by the humanity and compassion of his soul, which spilled out onto the pages of paper with the same honesty as in his canvases.

Bibliography

Kalitina N.N. French fine art of the late XVIII-XX centuries: Textbook. - L.: Leningrad University Publishing House, 1990. - 280 p.

Andreev L.G. Impressionism. - M., Moscow Publishing House. Univ., 1980, 250 p.

Dutch post-impressionist artist whose work had a timeless influence on 20th-century painting

Vincent van Gogh

short biography

Vincent Willem van Gogh(Dutch: Vincent Willem van Gogh; March 30, 1853, Grote-Zundert, Netherlands - July 29, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France) was a Dutch post-impressionist artist whose work had a timeless influence on 20th-century painting. In just over ten years, he created more than 2,100 works, including about 860 oil paintings. Among them are portraits, self-portraits, landscapes and still lifes, depicting olive trees, cypress trees, wheat fields and sunflowers. Van Gogh was overlooked by most critics until his suicide at the age of 37, which was preceded by years of anxiety, poverty and mental disorders.

Childhood and youth

Born on March 30, 1853 in the village of Groot Zundert in the province of North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands, near the Belgian border. Vincent's father was Theodore Van Gogh (born 02/08/1822), a Protestant pastor, and his mother was Anna Cornelia Carbenthus, the daughter of a venerable bookbinder and bookseller from The Hague. Vincent was the second of seven children of Theodore and Anna Cornelia. He received his name in honor of his paternal grandfather, who also devoted his entire life to the Protestant church. This name was intended for Theodore and Anna's first child, who was born a year earlier than Vincent and died on the first day. So Vincent, although born second, became the eldest of the children.

Four years after Vincent's birth, on May 1, 1857, his brother Theodorus van Gogh (Theo) was born. In addition to him, Vincent had a brother Cor (Cornelis Vincent, May 17, 1867) and three sisters - Anna Cornelia (February 17, 1855), Liz (Elizabeth Guberta, May 16, 1859) and Wil (Willemina Jacoba, March 16, 1862). Family members remember Vincent as a willful, difficult and boring child with “strange manners”, which was the reason for his frequent punishments. According to the governess, there was something strange about him that distinguished him from the others: of all the children, Vincent was the least pleasant to her, and she did not believe that anything worthwhile could come of him. Outside the family, on the contrary, Vincent showed the other side of his character - he was quiet, serious and thoughtful. He hardly played with other children. In the eyes of his fellow villagers, he was a good-natured, friendly, helpful, compassionate, sweet and modest child. When he was 7 years old, he went to a village school, but a year later he was taken away from there, and together with his sister Anna he studied at home, with a governess. On October 1, 1864, he went to boarding school in Zevenbergen, located 20 km from his home. Leaving home caused Vincent a lot of suffering; he could not forget it, even as an adult. On September 15, 1866, he began studying at another boarding school - Willem II College in Tilburg. Vincent is good at languages ​​- French, English, German. There he received drawing lessons. In March 1868, in the middle of the school year, Vincent suddenly left school and returned to his father's house. This ends his formal education. He recalled his childhood as follows: “My childhood was dark, cold and empty...”.

Work in a trading company and missionary activity

In July 1869, Vincent got a job in the Hague branch of the large art and trading company Goupil & Cie, owned by his uncle Vincent (“Uncle Saint”). There he received the necessary training as a dealer. Initially, the future artist set to work with great zeal, achieved good results, and in June 1873 he was transferred to the London branch of Goupil & Cie. Through daily contact with works of art, Vincent began to understand and appreciate painting. In addition, he visited the city's museums and galleries, admiring the works of Jean-François Millet and Jules Breton. At the end of August, Vincent moved to 87 Hackford Road and rented a room in the house of Ursula Loyer and her daughter Eugenie. There is a version that he was in love with Eugenia, although many early biographers mistakenly call her by the name of her mother, Ursula. In addition to this naming confusion that has been going on for decades, recent research suggests that Vincent was not in love with Eugenie at all, but with a German woman named Caroline Haanebeek. What actually happened remains unknown. The lover's refusal shocked and disappointed the future artist; he gradually lost interest in his work and began to turn to the Bible. In 1874, Vincent was transferred to the Paris branch of the company, but after three months of work he again left for London. Things were getting worse for him, and in May 1875 he was again transferred to Paris, where he attended exhibitions at the Salon and Louvre and eventually began to try his hand at painting. Gradually, this activity began to take up more of his time, and Vincent finally lost interest in work, deciding for himself that “art has no worse enemies than art dealers.” As a result, at the end of March 1876 he was fired from Goupil & Cie due to poor performance, despite the patronage of his relatives who were co-owners of the company.

In 1876 Vincent returned to England, where he found unpaid work as a teacher at a boarding school in Ramsgate. At the same time, he has a desire to become a priest, like his father. In July, Vincent moved to another school - in Isleworth (near London), where he worked as a teacher and assistant pastor. On November 4, Vincent preached his first sermon. His interest in the Gospel grew and he became obsessed with the idea of ​​preaching to the poor.

Vincent went home for Christmas and his parents persuaded him not to return to England. Vincent remained in the Netherlands and worked in a bookshop in Dordrecht for six months. This job was not to his liking; most He spent his time sketching or translating passages from the Bible into German, English and French. Trying to support Vincent's aspirations to become a pastor, his family sent him in May 1877 to Amsterdam, where he settled with his uncle, Admiral Jan van Gogh. Here he studied diligently under the guidance of his uncle Yoganess Stricker, a respected and recognized theologian, in preparation for passing the university entrance examination for the department of theology. In the end, he became disillusioned with his studies, quit his studies and left Amsterdam in July 1878. The desire to be useful to ordinary people sent him to the Protestant missionary school of Pastor Bokma in Laeken near Brussels, where he completed a three-month course in preaching (however, there is a version that he did not complete the full course of study and was kicked out due to sloppiness). appearance, hot temper and frequent bouts of rage).

In December 1878, Vincent went for six months as a missionary to the village of Paturage in Borinage, a poor mining area in the south of Belgium, where he began tireless activities: visiting the sick, reading Scripture to the illiterate, preaching, teaching children, and at night drawing maps of Palestine to earn money. Such selflessness endeared him to the local population and members of the Evangelical Society, which resulted in his being awarded a salary of fifty francs. After completing a six-month internship, van Gogh intended to enter the Evangelical School to continue his education, but considered the introduced tuition fees to be a manifestation of discrimination and refused to study. At the same time, Vincent addressed the mine management with a petition on behalf of the workers to improve their working conditions. The petition was rejected, and van Gogh himself was removed from the post of preacher by the Synodal Committee of the Protestant Church of Belgium. This was a serious blow to the artist’s emotional and mental state.

Becoming an artist

Fleeing from the depression caused by the events in Paturage, Van Gogh again turned to painting, began to think seriously about his studies and in 1880, with the support of his brother Theo, went to Brussels, where he began attending classes at the Royal Academy fine arts. However, after a year, Vincent dropped out of school and returned to his parents. During this period of his life, he believed that an artist does not necessarily have talent, the main thing is to work hard and hard, so he continued his studies on his own.

At the same time, van Gogh experienced a new love interest, falling in love with his cousin, the widow Kay Vos-Striker, who was staying with her son in their house. The woman rejected his feelings, but Vincent continued his courtship, which turned all his relatives against him. As a result, he was asked to leave. Van Gogh, having experienced a new shock and deciding to forever abandon attempts to arrange his personal life, left for The Hague, where he plunged into painting with renewed vigor and began taking lessons from his distant relative, a representative of the Hague school of painting, Anton Mauwe. Vincent worked hard, studied the life of the city, especially the poor neighborhoods. Achieving interesting and surprising color in his works, he sometimes resorted to mixing different writing techniques on one canvas - chalk, pen, sepia, watercolor (“Backyards”, 1882, pen, chalk and brush on paper, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; "Roofs. View from van Gogh's studio", 1882, paper, watercolor, chalk, private collection of J. Renan, Paris). Charles Bargue's manual “Drawing Course” had a great influence on the artist. He copied all the lithographs of the manual in 1880/1881, and then again in 1890, but only a part.

In The Hague, the artist tried to start a family. This time, his chosen one was a pregnant street woman, Christine, whom Vincent met right on the street and, moved by sympathy for her situation, offered to move in with him along with the children. This act finally quarreled the artist with his friends and relatives, but Vincent himself was happy: he had a model. However, Christine turned out to have a difficult character, and soon family life van Gogh turned into a nightmare. Very soon they separated. The artist could no longer stay in The Hague and headed to the north of the Netherlands, to the province of Drenthe, where he settled in a separate hut, equipped as a workshop, and spent whole days in nature, depicting landscapes. However, he was not very keen on them, not considering himself a landscape painter - many paintings of this period are dedicated to peasants, their daily work and life.

By topic early works Van Gogh's works can be classified as realism, although the manner of execution and technique can be called realistic only with certain significant reservations. One of the many problems that the artist faced caused by the lack of artistic education was the inability to depict the human figure. In the end, this led to one of the fundamental features of his style - the interpretation of the human figure, devoid of smooth or measuredly graceful movements, as an integral part of nature, in some ways even similar to it. This is very clearly visible, for example, in the painting “A Peasant and a Peasant Woman Planting Potatoes” (1885, Kunsthaus, Zurich), where the figures of peasants are likened to rocks, and the high horizon line seems to press on them, not allowing them to straighten up or even raise their heads. A similar approach to the theme can be seen in the later painting “Red Vineyards” (1888, State Museum Fine Arts named after. A. S. Pushkin, Moscow). In a series of paintings and sketches from the mid-1880s. (“Exit of the Protestant Church in Nuenen” (1884-1885), “Peasant Woman” (1885, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo), “The Potato Eaters” (1885, Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), “Old Church Tower in Nuenen "(1885), painted in a dark painterly palette, marked by a painfully acute perception of human suffering and feelings of depression, the artist recreated the oppressive atmosphere of psychological tension. At the same time, the artist formed his own understanding of the landscape: an expression of his inner perception of nature through an analogy with man. His own words became his artistic credo: “When you draw a tree, treat it as a figure.”

In the fall of 1885, van Gogh unexpectedly left Drenthe because the local pastor turned against him, forbidding the peasants to pose for the artist and accusing him of immorality. Vincent went to Antwerp, where he again began to attend painting classes - this time in a painting class at the Academy of Arts. In the evenings, the artist attended a private school, where he painted nude models. However, already in February 1886, van Gogh left Antwerp for Paris to visit his brother Theo, who was engaged in the art trade.

The Parisian period of Vincent's life began, which turned out to be very fruitful and eventful. The artist visited the prestigious private art studio of the famous teacher Fernand Cormon throughout Europe, studied impressionist painting, Japanese engraving, and synthetic works by Paul Gauguin. During this period, van Gogh’s palette became light, the earthy shade of paint disappeared, pure blue, golden-yellow, red tones appeared, his characteristic dynamic, flowing brush stroke (“Agostina Segatori in the Tambourine Café” (1887-1888, Vincent Museum van Gogh, Amsterdam), “Bridge over the Seine” (1887, Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), “Père Tanguy” (1887, Rodin Museum, Paris), “View of Paris from Theo’s apartment on the Rue Lepic” (1887, Museum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam). Notes of calm and tranquility appeared in his work, caused by the influence of the Impressionists. The artist met some of them - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Emile Bernard - soon after his arrival in Paris. to his brother, these acquaintances had the most beneficial effect on the artist: he found a kindred environment that appreciated him, and enthusiastically took part in impressionist exhibitions - in the La Fourche restaurant, the Tambourine cafe, and then in the foyer of the Free Theater. However, the public was horrified by van Gogh's paintings, which forced him to begin self-education again - to study the color theory of Eugene Delacroix, the textured painting of Adolphe Monticelli, Japanese color prints and flat oriental art in general. The Parisian period of his life accounts for the largest number of paintings created by the artist - about two hundred and thirty. Among them are a series of still lifes and self-portraits, a series of six canvases under common name“Shoes” (1887, Art Museum, Baltimore), landscapes. The role of man in Van Gogh’s paintings is changing - he is not there at all, or he is a staffage. Air, atmosphere and rich color appear in the works, but the artist conveyed the light-air environment and atmospheric nuances in his own way, dividing the whole without merging the forms and showing the “face” or “figure” of each element of the whole. A striking example The painting “The Sea at Sainte-Marie” (1888, State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin, Moscow) can serve as such an approach. Creative search the artist led him to the origins of a new artistic style - post-impressionism.

Last years. Creativity flourishes

Despite van Gogh's creative growth, the public still did not perceive or buy his paintings, which Vincent perceived very painfully. By mid-February 1888, the artist decided to leave Paris and move to the south of France - to Arles, where he intended to create the “Workshop of the South” - a kind of brotherhood of like-minded artists working for future generations. Van Gogh gave the most important role in the future workshop to Paul Gauguin. Theo supported the venture with money, and in the same year Vincent moved to Arles. There the originality of it was finally determined creative manner And art program: “Instead of trying to accurately depict what is in front of my eyes, I use color more freely, in a way that expresses myself more fully.” The consequence of this program was an attempt to develop “ simple technique, which, apparently, will not be impressionistic.” In addition, Vincent began to synthesize drawing and color in order to more fully convey the essence of local nature.

Although van Gogh declared a departure from impressionist methods of depiction, the influence of this style was still very much felt in his paintings, especially in the rendering of light and airiness (Peach Tree in Blossom, 1888, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo) or in the use of large coloristic spots (“Anglois Bridge in Arles”, 1888, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne). At this time, like the Impressionists, van Gogh created a series of works depicting the same view, however, achieving not the exact transfer of changing light effects and conditions, but the maximum intensity of expression of the life of nature. He also painted a number of portraits from this period, in which the artist tested a new artistic form.

Fiery artistic temperament, a painful impulse towards harmony, beauty and happiness and, at the same time, fear of forces hostile to man are embodied in landscapes shining with sunny colors of the south (“The Yellow House” (1888), “Gauguin’s Chair” (1888), “Harvest. Valley of La Croe" (1888, Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), then in ominous, nightmare-like images ("Cafe Terrace at Night" (1888, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo); the dynamics of color and brushwork fills with spiritual life and movement not only nature and the people inhabiting it (“Red Vineyards in Arles” (1888, State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin, Moscow)), but also inanimate objects (“Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles” (1888, Vincent van Museum Goga, Amsterdam)). The artist’s paintings become more dynamic and intense in color (“The Sower”, 1888, E. Bührle Foundation, Zurich), tragic in sound (“Night Cafe”, 1888, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven). ; “Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles” (1888, Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam).

On October 25, 1888, Paul Gauguin arrived in Arles to discuss the idea of ​​​​creating a southern painting workshop. However, the peaceful discussion very quickly grew into conflicts and quarrels: Gauguin was dissatisfied with van Gogh’s carelessness, and van Gogh himself was perplexed as to how Gauguin did not want to understand the very idea of ​​a single collective direction of painting in the name of the future. In the end, Gauguin, who was looking for peace for his work in Arles and did not find it, decided to leave. On the evening of December 23, after another quarrel, van Gogh attacked his friend with a razor in his hands. Gauguin accidentally managed to stop Vincent. The whole truth about this quarrel and the circumstances of the attack is still unknown (in particular, there is a version that van Gogh attacked the sleeping Gauguin, and the latter was saved from death only by the fact that he woke up in time), but on the same night Van Gogh cut himself off earlobe. According to the generally accepted version, this was done in a fit of repentance; at the same time, some researchers believe that this was not repentance, but a manifestation of madness caused frequent use absinthe The next day, December 24, Vincent was taken to a psychiatric hospital, where the attack repeated with such force that doctors placed him in a ward for violent patients with a diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy. Gauguin hastily left Arles without visiting van Gogh in the hospital, having previously informed Theo about what had happened.

During periods of remission, Vincent asked to be released back to the studio to continue working, but the residents of Arles wrote a statement to the mayor of the city asking him to isolate the artist from other residents. Van Gogh was asked to go to the Saint-Paul mental hospital in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, near Arles, where Vincent arrived on May 3, 1889. He lived there for a year, tirelessly working on new paintings. During this time, he created more than one hundred and fifty paintings and about one hundred drawings and watercolors. The main types of paintings during this period of life are still lifes and landscapes, the main differences of which are incredible nervous tension and dynamism (“ Starlight Night", 1889, Museum of Modern Art, New York), juxtaposition of contrasting colors and - in some cases - the use of halftones ("Landscape with Olives", 1889, J. G. Whitney Collection, New York; "Wheat Field with Cypress Trees" , 1889, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

At the end of 1889, he was invited to participate in the Brussels G20 exhibition, where the artist’s works immediately aroused interest among colleagues and art lovers. However, this no longer pleased Van Gogh, just as the first enthusiastic article about the painting “Red Vineyards in Arles” signed by Albert Aurier, which appeared in the January issue of the Mercure de France magazine in 1890, did not please either.

In the spring of 1890, the artist moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, a place near Paris, where he saw his brother and his family for the first time in two years. He still continued to write, but his style latest works changed completely, becoming even more nervous and depressing. The main place in the work was occupied by a whimsically curved contour, as if pinching one or another object (“Rural road with cypress trees”, 1890, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; “Street and staircase in Auvers”, 1890, City Art Museum, St. Louis; “Landscape in Auvers after the rain”, 1890, State Museum of Fine Arts. A. S. Pushkin, Moscow). The last bright event in Vincent's personal life was his acquaintance with the amateur artist Dr. Paul Gachet.

On the 20th of July 1890, van Gogh painted his famous painting “Wheat Field with Crows” (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), and a week later, on July 27, tragedy occurred. Going out for a walk with drawing materials, the artist shot himself in the heart area with a revolver, bought to scare away flocks of birds while working in the open air, but the bullet passed lower. Thanks to this, he independently reached the hotel room where he lived. The innkeeper called a doctor, who examined the wound and informed Theo. The latter arrived the very next day and spent the entire time with Vincent until his death 29 hours after being wounded from loss of blood (at 1:30 a.m. on July 29, 1890). In October 2011 appeared alternative version death of the artist. American art historians Steven Nayfeh and Gregory White Smith have suggested that van Gogh was shot by one of the teenagers who regularly accompanied him in drinking establishments.

According to Theo, last words the artists were: La tristesse durera toujours(“Sadness will last forever”) Vincent van Gogh was buried in Auvers-sur-Oise on July 30. IN last way The artist was accompanied by his brother and a few friends. After the funeral, Theo set about organizing a posthumous exhibition of Vincent's works, but fell ill with a nervous breakdown and died exactly six months later, on January 25, 1891, in Holland. 25 years later, in 1914, his remains were reburied by his widow next to Vincent's grave.

Heritage

Recognition and sales of paintings

An artist on his way to Tarascon, August 1888, Vincent van Gogh on the road near Montmajour, oil on canvas, 48x44 cm, former museum Magdeburg; it is believed that the painting was lost in a fire during World War II

It is a common misconception that during Van Gogh's lifetime only one of his paintings was sold - "Red Vineyards at Arles". This painting was only the first to be sold for a significant amount (at the Brussels G20 exhibition at the end of 1889; the price for the painting was 400 francs). Documents have been preserved about the lifetime sale of 14 works by the artist, starting in 1882 (about which van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo: “The first sheep crossed the bridge”), and in reality there should have been more transactions.

Since his first exhibition of paintings in the late 1880s, van Gogh's fame has steadily grown among colleagues, art critics, dealers and collectors. After his death, memorial exhibitions were organized in Brussels, Paris, The Hague and Antwerp. At the beginning of the 20th century, retrospectives took place in Paris (1901 and 1905) and Amsterdam (1905) and significant group exhibitions in Cologne (1912), New York (1913) and Berlin (1914). This had a noticeable influence on subsequent generations of artists. By the mid-20th century, Vincent van Gogh was regarded as one of the greatest and most recognizable artists in history. In 2007, a group of Dutch historians compiled " Canon Dutch history» for teaching in schools, in which van Gogh was placed as one of fifty topics, along with others national symbols, such as Rembrandt and the art group "Style".

Along with works by Pablo Picasso, van Gogh's works rank among the most expensive paintings ever sold in the world, according to estimates from auctions and private sales. Those sold for more than 100 million (2011 equivalent) include: Portrait of Doctor Gachet, Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin and Irises. “Wheat Field with Cypress Trees” sold in 1993 for $57 million, an incredible price at the time, and his “Self-Portrait with Severed Ear and Pipe” was sold privately in the late 1990s. The sale price was estimated to be $80-90 million. Van Gogh's "Portrait of Doctor Gachet" was sold at auction for $82.5 million. "The Plowed Field and the Plowman" was auctioned at Christie's New York auction house for $81.3 million.

Influence

In his last letter to Theo, Vincent admitted that since he had no children, he viewed his paintings as offspring. Reflecting on this, historian Simon Schama concluded that he "did have a child - expressionism, and many, many heirs." Schama mentions a wide range of artists who adapted elements of van Gogh's style, including Willem de Kooning, Howard Hodgkin and Jackson Pollock. The Fauves expanded the scope of color and freedom in its use, as well as German expressionists from the group "Die Brücke" and other early modernists. Abstract Expressionism of the 1940s and 1950s is seen as partly inspired by van Gogh's broad, gestural brushstrokes. Here's what art critic Sue Hubbard says about the exhibition "Vincent Van Gogh and Expressionism":

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Van Gogh gave the Expressionists a new pictorial language that allowed them to go beyond the external surface vision and penetrate deeper into the essence of truth. It is no coincidence that at that very moment Freud was also discovering the depths of an essentially modern concept - the subconscious. This wonderful, intelligent exhibition gives Van Gogh his rightful place as a pioneer of modern art.

Original text(English)
At the beginning of the twentieth century Van Gogh gave the Expressionists a new painterly language which enabled them to go beyond surface appearance and penetrate deeper essential truths. It is no coincidence that at this very moment Freud was also mining the depths of that essentially modern domain -the subconscious. This beautiful and intelligent exhibition places Van Gogh where he firmly belongs; as the trailblazer of modern art.

Hubbard, Sue. "Vincent Van Gogh and Expressionism". Independent, 2007

In 1957, the Irish artist Francis Bacon (1909-1992) based on a reproduction of a painting by van Gogh "An Artist on the Road to Tarascon", the original of which was destroyed during World War II, wrote a series of his works. Bacon was inspired not only by the image itself, which he described as "obsessive", but also by Van Gogh himself, whom Bacon regarded as an "alienated superfluous man" - a position that resonated with Bacon's sentiments.

Subsequently, the Irish artist identified himself with Van Gogh's theories in art and quoted lines from van Gogh's letter to his brother Theo: “real artists do not paint things as they are... They paint them because they feel like they themselves.”

From October 2009 to January 2010, an exhibition dedicated to the artist’s letters was held at the Vincent van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, then, from late January to April 2010, the exhibition moved to the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Gallery

Self-portraits

Like an artist

Dedicated to Gauguin

Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) is one of the most brilliant and talented masters. Fate did not spare the artist, giving him only ten years of active creativity. In this short period of time, Van Gogh was able to become a master, with his own unique style of painting.

Vincent Van Gogh: short biography

Vincent Van Gogh: 1889

Vincent van Gogh born in the south of the Netherlands. Vincent received his first education at a village school, and in 1864 he studied at a boarding school.

Without finishing school, Vincent Van Gogh began selling paintings in 1869. While working at the company, he gained great knowledge in the field of painting. By the way, Van Gogh loved and appreciated painting very much.

Four years later, Vincent was transferred to England, where his trading business rapidly increased. But, the way to successful career love blocked him.

Vincent Van Gogh lost his head in love with the daughter of the owner of the apartment in which he lived. When Van Gogh found out that she was engaged, he became indifferent to everything.

Van Gogh finds temporary consolation in religion. Arriving in Holland, he began studying to become a pastor, but after some time he dropped out.

In the spring of 1886, Vincent goes to France to visit his brother. In Paris he met many artists, among whom were such names as Gauguin And Camille Pissarro. All the hopelessness of life in Holland is forgotten. Van Gogh paints expressively, brightly and quickly. He is respected as an artist.

At about 27 years old, Vincent Van Gogh made the final decision to become an artist. He can safely be called self-taught, but Vincent worked a lot on himself, studied books, copied paintings.

Van Gogh's affairs were rapidly improving, but failures again stood in his way... and again because of love. Van Gogh's cousin Keya Vos, did not reciprocate the artist’s feelings. On top of that, because of her, the artist had a big fight with his father. A quarrel with his father caused Van Gogh to move to The Hague, where he began a relationship with a woman of easy virtue. Klazina Maria Hoornik. Vincent lived with the woman for one year and even wanted to marry her. The marriage was prevented by the family interfering in Van Gogh's personal affairs.

The artist returned to his homeland, where he lived for two years, and in 1886 he again went to France to visit his brother. His brother, whose name was Theo, supported Van Gogh morally and helped financially. It is worth saying that France was a second home for Vincent. He lived in this country for the last 4 years of his life.

In 1888, there was a quarrel with Gauguin, as a result of which, due to a mental disorder, Van Gogh cut off part of his ear. Although there are many versions of this story, no one knows for sure what exactly happened between Van Gogh and Gauguin. Perhaps it was the alcohol that did its job, because the artist drank a lot. The next day, Van Gogh was admitted to a psychiatric clinic.

Vincent Van Gogh is a famous artist and controversial figure in the art world of the 19th century. Today, his work continues to cause controversy. The ambiguity of the paintings and their fullness of meaning force us to take a deeper look at both them and the life of their creator.

Childhood and family

He was born in 1853 in the Netherlands, in the small village of Grote-Zundert. His father was a Protestant pastor, and his mother was from a bookbinder family. Vincent Van Gogh had 2 younger brothers and 3 sisters. It is known that at home he was often punished for his wayward character and temper.

The men in the artist’s family worked in the church or were engaged in selling paintings and books. Since childhood, he was immersed in 2 contradictory worlds - the world of faith and the world of art.

Education

At the age of 7, the elder Van Gogh began attending the village school. Just a year later he switched to home schooling, and after another 3 years he left for boarding school. In 1866 Vincent became a student at Willem II College. Although leaving and separation from loved ones was not easy for him, he achieved some success in his studies. Here he received drawing lessons. After 2 years, Vincent Van Gogh interrupted his primary education and returned home.

Subsequently, he made repeated attempts to obtain an art education, but none of them were successful.

Finding yourself

From 1869 to 1876, working as a painting salesman in a large company, he lived in The Hague, Paris and London. During these years, he became acquainted with painting very closely, visited galleries, had daily contact with works of art and their authors, and for the first time tried himself as an artist.

After his dismissal he worked at 2 English schools as a teacher and assistant pastor. Then he returned to the Netherlands and sold books. But most of his time was spent on drawings and translating fragments of the Bible into foreign languages.

Six months later, having settled in Amsterdam with his uncle Jan Van Gogh, he was preparing to enter the university to study theology. However, he quickly changed his mind and went first to the Protestant missionary school near Brussels, and then to the mining village of Paturage in Belgium.

Since the mid-80s of the XIX century. and until the end of his life, Vincent Van Gogh actively painted and even sold some paintings.

He spent some time in 1888 in a psychiatric hospital with a diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy. The incident with cutting off his earlobe is well known, because of which he ended up in the hospital - Van Gogh, after a quarrel with Gauguin, separated it from his left ear and took it to a prostitute he knew.

The artist died in 1890 from a bullet wound. According to some versions, the shot was fired by himself.

van Gogh short biography.