Van Gogh years of life. Biography of Van Gogh. Worked only with the best materials of those times

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 (Dutch. 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 school year, Vincent suddenly dropped out of school and returned to Father's house. This ends his formal education. He recalled his childhood like this: “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 future artist set to work with great zeal and 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 full course training and was kicked out due to being sloppy 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, seriously thought about studying and in 1880, with the support of his brother Theo, he left for 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 colors in his works, he sometimes resorted to mixing on one canvas various techniques letters - chalk, pen, sepia, watercolors (“Backyards”, 1882, pen, chalk and brush on paper, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; “Rooftops. 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 van Gogh’s family life 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.

In terms of their themes, van Gogh's early 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 them. 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 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 of this approach is the painting “The Sea at Sainte-Marie” (1888, State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin, Moscow). The artist's creative searches 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 his creative style 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, reminiscent nightmare images (“Cafe Terrace at Night” (1888, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo); the dynamics of color and brushwork fills not only nature and the people inhabiting it with spiritual life and movement (“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 Gogh Museum, 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, Art Gallery Yale University, 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 were still lifes and landscapes, the main differences of which were incredible nervous tension and dynamism (“Starry Night”, 1889, Museum contemporary 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 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 the style of his last 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 all the 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, the artist's last words 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 Magdeburg Museum; 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 of 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 the works of Pablo Picasso, van Gogh's works are among the first on the list of 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. The painting “Wheat Field with Cypress Trees” was sold in 1993 for $57 million, incredible high 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 painting "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 did not have children, he considers 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 was born on March 30, 1953 in Grote Zundert in the province of North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands, in the family of a Protestant pastor, Theodore 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, one can note the younger brother Theodorus (Theo), he was four years younger than Vincent and the brothers were closely related all their lives. At the age of seven, Vincent is sent to a village school, but a year later his parents transfer 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' home. Two years later, on September 15, 1866, Van Gogh was transferred to the Willem II boarding college in Tilburg. Already in 1868 Vincent left and 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.
In July 1869, Van Gogh began working in the Hague branch of Goupil & Cie, owned by his uncle Vincent, the company was engaged in trade in works of art. During the first three years of working as an art dealer.

Vincent Van Gogh
1866

Vincent has settled in well Full time job with paintings plus frequent visits to local museums/art galleries made Van Gogh a good expert with his own opinion. The works of Jean-François Millet and Jules Breton were very significant for the artist, and he wrote this repeatedly in his letters. In 1873, Vincent was sent to work in the London branch of Goupil & Cie. In London, he suffers a defeat on the personal front; a certain Caroline Haanebeek, with whom Van Gogh was in love, rejects his proposal. Vincent is greatly shocked and spends less time working and more time studying the Bible. In 1874, Vincent was sent to the Paris branch of the company for three months; upon returning to London, the artist became even more withdrawn. In the spring of 1875, Van Gogh was again in the Paris branch, he began to paint himself, and very often visited 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 teaching position 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 he comes up with the idea of continuing in his father’s footsteps and becoming a preacher for the poor; there are different opinions about the motives for this choice. In early November 1876, Vincent preached his first sermon to the parishioners, describing it in his letter to his brother. In December 1876, Van Gogh came to his parents for Christmas, they persuaded him not to return to England. In the spring, Vincent settles in bookstore 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 his other relative, the famous theologian Yoganess Stricker, Vincent has been preparing all this time to enter the theological faculty. In July 1878, Vincent entered a course in preaching at the Protestant Missionary School of Pastor Bokma in Laeken near Brussels; there are versions that Van Gogh was expelled from this course before completion due to his hot temper. From December 1878 to the summer of 1879, Van Gogh became a very active missionary in the village of Paturage in Borinage, a very poor mining area in southern Belgium. Different researchers of Van Gogh's life have different assessments of Vincent's involvement in hard life local population, but the fact that he was very active and persistent is undeniable. In the evenings, Vincent drew maps of Palestine, thereby trying to earn his living. The vigorous 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 arose that knocked Vincent out of his precarious balance and put an end to his desire to become a preacher. First, tuition fees were introduced in the evangelical school, and according to some versions, it was the opportunity free training became the reason why Van Gogh suffered six months of deprivation in Paturage. Secondly, Vincent wrote a letter to the board of mines on behalf of the miners about improving working conditions, the management of the mines 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 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 parents' house. There he falls in love with his cousin, widow Kay Vos-Stricker, who was visiting his parents. But everyone close to him is against his hobby 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 became his mentor distant relative, artist of the Hague school Anton Mauwe. Vincent writes a lot, because he himself adhered to the idea that the main thing in painting is not talent, but constant practice and diligence. Another try creating a semblance of a family fails miserably. Because his chosen one is a pregnant street woman, Christine, whom Vincent met on the street. For some time she became his model; her difficult character and his impulsive nature could not exist side by side. The connection with Christine was the last straw; Van Gogh broke off relations with his relatives, except Theo. The artist travels to the province of Drenthe, in the south of the Netherlands. There the artist rents a house, which he uses as a workshop. He works a lot, focusing on portraits and scenes of peasant life. The first was created in Drenthe meaningful work"Potato Eaters" Until the autumn of 1885, Vincent worked a lot, but the artist had a conflict with the local pastor and Van Gogh soon left for Antwerp. In Antwerp, Vincent again attends painting classes, this time at the Academy of 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 to attend 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 finds himself in his environment and this gives a strong impetus to his development. In Paris, Vincent organizes his “exhibition” in the interior of the Tambourine cafe, owned by the Italian Agostina Sagatori - she was a model in several of Van Gogh’s works. Vincent received a lot of negative feedback on his work and this pushed him to further study color theory (based on the works 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 Van Gogh's skill level has increased, his works are 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 to Arles. With the arrival of spring, Van Gogh begins to work a lot, not forgetting his idea with the “Workshop of the South”. In Vincent's opinion, Paul Gauguin should have become one of the key figures in the brotherhood of artists, and therefore Van Gogh constantly writes to Gauguin with invitations to come to Arles. Gauguin refused to be persuaded to come, often citing financial difficulties, but in the end, on October 25, 1888, he arrived in Arles to see Van Gogh. Artists 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 occurred that is known to everyone. After another quarrel with Gauguin, Vincent showed up at one of the nightlife establishments in Arles and handed a woman named Rachel a handkerchief with part of his earlobe, 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 in serious condition, in the opinion of the police, Van Gogh posed a danger to himself and others. Vincent was rushed to Arles hospital. Gauguin left Arles that same day, notifying his brother Theo about what had happened.
There are several versions of what happened - perhaps Van Gogh’s behavior was caused by frequent consumption of absinthe, perhaps it was a consequence of a mental disorder, perhaps it was done by Vincent in a fit of repentance. There is a version that Gauguin (being quite harsh and having experience as a sailor) cut off part of Van Gogh’s earlobe in a skirmish; this version is supported by the recently discovered diaries of Rachel herself, who knew both artists well. At 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 passed and Vincent was almost back to normal. Van Gogh quickly recovers and is ready to work. Meanwhile, in March, about thirty residents of Arles write a complaint to the mayor of the city asking him to rid them of the company of Vincent Van Gogh. The artist is urged to go for treatment. At the beginning of May 1889, Van Gogh went to the mental hospital of St. Paul of Mausoleum near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. There he had the opportunity to work under the supervision of the staff; some paintings of that period were made within the walls of the clinic, one of the most famous is “Starry Night” . In total, during his stay in Saint-Rémy, the artist created more than one hundred and fifty works. Van Gogh's condition in the clinic varies from periods of recovery and intense work to apathy and deep crisis; at the end of 1889, the artist attempted suicide by swallowing paints.
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 Ravoux couple’s cafe, where a small attic room 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 wounded to his room at Ravu’s. He tells the Ravu spouses that he shot himself and they call Dr. Gachet. The doctor reports the incident to 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 loss of blood. Vincent's grave 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. Vincent's colossal fame has a strong foundation - his brother Theo, it was he who constantly supplied Vincent with funds and sometimes guided his brother. Without Theo's efforts, no one would ever have known about the brilliant Dutchman Vincent Van Gogh.

(Vincent Willem Van Gogh) was born on March 30, 1853 in the village of Groot Zundert in the province of North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands in the family of a Protestant pastor.

In 1868, Van Gogh dropped out of school, after which he went to work at a branch of the large Parisian art company Goupil & Cie. He successfully worked in the gallery, first in The Hague, then in branches in London and Paris.

By 1876, Vincent had completely lost interest in the painting trade and decided to follow in the footsteps of his father. In Great Britain, he found work as a teacher at a boarding school in a small town in the suburbs of London, where he also served as an assistant pastor. On October 29, 1876, he preached his first sermon. In 1877 he moved to Amsterdam, where he began studying theology at the university.

Van Gogh "Poppies"

In 1879, Van Gogh received a position as a secular preacher in Wham, a mining center in the Borinage, in southern Belgium. He then continued his preaching mission in the nearby village of Kem.

During this same period, Van Gogh developed a desire to paint.

In 1880, in Brussels, he entered the Royal Academy of Arts (Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles). However, due to his unbalanced character, he soon dropped out of the course and continued his art education on his own, using reproductions.

In 1881, in Holland, under the guidance of his relative, landscape artist Anton Mauwe, Van Gogh created his first paintings: “Still Life with Cabbage and Wooden Shoes” and “Still Life with Beer Glass and Fruit.”

In the Dutch period, starting with the painting “Harvesting Potatoes” (1883), the main motif of the artist’s paintings became the theme ordinary people and their work, the emphasis was on the expressiveness of scenes and figures, the palette was dominated by dark, gloomy colors and shades, sharp changes in light and shadow. The canvas “The Potato Eaters” (April-May 1885) is considered a masterpiece of this period.

In 1885, Van Gogh continued his studies in Belgium. In Antwerp he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. In 1886, Vincent moved to Paris to join his younger brother Theo, who by then had taken over as leading manager of the Goupil gallery in Montmartre. Here Van Gogh took lessons from the French realist artist Fernand Cormon for about four months, met the impressionists Camille Pizarro, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, from whom he adopted their style of painting.

In Paris, Van Gogh developed an interest in creating images human faces. Without the funds to pay for the work of models, he turned to self-portraiture, creating about 20 paintings in this genre in two years.

The Parisian period (1886-1888) became one of the most productive creative periods artist.

In February 1888, Van Gogh traveled to the south of France to Arles, where he dreamed of creating a creative community of artists.

In December, Vincent's mental health took a turn for the worse. During one of his uncontrollable outbursts of aggression, he threatened Paul Gauguin, who came to see him in the open air, with an open razor, and then cut off a piece of his earlobe, sending it as a gift to one of his female acquaintances. After this incident, Van Gogh was first placed in a psychiatric hospital in Arles, and then voluntarily went for treatment at the specialized clinic of St. Paul of the Mausoleum near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. The hospital's chief physician, Théophile Peyron, diagnosed his patient with "acute manic disorder." However, the artist was given a certain freedom: he could write in outdoors under staff supervision.

In Saint-Rémy, Vincent alternated between periods of vigorous activity and long breaks caused by deep depression. In just one year of his stay at the clinic, Van Gogh painted about 150 paintings. Some of the most outstanding paintings of this period were: “Starry Night”, “Irises”, “Road with Cypress Trees and a Star”, “Olive Trees, Blue Sky and White Cloud”, “Pieta”.

In September 1889, with the active assistance of his brother Theo, Van Gogh's paintings took part in the Salon des Indépendants, an exhibition of modern art organized by the Society of Independent Artists in Paris.

In January 1890, Van Gogh's paintings were exhibited at the eighth Group of Twenty exhibition in Brussels, where they were enthusiastically received by critics.

In May 1890, Van Gogh's mental condition improved, he left the hospital and settled in the town of Auvers-sur-Oise in the suburbs of Paris under the supervision of Dr. Paul Gachet.

Vincent actively took up painting; almost every day he completed a painting. During this period, he painted several outstanding portraits of Dr. Gachet and 13-year-old Adeline Ravou, the daughter of the owner of the hotel where he stayed.

On July 27, 1890, Van Gogh left his house at the usual time and went to paint. Upon his return, after persistent questioning by the couple, Ravu admitted that he had shot himself with a pistol. All attempts by Dr. Gachet to save the wounded were in vain; Vincent fell into a coma and died on the night of July 29 at the age of thirty-seven. He was buried in the Auvers cemetery.

American biographers of the artist Steven Nayfeh and Gregory White Smith in their study “The Life of Van Gogh” (Van Gogh: The Life) of Vincent’s death, according to which he died not from his own bullet, but from an accidental shot committed by two drunken young men.

Over the course of ten years creative activity Van Gogh managed to paint 864 paintings and almost 1200 drawings and engravings. During his lifetime, only one painting by the artist was sold - the landscape "Red Vineyards in Arles". The cost of the painting was 400 francs.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

Biography and episodes of life Vincent Van Gogh. When born and died Vincent Van Gogh, memorable places and dates of important events in his life. Artist Quotes, Photo and video.

Years of life of Vincent van Gogh:

born March 30, 1853, died July 29, 1890

Epitaph

“I’m standing there, and looming over me
Cypress twisted like a flame.
Lemon crown and dark blue, -
Without them I would not have become myself;
I would humiliate my own speech,
If only I could take someone else's burden off my shoulders.
And this rudeness of an angel, with what
He makes his stroke similar to my line,
Guides you through his pupil
To where Van Gogh breathes the stars.”
From a poem by Arseny Tarkovsky dedicated to Van Gogh

Biography

Without a doubt the greatest artist of the 19th century. With a recognizable manner, the author of internationally recognized masterpieces, Vincent Van Gogh was and remains one of the most controversial figures in world painting. Mental illness, a passionate and uneven character, deep compassion and at the same time unsociability, combined with an amazing sense of nature and beauty, found expression in the artist’s enormous creative heritage. Throughout his life, Van Gogh painted hundreds of paintings and remained an unrecognized genius until his death. Only one of his works, “Red Vineyards in Arles,” was sold during the artist’s lifetime. What an irony: after all, a hundred years after Van Gogh’s passing, his tiniest sketches were already worth a fortune.

Vincent Van Gogh was born in a village in big family Dutch pastor, where he was one of six children. While studying at school, the boy began to draw with a pencil, and even in these very early drawings of the teenager, extraordinary talent is already visible. After school, sixteen-year-old Van Gogh was given a job at the Hague branch of the Parisian company Goupil and Company, which sold paintings. This gave the young man and his brother Theo, with whom Vincent had a not simple but very close relationship all his life, the opportunity to get acquainted with real art. And this acquaintance, in turn, cooled Van Gogh’s creative zeal: he strove for something sublime, spiritual, and in the end gave up what he considered a “base” occupation, deciding to become a pastor.

What followed were years of poverty, living from hand to mouth and the spectacle of much human suffering. Van Gogh was passionate about helping poor people, while at the same time experiencing an ever-increasing thirst for creativity. Seeing in art much in common with religious faith, at the age of 27 Vincent finally decides to become an artist. He works a lot, enters the School of Fine Arts in Antwerp, then moves to Paris, where at that time a whole galaxy of impressionists and post-impressionists live and work. With the help of his brother Theo, who is still engaged in the painting trade, and with his financial support, Van Gogh leaves to work in the south of France and invites Paul Gauguin there, with whom he became close friends. This is the time to blossom creative genius Van Gogh and at the same time the beginning of his end. The artists work together, but the relationship between them becomes increasingly tense and eventually explodes in the famous quarrel, after which Vincent cuts off his earlobe and ends up in a mental hospital. Doctors find he has epilepsy and schizophrenia.

The last years of Van Gogh's life were tossing between hospitals and attempts to return to normal life. Vincent continues to create while in the hospital, but he is haunted by obsessions, fears and hallucinations. Twice Van Gogh tries to poison himself with paints and, finally, one day he returns from a walk with a gunshot wound in his chest, having shot himself with a revolver. Last words Van Gogh's words to his brother Theo sounded like this: “The sadness will be endless.” A hearse for the suicide's funeral had to be borrowed from a neighboring town. Van Gogh was buried in Auvers, and his coffin was strewn with sunflowers - the artist's favorite flowers.

Self-portrait of Van Gogh, 1887

Life line

March 30, 1853 Date of birth of Vincent Van Gogh.
1869 Start of work at the Goupil Gallery.
1877 Work as a teacher and life in England, then work as an assistant pastor, life with miners in Borinage.
1881 Life in The Hague, the first paintings created to order (cityscapes of The Hague).
1882 Meeting with Klozinna Maria Hornik (Sin), the artist’s “vicious muse”.
1883-1885 Living with parents in North Brabant. Creation of a series of works on everyday rural subjects, including famous painting"Potato Eaters"
1885 Study at the Antwerp Academy.
1886 Acquaintance in Paris with Toulouse-Lautrec, Seurat, Pissarro. The beginning of a friendship with Paul Gauguin and creative growth, the creation of 200 paintings in 2 years.
1888 Life and work in Arles. Three paintings by Van Gogh are exhibited at the Independent Salon. Gauguin's arrival, joint work and quarrel.
1889 Periodic exits from the hospital and attempts to return to work. Final move to the shelter in Saint-Rémy.
1890 Several of Van Gogh's paintings were accepted for exhibitions of the Society of Twenty in Brussels and the Independent Salon. Moving to Paris.
July 27, 1890 Van Gogh wounds himself in Daubigny's garden.
July 29, 1890 Van Gogh's date of death.
July 30, 1890 Van Gogh's funeral in Auvers-sur-Oise.

Memorable places

1. The village of Zundert (Netherlands), where Van Gogh was born.
2. The house where Van Gogh rented a room while working for the London branch of the Goupil company in 1873.
3. The village of Kuem (Netherlands), where Van Gogh’s house, where he lived in 1880 while studying the life of miners, is still preserved.
4. Rue Lepic in Montmartre, where Van Gogh lived with his brother Theo after moving to Paris in 1886.
5. Forum Square with a cafe-terrace in Arles (France), which in 1888 Van Gogh depicted in one of his most famous paintings “ Night terrace cafe".
6. The hospital at the monastery of Saint-Paul-de-Mousol in the town of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where Van Gogh was placed in 1889.
7. Auvers-sur-Oise, where Van Gogh spent the last months of his life and where he is buried in the village cemetery.

Episodes of life

Van Gogh was in love with his cousin, but she rejected him, and the persistence of Van Gogh's courtship put him at odds with almost his entire family. The depressed artist left his parents' house, where, as if in defiance of his family and himself, he settled with a corrupt woman, an alcoholic with two children. After a year of nightmare, dirty and miserable “family” life, Van Gogh broke up with Sin and forever forgot about the idea of starting a family.

No one knows exactly what caused Van Gogh's famous quarrel with Paul Gauguin, whom he greatly respected as an artist. Gauguin did not like Van Gogh's chaotic life and disorganization in his work; Vincent, in turn, could not get his friend to sympathize with his ideas of creating a commune of artists and general direction painting of the future. As a result, Gauguin decided to leave, and apparently this provoked a quarrel, during which Van Gogh first attacked his friend, although without harming him, and then mutilated himself. Gauguin did not forgive: subsequently he more than once emphasized how much Van Gogh owed him as an artist; and they never saw each other again.

Van Gogh's fame grew gradually but constantly. Since his very first exhibition in 1880, the artist has never been forgotten. Before the First World War, his exhibitions were held in Paris, Amsterdam, Cologne, Berlin, and New York. And already in the middle of the 20th century. Van Gogh's name became one of the most famous in the history of world painting. And today the artist’s works occupy first place in the list of the most expensive paintings in the world.

The grave of Vincent van Gogh and his brother Theodore in the cemetery in Auvers (France).

Testaments

“I am increasingly coming to the conviction that God cannot be judged by the world he created: this is just a failed sketch.”

“Whenever the question arose - to starve or work less, I chose the first, if possible.”

“Real artists don’t paint things as they are... They paint them because they feel like they are them.”

“He who lives honestly, who knows real difficulties and disappointments, but does not bend, is worth more than he who is lucky and knows only comparatively easy success.”

“Yes, sometimes it gets so cold in winter that people say: the frost is too severe, so it doesn’t matter to me whether summer returns or not; evil is stronger than good. But, with or without our permission, the frosts sooner or later stop, one fine morning the wind changes and a thaw sets in.”

BBC documentary “Van Gogh. Portrait written in words" (2010)

Condolences

"He was an honest man and a great artist, for him there were only two true values: love for one’s neighbor and art. Painting meant more to him than anything else, and he will always live in it.”
Paul Gachet, Van Gogh's last attending physician and friend

Vincent Van GOG
Vincent van Gogh
(1853-1890)

VAN GOGH Vincent is a Dutch painter, draftsman, etcher and lithographer, one of the largest representatives of post-impressionism.

Vincent was born in a small village in North Obrabant into the family of a priest. At the age of 16, he became a seller of paintings in the salons of the Goupil company, but at the age of 23, seized by the dream of helping the most disadvantaged, he, like his father, decided to become a preacher of the Bible and left for the south of Belgium to the mining village of Borinage. But, faced with hopeless poverty and complete indifference of the church authorities, he breaks with the official religion forever. It was in Borinage that he first recognized himself as an established artist and took on a new mission of serving society through his art. Fate would have it that V. Van Gogh spent the last decade of his life feeling the joy of his work, leading a half-starved existence on the money of his brother Theo, the only person who supported him until the very end.
For some time, V. Van Gogh took lessons from the Dutch artist Mauve, but further improvement of his work took place, in his own words, with the help of “the constant study of nature and battle with it.” The main characters of the paintings of the Dutch period are peasants depicted at their daily activities ("Peasant Woman", 1885, Kröller-Müller State Museum, Otterlo). Indicative is the canvas “The Potato Eaters” (1885, Collection of V. Van Gogh, Laren), in which V. Van Gogh pays tribute to his idol - French painter J. F. Millet. The painting is painted in a dark palette, reminiscent of the color of the land cultivated by peasants. However, according to the author, it is not color that occupies him in the first place, but form. And yet, behind the muted grayish tones one can already feel that rich color base, which will break out in the mature period of the painter’s work.
Vague desire for renewal, creative search artistic method brought him to Paris, where he met the Impressionists, studied the color theory of E. Delacroix, and became interested in planar Japanese engraving and textured painting by Monticelli. Here in Paris, he paints impressionistic paintings full of light depicting bouquets of flowers, views of Montmartre, the outskirts of Paris, and performs several portrait works("The Hills of Montmartre", 1887, City Museum, Amsterdam).
But life big city tires V. Van Gogh, and in February 1888 he leaves for Arles to return to the land and to those who work on it. His stay in this southern city restored his lost strength; it was here that his talent as a painter was fully revealed and his unique individual style was finally formed. V. Van Gogh creates his numerous paintings in a fit of inspiration, controlling his enthusiastic sensory perception of nature with his mind. He no longer strives to convey the “impression” of what he saw, but depicts its quintessence in combination with his own experiences. In this he is helped by the experience acquired in Paris in developing his own language of color, which has an emotional and symbolic sound, as well as the use of volitional contours that simplify the form, dynamic strokes that give the image a certain rhythm, and a pasty texture that conveys the materiality of the world.
V. Van Gogh expressed his love and admiration for the nature of Provence in numerous landscapes, finding his color scheme and a plastic solution for each depicted season ("Harvest. Valley of La Croe", 1888; "Fishing Boats in Sainte-Marie", 1888; "Crows over a Field of Wheat", 1890; "Almond Branch", 1890 - all in the Foundation V. Van Gogh, Amsterdam). Indicative in this regard is the painting “Red Vineyards” (1888, Pushkin Museum, Moscow), built on the contrast of additional colors, enriched with a range of warm and cold colors.

The main character in Van Gogh's Arles landscapes is the sun, and the dominant color is yellow, the color of the sun, ripe bread and sunflowers, which for the artist became a symbol of the daylight ("Sunflowers", 1888, Neue Pinakothek, Munich).

The images of the peasants dear to his heart acquire a general character, personifying the creative beginning of the world and a bright faith in the future.
IN portrait images the artist focuses on inner life model, reproducing it with all its unique individual uniqueness against a background devoid of any specific surroundings. Moreover, even the most dramatic images are inextricably linked with the feeling of joy and beauty of life, conveyed by a combination of bright colors and fanciful ornamentation of forms. These are his self-portraits and images of ordinary people, close friends of the artist: “Arlesienne. Madame Ginoux” (1888, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York); "Postman Roulin" (1888, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston); "Zouave"; "Lullaby", etc.

In humanizing the world around him, V. Van Gogh was not limited to the nature around him; many objects presented on his canvases are also endowed with the ability to feel and express the feelings of their owners: “Night Cafe in Arles” (1888, private collection, New York), provocative mortal melancholy, “The Artist’s Bedroom” (1888, Van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam), evoking thoughts of peace and relaxation.

In Arles, Van Gogh tried to fulfill his long-standing dream of an association of artists opposing the chaos of an individualistic civilization, but the attempt turned out to be tragic. Physical and spiritual overstrain led to an exacerbation of mental illness, and in May 1889 the artist ended up in the Saint-Rémy hospital, where, between attacks, he continued to do his favorite thing. Reproductions of works by famous artists served as his “model,” which he reproduced in his own pictorial language. Thus, based on a drawing by G. Doré, he created his original painting “Prisoners’ Walk” (1890, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow), reflecting his current mood: resignation and doom.
But, despite the depressing state, it was here, in the hospital, that Van Gogh creates truly cosmic canvases, filled with love for the earth and sky. " starry night"(1889) cypress trees reaching into the sky resemble tongues of flame, and the earth is perceived as a planet flying in outer space. Balls of stars - these resemblances of the sun - seem to complete the motif of a light source, begun by V. Van Gogh in "The Potato Eaters."

The artist spends the last two months of his life in a small village near Paris and creates paintings with different emotional moods: filled with purity and freshness, “Landscape at Auvers after the Rain” (1890, Pushkin Museum, Moscow), a tragic portrait of Doctor Gachet (1890, Louvre, Paris) and full of foreboding of imminent death, “A flock of crows over a grain field.” Having finished working on this picture, during another attack of depression he commits suicide.

1853 30th of March. Vincent Van Gogh was born in Grooge Zundert in Brabant (Holland) into the family of a pastor.
1857 1st of May. A younger brother, Theodore, nicknamed Theo, was born.
1864 For two years he attends college in Zevenbergen.
1866 Attends the Technical School in Tilburg.
1869 Accepted as an apprentice to the company "Gupil and Co", and moves to The Hague.
1873 Vincent is transferred to London. unrequited love causes depression.
1875 Transferred to the Paris branch of Goupil and Co.
1876 He was fired from the company and moved to Ramsgate (London), where he taught at a college. In December he returns to his parents.
1879 Engaged in preaching activities.
1880 He goes to Brussels, where he studies anatomy and drawing.
1881 Paints in oils for the first time. Disagreement with parents: goes to The Hague.
1886 Arrives in Paris.
1888 Moves to Arles, where he lives with Gauguin. Nervous crisis (as a result of which, he cuts off his earlobe).
1889 Located in a clinic for the mentally ill in Saint-Rémy.
1890 After a trip to Theo, Vincent heads to Auvers-on-Oise, where he is under the supervision of Dr. Gachet.
July 27. Shoots himself in the chest. After 2 days he was gone. Theo dies 6 months later.

Van Gogh on our community

"Red Vineyards in Arles" is the only painting sold during his lifetime...