Van paintings with titles. Famous paintings by Vincent van Gogh
On December 23, 1888, the now world-famous post-impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh lost his ear. There are several versions of what happened, however, Van Gogh’s whole life was full of absurd and very strange facts.
Van Gogh wanted to follow in his father's footsteps - to become a preacher
Van Gogh dreamed of becoming a priest, like his father. He even completed the missionary internship required for admission to an evangelical school. He lived in the outback among miners for about a year.
But it turned out that the admission rules had changed, and the Dutch had to pay for training. The missionary Van Gogh was offended and after that decided to leave religion and become an artist. However, his choice was not accidental. Vincent’s uncle was a partner in the largest art dealer company at that time, Goupil.
Van Gogh began painting only at the age of 27
Van Gogh began to draw in adulthood, when he was 27 years old. Contrary to popular belief, he was not such a “brilliant amateur” like conductor Pirosmani or customs officer Russo. By that time, Vincent Van Gogh was an experienced art dealer and entered first the Academy of Arts in Brussels, and later the Antwerp Academy of Arts. True, he studied there for only three months until he left for Paris, where he met the Impressionists, including.
Van Gogh began with “peasant” paintings like “The Potato Eaters.” But his brother Theo, who knew a lot about art and supported Vincent financially throughout his life, managed to convince him that “light painting” was created for success, and the public would definitely appreciate it.
The artist's palette has a medical explanation
The abundance of yellow spots of different shades in the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, according to scientists, has a medical explanation. There is a version that this vision of the world is caused by the large number of drugs for epilepsy consumed by him. He experienced attacks of this disease in the last years of his life due to hard work, a riotous lifestyle and abuse of absinthe.
The most expensive Van Gogh painting was in Goering's collection
For more than 10 years, Vincent van Gogh’s “Portrait of Doctor Gachet” held the title of the most expensive painting in the world. Japanese businessman Ryoei Saito, owner of a large paper manufacturing company, purchased this painting at a Christie's auction in 1990 for $82 million. The owner of the painting indicated in his will that the painting should be cremated with him after his death. In 1996, Ryoei Saito died. It is known for certain that the painting was not burned, but where exactly it is now is unknown. It is believed that the artist painted 2 versions of the painting.
However, this is just one fact from the history of “Portrait of Doctor Gachet.” It is known that after the exhibition “Degenerate Art” in Munich in 1938, the Nazi Goering acquired this painting for his collection. True, he soon sold it to a certain Dutch collector, and then the painting ended up in the USA, where it remained until Saito acquired it.
Van Gogh is one of the most kidnapped artists
In December 2013, the FBI published the top 10 high-profile thefts of ingenious works of art with the goal that the public could help solve the crimes. The most valuable on this list are two paintings by Van Gogh – “View of the Sea at Schevingen” and “Church at Newnen”, which are valued at $30 million each. Both of these paintings were stolen in 2002 from the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. It is known that two men were arrested as suspects in the theft, but their guilt could not be proven.
In 2013, Vincent van Gogh’s painting “Poppies,” which experts value at $50 million, was stolen from the Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Egypt due to the negligence of the management. The painting has not yet been returned.
Van Gogh's ear may have been cut off by Gauguin
The story with the ear raises doubts among many biographers of Vincent Van Gogh. The fact is that if the artist cut off his ear at the root, he would die from loss of blood. Only the artist's earlobe was cut off. There is a record of this in the surviving medical report.
There is a version that the incident with the cut off ear occurred during a quarrel between Van Gogh and Gauguin. Gauguin, experienced in sailor fights, slashed Van Gogh in the ear, and he had a seizure from stress. Later, trying to whitewash himself, Gauguin came up with a story about how Van Gogh chased him in a fit of madness with a razor and crippled himself.
Unknown Van Gogh paintings are still found today
This fall, the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam identified a new painting by the great master. The painting “Sunset at Montmajour,” according to researchers, was painted by Van Gogh in 1888. What makes the find exceptional is the fact that the painting belongs to a period that art historians consider the pinnacle of the artist’s work. The discovery was made using methods such as comparison of style, paint, technique, computer analysis of the canvas, X-ray photographs and the study of Van Gogh's letters.
The painting “Sunset at Montmajour” is currently on display at the artist’s museum in Amsterdam in the exhibition “Van Gogh at Work.”
Vincent Van Gogh is a Dutch artist, one of the brightest representatives of post-impressionism. He worked a lot and fruitfully: in just over ten years he created such a number of works that no other famous painter had ever produced. He painted portraits and self-portraits, landscapes and still lifes, cypress trees, wheat fields and sunflowers.
The artist was born near the southern border of the Netherlands in the village of Grot-Zundert. This event in the family of Pastor Theodore van Gogh and his wife Anna Cornelia Carbentus occurred on March 30, 1853. In total, there were six children in the Van Gogh family. Younger brother Theo helped Vincent throughout his life and took an active part in his difficult fate.
In the family, Vincent was a difficult, disobedient child with some oddities, so he was often punished. Outside the house, on the contrary, he looked thoughtful, serious and quiet. He hardly played with children. His fellow villagers considered him a modest, sweet, friendly and compassionate child. At the age of 7 he was sent to a village school, a year later he was taken from there and taught at home, in the fall of 1864 the boy was taken to a boarding school in Zevenbergen.
Departure hurts the boy's soul and causes him a lot of suffering. In 1866 he was transferred to another boarding school. Vincent is good at languages, and here he also gains his first drawing skills. In 1868, in the middle of the school year, he left school and went home. His education ends here. He remembers his childhood as something cold and gloomy.
Traditionally, generations of Van Goghs realized themselves in two areas of activity: painting paintings and church activities. Vincent will try himself both as a preacher and as a merchant, giving his all to the work. Having achieved certain successes, he abandons both, consecrating his life and his whole self to painting.
Start of a career
In 1868, a fifteen-year-old boy entered the branch of the art company Gupil and Co. in The Hague. For good work and curiosity, he is sent to the London branch. During the two years that Vincent spent in London, he becomes a real businessman and connoisseur of engravings by English masters, quotes Dickens and Eliot, and a gloss appears in him. Van Gogh faced the prospect of a brilliant commission agent in the central branch of Goupil in Paris, where he was supposed to move.
Pages from the book of letters to brother Theo In 1875, events occurred that changed his life. In a letter to Theo, he calls his condition “painful loneliness.” Researchers of the artist's biography suggest that the reason for this state is rejected love. It is not known exactly who the object of this love was. It is possible that this version is incorrect. A transfer to Paris did not help change the situation. He lost interest in Goupil and was fired.
Theology and missionary activity
In his search for himself, Vincent affirms his religious destiny. In 1877, he moved to his uncle Johannes in Amsterdam and prepared to enter the Faculty of Theology. He gets disappointed in his studies, quits classes and leaves. The desire to serve people leads him to a missionary school. In 1879, he received a position as a preacher in Wham in the south of Belgium.
He teaches the Law of God at the miners' center in Borinage, helps the families of miners, visits the sick, teaches children, reads sermons, and draws maps of Palestine to earn money. He lives in a miserable shack, eats water and bread, sleeps on the floor, physically torturing himself. In addition, it helps workers defend their rights.
Local authorities remove him from his post, as they do not accept vigorous activity and extremes. During this period, he painted a lot of miners, their wives and children.
Becoming an artist
To escape the depression associated with the events in Paturage, Van Gogh turned to painting. Brother Theo befriends him and he attends the Academy of Fine Arts. But after a year he dropped out of school and went to his parents, continuing to study on his own.
Falls in love again. This time to my cousin. His feelings do not find an answer, but he continues his courtship, which irritates his relatives, who asked him to leave. Due to a new shock, he abandons his personal life and leaves for The Hague to take up painting. Here he takes lessons from Anton Mauve, works a lot, observes city life, mainly in poor neighborhoods. Studying “Drawing Course” by Charles Bargue, copying lithographs. Masters mixing various techniques on canvas, achieving interesting color shades in his works.
Once again he tries to start a family with a pregnant street woman whom he meets on the street. A woman with children moves in with him and becomes a model for the artist. Because of this, he quarrels with relatives and friends. Vincent himself feels happy, but not for long. The difficult character of his cohabitant turned his life into a nightmare, and they separated.
The artist goes to the province of Drenthe in the north of the Netherlands, lives in a hut, which he equipped as a workshop, paints landscapes, peasants, scenes from their work and life. Van Gogh's early works, with reservations, can be called realistic. The lack of academic education affected his drawings and inaccurate depictions of human figures.
From Drenthe he moves to his parents in Nuenen and draws a lot. Hundreds of drawings and paintings were created during this period. Along with his creativity, he paints with his students, reads a lot and takes music lessons. The themes of the works of the Dutch period are simple people and scenes, painted in an expressive manner with a predominance of a dark palette, gloomy and dull tones. Masterpieces of this period include the painting “The Potato Eaters” (1885), depicting a scene from the life of peasants.
Parisian period
After much deliberation, Vincent decides to live and create in Paris, where he moves at the end of February 1886. Here he meets his brother Theo, who has risen to the rank of director of an art gallery. The artistic life of the French capital of this period was in full swing.
A significant event is the Impressionist exhibition on Rue Lafitte. For the first time, Signac and Seurat, who led the post-impressionism movement, which marked the final stage of impressionism, are exhibiting there. Impressionism is a revolution in art that changed the approach to painting, displacing academic techniques and subjects. The first impression and pure colors are of paramount importance, and preference is given to plein air painting.
In Paris, Van Gogh's brother Theo takes care of him, settles him in his house, and introduces him to artists. In the studio of the traditionalist artist Fernand Cormon, he met Toulouse-Lautrec, Emile Bernard and Louis Anquetin. He is greatly impressed by the paintings of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. In Paris, he became addicted to absinthe and even painted a still life on this topic.
Painting "Still life with absinthe" The Parisian period (1886-1888) turned out to be the most fruitful; the collection of his works was replenished with 230 canvases. It was a time of searching for technology, studying innovative trends in modern painting. He develops a new view of painting. The realistic approach is replaced by a new manner, gravitating towards impressionism and post-impressionism, which is reflected in his still lifes with flowers and landscapes.
His brother introduces him to the most prominent representatives of this movement: Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and others. He often goes out plein air with his artist friends. His palette gradually brightens, becomes brighter, and over time turns into a riot of colors, characteristic of his work in recent years.
Fragment of the painting “Agostina Segatori in a cafe” In Paris, Van Gogh communicates a lot, visiting the same places where his brothers go. In "Tambourine" he even starts a small affair with its owner Agostina Segatori, who once posed for Degas. From it he paints a portrait at a table in a cafe and several works in the nude style. Another meeting place was Papa Tanga's shop, where paints and other materials for artists were sold. Here, as in many other similar institutions, artists exhibited their works.
A group of Small Boulevards is being formed, which includes Van Gogh and his comrades, who have not reached such heights as the masters of the Grand Boulevards - more famous and recognized. The spirit of competition and tension that reigned in Parisian society at that time became unbearable for the impulsive and uncompromising artist. He gets into arguments, quarrels and decides to leave the capital.
Severed ear
In February 1888, he goes to Provence and becomes attached to it with all his soul. Theo sponsors his brother, sending him 250 francs a month. In gratitude, Vincent sends his paintings to his brother. He rents four rooms in a hotel, eats in a cafe, the owners of which become his friends and pose for pictures.
With the arrival of spring, the artist is captivated by flowering trees pierced by the southern sun. He is delighted with the bright colors and transparency of the air. The ideas of impressionism are gradually disappearing, but loyalty to the light palette and plein air painting remains. The color yellow predominates in the works, acquiring a special radiance coming from the depths.
Vincent Van Gogh. Self-portrait with severed ear To work plein air at night, he attaches candles to his hat and sketchbook, illuminating his workspace in this way. This is exactly how his paintings “Starry Night over the Rhone” and “Night Cafe” were painted. An important event was the arrival of Paul Gauguin, whom Vincent repeatedly invited to Arles. An enthusiastic and fruitful life together ends in quarrel and breakup. Self-confident, pedantic Gauguin was the complete opposite of the disorganized and restless Van Gogh.
The epilogue to this story is the stormy showdown before Christmas 1888, when Vincent cut off his ear. Gauguin, afraid that they were going to attack him, hid in the hotel. Vincent wrapped his bloody earlobe in paper and sent it to their mutual friend, the prostitute Rachelle. His friend Roulen discovered him in a pool of blood. The wound heals quickly, but his mental health returns him to his hospital bed.
Death
The residents of Arles begin to fear a city dweller who is unlike them. In 1889, they wrote a petition demanding that they be rid of the “red-haired madman.” Vincent realizes the danger of his condition and voluntarily goes to the hospital of St. Paul of Mausoleum in Saint-Rémy. During treatment, he is allowed to pee outside under the supervision of medical staff. This is how his works with characteristic wavy lines and swirls appeared (“Starry Night”, “Road with Cypress Trees and a Star”, etc.).
Painting “Starry Night” In Saint-Rémy, periods of intense activity are followed by long breaks caused by depression. At the moment of one of the crises, he swallows paint. Despite the increasing exacerbations of the disease, brother Theo promotes his participation in the September Salon of Independents in Paris. In January 1890, Vincent exhibited “Red Vineyards in Arles” and sold them for four hundred francs, which is quite a decent amount. This was the only painting sold during his lifetime.
Painting "Red vineyards in Arles" His joy was immeasurable. The artist did not stop working. His brother Theo is also inspired by the success of Vineyards. He supplies Vincent with paints, but he begins to eat them. In May 1890, the brother negotiated with the homeopathic therapist Dr. Gachet to treat Vincent in his clinic. The doctor himself is fond of drawing, so he happily takes on the artist’s treatment. Vincent is also attracted to Gasha and sees him as a kind-hearted and optimistic person.
A month later, Van Gogh was allowed to travel to Paris. His brother does not greet him very kindly. He has financial problems and his daughter is very sick. This technique unbalanced Vincent; he realizes that he is becoming, perhaps, and has always been a burden for his brother. Shocked, he returns to the clinic.
Fragment of the painting “Road with Cypresses and a Star” On July 27, as usual, he goes out into the open air, but returns not with sketches, but with a bullet in his chest. The bullet he fired from the pistol hit the rib and went away from the heart. The artist himself returned to the shelter and went to bed. Lying in bed, he calmly smoked his pipe. It seemed that the wound did not cause him pain.
Gachet summoned Theo by telegram. He immediately arrived and began to reassure his brother that they would help him, that he did not need to give in to despair. The response was the phrase: “Sadness will last forever.” The artist died on July 29, 1890 at half past one in the morning. He was buried in the town of Mary on July 30.
Many of his artist friends came to say goodbye to the artist. The walls of the room were hung with his latest paintings. Doctor Gachet wanted to make a speech, but he cried so much that he was able to utter only a few words, the essence of which boiled down to the fact that Vincent was a great artist and an honest man, that art, which was above all for him, would repay him and perpetuate his name .
The artist's brother Theo Van Gogh died six months later. He did not forgive himself for the quarrel with his brother. His despair, which he shares with his mother, becomes unbearable, and he suffers from a nervous breakdown. This is what he wrote in a letter to his mother after his brother’s death:
“It is impossible to describe my grief, just as it is impossible to find consolation. This is a grief that will last and from which I will certainly never be freed as long as I live. The only thing that can be said is that he himself found the peace he was striving for... Life was such a heavy burden for him, but now, as often happens, everyone praises his talents... Oh, mom! He was so mine, my own brother.”
Theo Van Gogh, brother of the artist And this is Vincent's last letter, written after a quarrel:
“It seems to me that since everyone is a little on edge and also too busy, there is no need to fully clarify all the relationships. I was a little surprised that you seemed to want to rush things. How can I help, or rather, what can I do to make you happy with this? One way or another, I mentally shake your hands tightly again and, in spite of everything, I was glad to see you all. Don't doubt it."
In 1914, Theo's remains were reburied by his widow next to Vincent's grave.
Personal life
One of the reasons for Van Gogh’s mental illness could be his failed personal life; he never found a life partner. The first attack of despair occurred after the refusal of the daughter of his housewife Ursula Loyer, with whom he had been secretly in love for a long time. The proposal came unexpectedly, shocked the girl, and she rudely refused.
History repeated itself with widowed cousin Key Stricker Voe, but this time Vincent decides not to give up. The woman does not accept advances. On his third visit to his beloved’s relatives, he puts his hand into the flame of a candle, promising to hold it there until she gives her consent to become his wife. With this act, he finally convinced the girl’s father that he was dealing with a mentally ill person. They did not stand on ceremony with him anymore and simply escorted him out of the house.
Sexual dissatisfaction was reflected in his nervous state. Vincent begins to like prostitutes, especially those who are not very young and not very beautiful, whom he could raise. Soon he chooses a pregnant prostitute, who moves in with his 5-year-old daughter. After the birth of his son, Vincent becomes attached to the children and considers getting married.
The woman posed for the artist and lived with him for about a year. Because of her, he had to be treated for gonorrhea. The relationship deteriorated completely when the artist saw how cynical, cruel, sloppy and unbridled she was. After the separation, the lady indulged in her previous activities, and Van Gogh left The Hague.
Margot Begemann in her youth and adulthood In recent years, Vincent has been stalked by a 41-year-old woman named Margot Begemann. She was the artist's neighbor in Nuenen and really wanted to get married. Van Gogh, rather out of pity, agrees to marry her. The parents did not give consent to this marriage. Margot almost committed suicide, but Van Gogh saved her. In the subsequent period, he has many promiscuous relationships, he visits brothels and from time to time he is treated for sexually transmitted diseases.
“Starry Night” is recognized as one of the artist’s most successful works. It was created in 1889, when Vincent was in a mental hospital. The masterpiece measures 73.7 cm x 92.1 cm, painted in post-impressionist style on oil on canvas.
The magical view of the night sky over the fictional city is best viewed from a distance. The artist often painted paintings using the impasto technique, creating large strokes that do not form a solid image up close.
There are cypress trees in the foreground, but the main element in the picture is the beautiful starry sky, which seems so endless compared to the small town.
The painting is part of the New York collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
Sunflowers
The artist created this famous painting in 1889. It is filled with light and emotions. However, critics consider the too bright yellow colors to be a manifestation of a mental illness that the genius was already suffering from.
Sunflowers carelessly placed in a vase are drawn in a vital way; you want to straighten them in the vase. They evoke strong feelings, as if trying to take the viewer into the irrational world of a fevered imagination. Vincent said that some stories are told to him by a voice from within, and he has to draw to drown out these sounds.
The painting is painted on canvas in oil using thick strokes, creating a three-dimensional image.
The work is kept in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts.
Irises
Van Gogh's remarkable painting, painted in 1889 in a mental hospital, depicts a fragment of a field of flowers, in which irises form the basis of the composition.
The style of the work differs from his other works, gloomy and pessimistic. It is cheerful and light, similar to the technique of Japanese prints with thin contours, an original angle and unrealistically drawn areas filled with one color.
The objects in the picture are static, but the gaze unconsciously directs itself to the upper left part. A special feature of the painting is its symmetrical composition, in which the irises are located along the middle line, and the flowers in the upper left corner are combined with the ground.
This ingenious work can be seen at the Getty Museum, located in California.
Night cafe
The painting, painted in 1888, depicts the interior of a cafe near the Arles train station.
The brilliant idea is that the emotional state associated with this place is conveyed through color accents. In the future, this style will be called expressionism. As Van Gogh explained, he wanted to convey the atmosphere of the moral decline of drunkards and hopeless loneliness with the help of green.
The red color of the walls symbolizes horror and confusion, and the yellow reflects a stuffy, suffocating environment saturated with cigarette smoke.
Fuzzy silhouettes and careless outlines of objects create the feeling that the viewer is looking at everything that happens in the cafe through the eyes of one of the tipsy visitors.
Blooming almond branches
In the year of his death, Van Gogh created a beautiful work, characterized by softness and tranquility. The artist dedicated this painting to his newborn nephew. Almond flowers represent the beginning of a new life, as they are among the first to bloom.
The composition of the painting and its characteristic clear contours are inspired by Japanese motifs. Vincent once admitted to his brother that he considered this work his most important masterpiece.
Potato eaters
The sad realism of this work leaves a feeling of desperate melancholy and doom for a long time. The canvas was painted in 1885 and belongs to the initial period of Van Gogh’s work. In the painting, the artist depicted the de Groot peasant family, with whom he often communicated.
Reflecting the harsh rural life, Van Gogh uses somber colors in greenish-brown tones. He paints with heavy, aggressive strokes, depicting calloused working hands and wrinkled, thoughtful faces.
The picture is filled with deep symbolism. The dim light of the lamp represents fading hope, and the bars on the windows show that there is no way out of this miserable existence. Van Gogh's idea was to convey that, despite the difficult life, these are honest and worthy people.
Starry night over the Rhone
The view of the Rhone River embankment is depicted on the canvas in a variety of shades of blue, echoing the bright yellow lights of the city and pale yellow stars. Work on the painting took Van Gogh a year and was completed in 1888.
The Big Dipper and the North Star are burning in the blue night sky, a glowing city lies in the distance, and in the foreground a middle-aged couple is leisurely strolling along the river.
Night scenes have always fascinated the artist, admiring their beauty and mystery. He used his favorite technique, painting with oil paints on canvas in large, voluminous strokes.
Now this priceless masterpiece delights art lovers in the Musée d'Orsay, located in Paris.
Wheat field with crows
The painting is considered the last work of the genius, created two weeks before suicide. Van Gogh conveyed anxiety and attempts to find the right path. The atmosphere of the picture is gloomy and oppressive.
A dark sky hangs over a light yellow field depicting a crossroads. This is how the artist expressed anxiety and indecision, discussing which of the three roads to prefer. And black birds are approaching menacingly in the sky, personifying impending misfortune. Rough, chaotic strokes of oil paints form a dynamic image, reflecting excitement and mental turmoil.
The original work is kept in the Vincent Van Gogh Museum, located in Amsterdam.
Self-portrait with cut off ear and pipe
Having once again quarreled with Gauguin, the artist cut off part of his ear, then was sent to a hospital, where the self-portrait was painted. This relatively small painting measuring 51 x 45 cm was created for the purpose of self-reflection.
Bright colors are disharmonious with each other, and the appearance of Van Gogh himself expresses awareness of guilt, fatigue and torment from the powerlessness to resist his condition. Most of all, Van Gogh's gaze, filled with madness and detachment, directed into emptiness, attracts attention.
The painting is presented in the Niarchos Private Collection in Chicago.
Road with cypress and star
Vincent had the idea to paint a picture with a view of night nature and cypress trees in 1888 in Arles, but he realized it only two years later, shortly before his death.
Cypress trees fascinated the artist with their perfect lines and shape. The premonition of approaching death is embodied in a metaphor that projects human life onto the scale of the universe.
On the right in the sky you can see the growing month, on the left - a fading pale star that has practically disappeared from the canvas, and in the middle a cypress tree grows, dividing them like the line between the beginning and the end of existence.
The tree is so tall that the top extends beyond the canvas, as if trying to reach infinity.
Red vineyards in Arles
The expressive nature of the south of France gave Vincent Van Gogh a magnificent subject. Villagers picked grapes against the backdrop of the sunset, in the rays of which the grape leaves shone red and the sky seemed golden.
This bright spectacle inspired the genius with its colorfulness and symbolism. He viewed the harvest process as representing the cyclical nature of nature and the vitality that comes from hard work.
Van Gogh uses pure colors, applying them to the canvas with contrasting strokes.
Those who want to see this painting can go to the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin.
Night cafe terrace
Van Gogh demonstrates his mastery of color in this evocative painting created in 1888 in Arles. During this period, the artist often preferred the color yellow in his works.
A lively cafe evokes joyful and bright feelings. On a warm summer night it is full of life. Van Gogh brilliantly depicted the night without using black paint.
He conveyed the darkness of the day using blue shades ranging from the light blue tone of the building above the cafe to the dark blue houses in the background. The bright yellow terrace contrasts with the dark background, creating an illuminated effect.
The canvas is in the Kreller-Muller Museum in the Netherlands.
Shoes
Van Gogh created the unusual subject for the painting in the summer of 1886, while in Paris. He spent a long time looking for a pair of shoes suitable for the image in the picture. Vincent finally found them at a flea market. Cleaned and repaired for sale, they belonged to a worker.
But the artist did not immediately rush to paint a picture from them. Having put them on in rainy weather, he walked for a long time through mud and puddles. Upon returning home, Van Gogh captured them on canvas in this form.
The brilliant painter saw in them not just old junk, but the embodiment of the hard lot of workers who preserve nobility and dignity. Later, this painting became the subject of various analogies, including in relation to the life of the artist himself.
Church in Auvers
Van Gogh settled in a village near Paris called Auvers-sur-Oise in the spring of 1890, living there for the last months of his life.
Painted in oil on canvas, the Gothic-style church occupies the main place in the painting and is distinguished by high detail of all elements of the building. The painting shows a woman walking towards the church. It is drawn superficially, as it plays a secondary role.
The most striking and controversial feature is the dissonance between the bright sunny meadow covered with grass and the dark night sky, which causes disagreement regarding the time of day depicted in the painting.
When the artist died, the painting was given to his friend Paul Gachet and then kept in the Louvre. Now you can admire it in the Orsay Museum.
Sea view near Scheveningen
The painting is one of the artist’s early works painted with paints. On it, Vincent captured a storm raging at sea. Work on the work took place in difficult weather conditions: due to strong winds, sand was constantly rising from the ground. Having made the sketch, Van Gogh completed it indoors. But small particles of sand stuck to the painting and had to be cleaned off.
The canvas conveys the state of nature during a storm: gloomy clouds hanging over the sea, through which small rays of the sun break through, illuminating the waves. Silhouettes of people and boats appear blurry due to low lighting. The gray-green sky and sea almost merge, and the yellowish shore only slightly stands out.
The painting is part of the collection of the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
He wrote more than 900 works. His biography is studied at school, and his name is always heard. Vincent Van Gogh. The works of this artist are countless and priceless, but we will tell you about the most famous and most charismatic paintings with names and descriptions.
Starry Night (1889)
Looking at the painting “Starry Night”, you will immediately recognize Van Gogh in it. The artist worked on it in San Remy (city hospital), using a regular canvas 920x730 mm.
To “understand” a painting, you need to look at it from afar; this is due to the specific style of writing. An unusual technique made it possible to depict the static moon and stars as if they were constantly moving.
The canvas is surprising in that all the objects on it are conveyed either by color or by the nature of the stroke. Not with lines - with long or short strokes. And only contours were used to depict the village. Apparently, to emphasize the contrast between the heavenly and the earthly.
“Starry Night” is the fruit of the artist’s recovering mind. Van Gogh's brother begged the doctors to give Vincent the opportunity to write to recover. And it helped.
Vague Gogh painted this particular picture from memory, which is not at all typical for him. He loved nature.
Van Gogh's favorite plant was sunflowers. I wrote them 11 times in several episodes. The most famous paintings with sunflowers were painted during the second “sunflower” period, when the artist lived in Arles in France - a fruitful era for him.
In letters to his brother, Van Gogh said that he painted with great zeal, and, of course, painted large sunflowers. I had to work from dawn and finish the canvas quickly, because the flowers immediately withered.
Irises (1889)
Another passion of the master is irises. And another fruit of the fight against the disease in the hospital. The canvas was painted a year before Van Gogh’s death and he called it “a lightning rod for my illness.”
The first time the painting was sold to Octave Mirbeau (an art critic from France) for 300 francs. But in 1987, “Irises” became the most expensive painting in history, valued at $53.9 million.
Vincent's Bedroom at Arles (1889)
It is surprising that it is the paintings “from the hospital” that are world famous. "Vincent's Bedroom in Arles" is one of them, created in Saint-Rémy. This is not the original painting. The first work was damaged and Theo then advised his brother Vincent to copy the canvas before attempting to restore the original.
Two versions of "The Bedroom" were made, one of which was a gift for his mother and sister.
Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe (1889)
Sometimes the self-portrait is called “with a cut off ear and a pipe.” The canvas was written in Arles.
How exactly Van Gogh lost his earlobe is unknown. The background story is Van Gogh's quarrel with Gauguin amid creative differences. Either his ear was injured in a fight while drinking, or Van Gogh did it himself in a crazy fit. He is 35.
Vincent's House at Arles (Yellow House) (1888)
Van Gogh could not afford comfortable housing. So he rented a room in a yellow house. The building was located in the central square of the city and was very dilapidated. This is where Sunflowers were created and where the “southern workshop” was planned - Van Gogh’s idea to unite artists under one roof. In particular, Van Gogh dreamed of working here hand in hand with Gauguin.
Red Vineyards at Arles (1888)
Remember when we talked about “Irises” as the most expensive painting of its time? The painting “Red Vineyards in Arles” is famous for being the only work that was sold during the artist’s lifetime.
The Potato Eaters (1885)
Vincent Van Gogh loved this painting, and he himself highly appreciated it, sincerely calling it his masterpiece.
Yes, this is not “Starry Night” or “Irises”, not even “Sunflowers”, but “Eaters” was written 2 days after the death of the shepherd Theodore Van Gogh, the artist’s father. Being in a quarrel with his parent, Van Gogh could not calmly cope with the loss of his father. This should have been reflected in the master’s paintings and zeal.
The peasants themselves are partly like potatoes. Deliberately distorted to emphasize their provincialism and uncouthness. World art critics agree that Van Gogh still lacks experience and skill. And even during the artist’s lifetime, the work was critically assessed by his friend Anton van Rappard, who called “Eaters” a frivolous and careless painting.
4 canvas options. The first one on the left is a drawing. The bottom right is the finished version. Even though this is one of the works of the novice Van Gogh, you will not find so much invested young soul in any of his future works.
Van Gogh was surprised that Dr. Gachet, having so much knowledge in his field, himself suffered from melancholy and could not cope with what he saved others from.
Dr. Felix Rey helped Van Gogh while he was in Arles hospital. It is believed that the portrait was painted as a sign of gratitude for treatment and support.
Contemporaries confirmed that the portrait turned out very similar, but Felix Rey himself did not have much love for either art or his portrait by Van Gogh - the canvas hung in his chicken coop for 20 years, covering a hole in the wall.
Like sunflowers and irises, shoes in Van Gogh’s work are represented in a series. It is believed that the artist decided in this way to continue the idea of reflecting the life of simple provincial peasants, those same potato eaters.
There is no information about the purpose for which this series of works was created. And there is no sacred meaning. These are simply worn shoes through the prism of the vision of the recognized Van Gogh.
That's all for us. We hope you learned a little more about the man we know as Vincent Van Gogh. The works of the great artist are world-famous paintings. Do you have his favorite painting?
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, photos and videos.
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,
Leads 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, 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, into a large family of a 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 time is the flowering of Van Gogh’s creative genius 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. Van Gogh's last words to his brother Theo were: “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 the famous painting “The 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 at 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, “Cafe Terrace at Night.”
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 force his friend to sympathize with his ideas of creating a commune of artists and the general direction of 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
