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| Vincent Van Gogh Fast Facts Birth: 30 March 1853 Death: 29 July 1890 (aged 37) Background: Dutch - The Netherlands Brother: Theo Van Gogh Van Gogh's works are some of the most expensive in the world, but during his lifetime, he only sold one painting. |
- Rap artist Tupac Shakur created a poem and turned it into a rap song called "Starry Night", dedicated to Vincent Van Gogh.
- Don McLean wrote a song called "Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)". It has also been covered by singer Josh Groban. It is said that this song was played to rapper Tupac on his deathbed by his mother.
Van Gogh was a leader in the art movement Expressionism, which consists of distorting reality for emotional effect. His most famous paintings show that his brushstrokes are very wild, symbolic and have intense colour. The flow of the brush's movements produce a swirly effect which lets the viewer see the collective emotion in the scene.
How did he develop his signature style?
Vincent joined his brother and best friend Theo in Paris, the manager of an art gallery. There Van Gogh studied with Cormon and met artists such as Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin. He started to lighten his colours and painted in short brushstrokes like the Impressionists. He and his friend Paul Gauguin often painted together.
What other occupations did he have?
The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. He worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in the Borinage, Belgium (where he was fired for being overzealous). He stayed in Belgium and during his early period, he made a few paintings such as the The Potato Eaters. These early works are sombre, sharply-lit and more generic.
Why did he cut off his ear?
Well, Van Gogh was good friends with another famous artist named Paul Gauguin in France. However, their relationship was deteriorating and they quarrelled fiercely about art. Van Gogh became paranoid that Gauguin was going to desert him. This excessive tension reached its climax when Van Gogh chased Gauguin with a razor, but then cut his own ear off (the lower part of his left ear lobe). He wrapped this in newspaper and gave it to a prostitute named Rachel at the local brothel, telling her to keep the object carefully. Needless to say, Gauguin left and never saw Van Gogh again, even though he told his brother Theo he wanted to see him and thought about him all the time.
Did he really go crazy?
Yes. After cutting off his own ear and being hospitalized in critical condition, he spent the following month back and forth between his home and the hospital. He suffered from hallucinations and paranoia that he was being poisoned. The police closed his house after a petition by thirty citizens who called him the fou roux, "the crazy redheaded man". He committed himself to a mental hospital called Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in a former monastery.
Where did he paint The Starry Night?
During his stay in the mental hospital. At this time some of his work was characterised by his signature swirls. There, the clinic and its garden became his main subject. Due to the shortage of subject matter beyond his supervised walks outside, he painted interpretations of his previous student Millet's paintings, as well as his own earlier work. Van Gogh actually wasn't not satisfied with this painting, but today it is one of his most famous paintings.
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| Starry Night |
Who was Dr. Gachet?
After the clinic, Van Gogh often saw the physician Dr. Gachet. Van Gogh's first impression was that Gachet was "sicker than I am, I think, or shall we say just as much." Van Gogh painted a couple portraits of him and his Portrait of Dr. Gachet today has been sold for $82.5 million U.S.
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| Dr. Gachet |
Van Gogh's depression deepened, and on 27 July 1890, at age 37, he walked into the fields and shot himself in the chest with a revolver. He died in his bed two days later. Theo rushed to be by his side and reported his last words as "La tristesse durera toujours" (French for "the sadness will last forever").
Irises
This was was one of his first works while he was at the asylum. There is a lack of the high tension which is seen in his later works. He called the painting "the lightning conductor for my illness", because he felt that he could keep himself from going insane by continuing to paint. The painting was influenced by Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, like many of his works and those by other artists of the time. The similarities occur with strong outlines, unusual angles, including close-up views and also flattish local colour. In 1987, it became the most expensive painting ever sold - for $54 million to Alan Bond, but he could not afford it and it had to be re-sold.
Cafe Terrace at Night
He painted this street cafe in Arles, France. Today, the cafe has become so popular because of this painting that the cafe has been named Cafe Van Gogh, seen here on the right.
This is the first painting in which he used starry backgrounds. He later used this starry technique for Starry Night and Starry Night Over the Rhone.
Sunflowers
Van Gogh made numerous oil paintings on canvas of Sunflowers and other still life objects. These series are quite famous. New technology for inventing pigments allowed for new possible colours, and the use of the yellow spectrum here was considered innovative at the time. In a letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh wrote saying "the sunflower is mine in a way".
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