Lauren Christiansen

12/14/15
Art 1010
Vincent Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1890 in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. His
fathers name was Theodorus van Gogh and his mothers name was Anna Cornelia Carbentus.
His father Theodorus worked as a country minister, while his mother was an artist. Some think
he got his love of painting from his mother who loved watercolors and painting nature. Vincent
van Gogh had two brothers including his stillborn brother born exactly one year earlier from him
with the same name. Growing up he saw his name and birthdate on a gravestone for his stillborn
brother.
When Vincent Van Gogh turned 15 he had to leave school because his family was
struggling financially. By time he left school he was fluent in French, German, English and in his
native language Dutch. After he left school he went to go work for his uncle Cornelis' art
dealership which was art dealers in The Hague. He used the money he earned to help support his
family. June of 1873 Vincent Van Gogh was transferred to the Groupil Gallery in London where
he learned to love the English Culture. He began to read English authors work and visit art
English art galleries. In London Van Gogh fell in love with his landlady's daughter named
Eugenie Loyer. When he asked her to marry him she rejected his marriage proposal. When she
rejected his marriage proposal van Gogh suffered a breakdown in which he threw away all the
books he owned except one book, which was the bible. He then dedicated his life to God and
doing his will.
Suffering like he was he began to get mad at the art world and tell people not to buy this
"worthless art." He was later fired from his job, and moved towards becoming a preacher, but

when he refused to learn Latin because he thought it was a dead language he was refused. When
he was refused he travelled around paining and helping people. He begins to lean of his brother
Theo for support who was an art dealer, and his brother begin to try to sale his work. Van Gogh
love life was catastrophic because he kept falling in love with girls he thought he could fix. He
fell in love with his cousin Kate whose husband just died. When she found out she ran away
from him. He next fell in love with a prostitute who stayed with him for a time but later when
back to prostitution. When she left he suffered another mental breakdown and became a nomad
until he was later admitted to the hospital.
When he was released he suffered another mental breakdown while his brother paid
someone to follow him. When they got in a fight he cut off his ear and gave it to a prostitute
telling her to keep it safe for him. He was than in and out of hospitals and insane asylums for the
rest of his life paining and being influenced by that around him. He also then tried to turn to
painting nature like his mother for peace. He died in France on July 29, 1890, at age 37 from a
gunshot wound he caused.
My initial response to the artwork I chose was a calm peaceful feeling while looking at
this tree. The sky is blue and light making it a happier scene. When I first saw this paining I
thought of a dead tree in the winter. While looking though the tree into the sky you can see the
pattern of all the branches against the sky. Making something dead for the winter into something
beautiful because of the pattern of the tree and the background. This tree is coming back to life in
the spring and is a renewal of hope because it is blooming again. It is starting all over and is
working to become something beautiful. All the flowers are different and out in different phases
of blooming but they all will. The branches go across the page fill the sky with multiple colors
curling around the branches. This painting puts people at peace, and shows the flowers being

reborn in all different angles and blooming at different times. It shows all the branches as
differing thinness while the taller ones extend upwards which is just like trees in real life. He
makes it seem real but makes you notice the beauty of the everyday event of an almond tree
blooming.
The tree he painted has a lot texture while the flowers bloom off of the bare branches. He
also uses different colors in the branches to make the painting seem more than just a 2D painting
on canvas. The flowers in his paining are all different. Some flowers are in bloom others are
closed up making the painting seem more real because the flowers are not at the same point of
blooming. The flowers are a while and yellow that stand out among the cold colors. He shows
the branches ending and the unevenness of this tree across its branches.
In this Van Gogh painting not every branch has a flower some of the smaller branches
end abruptly while showing off the knots in the tree. His painting is not constant across the
branches and shows how rough the texture of the tree is. He uses different colors in each of the
branches making it seem like a more real paining because his whole paining is not one color. The
blue background is lighter at the top where the sun would be but gets darker the further down the
painting you get. At the bottom of this painting you see one the main branches of the tree closer
than the others while the other branches look further. He puts this perspective of the different
branches being closer and further away. The seemingly closer branch is bigger than the others
that seem further off.
This painting is done mostly in cold colors with the exception of the flowers which are
white with a yellow middle to make them stand out against the cold colors in the painting. The
cold colors in this painting are blue which is the sky, and a variety of greens on the branches. The
color on this panting gets darker the closer you get to the side of the painting except the left side

of the painting where it is lighter. This shows you that the light source is coming from the left
side of the painting and gets darker the further away from the left side you get. Some branches
are also darker than others showing the shadows from the light source casing on different
branches in this painting.
The branches on this tree are lines which extend and curl around the page to keep your
eyes interested. They lead you around the page and off of it. The space in this painting is taken
up by the branches going across the page and some going off the paper letting you know that
there is more to the tree than you see. Near the top left corner there is more space between
branches than everywhere else so it draws your eye to the blue background or the sky in this
painting. The branches also curl around to this open space and your eye follows the branches to
this open space than to another branch. This leads your eyes across the panting and keeps you
interested. The paint in this picture has a lot of texture making the painting look more realistic
because it is not entirely smooth. The branches in this panting look rough like branches in real
life and make the painting stand out and seem more than just a 2D painting on a canvas.
This painting uses proportion to make it seem like the tree is extending off into the
distance. So the bigger branches seem to be closer while the smaller ones seem to be extending
off into the distance. The smaller branches also extend upwards to make the tree seem like a
normal tree. The blossoms get smaller with the branches to make it proportional to each other.
The emphasis in this painting is the flowers because they are a bright white with a yellow middle
that stands out against the cold colors in the painting. The balance of the painting leans heavier to
the left because of the thicker closer branches. Meanwhile the branches on the right side are
thinner and more spread out leaving space between them. The branches in this painting use a

variety of colors not just one shade of green, and the sky changes into a darker blue the further
from the left side you get.
When I first looked at this painting I felt calm and peaceful looking at it because it is a
beautiful part of nature. This painting made me notice the beauty in something so common as a
blooming tree in the spring. This painting shows a tree coming back to life and blooming after
winter. Every blossom is in different stages of blooming but all the flowers are beautiful. Each of
us in life are in different stages of blooming but all of us are beautiful in our own ways.
Sometimes in life winter comes and pushes us down but we can always come back again and
grow more. Each of the branches face and bend in different directions like each of us do in life.
We each have a different path we follow in life and face different directions. Though we can still
find people that are on the same branch as us and face the same direction. Though no one is on
the exact same spot on the branch that you are.
This art work is a success and is a good piece of art. Looking at this piece of makes you
notice the beauty of this piece of nature and makes you feel something. For me it was a sense of
calm or peace. This art work was successful because it pleased me. I am taking a Hedonist
approach on this because this art work truly did please me, and is pleasing to the eye. It has space
so it is not overwhelming. It is pained of something beautiful, it contains a variety of colors,
balances itself across the canvas, and has proportion to make it seem more realistic. This was a
good successful painting and the artist Van Gogh created a good piece of art that pleases many
people, and many people love this piece of art. Van Gogh was able to create an inspiring,
pleasing piece of art that many people adore and is experienced by people around the world, and
though he was not successful in life he is now successful after death because of how many
people love his art and how pleasing it is to the eye.