Vincent Van Gogh - life, work & influences

Introduction

Post impressionism is the name applied to several styles of painting that arose in western Europe, especially
France, in the 1880's and 1890's. Postimpressionism followed the art movement known as impressionism.

Impressionist painters sought to capture a direct experience of the natural world. They rebelled against the
idealized, carefully finished paintings of the prevailing academic style. Unlike the academic painters, the
impressionists did not try to give their art a theoretical, moral, or emotional significance. The
postimpressionists attempted to move beyond the ideas and techniques of impressionism.
Postimpressionist painters added emotional or symbolic meanings to their work. In this way they helped
bring about the transition from impressionism's faithfulness to nature to Fauvism, cubism, and abstract
styles of the 1900's.

The English art critic Roger Fry coined the term postimpressionism in 1910 for an exhibition of modern
painting he organized in London. The most important postimpressionists were the French artists Georges
Seurat, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Cezanne; and the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh.

In this essay, I will be discussing the life of Van Gogh

Van Gogh, a Dutchman who lived in France, expressed his passionate emotions in colourful paintings of
everyday objects and events.

Vincent Van Gogh

Van Gogh, Vincent (1853-1890), is one of the most famous painters in modern art. Yet during his lifetime,
he received no recognition and sold only one painting. Van Gogh failed in every career he attempted and
felt unloved and friendless. He turned to art to express his strong religious feelings and his deep need for
love and respect. During the last five years of his life, van Gogh completed more than 800 oil paintings.

Van Gogh was born in Groot-Zundert, near Breda, the Netherlands, the son of a minister. When he was 16
years old, his parents sent him to The Hague to work for an uncle who was an art dealer. Between 1873
and 1876, he worked for art dealers in London and Paris. But van Gogh was unsuited for a business career.

In 1878, van Gogh applied for admission to a theological school but was rejected. He then decided to
become an unordained preacher and received his training from a missionary society in Brussels, Belgium.
Late in 1878, van Gogh represented the society as a minister in the Borinage, a poor coal-mining district in
Belgium. He took his work so seriously that he went without food and other necessities so he could give
more to the poor. The missionary society objected to van Gogh's unorthodox behaviour and relieved him in
the summer of 1879. Van Gogh began to draw while in the Borinage, and late in 1880 he decided to
become a painter.

He was largely a self-taught painter, although he received some help from his cousin, Mauve.
Van Gogh's first pictures were still lifes and scenes of peasants at work. He favoured dark brown and olive
colours and heavy brushstrokes. They are often said to be clumsy attempts to represent the life of the poor.
"The Potato Eaters" (1885) is his finest and most ambitious work of this period.

In 1886, he went to Paris to visit his brother Theo and was immediately attracted to the impressionist art he
saw there. Theo, being an art dealer; soon introduced him to artists such as Paul Gauguin, Paul Cezanne,
Camille Pisarro and Georges Seurat. Under the influence of impressionism, van Gogh lightened his
brushstrokes and used bright, clear colours. He discovered colour and the divisionist ideas which helped to
create the distinctive dashed brushstrokes of his later work. Eg; "Pere Tanguay" 1887

In 1888, van Gogh moved to Arles in southern France (where he lived in a yellow house), hoping to
establish an artists colony there, and was immediately struck by the hot reds & yellows of the
Meditteranean, which he increasingly used symbolically to represent his own moods. There, he painted his
most expressive and original pictures. An example of his work of this period is "The Postman Roulin." In
Arles, van Gogh suffered from occasional violent seizures, which were diagnosed after his death as
epilepsy. The intense colour and slashing brushstrokes of van Gogh's paintings reflect his disturbed mind.

He was joined in Arles by Paul Gauguin in October 1888,and managed in some works to combine
Gauguin's Synthetism with his own ideas ( Eg: The Sower 1888). But the visit was not a success. During a
seizure late in 1888, he threatened to kill Gauguin,. Van Gogh cut off one of his own ears during this
seizure.

In 1889 he became a voluntary patient at the St Remy Asylum, where he continued to paint, often making
copes of artists he admired. His palette softened to mauves and pinks, but his brushwork became
increasingly agitated, the dashes constructed into twisting, swirling shapes, often seen as symbolic of his
mental state(Eg; Ravine 1889). He then moved to Auvers, to be closer to Theo in 1890- his last 70 days
spent in a hectic program of non-stop painting.

He committed suicide in 1890 by shooting himself in the stomach, having sold only one work in his
lifetime.

Conclusion

Unlike impressionism, postimpressionism was not a movement of artists working toward similar goals.
The term has been used to refer to several artists who were influenced or taught by the impressionists, but
who later rejected or modified that group's ideas. The postimpressionist painters, with their varying styles,
now are among the most admired figures in the history of art.

The postimpressionists were little known during their lifetimes, but shortly after their deaths they had a
tremendous impact on the young experimental artists of the early 1900's.

This is especially true with Vincent van Gogh. His talent and vision were never appreciated during his life.
He had a persistence that was admirable and he triumphed over adversity. But even the hardest of men have
their limits, Van Gogh eventually cracked but still created beautiful artworks through it all.

His Influence on the art of the 20th Century is immesurable, he is now one of the most well known artists
in the world. He identified with his subjects and uses Symbolism to evoke the same feelings in the viewer.
He used colour, contour and line to explore "Physiognomy" (ones soul is revealed through one's features).