This blog is dedicated to the work of Dutch post-impressionist Vincent Willem van Gogh. While his art was mostly completely overlooked in his own lifetime, his work has had far reaching influence on artists ever since, and helped lay the foundation for modern art. Today, his art is among the most expensive in the world, as his importance and influence is reflected in the prices of his many masterpieces. Works by Van Gogh are among the most widely recognized in the world, and images like The Starry Night, The Café Terrace at Night and of course his many Sunflowers are iconic.
Vincent Van Gogh was born in 1853 in Groot-Zundert in the southern Netherlands. As a child he was silent and thoughtful. In 1869, he obtained a job with art dealer Goupil & Cie in The Hague. This also included a stint with their office in London, starting in 1873. However, he was not happy with how art was treated as a commodity and showed it. As a result, his employment with the company was terminated in 1876. Following this, he went worked as a teacher in England before becoming a methodist ministers assistant. His aim was to preach the gospel to the world. Following this calling, he took a temporary post as a missionary in Belgium in 1879. At this time he recorded his time there in drawings. However, it was not until 1882 that Van Gogh actually started painting in oil. His first major work took some more time to complete. The Potato Eaters was completed in 1885.
In 1888, Van Gogh moved to Arles. It was here that he in earnest began creating many of the works that have become iconic. The Café Terrace at Night, his Sunflowers and more were all painted there. He was joined in Arles by Paul Gauguin. However, as time progressed, their relationship went bad. On 23 December 1888, frustrated and ill, Van Gogh confronted Gauguin with a razor blade. He proceeded to flee to the local brothel where he cut off his lower part of his left ear lobe and gave it for safekeeping to a prostitute named Rachel.
The following year in May, Van Gogh was committed in Saint Remy. While there, the clinic and its garden were his main artistic subjects. It was also at this time that the masterpiece The Starry Night was painted by Van Gogh. After a year in Saint Remy, Van Gogh relocated to Auvers-sur-Oise to be closer to his physician. During his 70 day stay here, he painted 70 paintings, including Wheatfield with Crows, Portrait of Dr. Gachet and The Church at Auvers. On 27 July 1890, aged 37, Vincent Van Gogh walked into a field and shot himself in the chest with a revolver. While he survived the impact, he did not realize that his injuries were to be fatal, and he walked back to the Ravoux Inn. He died there two days later.
His body of work, with its vivid colors and emotional impact, has greatly influenced artists ever since. As said by art critic Sue Hubbard regarding a Van Gogh exhibition: “At the beginning of the twentieth century Van Gogh paintings 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”.
