Van Gogh's portraits as an important genre in the artist's work. Famous paintings by Vincent van Gogh Artist van Gogh paintings

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 picture " Starlight Night", you will immediately recognize Van Gogh in her. 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. Unusual technique allowed us 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.

Vag Gog 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 was called by him “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, we talked about “Irises” as the most expensive painting in my 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.

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 presented 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?

- great Dutch artist, post-impressionist. Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in Grotto-Zundert. Died July 29, 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. During his creative life he created a large number of paintings, which today are considered masterpieces of world painting. The work of Vincent Van Gogh cannot be overestimated, since his art had a huge influence on the development of painting in the 20th century.

During his life, Van Gogh created more than 2,100 works! During the artist’s lifetime, his work was not as widely known as it is today. He lived in need and poverty. At the age of 37, he attempted suicide by shooting himself with a pistol, after which he died. After the death of Vincent van Gogh, connoisseurs and critics of painting paid close attention to his art; Exhibitions of the artist’s paintings began to open in different cities around the world, and he was soon recognized as one of the greatest and most influential artists of all time. Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most recognizable artists in the world today. Some of his paintings are considered among the most expensive works art of the world. The painting “Portrait of Doctor Gachet” was sold for $82.5 million. The cost of the painting “Self-Portrait with a Cut Off Ear and Pipe” in 1990 was between 80 and 90 million dollars. The painting "Irises" was sold in 1987 for $53.9 million.

Vincent Van Gogh's collection of paintings contains a large number of paintings that are considered incredibly expensive, very famous, and from a cultural point of view, priceless. However, among all Van Gogh’s paintings there are also the most famous ones, which are not just fabulously expensive, but also real “ business cards" by this artist. Next you can see the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh with the titles that are considered the most famous.

The most famous paintings of Vincent van Gogh

Self-portrait with cut off ear and pipe

Self-portrait

Memories of the garden in Etten

Potato eaters

Starry night over the Rhone

Starlight Night

Red vineyards in Arles

Bulb fields

Night terrace in the cafe

Night cafe

Sunflowers

Portrait of Doctor Gachet

Prisoners Walk

Wheat field with cypress trees

Bedroom in Arles

Four fading sunflowers

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(Vincent Willem Van Gogh) was born on March 30, 1853 in the village of Groot Zundert in the province of North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands in the family of a Protestant pastor.

In 1868, Van Gogh dropped out of school, after which he went to work at a branch of the large Parisian art company Goupil & Cie. He successfully worked in the gallery, first in The Hague, then in branches in London and Paris.

By 1876, Vincent had completely lost interest in the painting trade and decided to follow in the footsteps of his father. In Great Britain, he found work as a teacher at a boarding school in a small town in the suburbs of London, where he also served as an assistant pastor. On October 29, 1876, he preached his first sermon. In 1877 he moved to Amsterdam, where he began studying theology at the university.

Van Gogh "Poppies"

In 1879, Van Gogh received a position as a secular preacher in Wham, a mining center in the Borinage, in southern Belgium. He then continued his preaching mission in the nearby village of Kem.

During this same period, Van Gogh developed a desire to paint.

In 1880, in Brussels, he entered the Royal Academy of Arts (Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles). However, due to his unbalanced character, he soon dropped out of the course and continued his art education on his own, using reproductions.

In 1881, in Holland, under the guidance of his relative, landscape artist Anton Mauwe, Van Gogh created his first paintings: "Still life with cabbage and wooden shoes" and "Still life with a beer glass and fruit."

In the Dutch period, starting with the painting “Harvesting Potatoes” (1883), the main motif of the artist’s paintings became the theme ordinary people and their work, the emphasis was on the expressiveness of scenes and figures, the palette was dominated by dark, gloomy colors and shades, sharp changes in light and shadow. The canvas “The Potato Eaters” (April-May 1885) is considered a masterpiece of this period.

In 1885, Van Gogh continued his studies in Belgium. In Antwerp he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. In 1886, Vincent moved to Paris to join his younger brother Theo, who by then had taken over as leading manager of the Goupil gallery in Montmartre. Here Van Gogh took lessons from the French realist artist Fernand Cormon for about four months, met the impressionists Camille Pizarro, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, from whom he adopted their style of painting.

© Public Domain "Portrait of Doctor Gachet" by Van Gogh

© Public Domain

In Paris, Van Gogh developed an interest in creating images human faces. Without the funds to pay for the work of models, he turned to self-portraiture, creating about 20 paintings in this genre in two years.

The Parisian period (1886-1888) became one of the artist's most productive creative periods.

In February 1888, Van Gogh traveled to the south of France to Arles, where he dreamed of creating a creative community of artists.

In December, Vincent's mental health took a turn for the worse. During one of his uncontrollable outbursts of aggression, he threatened Paul Gauguin, who came to see him in the open air, with an open razor, and then cut off a piece of his earlobe, sending it as a gift to one of his female acquaintances. After this incident, Van Gogh was first placed in a psychiatric hospital in Arles, and then voluntarily went for treatment at the specialized clinic of St. Paul of the Mausoleum near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. The hospital's chief physician, Théophile Peyron, diagnosed his patient with "acute manic disorder." However, the artist was given a certain freedom: he could paint in the open air under the supervision of staff.

In Saint-Rémy, Vincent alternated between periods of vigorous activity and long breaks caused by deep depression. In just one year of his stay at the clinic, Van Gogh painted about 150 paintings. Some of the most outstanding paintings of this period were: “Starry Night”, “Irises”, “Road with Cypress Trees and a Star”, “Olive Trees, Blue Sky and White Cloud”, “Pieta”.

In September 1889, with the active assistance of his brother Theo, Van Gogh's paintings took part in the Salon of Independents, an exhibition contemporary art, organized by the Society of Independent Artists in Paris.

In January 1890, Van Gogh's paintings were exhibited at the eighth Group of Twenty exhibition in Brussels, where they were enthusiastically received by critics.

In May 1890 in mental state Van Gogh improved, he left the hospital and settled in the town of Auvers-sur-Oise in the suburbs of Paris under the supervision of Dr. Paul Gachet.

Vincent actively took up painting; almost every day he completed a painting. During this period, he painted several outstanding portraits of Dr. Gachet and 13-year-old Adeline Ravou, the daughter of the owner of the hotel where he stayed.

On July 27, 1890, Van Gogh left his house at the usual time and went to paint. Upon his return, after persistent questioning by the couple, Ravu admitted that he had shot himself with a pistol. All attempts by Dr. Gachet to save the wounded were in vain; Vincent fell into a coma and died on the night of July 29 at the age of thirty-seven. He was buried in the Auvers cemetery.

American biographers of the artist Steven Nayfeh and Gregory White Smith in their study “The Life of Van Gogh” (Van Gogh: The Life) of Vincent’s death, according to which he died not from his own bullet, but from an accidental shot committed by two drunken young men.

Over the course of ten years creative activity Van Gogh managed to paint 864 paintings and almost 1200 drawings and engravings. During his lifetime, only one painting by the artist was sold - the landscape "Red Vineyards in Arles". The cost of the painting was 400 francs.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

Vincent Willem Van Gogh van Gogh; March 30, 1853, Grot-Zundert, near Breda, the Netherlands - July 29, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France) was a Dutch post-impressionist artist.

Biography of Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh born in the Dutch town of Groot-Zundert on March 30, 1853. Van Gogh was the first child in the family (not counting his brother, who was stillborn). His father's name was Theodore Van Gogh, his mother's name was Carnelia. They had a large family: 2 sons and three daughters. In Van Gogh's family, all the men dealt with paintings in one way or another, or served the church. By 1869, without even finishing school, he began working in a company that sold paintings. To tell the truth, Van Gogh was not good at selling paintings, but he had a boundless love for painting, and he was also good at languages. In 1873, at the age of 20, he came to London, where he spent 2 years that changed his whole life.

Van Gogh lived happily in London. He had a very good salary, which was enough to visit various art galleries and museums. He even bought himself a top hat, which he simply could not live without in London. Everything was going to the point that Van Gogh could become a successful merchant, but ... as often happens, love, yes, exactly love, got in the way of his career. Van Gogh fell madly in love with the daughter of his landlady, but upon learning that she was already engaged, he became very withdrawn and became indifferent to his work. When he returned to Paris he was fired.

In 1877, Van Gogh began living in Holland again, and increasingly found solace in religion. After moving to Amsterdam, he began studying to become a priest, but soon dropped out of his studies, as the situation at the faculty did not suit him.

In 1886, at the beginning of March, Van Gogh moved to Paris to live with his brother Theo, and lived in his apartment. There he takes painting lessons from Fernand Cormon, and meets such personalities as Pissarro, Gauguin and many other artists. Very quickly he forgets all the darkness Dutch life, and quickly gains respect as an artist. He draws clearly and brightly in the style of impressionism and post-impressionism.

Vincent Van Gogh After spending 3 months at an evangelical school located in Brussels, he became a preacher. He distributed money and clothes to the needy poor, although he himself was not well off. This aroused suspicion among the church authorities, and his activities were banned. He did not lose heart and found solace in drawing.

By the age of 27, Van Gogh understood what his calling was in this life, and decided that he must become an artist at all costs. Although Van Gogh took drawing lessons, he can confidently be considered self-taught, because he himself studied many books, tutorials, and copied paintings famous artists. At first he thought of becoming an illustrator, but then, when he took lessons from his artist relative Anton Mouve, he painted his first works in oils.

It seemed that life began to get better, but Van Gogh again began to be haunted by failures, and love ones at that.

His cousin Keya Vos became a widow. He really liked her, but he received a refusal, which he experienced for a long time. In addition, because of Kei, he had a very serious quarrel with his father. This disagreement was the reason for Vincent's move to The Hague. It was there that he met Klazina Maria Hoornik, who was girl lung behavior. Van Gogh lived with her for almost a year, and more than once he had to be treated for sexually transmitted diseases. He wanted to save this poor woman, and even thought of marrying her. But then his family intervened, and thoughts of marriage were simply dispelled.

Returning to his homeland to his parents, who had already moved to Nyonen by that time, his skills began to improve.

He spent 2 years in his homeland. In 1885 Vincent settled in Antwerp, where he attended classes at the Academy of Arts. Then, in 1886, Van Gogh returned to Paris again, to his brother Theo, who throughout his life helped him, both morally and financially. France became Van Gogh's second home. It was in it that he lived the rest of his life. He didn't feel like a stranger here. Van Gogh drank a lot and had a very explosive temper. He could be described as a difficult person to deal with.

In 1888 he moved to Arles. Locals were not happy to see him in their town, which was located in the south of France. They considered him an abnormal sleepwalker. Despite this, Vincent found friends here and felt quite good. Over time, he came up with the idea of ​​​​creating a settlement here for artists, which he shared with his friend Gauguin. Everything was going well, but there was a disagreement between the artists. Van Gogh rushed at Gauguin, who had already become an enemy, with a razor. Gauguin barely escaped with his feet, miraculously surviving. Out of anger at failure, Van Gogh cut off part of his left ear. After spending 2 weeks in psychiatric clinic he returned there again in 1889, as he began to suffer from hallucinations.

In May 1890, he finally left the asylum and went to Paris to live with his brother Theo and his wife, who had just given birth to a boy, who was named Vincent in honor of his uncle. Life began to improve, and Van Gogh was even happy, but his illness returned again. On July 27, 1890, Vincent Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a pistol. He died in the arms of his brother Theo, who loved him very much. Six months later, Theo also died. The brothers are buried in the Auvers cemetery nearby.

Van Gogh's work

Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) is considered a great Dutch artist, which had a very strong influence on impressionism in art. His works, created over a ten-year period, are striking in their color, carelessness and roughness of strokes, and images of a mentally ill person, exhausted by suffering, who committed suicide.

Van Gogh became one of the greatest Post-Impressionist artists.

He can be considered self-taught, because... studied painting by copying paintings by old masters. During his life in the Netherlands, Van G. painted pictures about nature, labor and the life of peasants and workers, which he observed around him (“The Potato Eaters”).

In 1886, he moved to Paris and entered the studio of F. Cormon, where he met A. Toulouse-Lautrec and E. Bernard. Inspired by the paintings of the Impressionists and Japanese prints The artist’s style changed: an intense color scheme and a broad, energetic brush stroke characteristic of the late Van G. appeared (“Boulevard of Clichy”, “Portrait of Father Tanguy”).

In 1888 he moved to the south of France, to the town of Arles. This was the most fruitful period of the artist’s work. During his life, Van G. created more than 800 paintings and 700 drawings in the most different genres, however, his talent manifested itself most clearly in the landscape: it was in it that his choleric explosive temperament found an outlet. The moving, nervous pictorial texture of his paintings reflected state of mind artist: he suffered mental illness which ultimately led him to suicide.

Features of creativity

“Much remains unclear and controversial to this day in the pathography of this severe bionegative personality. It can be assumed that there is a syphilitic provocation of schizo-epileptic psychosis. His feverish creativity is quite comparable to the increased productivity of the brain before the onset of syphilitic brain disease, as was the case with Nietzsche, Maupassant, and Schumann. Van Gogh presents good example how a mediocre talent, thanks to psychosis, turned into an internationally recognized genius.”

“The peculiar bipolarity, so clearly expressed in the life and psychosis of this remarkable patient, is simultaneously expressed in his artistic creativity. Essentially the style of his works remains the same all the time. Only the sinuous lines are repeated more and more often, giving his paintings a spirit of unbridledness, which reaches its culmination point in his last work, where the upward striving and the inevitability of destruction, fall, and destruction are clearly emphasized. These two movements - the movement of ascent and the movement of fall - form the structural basis of epileptic manifestations, just as two poles form the basis of the epileptoid constitution."

“Van Gogh painted brilliant paintings in the intervals between attacks. And the main secret of his genius was the extraordinary purity of consciousness and the special creative enthusiasm that arose as a result of his illness between attacks. F.M. also wrote about this special state of consciousness. Dostoevsky, who at one time suffered from similar attacks of mysterious mental disorder.”

Bright colors of Van Gogh

Dreaming of a brotherhood of artists and collective creativity, he completely forgot that he himself was an incorrigible individualist, irreconcilable to the point of restraint in matters of life and art. But this was also his strength. You need to have a sufficiently trained eye to distinguish Monet's paintings from paintings by, for example, Sisley. But only once having seen “Red Vineyards”, you will never confuse Van Gogh’s works with anyone else. Every line and stroke is an expression of his personality.

The dominant feature of the impressionistic system is color. In Van Gogh’s painting system, everything is equal and crushed into one inimitable bright ensemble: rhythm, color, texture, line, form.

At first glance, this seems like a bit of a stretch. Are the “red vineyards” pushing around with a color unheard of in intensity, isn’t the ringing chord of cobalt blue active in “The Sea at Sainte-Marie”, aren’t the colors of “Landscape at Auvers after the Rain” dazzlingly pure and sonorous, next to which any impressionistic painting looks hopelessly faded?

Exaggeratedly bright, these colors have the ability to sound in any intonation throughout the entire emotional range - from burning pain to the most delicate shades of joy. Sounding colors alternately intertwine into a softly and subtly harmonized melody, and then rear up in ear-piercing dissonance. Just as in music there are minor and major scales, so the colors of Van Gogh’s palette are divided in two. For Van Gogh, cold and warm are like life and death. At the head of the opposing camps are yellow and blue, both colors are deeply symbolic. However, this “symbolism” has the same living flesh as Vangogh’s ideal of beauty.

IN yellow paint from gently lemon to intense orange, Van Gogh saw some kind of bright beginning. The color of the sun and ripened bread in his understanding was the color of joy, solar warmth, human kindness, benevolence, love and happiness - all that in his understanding was included in the concept of “life”. The opposite in meaning is blue, from blue to almost black-lead - the color of sadness, infinity, melancholy, despair, mental anguish, fatal inevitability and, ultimately, death. Late paintings Van Gogh is the arena of the collision of these two colors. They are like the struggle between good and evil, daylight and darkness, hope and despair. Emotional and psychological possibilities of color - subject constant thoughts Van Gogh: “I hope to make a discovery in this area, for example, to express the feelings of two lovers by a combination of two complementary colors, their mixing and contrast, the mysterious vibration of related tones. Or express the thought that has arisen in the brain with the radiance of a light tone on a dark background...”

Speaking about Van Gogh, Tugendhold noted: “...the notes of his experiences are the graphic rhythms of things and the response of the heartbeat.” The concept of peace is unknown to Van Gogh's art. His element is movement.

In Van Gogh’s eyes, it is the same life, which means the ability to think, feel, and empathize. Take a closer look at the painting of the “red vineyards”. The brushstrokes, thrown onto the canvas by a swift hand, run, rush, collide, scatter again. Similar to dashes, dots, blots, commas, they are a transcript of Vangogh’s vision. From their cascades and whirlpools, simplified and expressive forms are born. They are a line that is composed into a drawing. Their relief - sometimes barely outlined, sometimes piled up in massive clumps - like plowed earth, forms a delightful, picturesque texture. And from all this a huge image emerges: in the scorching heat of the sun, like sinners on fire, the grapevines are writhing, trying to tear themselves away from the rich purple earth, to escape from the hands of the winegrowers, and now the peaceful bustle of the harvest looks like a fight between man and nature.

So, does that mean color still dominates? But aren’t these colors at the same time rhythm, line, form, and texture? This is precisely the most important feature of Van Gogh’s pictorial language, in which he speaks to us through his paintings.

It is often believed that Van Gogh's painting is a kind of uncontrollable emotional element, whipped up by unbridled insight. This misconception is “helped” by the originality artistic manner Van Gogh, indeed, seemingly spontaneous, but in fact subtly calculated, thoughtful: “Work and sober calculation, the mind is extremely tense, like an actor playing a difficult role, when you have to think about a thousand things in one half hour...”

Van Gogh's inheritance and innovation

Van Gogh's inheritance

• [Mother’s sister] “...Epileptic seizures, which indicates a severe nervous heredity, which also affects Anna Cornelia herself. Naturally gentle and loving, she is prone to unexpected outbursts of anger.”
• [Brother Theo] “... died six months after Vincent’s suicide in a mental hospital in Utrecht, having lived 33 years.”
• “None of Van Gogh’s brothers and sisters had epilepsy, while it is absolutely known that younger sister suffered from schizophrenia and spent 32 years in a psychiatric hospital.”

The human soul... not cathedrals

Let's turn to Van Gogh:

“I prefer to paint people’s eyes rather than cathedrals... human soul, even if the soul of an unfortunate beggar or a street girl, in my opinion, is much more interesting.”

“Whoever writes peasant life will stand the test of time better than the makers of cardinal receptions and harems written in Paris.” “I will remain myself, and even in crude works I will say strict, rude, but truthful things.” “The worker against the bourgeoisie is as ill-founded as a hundred years ago the third estate was against the other two.”

Could a person who, in these and a thousand similar statements, explain the meaning of life and art, count on success with “ powerful of the world this? " The bourgeois environment rejected Van Gogh.

Van Gogh had the only weapon against rejection - confidence in the correctness of his chosen path and work.

“Art is a struggle... it’s better to do nothing than to express yourself weakly.” “You have to work like several blacks.” He turns even a half-starved existence into an incentive for creativity: “In the harsh trials of poverty, you learn to look at things with completely different eyes.”

The bourgeois public does not forgive innovation, and Van Gogh was an innovator in the most direct and genuine sense of the word. His reading of the sublime and beautiful came through an understanding of the inner essence of objects and phenomena: from insignificant ones like torn shoes to crushing cosmic hurricanes. The ability to present these seemingly disparate values ​​on an equally enormous artistic scale put Van Gogh not only outside the official aesthetic concept of academic artists, but also forced him to go beyond the boundaries of impressionistic painting.

Vincent Van Gogh Quotes

(from letters to brother Theo)

• There is nothing more artistic than loving people.
• When something in you says: “You are not an artist,” start writing immediately, my boy, - only in this way will you silence this inner voice. The one who, having heard it, runs to his friends and complains about his misfortune, loses part of his courage, part of the best that is in him.
• And you shouldn’t take your shortcomings too seriously, for those who don’t have them still suffer from one thing - the absence of shortcomings; the one who believes that he has achieved perfect wisdom will do well if he grows stupid again.
• A man carries a bright flame in his soul, but no one wants to bask near him; passersby notice only the smoke escaping through the chimney and go on their way.
• When reading books, as well as looking at paintings, one must neither doubt nor hesitate: one must be confident in oneself and find beautiful what is beautiful.
• What is drawing? How is it mastered? This is the ability to break through the iron wall that stands between what you feel and what you can do. How can one penetrate such a wall? In my opinion, banging your head against it is useless; you need to slowly and patiently dig it up and drill it out.
• Blessed is he who has found his business.
• I prefer not to say anything at all than to express myself indistinctly.
• I admit, I also need beauty and sublimity, but even more something else, for example: kindness, responsiveness, tenderness.
• You are a realist yourself, so bear with my realism.
• A person only needs to consistently love what is worthy of love, and not waste his feelings on insignificant, unworthy and insignificant objects.
• We cannot allow melancholy to stagnate in our souls, like water in a swamp.
• When I see the weak trampled underfoot, I begin to doubt the value of what is called progress and civilization.

Bibliography

• Van Gogh.Letters. Per. from Dutch - L.-M., 1966.
• Rewald J. Post-Impressionism. Per. from English T. 1. - L.-M, 1962.
• Perryucho A. The Life of Van Gogh. Per. from French - M., 1973.
• Murina Elena. Van Gogh. - M.: Art, 1978. - 440 p. - 30,000 copies.
• Dmitrieva N. A. Vincent Van Gogh. Man and artist. - M., 1980.
• Stone I. Thirst for Life (book). The Tale of Vincent Van Gogh. Per. from English - M., Pravda, 1988.
• Constantino PorcuVan Gogh. Zijn leven en de kunst. (from the Kunstklassiekers series) Netherlands, 2004.
• Wolf StadlerVincent van Gogh. (from the De Grote Meesters series) Amsterdam Boek, 1974.
• Frank KoolsVincent van Gogh en zijn geboorteplaats: als een boer van Zundert. De Walburg Pers, 1990.
• G. Kozlov, “The Legend of Van Gogh”, “Around the World”, No. 7, 2007.
• Van Gogh V. Letters to friends / Trans. from fr. P. Melkova. - St. Petersburg: Azbuka, Azbuka-Atticus, 2012. - 224 p. - “ABC Classic” series - 5,000 copies, ISBN 978-5-389-03122-7
• Gordeeva M., Perova D. Vincent Van Gogh / In the book: Great Artists - T.18 - Kyiv, JSC " TVNZ- Ukraine", 2010. - 48 p.

“No one can do anything about the fact that no one buys my paintings. But the time will come, when people realize that their value exceeds the cost of paints,” wrote Van Gogh. And he turned out to be right.

It so happened that in his entire life Vincent Van Gogh did not finish a single educational institution. Neither the boarding school, nor the missionary school, nor the Academy of Fine Arts gave him a complete education. However, life, which was sometimes unkind to the artist, sometimes gave him incredible gifts. One of them was unconditional Talent, which did not obey the rules, but allowed Van Gogh to sometimes feel happy.

“I say that I try to find my happiness in painting, without thinking about anything else.”

Eternally searching

Vincent Van Gogh lived completely short life- only 37 years old. Not enough even for those times: he was born in the south of Holland in 1853, and his life was cut short in France in 1890. He was the eldest of six children in the pastor's family, although he had an older brother, also Vincent, who died immediately after birth. And it so happened that for many years Vincent passed by his brother’s grave, on which his given name, as if predicting a short life for him too.

Of all his relatives, Vincent was close only to his brother Theo until the end of his life. Their extensive correspondence has been preserved - more than 800 letters, which became the basis for our knowledge about the artist’s life.

Since childhood, Vincent had a peculiar character; it was difficult for him to study at school far from home, so at the age of 15, he apparently ran away from another boarding school (although he studied well and made progress in foreign languages) and returned home. With this his education ended, it was time to look for a job.

"Still life with cabbage and wooden shoes", 1881

An uncle who owned a company selling works of art helped with the device. Vincent read a lot, studied while working. On company business, he spent two years in London, fell in love, failed on the love front, was transferred to Paris... Life was in full swing, but then the owners of the company where the future artist worked changed, and Vincent was left without a job. I had to work as a teacher, a salesman, Vincent tried to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a preacher... Gradually life path led him to painting. And although he did not study for a long time at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts, he did not give up drawing.

Van Gogh created his first paintings - “Still Life with Cabbage and Wooden Shoes” and “Still Life with Beer Glass and Fruit” in 1881, when he was already 28 years old! And this did not stop him from becoming one of those artists who influenced not just his contemporaries, but art in general.

Path of Tests

He was strange, not like the others. While Van Gogh was a preacher, he carried out his duties so zealously that he aroused the suspicions of his superiors. When he fell in love, these stories gave rise to a storm of indignation among his relatives. He fell in love with his cousin, who lost her husband early, but this only caused his father’s displeasure. Then he proposed... lung woman behavior, who was once again pregnant, invited her to start a family, was ready to take care of her children, but they lasted only a year together. Life was too difficult, and the aspiring artist had no income. Afterwards, Van Gogh proposed to Margot Begeman, a girl from a family who lived next door to his parents. But the relatives did not consent to the marriage.

Having suffered in personal life a complete fiasco, Vag Gog finds the strength to develop as an artist and eventually leaves for Paris, where his brother Theo worked at that time. This is how he finds his city and his place in the art world.

Homeless

It is probably not an exaggeration to call France Van Gogh’s second home - he came to Theo in 1886, and since then his life has been connected with this country. In Paris, Van Gogh met many artists who created the future of art. Toulouse Lautrec, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir were among his people, and he took part in impressionist exhibitions. However, gradually Paris, with its eternal rivalry, begins to put pressure on Van Gogh, and in 1888 he leaves for Provence.

“I find that what I learned in Paris disappears, and I return to those thoughts that came to me in nature, before meeting the Impressionists.”

There he felt at home, devoted himself to painting landscapes with pleasure, but then a tragic incident happened to him, from which the myth later grew that the artist cut off his ear. Van Gogh comes to Provence at the invitation to work together. However, the artists differed too much in temperament, which led to violent quarrels. No one will say exactly what happened on the eve of Christmas 1888, but it is known that Van Gogh and Gauguin quarreled again. And the next day Van Gogh cut off his earlobe - either wanting to show Gauguin his repentance, or trying to punish himself, or simply in a fit of madness caused by alcohol. He is taken to a psychiatric hospital, where doctors determine that Van Gogh suffers from epilepsy. However, they do not forbid him to paint even in the hospital.

The last two years of the artist’s life were filled with tossing and turning. He either quarreled with his brother, then made peace, then left for Paris, then returned to the small town of Auvers-sur-Oise. And he was tormented by attacks of illness that became unbearable. In 1890, Van Gogh went either for a walk or to paint in nature, taking a revolver with him. Deciding to commit suicide, he shoots himself in the heart. The bullet passed lower, but the wound received by the artist turned out to be fatal. On July 29, 1890, Vincent Van Gogh died. The only person close to him - brother Theo - died six months later and was buried next to his brother.

A genius ahead of his time

Having never really studied drawing, Van Gogh initially adhered to the original point of view - an artist does not have to be a natural genius. He can achieve with difficulty what is called mastery. And it must be said that Vincent himself followed this belief, constantly practicing and improving his technique.

His early paintings can be classified as realism. But there's an absence art education played with him, as they say, cruel joke: Van Gogh was poor at depicting the human figure. That is why his realism is “incomplete”. The figures of people in his paintings are sometimes almost conventional, and sometimes they resemble trees, becoming as if part of nature. Drawing everyday scenes While creating pictures of difficult work, Van Gogh did not break away from nature and the essence of life.

You can visit the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam at: Museumplein 6, 1071 DJ Amsterdam Opening hours: 09:00 - 17:00, Fridays until 22:00
Official site : https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl

Van Gogh paintings

"Potato Eaters", 1885

It is considered that the main masterpiece early period there was a painting “The Potato Eaters” (1885). “I wanted to give an idea of ​​a completely different way of life than the one we lead as civilized people” - Van Gogh wrote to his brother. This picture seems to breathe a world in which people work hard and live hard. Everything - a palette of colors, an image of human figures general mood the paintings speak about it.

"Shoes", 1887

Because creative life Van Gogh's life was not that long, only about 10 years, and the periods in it followed each other very quickly. Just two years later, in 1887, he painted “View of Paris from Theo’s apartment on Rue Lepic.” In this title - Full description a new stage in the artist’s life. And at one glance at the canvas, it’s hard to believe that its author just two years ago painted dark figures of peasants bent over a table. Light, airy, full of light shades and joyful colors, this painting marks the Impressionist period in Van Gogh's work.

At this time, people practically disappear from his paintings, as if Van Gogh begins to be interested in the other side of the world. He studies color theory, the traditions of Japanese engraving, and makes nature or simple everyday things the heroes of his paintings. His series of paintings “Shoes” (1887) is famous, where he depicts simple pair work boots that tell us a whole story about their owner. And “Still Life with Flowers in a Bronze Vase” (1887), one of the still lifes of those years, amazes with its conventionality and authenticity at the same time.

Having moved to Provence, Van Gogh wanted not only to create himself, but also to create conditions for the creativity of other artists, to open a workshop where he could develop a new style.

Night terrace of a cafe", 1888

“Instead of trying to accurately depict what is in front of my eyes, I use color more freely, in a way that expresses myself more fully.”

The paintings become more vibrant, dynamic, rich, and expressive. This is no longer the lightness of impressionism, but post-impressionism. The painting “Red Vineyards in Arles” (1888) reflects the special color of nature, which we perhaps do not see in real life, but which, nevertheless, very accurately conveys the feeling of working in a field at sunset. Distinctive feature Van Gogh's new style - the brightness of yellow and blue colors, their contrast, but at the same time harmonious combination, was fully embodied in the painting “Cafe Terrace at Night” (1888). A series of paintings depicting sunflowers also features a rich color scheme.

"Starry Night", 1889

The time that Van Gogh spent in a psychiatric clinic, as well as the period after his discharge, was very difficult for the artist. Epilepsy attacks often recurred, but he experienced a certain creative enthusiasm and drew regularly. In addition, experts do not rule out that the drugs Van Gogh took gave him side effects in the form of altered color perception. Perhaps this was so, but even before the treatment, Van Gogh’s paintings were difficult to confuse with others.

Looking at masterpieces recent years life, it is not always possible to believe that in front of us a person is sick and, in general, unhappy. "The Starry Night" (1889), one of the most famous paintings Van Gogh's paintings of the late period, despite the unrealistic nature of the starry sky depicted (as if a whirlwind of stars were flying across it), do not seem far-fetched or deliberate. The picture is very harmonious - the image of the village below, darker and calmer color scheme, balances the celestial dynamics. “I still need religion. That’s why I left the house at night and started drawing stars.”, - Vincent wrote to his brother Theo. And there is a feeling that at this very moment a new Universe was born from the heavenly chaos.

Van Gogh's fame came after his death. During his lifetime, his paintings sold very poorly. Sometimes they say that only one painting was sold (the same “Vineyards in Arles”), in fact there were more, but no more than 15.

By the middle of the 20th century, Van Gogh was called the most recognizable artist who had the greatest influence on the development of art. Today, several Van Gogh paintings are included in the list of paintings sold at auction for more than $100 million.