Accurate information about Vincent van Gogh. Vincent van Gogh: works

Name: Vincent Gogh

Age: 37 years

Place of Birth: Groot Zundert, Netherlands

A place of death: Auvers-sur-Oise, France

Activity: Dutch post-impressionist artist

Family status: wasn't married

Vincent Van Gogh - biography

Vincent Van Gogh did not seek to prove to others that he was a real artist; he was not vain. The only person, to whom he wanted to prove this was himself.

For a long time, Vincent Van Gogh did not have any formulated goal in life or profession. According to tradition, generations of Van Goghs either chose a church career or became art dealers. Vincent's father, Theodorus Van Gogh, was a Protestant minister who served in the small town of Groot Zundert in South Holland, on the border with Belgium.

Vincent's uncles, Cornelius and Wiene, traded paintings in Amsterdam and The Hague. Mother, Anna Cornelia Carbendus, a wise woman who lived for almost a hundred years, suspected that her son was not an ordinary Van Gogh, as soon as he was born on March 30, 1853. A year earlier, to the same day, she gave birth to a boy named by the same name. He didn't live even a few days. So, according to fate, the mother believed, her Vincent was destined to live for two.

At the age of 15, having studied for two years at school in the town of Zevenbergen, and then another two in high school, which bore the name of King William II, Vincent left his studies and in 1868, with the help of his uncle Vince, he entered the branch of the Parisian art company Goupil and Co. that opened in The Hague. He worked well, the young man was appreciated for his curiosity - he studied books on the history of painting and visited museums. Vincent was promoted and sent to the London branch of Goupil.

Van Gogh stayed in London for two years, became a deep connoisseur of engravings by English masters and acquired the gloss befitting a businessman, quoted the fashionable Dickens and Eliot, and shaved his red cheeks smoothly. In general, as his younger brother Theo, who later also went into trading, testified, he lived in those years with almost blissful delight in everything that surrounded him. Heart overflow wrested passionate words from him: “There is nothing more artistic than loving people!” - wrote Vincent. Actually, the brothers' correspondence is the main document of the life of Vincent Van Gogh. Theo was the person Vincent turned to as his confessor. Other documents are sketchy and fragmentary.

Vincent Van Gogh had a brilliant future as a commission agent. He was soon to move to Paris, to the central branch of Goupil.

What happened to him in 1875 in London is not known. He wrote to his brother Theo that he suddenly fell into “painful loneliness.” It is believed that in London, Vincent, having truly fallen in love for the first time, was rejected. But his chosen one is called either the owner of the boarding house at 87 Hackford Road, where he lived, Ursula Loyer, or her daughter Eugenia, and even a certain German woman named Caroline Haanebeek. Since in his letters to his brother, from whom he did not hide anything, Vincent kept silent about this love of his, it is possible to assume that his “painful loneliness” had other reasons.

Even in Holland, according to contemporaries, Vincent at times caused bewilderment with his demeanor. The expression on his face suddenly became somewhat absent, alien; there was something thoughtful, deeply serious, melancholy in him. True, then he laughed heartily and cheerfully, and his whole face then brightened. But more often than not he seemed very lonely. Yes, in fact, he was. He lost interest in working at Gupil. The transfer to the Paris branch in May 1875 did not help either. At the beginning of March 1876, Van Gogh was fired.

In April 1876, he returned to England a completely different person - without any gloss or ambition. He took a job as a teacher at the Rev. William P. Stoke's School in Ramsgate, where he received a class of 24 boys aged 10 to 14 years. He read the Bible to them, and then turned to the Reverend Father with a request to allow him to serve prayer services for the parishioners of Turnham Green Church. Soon he was allowed to lead the Sunday sermon. True, he did it extremely boringly. It is known that his father also lacked emotionality and the ability to capture an audience.

At the end of 1876, Vincent wrote to his brother that he understood his true destiny - he would be a preacher. He returned to Holland and entered the theological faculty of the University of Amsterdam. Ironically, he, who spoke four languages ​​fluently: Dutch, English, French and German, failed to master the Latin course. Based on the test results, he was assigned in January 1879 as a parish priest to the mining village of Vasmes in the poorest Borinage region in Europe in Belgium.

The missionary delegation, which visited Father Vincent in Wasmes a year later, was quite alarmed by the changes in Van Gogh. Thus, the delegation discovered that Father Vincent had moved from a comfortable room to a shack, sleeping on the floor. He distributed his clothes to the poor and wore a worn military uniform, under which he wore a homemade burlap shirt. I didn’t wash my face so as not to stand out among the miners stained with coal dust. They tried to convince him that Scripture should not be understood literally, and the New Testament is not a direct guide to action, but Father Vincent denounced the missionaries, which, naturally, ended in his removal from office.

Van Gogh did not leave Borinage: he moved to the tiny mining village of Kuzmes, and, living on donations from the community, and essentially for a piece of bread, continued the mission of the preacher. He even interrupted his correspondence with his brother Theo for a while, not wanting to accept help from him.

When the correspondence resumed, Theo was once again surprised by the changes that had occurred in his brother. In letters from the impoverished Kuzmes, he talked about art: “You need to understand the defining word contained in the masterpieces of great masters, and there will be God!” And he said that he draws a lot. Miners, miners' wives, their children. And everyone likes it.

This change surprised Vincent himself. For advice on whether he should continue painting, he went to the French artist Jules Breton. He did not know Breton, but in his past life as a commission agent he respected the artist to such an extent that he walked 70 kilometers to Courrières, where Breton lived. I found Breton's house, but was too shy to knock on the door. And, depressed, he set off on foot back to Kuzmes.

Theo believed that after this incident his brother would return to old life. But Vincent continued to draw like a man possessed. In 1880, he came to Brussels with the firm intention of studying at the Academy of Arts, but his application was not even accepted. Vincent wasn't upset at all. He bought drawing manuals by Jean-François Millet and Charles Bagh, popular in those years, and went to his parents, intending to engage in self-education.

Only his mother approved of Vincent's decision to become an artist, which surprised the whole family. The father was very wary of the changes in his son, although the pursuit of art fit well into the canons of Protestant ethics. The uncles, who had been selling paintings for decades, looked at Vincent’s drawings and decided that his nephew was crazy.

The incident with cousin Cornelia only strengthened their suspicions. Cornelia, who was recently widowed and raising her son alone, took a liking to Vincent. To woo her, he burst into his uncle's house, stretched out his hand over an oil lamp, and vowed to hold it over the fire until he was allowed to see his cousin. Cornelia's father resolved the situation by blowing out the lamp, and Vincent, humiliated, left the house.

His mother was very worried about Vincent. She persuaded her distant relative Anton Mauve, a successful artist, to support her son. Mauve sent Vincent a box of watercolors and then met with him. After looking at Van Gogh's works, the artist gave some advice. But having learned that the model depicted in one of the sketches with a child - lung woman behavior with which Vincent now lived, refused to support him further relations.

Van Gogh met Klasina at the end of February 1882 in The Hague. She had two young children and had nowhere to live. Taking pity on her, he invited Klasina and her children to live with him. They were together for a year and a half. Vincent wrote to his brother that in this way he atones for the sin of Klasina’s fall, taking on someone else’s guilt. In gratitude, she and her children patiently posed for Vincent's oil studies.

It was then that he admitted to Theo that the main thing in his life was art. “Everything else is a consequence of art. If something has nothing to do with art, it doesn’t exist.” Klasina and her children, whom he loved very much, became a burden to him. In September 1883 he left them and left The Hague.

For two months, Vincent, half-starved, wandered around North Holland with an easel. During this time he painted dozens of portraits and hundreds of sketches. Returning to parents' house, where he was received as coolly as ever, he announced that everything he had done before was “studies.” And now he is ready to paint a real picture.

Van Gogh worked on “The Potato Eaters” for a long time. I made a lot of sketches and sketches. He had to prove to everyone and to himself, first of all, to himself that he was a real artist. Margo Begeman, who lived next door, was the first to believe it. A forty-five-year-old woman fell in love with Van Gogh, but he, engrossed in working on the painting, did not notice her. Desperate, Margo tried to poison herself. She was saved with difficulty. Upon learning of this, Van Gogh was very upset, and many times in letters to Theo he returned to this accident.

Having finished "Eaters", he was satisfied with the picture and at the beginning of 1886 he left for Paris - he was suddenly fascinated by the works of the great French artist Delacroix on color theory.

Even before leaving for Paris, I tried to connect color and music, for which I took several piano lessons. "Prussian blue!" "Yellow chrome!" - he exclaimed, hitting the keys, stunning the teacher. He specifically studied Rubens' violent colors. on his own paintings lighter colors have already appeared, and yellow has become my favorite color. True, when Vincent wrote to his brother about his desire to come to him in Paris and meet the Impressionists, he tried to dissuade him. Theo feared that the atmosphere of Paris would be disastrous for Vincent. But his persuasion had no effect...

Unfortunately, Van Gogh's Parisian period is the least documented. For two years in Paris, Vincent lived with Theo in Montmartre, and the brothers, of course, did not correspond.

It is known that Vincent immediately plunged into artistic life capital of France. He visited exhibitions, got acquainted with " the last word» Impressionism - works by Seurat and Signac. These pointillist artists, taking the principles of impressionism to the extreme, marked its final stage. He became friends with Toulouse-Lautrec, with whom he attended drawing classes.

Toulouse-Lautrec, having seen Van Gogh's works and heard from Vincent that he was “just an amateur,” ambiguously noted that he was mistaken: amateurs are those who paint bad pictures. Vincent persuaded his brother, who was well-known in artistic circles, to introduce him to the masters - Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Pierre-Auguste Renoir. And Camille Pissarro felt sympathy for Van Gogh to such an extent that he took Vincent to “Père Tanguy’s Shop.”

The owner of this paint store and other art materials was an old communard and generous philanthropist. He allowed Vincent to organize the first exhibition of works in the store, in which his closest friends also participated: Bernard, Toulouse-Lautrec and Anquetin. Van Gogh persuaded them to unite into the “Group of the Small Boulevards” - as opposed to the famous artists of the Grand Boulevards.

He had long been struck by the idea of ​​creating, on the model of medieval fraternities, a community of artists. However, his impulsive nature and uncompromising judgments prevented him from building relationships with friends. He became not himself again.

It began to seem to him that he was too susceptible to other people's influence. And Paris, the city he longed for, instantly became disgusting to him. “I want to hide somewhere to the south so as not to see so many artists who, as people, disgust me,” he wrote to his brother from the small town of Arles in Provence, where he went in February 1888.

In Arles, Vincent felt like himself. “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,” Gauguin’s harsh disposition, he told Theo in August 1888. How and before, Van Gogh's brother was constantly working. He painted in the open air, not paying attention to the wind, which often overturned his easel and covered his palette with sand. He also worked at night - using Goya's system, placing burning candles on his hat and on the easel. This is how “Night Cafe” and “ Starlight Night over the Rhone."

But then the abandoned idea of ​​​​creating a community of artists took possession of him again. For fifteen francs a month, he rented four rooms in the “Yellow House,” which became famous thanks to his paintings, on Place Lamartine, at the entrance to Arles. And on September 22, after repeated persuasion, Paul Gauguin came to him. This was a tragic mistake. Vincent, idealistically confident in Gauguin's friendly disposition, told him everything he thought. He also did not hide his opinion. On Christmas Eve 1888, after a heated argument with Gauguin, Vincent grabbed a razor to attack his friend.

Gauguin escaped and moved to a hotel at night. Flowing into a frenzy, Vincent cut off his left earlobe. The next morning he was found bleeding in the Yellow House and sent to the hospital. A few days later he was released. Vincent seemed to have recovered, but after the first attack of mental confusion, others followed. His inappropriate behavior frightened the residents so much that a deputation of townspeople wrote a petition to the mayor and demanded to rid them of the “red-haired madman.”

Despite many attempts by researchers to declare Vincent crazy, it is still impossible not to recognize his general sanity, or, as psychiatrists say, “criticality of his condition.” On May 8, 1889, he voluntarily entered the specialized hospital of St. Paul of Mausoleum near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. He was observed by Dr. Théophile Peyron, who came to the conclusion that the patient was suffering from something resembling a split personality. And he prescribed treatment by periodic immersion in a bath of water.

Hydrotherapy did not bring any particular benefit to anyone in curing mental disorders, but there was no harm from it either. Van Gogh was much more depressed by the fact that the patients of the hospital were not allowed to do anything. He begged Doctor Peyron to allow him to go to sketches, accompanied by an orderly. So, under supervision, he painted many works, including “Road with Cypress Trees and a Star” and the landscape “Olive Trees, Blue Sky and White Cloud.”

In January 1890, after the Group of Twenty exhibition in Brussels, in which Theo Van Gogh participated, the first and only painting by Vincent during the artist’s lifetime was sold: “Red Vineyards at Arles.” For four hundred francs, which is approximately equal to the current eighty US dollars. To somehow cheer Theo up, he wrote to him: “The practice in the art trade, when prices rise after the death of the author, has survived to this day - it’s something like the tulip trade, when a living artist has more minuses than pluses.”

Van Gogh himself was immensely happy with the success. Even if the prices for the works of the Impressionists, who by that time had become classics, were incomparably higher. But he had his own method, his own path, found with such difficulty and torment. And he was finally recognized. Vincent drew non-stop. By that time, he had already painted more than 800 paintings and almost 900 drawings—no other artist had created so many works in just ten years of creativity.

Theo, inspired by the success of the Vineyards, sent his brother more and more paints, but Vincent began to eat them. Dr. Neuron had to hide the easel and palette under lock and key, and when they were returned to Van Gogh, he said that he would no longer go to sketches. Why, he explained in a letter to his sister - Theo, he was afraid to admit this: “... when I am in the fields, I am so overwhelmed by a feeling of loneliness that I’m even scared to go out somewhere...”

In May 1890, Theo agreed with Dr. Gachet, a homeopathic physician at a clinic in Auvers-sur-Oise outside Paris, that Vincent would continue his treatment. Gachet, who appreciates painting and is himself fond of drawing, gladly welcomed the artist to his clinic.

Vincent also liked Dr. Gachet, whom he considered warm-hearted and optimistic. On June 8, Theo and his wife and child came to visit his brother, and Vincent spent a wonderful day with his family, talking about the future: “We all need fun and happiness, hope and love. The scarier, the older, the angrier, the sicker I become, the more I want to fight back by creating a great color, impeccably constructed, brilliant.”

A month later, Gachet already allowed Van Gogh to go to his brother in Paris. Theo, whose daughter was then very ill and his financial affairs were shaken, did not greet Vincent very kindly. A quarrel broke out between them. Its details are unknown. But Vincent felt that he had become a burden to his brother. And probably always was like this. Shocked to the core, Vincent returned to Auvers-sur-Oise that same day.

On July 27, after lunch, Van Gogh went out with an easel to sketch. Stopping in the middle of the field, he shot himself in the chest with a pistol (how he got the weapon remained unknown, and the pistol itself was never found.). The bullet, as it turned out later, hit the rib bone, deflected and missed the heart. Pressing his hand over the wound, the artist returned to the shelter and went to bed. The owner of the shelter called doctor Mazri from the nearest village and the police.

It seemed that the wound did not cause Van Gogh much suffering. When the police arrived, he was calmly smoking a pipe while lying in bed. Gachet sent a telegram to the artist’s brother, and Theo Van Gogh arrived the next morning. Vincent before last minute was conscious. To his brother’s words that they would definitely help him recover, that he just needed to get rid of despair, he answered in French: “La tristesse “durera toujours” (“The sadness will last forever”) and died at half past two in the morning on July 29, 1890.

The priest in Auvers forbade Van Gogh to be buried in the church cemetery. It was decided to bury the artist in a small cemetery in the nearby town of Mary. On July 30, Vincent Van Gogh's body was interred. Vincent's longtime friend, the artist Emile Bernard, described the funeral in detail:

"On the walls of the room where the coffin with his body stood, his last works, forming a kind of halo, and the brilliance of genius they radiated made this death even more painful for us artists who were there. The coffin was covered with a plain white blanket and surrounded by a mass of flowers. There were sunflowers, which he loved so much, and yellow dahlias - everywhere yellow flowers. This was, as you remember, his favorite color, a symbol of light with which he dreamed of filling the hearts of people and which filled works of art.

Next to him on the floor lay his easel, his folding chair and his brushes. There were a lot of people, mostly artists, among whom I recognized Lucien Pissarro and Lauzet. I looked at the sketches; one is very beautiful and sad. Prisoners walking in a circle, surrounded by a high prison wall, a canvas painted under the impression of Doré's painting, its horrific cruelty and symbolizing his imminent end.

Wasn't life like this for him: a high prison with such high walls, with such high... and these people endlessly walking around the pit, aren't they poor artists - damned poor souls who pass by, driven by the whip of Fate? At three o'clock his friends carried his body to the hearse, many of those present were crying. Theodore Van Gogh, who loved his brother very much and always supported him in the struggle for his art, never stopped crying...

It was terribly hot outside. We walked up the hill outside Auvers, talking about him, about the bold impulse he gave to art, about the great projects he was always thinking about, and about the good he brought to us all. We reached the cemetery: a small new cemetery, full of new tombstones. It was located on a small hill among fields that were ready for harvest, under clear blue sky, which he still loved at that time... probably. Then he was lowered into the grave...

This day seemed to be created for him, until you imagine that he is no longer alive and he cannot admire this day. Dr. Gachet wanted to say a few words in honor of Vincent and his life, but he was crying so hard that he could only stutter and shyly say a few goodbye words (maybe that was the best thing). He gave short description Vincent's torment and achievements, mentioning how lofty his goal was and how much he loved him (even though he knew Vincent for a very short time).

He was, said Gachet, an honest man and a great artist, he had only two goals: humanity and art. He put art above all else, and it will repay him in kind, perpetuating his name. Then we returned. Theodore Van Gogh was heartbroken; those present began to disperse: some were secluded, simply going into the fields, others were already walking back to the station..."

Theo Van Gogh died six months later. All this time he could not forgive himself for the quarrel with his brother. The extent of his despair becomes clear from a letter he wrote to his mother shortly after Vincent's death: “It is impossible to describe my grief, just as it is impossible to find consolation. This is a grief that will last and from which I will certainly never be freed as long as I live. The only thing that can be said is that he himself found the peace he was striving for... Life was such a heavy burden for him, but now, as often happens, everyone praises his talents... Oh, mom! He was so my, my own brother.”

After Theo's death, it was found in his archive last letter Vincent, which he wrote after a quarrel with his brother: “It seems to me that since everyone is a little nervous and also too busy, there is no need to fully clarify all the relationships. I was a little surprised that you seemed to want to rush things. How can I help, or rather, what can I do to make you happy with this? One way or another, I mentally shake your hands tightly again and, in spite of everything, I was glad to see you all. Don't doubt it."

(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 worked successfully 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 abandoned the course and continued art education yourself, 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

Biography of Vincent Van Gogh is shining example as talented person was not recognized during his lifetime. He was appreciated only after his death. This talented artist the post-impressionist was born on March 30, 1853 in the Netherlands in a small village, which was located near the border with Belgium. In addition to Vincent, his parents had six children, of which his younger brother Theo can be distinguished. He had a great influence on the fate of the famous artist.

Childhood and early years

As a child, Van Gogh was a difficult and “boring” child. This is how his relatives described him. With strangers, he was quiet, thoughtful, friendly and affable. At the age of seven, the boy was sent to a local village school, where he studied for only a year, then he was transferred to home schooling. After some time, he was sent to boarding school, where he felt unhappy. This affected him greatly. Then the future artist was transferred to college, where he studied foreign languages and drawing.

Attempt at writing. Beginning of an artist's career

At the age of 16, Vincent was placed in a branch of one large company, which was engaged in the sale of paintings. His uncle owned this company. The future artist worked very well, so he was transferred to. There he learned to understand and appreciate painting. Vincent attended exhibitions and art galleries. Because of his unhappy love, he began to work poorly and was transferred from one office to another. Around the age of 22, Vincent began to try his hand at painting. He was inspired by exhibitions at the Louvre and the Salon (Paris). Because of his new hobby, the artist began to work very poorly and was fired. He then worked as a teacher and assistant pastor. To choose from last profession influenced by his father, who also chose to serve God.

Gaining mastery and fame

At the age of 27, the artist, with the support of his brother Theo, moved to, where he entered the Academy of Arts. But, after a year, he decided to quit studying, because he believed that diligence, and not study, would help him become an artist. Your first famous paintings he painted in The Hague. There, for the first time, he mixed several techniques at once in one work:

• watercolor;
• feather;
• sepia.

Vivid examples of such paintings are “Backyards” and “Rooftops. View from van Gogh's studio." Then he had another unsuccessful attempt create a family. Because of this, Vincent leaves the city and settles in a separate hut, where he paints landscapes and working peasants. During that period, he painted such famous paintings as “Peasant Woman” and “Peasant and Peasant Woman Planting Potatoes.”

Interestingly, Van Gogh was unable to draw human figures correctly and smoothly, which is why in his paintings they have somewhat straight and angular lines. After some time, he moved in with Theo. There he again took up the study of painting in a local famous studio. Then he began to gain fame and participate in impressionist exhibitions.

Death of Van Gogh

Died great artist July 29, 1890 from loss of blood. The day before that day, he was wounded. Vincent shot himself in the chest with the revolver he carried with him to scare away birds. There is, however, another version of his death. Some historians believe he was shot by teenagers with whom he sometimes drank in bars.

Van Gogh paintings

To the list of the most famous works Van Gogh includes the following paintings: “Starry Night”; "Sunflowers"; "Irises"; "Wheat field with crows"; "Portrait of Doctor Gachet."

• There are several facts in Van Gogh's biography that historians still argue about. For example, it is believed that during his lifetime they bought only one of his paintings, “Red Vineyards in Arles.” But, despite this, it is absolutely indisputable that Van Gogh left behind a great legacy and made an invaluable contribution to art. He was not appreciated in the 19th century, but in the 20th and 21st centuries, Vincent's paintings are sold for millions of dollars.

Vincent Van Gogh was a post-impressionist artist of exceptional talent. Taking the influence of the Impressionists of that period, he nevertheless developed his own, spontaneous style. He became one of the most famous artists twentieth century and played a key role in the development of modern art. Vincent was born in Groot-Zundert, a small Dutch village, on March 30, 1853. His father was a Protestant pastor. Vincent showed an interest in drawing as a child: he early works are distinguished by realism and expressiveness. The artist’s youth became a period of searching. He worked briefly as an art dealer, then as a boarding school teacher, and then, deeply interested in Christianity, became a preacher in a mining town in southern Belgium. He preached in the poor areas of Brabant, empathizing with poverty local residents and their severity living conditions. He began to sleep on straw in a dilapidated hut, and his face was blackened by coal dust. The church authorities were dissatisfied with such shocking behavior, and Van Gogh was relieved of his post. In 1880, when he was already 27 years old, Van Gogh turned his interest to art. He began painting seriously, and during a stay in Paris in 1886, he was deeply impressed by the work of the Impressionist artists. During this important period in his life, Van Gogh met many artists, including Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Pissarro and Gauguin. His style changed significantly under the influence of the works of the Impressionists, becoming lighter and brighter. At this time, the artist painted a large number of self-portraits. Using the financial assistance of his brother Theo, in 1888 he went to live in picturesque Provence, a region in the south of France. There he created his famous “Sunflowers” ​​series.
After some time, Van Gogh invited his friend Gauguin to stay, but soon the artists began to quarrel. According to one version, one fine day Van Gogh began to threaten his guest with a razor, after which he hastily left. Deeply repenting of what he had done, Van Gogh cut off part of his own ear. This episode became the first serious symptom of the artist’s increasing mental instability. Subsequently, he was treated more than once in psychiatric hospitals. His life alternated between periods of inertia, depression and amazingly concentrated creative activity. The last two years of Van Gogh's life were the most fruitful in terms of painting. The artist felt an irresistible need to paint. “Work is an absolute necessity for me. I can’t put it off, I don’t care about anything except work,” Van Gogh said about himself. He developed a style that was fast and impetuous, leaving the artist no time for contemplation and reflection. He painted with quick movements of the brush, and more and more abstract figures appeared on his canvases - the harbingers of modern art.
July 27, 1890, while under the influence another depression, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest. However, there were no witnesses to this incident, as well as a pistol, so the version of murder has not yet been ruled out. One way or another, two days later the artist died.

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 painting “Starry Night”, you will immediately recognize Van Gogh in it. 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.

Vague Gogh 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 the 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. Intentionally 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 represented 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?