Vincent Van GOG
Vincent van Gogh
(1853-1890)

VAN GOGH Vincent is a Dutch painter, draftsman, etcher and lithographer, one of the largest representatives of post-impressionism.

Vincent was born in a small village in North Obrabant into the family of a priest. At the age of 16, he became a seller of paintings in the salons of the Goupil company, but at the age of 23, seized by the dream of helping the most disadvantaged, he, like his father, decided to become a preacher of the Bible and left for the south of Belgium to the mining village of Borinage. But, faced with hopeless poverty and complete indifference of the church authorities, he breaks with the official religion forever. It was in Borinage that he first recognized himself as an established artist and took on a new mission of serving society through his art. Fate would have it that V. Van Gogh spent the last decade of his life feeling the joy of his work, leading a half-starved existence on the money of his brother Theo, the only person who supported him until the very end.
For some time, V. Van Gogh took lessons from the Dutch artist Mauve, but further improvement of his work took place, in his own words, with the help of “the constant study of nature and battle with it.” The main characters of the paintings of the Dutch period are peasants depicted at their daily activities ("Peasant Woman", 1885, Kröller-Müller State Museum, Otterlo). Indicative is the canvas “The Potato Eaters” (1885, Collection of V. Van Gogh, Laren), in which V. Van Gogh pays tribute to his idol - the French painter J. F. Millet. The painting is painted in a dark palette, reminiscent of the color of the land cultivated by peasants. However, according to the author, it is not color that occupies him in the first place, but form. And yet, behind the muted grayish tones one can already feel that rich color base that will burst out in the mature period of the artist’s work.
A vague desire for renewal, a creative search for an artistic method led him to Paris, where he met the Impressionists, studied the color theory of E. Delacroix, and became interested in planar Japanese engraving and textured painting by Monticelli. Here, in Paris, he painted impressionistic paintings full of light depicting bouquets of flowers, views of Montmartre, the outskirts of Paris, and performed several portrait works ("The Hills of Montmartre", 1887, City Museum, Amsterdam).
But the life of the big city tires V. Van Gogh, and in February 1888 he leaves for Arles to return to the land and to those who work on it. His stay in this southern city restored his lost strength; it was here that his talent as a painter was fully revealed and his unique individual style was finally formed. V. Van Gogh creates his numerous paintings in a fit of inspiration, controlling his enthusiastic sensory perception of nature with his mind. He no longer strives to convey the “impression” of what he saw, but depicts its quintessence in combination with his own experiences. In this he is helped by the experience acquired in Paris in developing his own language of color, which has an emotional and symbolic sound, as well as the use of volitional contours that simplify the form, dynamic strokes that give the image a certain rhythm, and a pasty texture that conveys the materiality of the world.
V. Van Gogh expressed his love and admiration for the nature of Provence in numerous landscapes, finding his own color scheme and plastic solution for each depicted season ("Harvest. La Croe Valley", 1888; "Fishing Boats in Sainte-Marie", 1888; "Crows over a field of wheat", 1890; "Almond branch", 1890 - all in the Van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam). Indicative in this regard is the painting “Red Vineyards” (1888, Pushkin Museum, Moscow), built on the contrast of additional colors, enriched with a range of warm and cold colors.

The main character in Van Gogh's Arles landscapes is the sun, and the dominant color is yellow, the color of the sun, ripe bread and sunflowers, which for the artist became a symbol of the daylight ("Sunflowers", 1888, Neue Pinakothek, Munich).

The images of the peasants dear to his heart acquire a general character, personifying the creative beginning of the world and a bright faith in the future.
In portrait images, the artist focuses on the inner life of the model, reproducing her with all her unique individual uniqueness against a background devoid of any specific surroundings. Moreover, even the most dramatic images are inextricably linked with the feeling of joy and beauty of life, conveyed by a combination of bright colors and fanciful ornamentation of forms. These are his self-portraits and images of ordinary people, close friends of the artist: “Arlesienne. Madame Ginoux” (1888, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York); "Postman Roulin" (1888, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston); "Zouave"; "Lullaby", etc.

In humanizing the world around him, V. Van Gogh was not limited to the nature around him; many objects presented on his canvases are also endowed with the ability to feel and express the feelings of their owners: “Night Cafe in Arles” (1888, private collection, New York), provocative mortal melancholy, “The Artist’s Bedroom” (1888, Van Gogh Foundation, Amsterdam), evoking thoughts of peace and relaxation.

In Arles, Van Gogh tried to fulfill his long-held dream of an association of artists opposing the chaos of an individualistic civilization, but the attempt turned out to be tragic. Physical and spiritual overstrain led to an exacerbation of mental illness, and in May 1889 the artist ended up in the Saint-Rémy hospital, where, between attacks, he continued to do his favorite thing. Reproductions of works by famous artists served as his “model,” which he reproduced in his own pictorial language. Thus, based on a drawing by G. Doré, he created his original painting “Prisoners’ Walk” (1890, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow), reflecting his current mood: resignation and doom.
But, despite the depressing state, it was here, in the hospital, that Van Gogh created truly cosmic canvases, filled with love for the earth and sky. In “Starry Night” (1889), cypress trees rushing into the sky resemble tongues of flame, and the earth is perceived as flying in space space planet. The balls of stars - these resemblances of the sun - seem to complete the motif of the light source, begun by V. Van Gogh in “The Potato Eaters”.

The artist spends the last two months of his life in a small village near Paris and creates paintings with different emotional moods: filled with purity and freshness, “Landscape at Auvers after the Rain” (1890, Pushkin Museum, Moscow), a tragic portrait of Doctor Gachet (1890, Louvre, Paris) and full of foreboding of imminent death, “A flock of crows over a grain field.” Having finished working on this picture, during another attack of depression he commits suicide.

1853 30th of March. Vincent Van Gogh was born in Grooge Zundert in Brabant (Holland) into the family of a pastor.
1857 1st of May. A younger brother, Theodore, nicknamed Theo, was born.
1864 For two years he attends college in Zevenbergen.
1866 Attends the Technical School in Tilburg.
1869 Accepted as an apprentice to the company "Gupil and Co", and moves to The Hague.
1873 Vincent is transferred to London. Unrequited love causes depression.
1875 Transferred to the Paris branch of Goupil and Co.
1876 He was fired from the company and moved to Ramsgate (London), where he taught at a college. In December he returns to his parents.
1879 Engaged in preaching activities.
1880 He goes to Brussels, where he studies anatomy and drawing.
1881 Paints in oils for the first time. Disagreement with parents: goes to The Hague.
1886 Arrives in Paris.
1888 Moves to Arles, where he lives with Gauguin. Nervous crisis (as a result of which, he cuts off his earlobe).
1889 Located in a clinic for the mentally ill in Saint-Rémy.
1890 After a trip to Theo, Vincent heads to Auvers-on-Oise, where he is under the supervision of Dr. Gachet.
July 27. Shoots himself in the chest. After 2 days he was gone. Theo dies 6 months later.

Van Gogh on our community

"Red Vineyards in Arles" is the only painting sold during his lifetime...

Vincent Van Gogh is one of the world's greatest artists, whose work has a great influence on the development of modern trends in painting and gives impetus to the development of impressionism. Today, countries such as the Netherlands, France and England are proud that such a great creator once lived and worked on their territory, and the value of his paintings, located in different parts of the world, cannot be calculated in any monetary unit, just like the cost of irobot. However, no matter how sad it may sound, during Vincent Van Gogh’s life his paintings were of no value to the society of that time, and this genius died in a state of madness and complete loneliness.

Van Gogh's work was influenced by many factors, so, undoubtedly, he was influenced by his childhood, character, and the time in which he was born. However, despite the fact that during his short life the creator experienced many illnesses, depression, poverty, and loneliness, he was never afraid and never stopped experimenting. And he experimented with everything that was possible. Thus, during his short creative career, Van Gogh experimented with light and shadow, color schemes, form, models and various artistic techniques. His work also changed as his worldview changed.

Thus, being born at the end of the nineteenth century into a low-income Dutch working-class family, Van Gogh was accustomed to observing and empathizing with the lives of ordinary people. At that time, the poor barely had enough money for food, and therefore it was not possible to imagine that in a couple of centuries people would be able, sitting at home in an armchair, to purchase equipment for themselves by asking in the search bar of the browser: “irobot roomba 790 buy.”

Hard times and the impressionability of the young Van Gogh served as the main impetus for the development of his work, in which the main characters were working-class people. In the paintings of that time, the creator conveyed the severity of the situation of poor people. By painting canvases in dark colors, the artist clearly and accurately conveyed the oppressive and oppressive atmosphere of that time.

However, having moved to sunny France, the artist begins to paint life-filled landscapes and still lifes. The paintings of that period of Van Gogh's work seemed to flow with light, thanks to the use of blue, golden yellow, red colors, as well as writing them using the technique of small strokes.

The end of Vincent Van Gogh's short but intense artistic life is considered the dawn of his creativity. It is in the last years of his life that the creator determines his style and technique of painting.

Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) is one of the most brilliant and talented masters. Fate did not spare the artist, giving him only ten years of active creativity. In this short period of time, Van Gogh was able to become a master, with his own unique style of painting.

Vincent Van Gogh: short biography

Vincent Van Gogh: 1889

Vincent Van Gogh born in the south of the Netherlands. Vincent received his first education at a village school, and in 1864 he studied at a boarding school.

Without finishing school, Vincent Van Gogh began selling paintings in 1869. While working at the company, he gained great knowledge in the field of painting. By the way, Van Gogh loved and appreciated painting very much.

Four years later, Vincent was transferred to England, where his trading business rapidly increased. But love blocked his path to a successful career.

Vincent Van Gogh lost his head in love with the daughter of the owner of the apartment in which he lived. When Van Gogh found out that she was engaged, he became indifferent to everything.

Van Gogh finds temporary consolation in religion. Arriving in Holland, he began studying to become a pastor, but after some time he dropped out.

In the spring of 1886, Vincent goes to France to visit his brother. In Paris he met many artists, among whom were such names as Gauguin And Camille Pissarro. All the hopelessness of life in Holland is forgotten. Van Gogh paints expressively, brightly and quickly. He is respected as an artist.

At about 27 years old, Vincent Van Gogh made the final decision to become an artist. He can safely be called self-taught, but Vincent worked a lot on himself, studied books, copied paintings.

Van Gogh's affairs were rapidly improving, but failures again stood in his way... and again because of love. Van Gogh's cousin Keya Vos, did not reciprocate the artist’s feelings. On top of that, because of her, the artist had a big fight with his father. A quarrel with his father caused Van Gogh to move to The Hague, where he began a relationship with a woman of easy virtue. Klazina Maria Hoornik. Vincent lived with the woman for one year and even wanted to marry her. The marriage was prevented by the family interfering in Van Gogh's personal affairs.

The artist returned to his homeland, where he lived for two years, and in 1886 he again went to France to visit his brother. His brother, whose name was Theo, supported Van Gogh morally and helped financially. It is worth saying that France was a second home for Vincent. He lived in this country for the last 4 years of his life.

In 1888, there was a quarrel with Gauguin, as a result of which, due to a mental disorder, Van Gogh cut off part of his ear. Although there are many versions of this story, no one knows for sure what exactly happened between Van Gogh and Gauguin. Perhaps it was the alcohol that did its job, because the artist drank a lot. The next day, Van Gogh was admitted to a psychiatric clinic.

According to sociologists, three artists are the most famous in the world: Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. Leonardo is “responsible” for the art of the Old Masters, Van Gogh for the impressionists and post-impressionists of the 19th century, and Picasso for the abstract and modernists of the 20th century. Moreover, if Leonardo appears in the eyes of the public not so much as a painter, but as a universal genius, and Picasso as a fashionable “socialite” and a public figure - a fighter for peace, then Van Gogh personifies precisely the artist. He is considered a lone crazy genius and a martyr who did not think about fame and money. However, this image, to which everyone is accustomed, is nothing more than a myth that was used to “promote” Van Gogh and sell his paintings at a profit.

The legend about the artist is based on a true fact - he took up painting when he was already a mature man, and in just ten years he “ran” the path from a novice artist to a master who revolutionized the idea of ​​fine art. All this, even during Van Gogh’s lifetime, was perceived as a “miracle” with no real explanation. The artist’s biography was not replete with adventures, such as the fate of Paul Gauguin, who managed to be both a stockbroker and a sailor, and died of leprosy, exotic for the European man in the street, on the no less exotic Hiva Oa, one of the Marquesas Islands. Van Gogh was a “boring worker”, and, except for the strange mental attacks that appeared in him shortly before his death, and this death itself as a result of a suicide attempt, the myth-makers had nothing to cling to. But these few “trump cards” were played by real masters of their craft.

The main creator of the Legend of the Master was the German gallery owner and art critic Julius Meyer-Graefe. He quickly realized the scale of the great Dutchman’s genius, and most importantly, the market potential of his paintings. In 1893, a twenty-six-year-old gallery owner purchased the painting “A Couple in Love” and started thinking about “advertising” a promising product. Possessing a lively pen, Meyer-Graefe decided to write a biography of the artist that would be attractive to collectors and art lovers. He did not find him alive and therefore was “free” from personal impressions that burdened the master’s contemporaries. In addition, Van Gogh was born and raised in Holland, and finally developed as a painter in France. In Germany, where Meyer-Graefe began to introduce the legend, no one knew anything about the artist, and the gallery owner and art critic started with a “clean slate.” He did not immediately “find” the image of that crazy lone genius that everyone now knows. At first, Meyer’s Van Gogh was a “healthy man of the people,” and his work was “harmony between art and life” and the herald of a new Grand style, which Meyer-Graefe considered modern. But modernism fizzled out in a matter of years, and Van Gogh, under the pen of an enterprising German, “retrained” as an avant-garde rebel who led the fight against mossy academic realists. Van Gogh the anarchist was popular in the circles of artistic bohemia, but scared off the average person. And only the “third edition” of the legend satisfied everyone. In a 1921 “scientific monograph” entitled “Vincent,” with the subtitle, unusual for literature of this kind, “The Novel of the God-Seeker,” Meyer-Graefe presented to the public a holy madman whose hand was guided by God. The highlight of this “biography” was the story of a severed ear and creative madness that elevated a small, lonely man like Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin to the heights of genius.

Vincent Van Gogh. 1873

The real Vincent van Gogh had little in common with "Vincent" Meyer-Graefe. To begin with, he graduated from a prestigious private gymnasium, spoke and wrote fluently in three languages, read a lot, which earned him the nickname Spinoza in Parisian artistic circles. Van Gogh had a large family behind him, who never left him without support, although they were not happy with his experiments. His grandfather was a renowned bookbinder of ancient manuscripts, working for several European courts, three of his uncles were successful art dealers, and one was an admiral and port master in Antwerp, in his house he lived while studying in that city. The real Van Gogh was a rather sober and pragmatic person.

For example, one of the central “God-seeking” episodes of the “going to the people” legend was the fact that in 1879 Van Gogh was a preacher in the Belgian mining district of Borinage. What Meyer-Graefe and his followers didn’t come up with! Here there is a “break with the environment” and “the desire to suffer along with the wretched and the poor.” Everything is explained simply. Vincent decided to follow in his father's footsteps and become a priest. In order to be ordained, it was necessary to study at the seminary for five years. Or - take an accelerated course in three years at an evangelical school using a simplified program, and even for free. All this was preceded by a mandatory six-month “experience” as a missionary in the outback. So Van Gogh went to the miners. Of course, he was a humanist, he tried to help these people, but he did not even think about getting close to them, always remaining a member of the middle class. After serving his sentence in Borinage, Van Gogh decided to enroll in an evangelical school, and then it turned out that the rules had changed and Dutchmen like him, unlike the Flemings, had to pay tuition. After this, the offended “missionary” left religion and decided to become an artist.

And this choice is also not accidental. Van Gogh was a professional art dealer - an art dealer in the largest company "Goupil". His partner in it was his uncle Vincent, after whom the young Dutchman was named. He patronized him. Goupil played a leading role in Europe in the trade of old masters and solid modern academic paintings, but was not afraid to sell “moderate innovators” like the Barbizons. Over the course of 7 years, Van Gogh made a career in a complex antique business based on family traditions. From the Amsterdam branch he moved first to The Hague, then to London and finally to the firm's headquarters in Paris. Over the years, the nephew of the co-owner of Goupil went through a serious school, studied the main European museums and many closed private collections, and became a real expert in painting not only by Rembrandt and the small Dutch, but also by the French - from Ingres to Delacroix. “Being surrounded by paintings,” he wrote, “I was inflamed with a frantic love for them, reaching the point of frenzy.” His idol was the French artist Jean Francois Millet, who became famous at that time for his “peasant” paintings, which Goupil sold at prices of tens of thousands of francs.

The artist's brother Theodore Van Gogh

Van Gogh was going to become such a successful “writer of the everyday life of the lower classes” like Millet, using his knowledge of the life of miners and peasants, gleaned from the Borinage. Contrary to legend, art dealer Van Gogh was not a brilliant amateur like such “Sunday artists” as customs officer Rousseau or conductor Pirosmani. Having behind him a fundamental acquaintance with the history and theory of art, as well as with the practice of trading it, the persistent Dutchman, at the age of twenty-seven, began a systematic study of the craft of painting. He began by drawing using the latest special textbooks, which were sent to him by art dealers from all over Europe. Van Gogh's hand was placed by his relative, the artist from The Hague Anton Mauwe, to whom the grateful student later dedicated one of his paintings. Van Gogh even entered first the Brussels and then the Antwerp Academy of Arts, where he studied for three months until he went to Paris.

The newly-minted artist was persuaded to go there in 1886 by his younger brother Theodore. This successful art dealer, who was on the rise, played a key role in the fate of the master. Theo advised Vincent to give up “peasant” painting, explaining that it was already a “plowed field.” And, besides, “black paintings” like “The Potato Eaters” have always sold worse than light and joyful art. Another thing is the “light painting” of the Impressionists, literally created for success: all sunshine and celebration. The public will definitely appreciate it sooner or later.

Theo Seer

So Van Gogh ended up in the capital of the “new art” - Paris and, on Theo’s advice, he entered the private studio of Fernand Cormon, which was then a “training ground” for a new generation of experimental artists. There, the Dutchman became close friends with such future pillars of post-impressionism as Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Emile Bernard and Lucien Pissarro. Van Gogh studied anatomy, painted from plaster casts and literally absorbed all the new ideas that were seething in Paris.

Theo introduces him to leading art critics and his artist clients, among whom were not only the established Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas, but also the “rising stars” Signac and Gauguin. By the time Vincent arrived in Paris, his brother was the head of the “experimental” branch of Goupil in Montmartre. A man with a keen sense of the new and an excellent businessman, Theo was one of the first to recognize the onset of a new era in art. He persuaded the conservative leadership of Gupil to allow him to take the risk of engaging in the trade of “light painting”. In the gallery, Theo held personal exhibitions of Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet and other impressionists, to whom Paris began to gradually get used to. On the floor above, in his own apartment, he arranged “changing exhibitions” of paintings by daring youth, which “Goupil” was afraid to show officially. This was the prototype of the elite “apartment exhibitions” that became fashionable in the 20th century, and Vincent’s works became their highlight.

Back in 1884, the Van Gogh brothers entered into an agreement among themselves. Theo, in exchange for Vincent's paintings, pays him 220 francs a month and provides him with brushes, canvases and paints of the best quality. By the way, thanks to this, Van Gogh’s paintings, unlike the works of Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec, who painted on anything due to lack of money, were so well preserved. 220 francs was a quarter of the monthly salary of a doctor or lawyer. Postman Joseph Roulin in Arles, whom legend made something of a patron of the “beggar” Van Gogh, received half as much and, unlike the lonely artist, fed a family with three children. Van Gogh even had enough money to create a collection of Japanese prints. In addition, Theo supplied his brother with “overall clothes”: blouses and famous hats, necessary books and reproductions. He also paid for Vincent's treatment.

None of this was simple charity. The brothers drew up an ambitious plan - to create a market for paintings by the Post-Impressionists, the generation of artists that replaced Monet and his friends. Moreover, with Vincent Van Gogh as one of the leaders of this generation. To combine the seemingly incompatible - the risky avant-garde art of the bohemian world and commercial success in the spirit of the respectable Goupil. Here they were almost a century ahead of their time: only Andy Warhol and other American partyists managed to immediately get rich from avant-garde art.

"Unrecognized"

Overall, Vincent van Gogh's position was unique. He worked as a contract artist for an art dealer, who was one of the key figures in the “light painting” market. And this art dealer was his brother. The restless tramp Gauguin, for example, who counted every franc, could only dream of such a situation. Moreover, Vincent was not a simple puppet in the hands of businessman Theo. He was also not unmercenary, who did not want to sell his paintings to profane people, which he gave away freely to “kindred souls,” as Meyer-Graefe wrote. Van Gogh, like any normal person, wanted recognition not from distant descendants, but during his lifetime. Confessions, an important sign of which for him was money. And being a former art dealer himself, he knew how to achieve this.

One of the main themes of his letters to Theo is not at all God-seeking, but discussions about what needs to be done in order to profitably sell paintings, and which paintings will quickly find their way to the heart of the buyer. To promote himself on the market, he came up with an impeccable formula: “Nothing will help us sell our paintings better than their recognition as a good decoration for middle-class homes.” To clearly show how Post-Impressionist paintings would “look” in a bourgeois interior, Van Gogh himself organized two exhibitions in the Tambourine cafe and the La Forche restaurant in Paris in 1887 and even sold several works from them. Later, the legend played up this fact as an act of despair of the artist, whom no one wanted to let into normal exhibitions.

Meanwhile, he is a regular participant in exhibitions at the Salon des Indépendants and the Free Theater - the most fashionable places for Parisian intellectuals of that time. His paintings are exhibited by art dealers Arsene Portier, George Thomas, Pierre Martin and Tanguy. The great Cezanne got the opportunity to show his work at a personal exhibition only at the age of 56, after almost four decades of hard labor. While the works of Vincent, an artist with six years of experience, could be seen at any time at Theo’s “apartment exhibition”, where the entire artistic elite of the capital of the art world, Paris, visited.

The real Van Gogh is least like the hermit from the legend. He belongs among the leading artists of the era, the most convincing evidence of which is several portraits of the Dutchman painted by Toulouse-Lautrec, Roussel, and Bernard. Lucien Pissarro depicted him talking with the most influential art critic of those years, Fenelon. Camille Pissarro remembered Van Gogh for the fact that he did not hesitate to stop the person he needed on the street and show his paintings right next to the wall of some house. It is simply impossible to imagine the real hermit Cezanne in such a situation.

The legend firmly established the idea that Van Gogh was unrecognized, that during his lifetime only one of his paintings, “Red Vineyards in Arles,” was sold, which now hangs in the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin. In fact, the sale of this painting from an exhibition in Brussels in 1890 for 400 francs was Van Gogh's breakthrough into the world of serious prices. He sold no worse than his contemporaries Seurat or Gauguin. According to documents, it is known that fourteen works were bought from the artist. The first to do so was a family friend, the Dutch art dealer Tersteeg, in February 1882, and Vincent wrote to Theo: “The first sheep has crossed the bridge.” In reality, there were more sales; there is simply no accurate evidence of the rest.

As for lack of recognition, since 1888, famous critics Gustave Kahn and Felix Fenelon, in their reviews of exhibitions of “independents,” as the avant-garde artists were called then, have highlighted Van Gogh’s fresh and vibrant works. The critic Octave Mirbeau advised Rodin to buy his paintings. They were in the collection of such a discerning connoisseur as Edgar Degas. During his lifetime, Vincent read in the Mercure de France newspaper that he was a great artist, the heir of Rembrandt and Hals. This was written in an article entirely devoted to the work of the “amazing Dutchman” by the rising star of the “new criticism” Henri Aurier. He intended to create a biography of Van Gogh, but unfortunately died of tuberculosis shortly after the death of the artist himself.

But Meyer-Graefe published a “biography”, and in it he especially described the “intuitive, free from the shackles of reason” process of Van Gogh’s creativity.

“Vincent painted in a blind, unconscious rapture. His temperament spilled out onto the canvas. The trees screamed, the clouds hunted each other. The sun gaped like a blinding hole leading to chaos.”

The easiest way to refute this idea of ​​​​Van Gogh is in the words of the artist himself: “Great is created not only by impulsive action, but also by the complicity of many things that were brought to a single whole... With art, as with everything else: great is not something sometimes random, but must be created by persistent willpower.”

The vast majority of Van Gogh’s letters are devoted to issues of the “kitchen” of painting: setting tasks, materials, technique. The case is almost unprecedented in the history of art. The Dutchman was a real workaholic and argued: “In art you have to work like several blacks and peel off your skin.” At the end of his life, he really painted very quickly; he could complete a painting from start to finish in two hours. But at the same time he kept repeating the favorite expression of the American artist Whistler: “I did it in two hours, but I worked for years to do something worthwhile in those two hours.”

Van Gogh did not write on a whim - he worked long and hard on the same motif. In the city of Arles, where he set up his workshop after leaving Paris, he began a series of 30 works connected by the common creative task of “Contrast”. Contrast in color, thematic, composition. For example, pandan "Cafe in Arles" and "Room in Arles". In the first picture there is darkness and tension, in the second there is light and harmony. In the same row there are several variants of his famous “Sunflowers”. The entire series was conceived as an example of decorating a “middle class home.” We have thoughtful creative and market strategies from start to finish. After looking at his paintings at the “independent” exhibition, Gauguin wrote: “You are the only thinking artist of all.”

The cornerstone of the Van Gogh legend is his madness. Allegedly, only it allowed him to look into such depths that are inaccessible to mere mortals. But the artist was not half-mad with flashes of genius from his youth. Periods of depression, accompanied by seizures similar to epilepsy, for which he was treated in a psychiatric clinic, began only in the last year and a half of his life. Doctors saw this as the effect of absinthe, an alcoholic drink infused with wormwood, whose destructive effect on the nervous system became known only in the 20th century. Moreover, it was precisely during the period of exacerbation of the disease that the artist could not write. So mental disorder did not “help” Van Gogh’s genius, but hindered it.

The famous story with the ear is very doubtful. It turned out that Van Gogh could not cut it off at the root; he would simply bleed to death, because he was given help only 10 hours after the incident. Only his lobe was cut off, as stated in the medical report. And who did it? There is a version that this happened during a quarrel with Gauguin that took place that day. Experienced in sailor fights, Gauguin slashed Van Gogh in the ear, and he had a nervous attack from the whole experience. Later, to justify his behavior, Gauguin made up a story that Van Gogh, in a fit of madness, chased him with a razor in his hands, and then injured himself.

Even the painting “Room in Arles,” whose curved space was considered to capture Van Gogh’s insane state, turned out to be surprisingly realistic. Plans were found for the house in which the artist lived in Arles. The walls and ceiling of his home were indeed sloping. Van Gogh never painted by moonlight with candles attached to his hat. But the creators of the legend always handled facts freely. For example, they declared the ominous painting “Wheat Field”, with a road stretching into the distance covered by a flock of ravens, to be the master’s last painting, predicting his death. But it is well known that after it he wrote a whole series of works where the ill-fated field is depicted as compressed.

The “know-how” of the main author of the Van Gogh myth, Julius Meyer-Graeff, is not just a lie, but a presentation of fictitious events mixed with genuine facts, and even in the form of an impeccable scientific work. For example, the true fact that Van Gogh loved to work in the open air because he could not stand the smell of turpentine used to dilute paints was used by the “biographer” as the basis for a fantastic version of the reason for the master’s suicide. Allegedly, Van Gogh fell in love with the sun, the source of his inspiration, and did not allow himself to cover his head with a hat while standing under its burning rays. All his hair burned off, the sun burned his unprotected skull, he went crazy and committed suicide. Van Gogh's later self-portraits and images of the dead artist taken by his friends show that he did not lose any hair on his head until his death.

"Epiphanies of the Holy Fool"

Van Gogh shot himself on July 27, 1890, after his mental crisis seemed to have been overcome. Shortly before this, he was discharged from the clinic with the conclusion: “Recovered.” The very fact that the owner of the furnished rooms in Auvers, where Van Gogh lived in the last months of his life, entrusted him with a revolver, which the artist needed to scare away crows while working on sketches, suggests that he behaved absolutely normally. Today, doctors agree that suicide did not occur during a seizure, but was the result of a confluence of external circumstances. Theo got married, had a child, and Vincent was depressed by the thought that his brother would only be concerned with his family, and not with their plan to conquer the art world.

After the fatal shot, Van Gogh lived for two more days, was surprisingly calm and steadfastly endured suffering. He died in the arms of his inconsolable brother, who was never able to recover from this loss and died six months later. The Goupil company sold for next to nothing all the works of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists that Theo Van Gogh had accumulated in a gallery in Montmartre, and closed the experiment with “light painting.” Theo's widow Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger took Vincent van Gogh's paintings to Holland. Only at the beginning of the 20th century did the great Dutchman achieve total fame. According to experts, if not for the almost simultaneous early death of both brothers, this would have happened back in the mid-1890s and Van Gogh would have been a very rich man. But fate decreed otherwise. People like Meyer-Graefe began to reap the fruits of the labors of the great painter Vincent and the great gallery owner Theo.

Who did Vincent possess?

The novel about the God-seeker “Vincent” by an enterprising German came in handy in the context of the collapse of ideals after the massacre of the First World War. A martyr to art and a madman, whose mystical creativity appeared under the pen of Meyer-Graefe as something like a new religion, this Van Gogh captured the imagination of both jaded intellectuals and inexperienced ordinary people. The legend pushed into the background not only the biography of the real artist, but also distorted the idea of ​​his paintings. They were seen as some kind of mixture of colors, in which the prophetic “insights” of the holy fool were discerned. Meyer-Graefe turned into the main connoisseur of the “mystical Dutchman” and began not only to trade in Van Gogh’s paintings, but also to issue certificates of authenticity for large sums of money for works that appeared under Van Gogh’s name on the art market.

In the mid-1920s, a certain Otto Wacker came to him, performing erotic dances in Berlin cabarets under the pseudonym Olinto Lovel. He showed several paintings signed "Vincent", painted in the spirit of the legend. Meyer-Graefe was delighted and immediately confirmed their authenticity. In total, Wacker, who opened his own gallery in the fashionable Potsdamerplatz district, put more than 30 Van Goghs on the market until rumors spread that they were fake. Since the amount involved was very large, the police intervened in the matter. At the trial, the dancer-gallery owner told a tale of “provenance”, which he “fed” his gullible clients. He allegedly purchased the paintings from a Russian aristocrat, who bought them at the beginning of the century, and during the revolution managed to take them from Russia to Switzerland. Wacker did not name, claiming that the Bolsheviks, embittered by the loss of the “national treasure,” would destroy the aristocrat’s family remaining in Soviet Russia.

In the battle of experts, which unfolded in April 1932 in the courtroom of the Berlin district of Moabit, Meyer-Graefe and his supporters fought hard for the authenticity of the Wacker Van Goghs. But the police raided the studio of the dancer’s brother and father, who were artists, and found 16 brand-new Van Goghs. Technological examination showed that they are identical to the sold paintings. In addition, chemists found that when creating the “paintings of the Russian aristocrat,” paints were used that appeared only after Van Gogh’s death. Having learned about this, one of the “experts” who supported Meyer-Graefe and Wacker said to the stunned judge: “How do you know that after his death Vincent did not inhabit a congenial body and is not still creating?”

Wacker received three years in prison, and Meyer-Graefe's reputation was destroyed. He soon died, but the legend, despite everything, continues to live to this day. It was on its basis that the American writer Irving Stone wrote his bestseller “Lust for Life” in 1934, and the Hollywood director Vincente Minnelli made a film about Van Gogh in 1956. The role of the artist was played by actor Kirk Douglas. The film earned an Oscar and finally established in the minds of millions of people the image of a half-mad genius who took upon himself all the sins of the world. Then the American period in the canonization of Van Gogh was replaced by the Japanese.

In the Land of the Rising Sun, thanks to legend, the great Dutchman began to be considered something between a Buddhist monk and a samurai who committed hara-kiri. In 1987, Yasuda bought Van Gogh's Sunflowers at an auction in London for $40 million. Three years later, eccentric billionaire Ryoto Saito, who associated himself with the Vincent of legend, paid $82 million at auction in New York for Van Gogh's Portrait of Doctor Gachet. For a whole decade it was the most expensive painting in the world. According to Saito’s will, she was supposed to be burned with him after his death, but the creditors of the Japanese man, who was bankrupt by that time, did not allow this to happen.

While the world was rocked by scandals surrounding the name of Van Gogh, art historians, restorers, archivists and even doctors, step by step, explored the true life and work of the artist. A huge role in this was played by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, created in 1972 on the basis of the collection that was given to Holland by Theo Van Gogh’s son, who bore the name of his great uncle. The museum began checking all Van Gogh's paintings in the world, weeding out several dozen fakes, and did a great job of preparing a scientific publication of the brothers' correspondence.

But, despite the enormous efforts of both the museum staff and such luminaries of Van Gogh studies as the Canadian Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharova or the Dutchman Jan Halsker, the legend of Van Gogh does not die. It lives its own life, giving rise to new films, books and performances about the “mad saint Vincent”, who has nothing in common with the great worker and pioneer of new paths in art, Vincent Van Gogh. This is how a person works: a romantic fairy tale is always more attractive to him than the “prose of life,” no matter how great it may be.

Vincent Van Gogh is a great artist that every person on Earth knows about today. But once upon a time no one knew about him at all: his path to the pinnacle of fame...

From Masterweb

These days, few people do not know about the great artist Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh's biography was destined to be not too long, but eventful and full of hardships, brief ups and desperate downs. Few people know that in his entire life, Vincent managed to sell only one of his paintings for a significant amount, and only after his death did contemporaries recognize the enormous influence of the Dutch post-impressionist on 20th-century painting. Van Gogh's biography can be briefly summarized in the dying words of the great master:

The sadness will never end.

Unfortunately, the life of this amazing and original creator was full of pain and disappointment. But who knows, maybe if it weren’t for all the losses in life, the world would never have seen his amazing works, which people still admire?

Childhood

A brief biography and work of Vincent Van Gogh was restored through the efforts of his brother Theo. Vincent had almost no friends, so everything we now know about the great artist was told by a man who loved him immensely.

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in North Brabant in the village of Grote-Zundert. The firstborn of Theodore and Anna Cornelia Van Gogh died in infancy - Vincent became the eldest child in the family. Four years after Vincent was born, his brother Theodorus was born, with whom Vincent was close until the end of his life. In addition, they also had a brother, Cornelius, and three sisters (Anna, Elizabeth and Willemina).

An interesting fact in Van Gogh’s biography is that he grew up as a difficult and stubborn child with extravagant manners. At the same time, outside the family, Vincent was serious, soft, thoughtful and calm. He did not like to communicate with other children, but his fellow villagers considered him a modest and friendly child.

In 1864 he was sent to a boarding school in Zevenbergen. The artist Van Gogh recalled this part of his biography with pain: his departure caused him a lot of suffering. This place doomed him to loneliness, so Vincent began studying, but already in 1868 he left his studies and returned home. In fact, this is all the formal education that the artist managed to receive.

A brief biography and work of Van Gogh is still carefully preserved in museums and a few testimonies: no one could have imagined that the enfant terrible would become a truly great creator - even if his importance was recognized only after his death.

Work and missionary activity

A year after returning home, Vincent goes to work at the Hague branch of his uncle's art and trading company. In 1873, Vincent was transferred to London. Over time, Vincent learned to appreciate and understand painting. He later moved to 87 Hackford Road, where he rented a room from Ursula Loyer and her daughter Eugenie. Some biographers add that Van Gogh was in love with Eugenie, although the facts suggest that he loved the German Carlina Haanebeek.

In 1874, Vincent was already working in the Paris branch, but he soon returned to London. Things are getting worse for him: a year later he is transferred to Paris again, visits art museums and exhibitions, and finally plucks up the courage to try his hand at painting. Vincent cools down to work, fired up by a new business. All this leads to the fact that in 1876 he was fired from the company for poor work.

Then there comes a moment in the biography of Vincent van Gogh when he returns to London again and teaches at a boarding school in Ramsgate. During the same period of his life, Vincent devoted a lot of time to religion; he developed a desire to become a pastor, following in the footsteps of his father. A little later, Van Gogh moved to another school in Isleworth, where he began working as a teacher and assistant pastor. Vincent preached his first sermon there. His interest in writing grew, and he became inspired to preach to the poor.

At Christmas, Vincent went home, where he was begged not to go back to England. So he stayed in the Netherlands to help in a bookshop in Dordrecht. But this work did not inspire him: he mainly occupied himself with sketches and translations of the Bible.

His parents supported Van Gogh's desire to become a priest, sending him to Amsterdam in 1877. There he settles with his uncle Jan Van Gogh. Vincent studied hard under the supervision of Yoganess Stricker, a famous theologian, preparing for exams for admission to the theology department. But very soon he quits his studies and leaves Amsterdam.

The desire to find his place in the world led him to the Protestant Missionary School of Pastor Bokma in Laeken near Brussels, where he took a course in preaching. There is also an opinion that Vincent did not complete the full course because he was expelled due to his unkempt appearance, hot temper and fits of anger.

In 1878, Vincent became a missionary for six months in the village of Paturage in Borinage. Here he visited the sick, read the Scriptures for those who could not read, taught children, and spent his nights drawing maps of Palestine, earning his living. Van Gogh planned to enroll in an Evangelical school, but he considered paying for tuition discriminatory and abandoned the idea. Soon he was removed from the rank of preacher - this was a painful blow for the future artist, but also an important fact in Van Gogh’s biography. Who knows, perhaps, if not for this high-profile event, Vincent would have become a priest, and the world would never have known the talented artist.

Becoming an artist

Studying the short biography of Vincent Van Gogh, we can conclude: fate seemed to push him all his life in the right direction and led him to painting. Seeking salvation from despondency, Vincent again turns to painting. He turns to his brother Theo for support and in 1880 goes to Brussels, where he attends classes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. A year later, Vincent is forced to leave his studies again and return to his family. It was then that he decided that an artist does not need any talent, the main thing is to work hard and tirelessly. Therefore, he continues painting and drawing on his own.

During this period, Vincent experiences a new love, this time for his cousin, the widow Kay Vos-Stricker, who was visiting the Van Goghs' house. But she did not reciprocate, but Vincent continued to look after her, which caused the indignation of her relatives. Eventually he was told to leave. Van Gogh experiences another shock and abandons attempts to improve his further personal life.

Vincent leaves for The Hague, where he takes lessons from Anton Mauve. Over time, the biography and work of Vincent van Gogh was filled with new colors, including in painting: he experimented with mixing different techniques. Then such works of his as “Backyards” were born, which he created with chalk, pen and brush, as well as the painting “Roofs. View from Van Gogh's studio", painted in watercolor and chalk. The development of his work was greatly influenced by Charles Bargue’s book “A Course in Drawing,” lithographs from which he diligently copied.

Vincent was a man of fine spiritual organization, and, one way or another, was drawn to people and emotional return. Despite his decision to forget about his personal life, in The Hague he still made another attempt to start a family. He met Christine right on the street and was so imbued with her plight that he invited her to live in his house with the children. This act finally broke Vincent’s relationship with all his loved ones, but they maintained a warm relationship with Theo. This is how Vincent got a girlfriend and a model. But Christine turned out to have a nightmare character: Van Gogh’s life turned into a nightmare.

When they parted, the artist went north to the province of Drenthe. He equipped his home as a workshop, and spent whole days outdoors, creating landscapes. But the artist did not call himself a landscape painter, dedicating his paintings to peasants and their everyday life.

Van Gogh's early works are classified as realism, but his technique does not quite fit into this direction. One of the problems that Van Gogh faced in his work was the inability to correctly depict the human figure. But this only played into the hands of the great artist: it became a characteristic feature of his manner: the interpretation of man as an integral part of the surrounding world. This can be clearly seen, for example, in the work “A Peasant and a Peasant Woman Planting Potatoes.” Human figures are like mountains in the distance, and the elevated horizon seems to press on them from above, preventing them from straightening their backs. A similar technique can be seen in his later work “Red Vineyards”.

During this period of his biography, Van Gogh writes a series of works, including:

• "Leaving the Protestant Church in Nuenen";
• "Potato Eaters";
• "Peasant Woman";
• "Old church tower in Nuenen."

The paintings are created in dark shades, which symbolize the author’s painful perception of human suffering and a feeling of general depression. Van Gogh depicted the heavy atmosphere of hopelessness of the peasants and the sad mood of the village. At the same time, Vincent formed his own understanding of landscapes: in his opinion, landscapes express a person’s state of mind through the connection between human psychology and nature.

Parisian period

The artistic life of the French capital is thriving: it was there that the great artists of the time flocked. A landmark event was the exhibition of impressionists on rue Lafitte: for the first time, works by Signac and Seurat, who heralded the beginning of the post-impressionism movement, were shown. It was impressionism that revolutionized art, changing the approach to painting. This movement presented a confrontation with academicism and outdated subjects: at the head of creativity are pure colors and the very impression of what he saw, which are subsequently transferred to the canvas. Post-Impressionism was the final stage of Impressionism.

The Parisian period, lasting from 1986 to 1988, became the most fruitful in the artist’s life; his collection of paintings was replenished with more than 230 drawings and canvases. Vincent Van Gogh forms his own view of art: the realistic approach is becoming a thing of the past, replaced by a desire for post-impressionism.

With his acquaintance with Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet, the colors in his paintings begin to lighten and become brighter and brighter, eventually becoming a real riot of color, characteristic of his last works.

A landmark place was Papa Tanga’s shop, where art materials were sold. Here many artists met and exhibited their works. But Van Gogh’s temper was still irreconcilable: the spirit of competition and tension in society often drove the impulsive artist crazy, so that Vincent soon quarreled with his friends and decided to leave the French capital.

Among the famous works of the Parisian period are the following paintings:

• “Agostina Segatori at the Tambourine Cafe”;
• "Papa Tanguy"
• "Still Life with Absinthe";
• "Bridge over the Seine";
• "View of Paris from Theo's apartment on Rue Lepic."

Provence

Vincent goes to Provence and is imbued with this atmosphere for the rest of his life. Theo supports his brother's decision to become a real artist and sends him money to live on, and he, in gratitude, sends him his paintings in the hope that his brother will be able to sell them profitably. Van Gogh checks into a hotel where he lives and works, periodically inviting random visitors or acquaintances to pose.

With the onset of spring, Vincent goes outside and draws flowering trees and reviving nature. The ideas of impressionism gradually leave his work, but remain in the form of a light palette and pure colors. During this period of his work, Vincent wrote “The Peach Tree in Bloom” and “Anglois Bridge in Arles”.

Van Gogh even worked at night, once inspired by the idea of ​​capturing the special night colors and glow of the stars. It works by candlelight: this is how the famous “Starry Night over the Rhone” and “Night Cafe” were created.

Severed ear

Vincent comes up with the idea of ​​​​creating a common house for the artist, where creators could create their masterpieces while living and working together. An important event is the arrival of Paul Gauguin, with whom Vincent had a long correspondence. Together with Gauguin, Vincent writes works filled with passion:

• "Yellow House";
• "Harvest. La Croe Valley";
• "Gauguin's Chair".

Vincent was overjoyed, but this union ends in a loud quarrel. Passions were heating up, and in one of his desperate moments, Van Gogh, according to some accounts, attacks a friend with a razor in his hands. Gauguin manages to stop Vincent, and he ends up cutting off his earlobe. Gauguin leaves his house, while he wrapped the bloody flesh in a napkin and handed it to a prostitute he knew, Rachelle. His friend Roulin found him in a pool of his own blood. Although the wound soon healed, the deep scar on his heart affected Vincent’s mental health for the rest of his life. Vincent soon finds himself in a psychiatric hospital.

Creativity flourishes

During periods of remission, he asked to return to the studio, but the residents of Arles signed a statement to the mayor asking him to isolate the mentally ill artist from civilians. But the hospital did not forbid him to create: until 1889, Vincent worked on new paintings right there. During this time, he created more than 100 drawings in pencil and watercolor. The canvases of this period are distinguished by tension, bright dynamics and juxtaposition of contrasting colors:

• "Starlight Night";
• "Landscape with Olives";
• "Wheat field with cypress trees."

At the end of the same year, Vincent was invited to participate in the G20 exhibition in Brussels. His works aroused great interest among art connoisseurs, but this could no longer please the artist, and even a laudatory article about the “Red Vineyards in Arles” did not make the exhausted Van Gogh happy.

In 1890, he moved to Opera-sur-Ourz, near Paris, where he saw his family for the first time in a long time. He continued to write, but his style became increasingly gloomy and depressing. A distinctive feature of that period was the curved and hysterical contour, which can be seen in the following works:

• "Street and stairs in Auvers";
• "Rural road with cypress trees";
• "Landscape in Auvers after the rain."

Last years

The last bright memory in the life of the great artist was meeting Dr. Paul Gachet, who also loved to write. Friendship with him supported Vincent during the most difficult periods of his life - besides his brother, the postman Roulin and Doctor Gachet, by the end of his life he had no close friends left.

In 1890, Vincent painted the canvas “Wheat Field with Crows,” and a week later a tragedy occurred.

The circumstances of the artist's death look mysterious. Vincent died from a shot in the heart from his own revolver, which he carried with him to scare away birds. Dying, the artist admitted that he shot himself in the chest, but missed, hitting a little lower. He himself got to the hotel where he lived, and they called a doctor for him. The doctor was skeptical about the version of a suicide attempt - the angle of entry of the bullet was suspiciously low, and the bullet did not go through, which suggests that it was as if they were shooting from afar - or at least from a distance of a couple of meters. The doctor immediately called Theo - he arrived the next day and was with his brother until his death.

There is a version that on the eve of Van Gogh’s death, the artist had a serious quarrel with Dr. Gachet. He accused him of insolvency, while his brother Theo is literally dying from a disease that is eating him up, but still sends him money to live on. These words could have greatly hurt Vincent - after all, he himself felt enormous guilt before his brother. In addition, in recent years, Vincent had feelings for the lady, which again did not lead to reciprocity. Being as depressed as possible, upset by a quarrel with a friend, and having recently left the hospital, Vincent could well have decided to commit suicide.

Vincent died on July 30, 1890. Theo loved his brother endlessly and experienced this loss with great difficulty. He began organizing an exhibition of Vincent's posthumous works, but less than a year later he died of severe nervous shock on January 25, 1891. Years later, Theo's widow reburied his remains next to Vincent: she believed that inseparable brothers should be close to each other at least after death.

Confession

There is a widespread misconception that during his lifetime Van Gogh was able to sell only one of his paintings - “Red Vineyards in Arles”. This work was only the first to be sold for a large sum - about 400 francs. However, there are documents indicating the sale of 14 more paintings.

Vincent Van Gogh received truly wide recognition only after his death. His commemorative exhibitions were organized in Paris, The Hague, Antwerp, and Brussels. Interest in the artist began to grow, and at the beginning of the 20th century, retrospectives began in Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Cologne and Berlin. People began to be interested in his work, and his work began to influence the younger generation of artists.

Gradually, prices for the artist's paintings began to increase until they became one of the most expensive paintings ever sold in the world, along with works by Pablo Picasso. Among his most expensive works:

• "Portrait of Doctor Gachet";
• "Irises";
• “Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin”;
• “Wheat field with cypress trees”;
• “Self-portrait with a cut off ear and a pipe”;
• "A plowed field and a plowman."

Influence

In his last letter to Theo, Vincent wrote that, having no children of his own, the artist perceived the paintings as his continuation. To some extent this was true: he did have children, and the first of them was Expressionism, which later began to have many heirs.

Many artists subsequently adapted the features of Van Gogh’s style to their own work: Howard Hodgkin, Willem de Koening, Jackson Pollock. Fauvism soon came, which expanded the scope of color, and expressionism became widespread.

The biography of Van Gogh and his work gave the expressionists a new language that helped the creators delve deeper into the essence of things and the world around them. Vincent became, in a sense, a pioneer in modern art, trodden a new path in visual art.

It is almost impossible to tell Van Gogh’s biography briefly: his work during his unfortunately short life was influenced by so many different events that to omit at least one of them would be a terrible injustice. Vincent's difficult path in life led him to the pinnacle of fame, but posthumous fame. During his lifetime, the great painter did not know either about his own genius, or about the enormous legacy that he left to the world of art, or about how his family and friends missed him in the future. Vincent spent a lonely and sad life, rejected by everyone. He found salvation in art, but was never able to escape. But, one way or another, he gave the world many amazing works that warm people’s hearts to this day, so many years later.

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