Vincent van Gogh Christmas project 2010 Megan O’Connor

Vincent van Gogh (March 30, 1853 - July 29, 1890)

Vincent Van Gogh is generally considered the greatest Dutch painter after

Rembrandt, though he had little success during his lifetime. Van Gogh produced all of

his work (some 900 paintings and 1100 drawings) during a period of only 10 years

before he succumbed to mental illness (possibly bipolar disorder) and committed

suicide. His fame grew rapidly after his death especially following a showing of 71 of

Van Gogh's paintings in Paris on March 17, 1901 (11 years after his death). 

Van Gogh's influence on expressionism, fauvism and early abstraction was enormous,

and can be seen in many other aspects of 20th-century art. The Van Gogh Museum in

Amsterdam is dedicated to Van Gogh's work and that of his contemporaries. 

Several paintings by Van Gogh rank among the most expensive paintings in the world.

On March 30, 1987 Van Gogh's painting Irises was sold for a record $53.9 million at

Southeby's, New York. On May 15, 1990 his Portrait of Doctor Gachet was sold for

$82.5 million at Christie's, thus establishing a new price record (see also List of most

expensive paintings).

“If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means

paint, and that voice will be silenced.”

~1~
His Life

Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in Zundert in the southern Netherlands to Anna

Cornelia Carbentus and Theodorus Van Gogh, a Protestant minister. He was named

Vincent, after his older brother, who had been born a year prior but died shortly after birth.

Although the name Vincent was reused often in the Van Gogh family, it is often thought

that this name choice and its connection to a deceased sibling, affected Van Gogh’s

emotional state from an early age. His sister described him as a serious and introspective

child.

His brother Theodorus (Theo) was born four years later, then his brother Cor, and three

sisters: Elisabeth, Anna and Wil. Theo would come to be one of Vincent’s dearest life-long

friends, and his support for him was unwavering, emotionally, and financially. So

supportive was Theo of his brother, in fact, that long before Vincent achieved any public

popularity, Theo was certain his brother would become “to art what Beethoven was to

music.

In addition to sharing the name 'Vincent' amongst one another, the Van Gogh’s also

shared similar passions, and most of the family either worked in art or religion; several,

including Theo, were art dealers and one was a successful sculptor, also named Vincent

Van Gogh. Vincent, himself, partook in both family traditions, serving as both an art dealer

and a minister, and of course, later as an artist himself. At the young age of 16 he became

an art dealer at Goupil & Co. in The Hague, and initially thrived at it until an unrequited

love dampened his spirits, as did the ever-growing feeling that art shouldn’t be treated as

merchandise, and he eventually lost his job.

“A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.”

~2~
 He became increasingly passionate about religion and though he first trained for the

ministry, he left school to work as a layman preacher amongst the impoverished miners of

Belgium’s dreary Borinage district. So zealous was he that he gave away all possessions,

and was eventually fired for his extreme literal religious views that caused him to purposely

live in dire poverty. It was then, in 1880, that he would come to find his greatest passion,

his true life’s calling: art. He left Belgium and went to The Hague where he began painting

images that moved him emotionally. He felt that he could truly serve humanity through his

art, consoling people through his work and in the case of paintings like the Potato Eaters,

representing poverty and the workers in his art. He utterly immersed himself in his work.

Because Theo, his brother and only family member who really cared that much for

Vincent, was delighted that Van Gogh was trying to find himself, Theo decided to send

Vincent one hundred francs every month as an allowance. Van Gogh needed the money

since he was a very poor man. When Vincent went to visit his parents he met his cousin,

Kay. She was a widow with a four-year-old child. Kay was several years older than Van

Gogh was. Van Gogh, who thought he was in love with her, declared his feelings for Kay. It

only turned her off, she never wanted to hear from or see him again and so she left. This

made Van Gogh feel even more abandoned and alone. The rest of Vincent’s family

completely turned against him after that, also. Theo was the only one who still cared for

him.

Once again, Vincent fell in love. This time he was not rejected. His new love was a

prostitute with a child and pregnant with another but Christina, also known as Sein, was

ill. Van Gogh, thirty-years-old at the time, proposed to marry her. At first they were happy

with each other. They had nothing in common except a background of misery. Arguments

began and Christina slipped away from Van Gogh. After two years with Sein, Vincent was

alone once again.

“Love always brings difficulties, that is true, but the good side of it

is that it gives energy.”

~3~
 He met another woman. She seemed to care for him, though her family on the other

hand, did not like Vincent. Once again, he was shut out and he felt he had nothing to offer.

Because of this, Theo allowed Van Gogh to join him in Paris where he was living.

There he discovered the world of art and a whole new type of art. Encouraged by

Theo, Van Gogh pursued his art, and swayed by the celebrated Dutch artist Willem Roelofs,

despite his distaste for academic teaching, he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Art, where

he studied anatomy, modelling, and perspective. Later in 1886 he attended the Ecole des

Beaux-Arts in Antwerp, and studied painting and drawing. These two periods would serve

as his only formal training; he was otherwise primarily self-taught.

He learned all about colors from the different painters, including Paul Gauguin, who

became a close friend of Vincent’s. After staying in Paris about a year, Vincent decided it

would be best to leave. He was not getting along very well with Theo and he thought he was

not successful because Theo, who was an art dealer at that time, could not sell any of his

art work. People would not even consider his artwork.

Van Gogh then moved out of Paris and bought the "Yellow House" in Arles as a

Home of his own for painting. Theo still continued his frequent correspondence and

monthly allowance of one hundred francs. Vincent did not like it living in the house all by

himself. He was beginning to get very lonely. Vincent wrote Theo a letter asking him to

convince his old painter friend, he met in Paris, Paul Gauguin, to join him in Arles. He had

hoped to keep each other company while painting. Gauguin agreed to the idea.

“If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all

means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”

~4~
 On 23 December 1888, Vincent and Paul had such an argument that Gauguin

decided to leave for the night. Frustrated and ill, Van Gogh followed and confronted

Gauguin with a razor blade. In panic, Van Gogh left their quarters and fled to a local

brothel. While there, he cut off the lower part of his left ear lobe. He wrapped the severed

tissue in newspaper and handed it to a prostitute named Rachel, asking her to "keep this

object carefully." Gauguin left Arles and never saw Van Gogh again.  Days later, Van Gogh

was hospitalized and left in a critical state for several days. This was the beginning of

Vincent Van Gogh’s mental illness.

Van Gogh’s most famous works include: Starry Night, Cafe Terrace at

Night, Terrasse, Houses at Auvers, Restaurant De La Sirene at Asnieres, Sunflowers, Irises,

and several self-portraits, amongst others. Most of his best-known work was created in the

last two years of his life, and in the two months before his death, he created 90 paintings!

Van Gogh’s later paintings began to receive recognition and acclaim, and yet

ironically, this public recognition sent him into a greater depression. So deep was his

anguish that at the age of 37, he shot himself in the field where he so often painted, and

died a few days later on July 27th, 1890.

“When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion.

Then I go out and paint the stars.”

~5~
A Tortured Artist

Ironically, the mental illness that plagued his existence and rendered vast tragedy throughout his

life would serve him in his art, propelling him to convey his anguish and despair on canvas. Though

scholars argue that Van Gogh only created artwork while in his lucid states, unable to create during

his most disturbed periods, modern theories most often point to bipolar disorder, schizophrenia,

and temporal lobe epilepsy as potential conditions (in addition to potential lead poisoning from his

own paints or poisoning from absinthe, his preferred drink), and their marked connection to his

works. His paintings, ever-increasingly filled with striking colours, coarse brush strokes, and often

distorted shapes and contours, express his mental state, his raw emotion, and his often troubled

mind, particularly coupled with his hyper-creativity.

The colouring and ‘halo effect’ often presented in his paintings also indicate to modern scholars

various potential conditions he may have suffered from, including retinal illness, and even

hallucinations. He suffered from depression and in 1889 on his own request Van Gogh was admitted

to the psychiatric center at Monastery Saint-Paul de Mausole in Saint Remy de Provence, Bouches-

du-Rh, France. During his stay here the clinic and its garden became his main subject. In May 1890

Vincent van Gogh left the clinic and went to the physician Paul Gachet, in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris,

where he was closer to his brother Theo, who had recently married. Gachet had been recommended

to him by Pissarro; he had treated several artists before. Here Van Gogh created his only etching: a

portrait of the melancholic doctor Gachet. His depression aggravated. Combined with overwork,

malnourishment thanks to poor eating habits and poverty, and his excessive use of tobacco, coffee,

and alcohol -- his mental health got progressively worse, rather than better.

“I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in

the process.”

~6~
 Nevertheless, despite his personal struggles, Van Gogh created a body of work so vast that he is

still considered not only one of the Netherlands two greatest painters, alongside Rembrandt, but

one of the world’s greatest artists. 

On July 27 of the same year, at the age of 37, after a fit of painting activity, van Gogh shot

himself in the chest. He died two days later, with Theo at his side, who reported his last words as "La

tristesse durera toujours" (French: "The sadness will last forever"). He was buried at the cemetery of

Auvers-sur-Oise; Theo unable to come to terms with his brother's death died 6 months later and was

buried next to him. It would not take long before his fame grew higher and higher. Large exhibitions

were organized soon: Paris 1901, Amsterdam 1905, Cologne 1912, New York 1913 and Berlin 1914.

Vincent van Gogh's mother threw away quite a number of his paintings during Vincent's life and

even after his death.  But she would live long enough to see her son become a world famous painter.

“I wish they would only take me as I am.”

~7~
His Letters to Theo

 The most comprehensive primary source for the understanding of Van Gogh as an artist is the

collection of letters which were passed between him and his younger brother, the art dealer Theo

van Gogh. They lay the foundation for most of what is known about the thoughts and beliefs of

the artist. Theo continually provided his brother with both financial and emotional support.

Their lifelong friendship, and most of what is known of Van Gogh's thoughts and theories of art,

is recorded in the hundreds of letters they exchanged from August 1872 until 1890. Most were

written by Vincent to Theo beginning in the summer of 1872. More than 600 letters from Vincent to

Theo and 40 from Theo to Vincent survive today and although many are undated, art historians have

been able to largely arrange the correspondences chronologically. The following are some excerpts

from these letters.

“I’m sure you will like it there, it’s such a fine firm. It will be quite a
change for you. I am so glad that both of us are now to be in the same
profession and in the same firm. We must be sure to write to each
other regularly.”
- The Hague, 13 December 1872

“I used to pass Westminster Bridge every morning and every evening,

and I know how it looks when the sun sets behind Westminster Abbey
and the House of Parliament, and how it looks early in the morning,
and in winter in snow and fog.”
- Paris, 24 July 1875

“I find it hard to bear this thought and even harder to bear the thought
that so much dissention, misery and sorrow between us, and in our
home, may have been caused by me. Should that indeed be the case,
then I might wish it were granted me not to have much longer to live.”
- Cuesmes, Mid-August, 1879

~8~
“But the reason why I am sending [The Potato Eaters] with a certain
confidence is that, in contrast to many other pictures, there is rusticity
and a certain life in it.”
-Nuenen, 4 or 5 May, 1885

“But I prefer painting people's eyes to cathedrals, for there is

something in the eyes that is not in the cathedral, however solemn and
imposing the latter may be – a human soul, be it that of a poor beggar
or of a streetwalker, is more interesting to me.”
-Antwerp, c. 19 December 1885

“It is a pity that, as one gradually gains experience, one gradually

loses one's youth. If that were not so, life would be too good.”
-Antwerp, 14 February 1886

“But through it doesn't matter in the least this time, in the future my
name ought to be put in the catalogue as I sign it on the canvas,
namely Vincent and not Van Gogh, for the simple reason that they do
not know how to pronounce the latter name here.”
-Arles, 24 March 1888

“I am hard at it, painting with the enthusiasm of a Marseillais eating

bouillabaisse, which won't surprise you when you know that what I'm
at is the painting of some big sunflowers.”
-Arles, c. 21 August 1888

“Most epileptics bite their tongue and injure themselves. Rey told me
that he had seen a case where someone had mutilated his own ear, just
as I did, and I think I heard a doctor from here, who came to see me
with the director, say that he too had seen it before.
But the question of money, whatever one does, is always with
us, like the enemy facing the troops, and cannot be denied or
ignored.”
-Saint Rémy, 22 May 1889

“I no longer see any possibility of having courage or hope.”

-Saint Rémy, 22 August 1889

~9~
“Ah well, I risk my life for my own work and my reason has half
foundered in it – very well.” 
- Auvers-sur-Oise, 23 July 1890 (Vincent’s last letter, unsent.)

His Art and Influence.

Vincent van Gogh lived more than 115 years ago, and yet his artwork is still altering the

way mankind views beauty, persona, individuality, and style in art. His thousands of

paintings and drawings have various characteristics that have been copied by thousands

and duplicated by none. Van Gogh's unique life has inspired millions to become active in

art. In fact, what many people today consider to be the archetypical "artist persona" is

largely a result of his influence. Perhaps the most impressive aspect is that artists continue

to mimic the style that Van Gogh created over one hundred years ago.

The impressionists and post impressionists of Vincent's time influenced him greatly

after he moved to Paris in 1886. The bright new palette took over Gogh's previous dark

muted color scheme. Van Gogh's use of this new impressionist and post impressionist style

altered not only his work, but also all of art history. 

Post Impressionist artists are artists who were influenced by impressionism but rejected

its constraints and embarked on their own artistic styles which were more emotionally

based than impressionist work. They wanted to portray emotion and intellect as well as the

visual imagery. Vincent Van Gogh was one of the most famous post impressionist artists.

In 1854, when Japan re-opened trade with the west Japanese arts including fans,

porcelains, woodcuts, and screens were introduced in huge numbers to Europe, mainly

France and the Netherlands. During the 1860s ukiyo-e, Japanese woodblock prints,

became very popular and were a source of inspiration to many impressionist and post

impressionist artists in the west including Monet, Degas, Gauguin and Van Gogh. Japanese

art, especially Japanese woodcuts, became a great influence on Van Gogh. When Van Gogh

moved to Paris in 1886 he was introduced to impressionism and also explored Japonism.

~ 10 ~
Van Gogh admired the bold designs, intense colors, and flat areas of pure color and he also

appreciated the elegant and simple lines.

“Paintings have a life of their own that derives from the painter's soul.”

Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.

My favourite paintings of Van Gogh’s would have to be his series of

sunflowers. All the paintings are very similar in many aspects, but each

stands out as its own unique work of art. He started painting sunflowers

after he left Holland for France in hope of creating an artistic community.

The first sunflowers were created to decorate his friend Paul

Gauguin's bedroom. The majority of Van Gogh's sunflowers in vases were

created in Arles, France during 1888-1889. Van Gogh did create some

sunflower paintings before to this time though in Paris, France around the

time of 1887. This series consists of sunflower clippings verses sunflowers in

vases. Although many people have painted copies of the originals, none have

~ 11 ~
reached the intensity of Van Gogh’s.

~ 12 ~
Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night is one of the emblematic paintings of modern art.

Self Portrait, 1887.

~ 13 ~
Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night over the Rhône is oil on canvas that is housed in
the Musée d'Orsay in Paris

Vincent Van Gogh, 'Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear', (1889).

~ 14 ~
 ’The Potato Eaters’
(1885). The apparent mistakes in proportion and technique
were unimportant to van Gogh. What he wanted to convey
was simple people eating a meal they had honestly earned.

The Yellow Chair. (1888)

This work was painted while Van Gogh was working in the
company of Gauguin at Arles. 

~ 15 ~
Bedroom in Arles (1888)
 

~ 16 ~