Vincent van gogh's latest paintings. The most beautiful paintings by van gogh

15.06.2019

He has written over 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 titles and descriptions.

Starry Night (1889)

Looking at the painting "Starry Night", you immediately recognize Van Gogh in it. The artist worked on it in San Remy (city hospital), using a regular canvas of 920x730 mm.

To "understand" a picture, you need to look at it from afar, this is due to the specific style of writing. An unusual technique made it possible to depict the static moon and stars as if they were constantly moving.

The canvas is surprising in that all objects on it are conveyed either by color or by the nature of the stroke. Not in lines - in long or short strokes. And only for the image of the village, the contours were used. 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 let Vincent write for his recovery. And it helped.

It was this picture that Vag Gog wrote from memory, which is not at all typical for him. He loved nature.

Of the plants, Van Gogh loved sunflowers most of all. I wrote them 11 times in several episodes. The most famous canvases 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 writes with great zeal, and, of course, writes large sunflowers. I had to work from the very 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 written a year before the death of Van Gogh and was called by him "a lightning rod for my illness."

For 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 canvases "from the hospital" that are world famous. "Vincent's Bedroom in Arles" is one of them created in Saint-Remy. This is not the original painting. The first work was damaged and then Theo advised his brother Vincent to copy the canvas before trying to restore the original.

Two versions of The Bedroom were made, one of which was a gift for mother and sister.

Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe (1889)

Sometimes the self-portrait is called "with the ear and pipe cut off." The canvas is written in Arles.

How exactly Van Gogh lost his earlobe is unknown. The background lies in the quarrel between Van Gogh and Gauguin amid creative differences. Either the ear was injured in a fight during a booze, or in a crazy fit, Van Gogh did it himself. He is 35.

Vincent's House at Arles (The Yellow House) (1888)

Van Gogh could not afford comfortable housing. Therefore, he rented a room in a yellow house. The building was located in the central square of the city and was very dilapidated. The Sunflowers were created here and the “southern workshop” was planned here - 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 its time? The painting "Red Vineyards in Arles" is known for being the only work that was sold during the artist's lifetime.

The Potato Eaters (1885)

Vincent Van Gogh loved this picture, and he himself highly appreciated it, sincerely calling it his masterpiece.

Yes, this is not "Starry Night" and not "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 survive the loss of his father. This should have been reflected in the paintings and the zeal of the master.

The peasants are partly like potatoes themselves. Deliberately distorted to emphasize their provinciality and uncouthness. World art critics agree that while Van Gogh lacks experience and skill. And even during the artist's lifetime, the work was critically assessed by his friend Anton van Rappard, who called "The Eaters" a frivolous and careless canvas.

4 canvas options. The first on the left is a drawing. The bottom right is the finished version.

Let this be one of the works of the novice Van Gogh, but you will not find so much invested young soul in any of his future works.

Van Gogh was surprised that Dr. Gachet, with so much knowledge in his field, himself suffered from melancholy and could not cope with what he saved others from.

Dr. Felix Rey assisted Van Gogh while he was in Arles Hospital. It is believed that the portrait was painted in gratitude for the treatment and support.

Contemporaries confirmed that the portrait turned out to be very similar, but Felix Rey himself did not have a special love either for art or for his portrait by Van Gogh - the canvas hung in his chicken coop for 20 years, covering a hole in the wall.

Like sunflowers with irises, Van Gogh's boots are presented in a series. It is believed that the artist decided in this way to continue the idea of reflecting the life of ordinary provincial peasants, those very 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 just worn-out 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 who we know as Vincent Van Gogh. The works of the great artist are paintings with a worldwide reputation. Do you have his favorite painting?

(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 in 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 finally lost interest in the painting trade and decided to follow in the footsteps of his father. In the UK, he found work as a teacher at a boarding school in a small town in the suburbs of London, where he also acted as assistant pastor. On October 29, 1876, he gave his first sermon. In 1877 he moved to Amsterdam, where he studied theology at the university.

Van Gogh "Poppies"

In 1879, Van Gogh was promoted to a secular preacher at Wama, a mining center in Borinage, southern Belgium. Then he continued his preaching mission in the nearby village of Kem.

During the same period, Van Gogh had 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 nature, he soon dropped out of the course and continued his art education on his own, using reproductions.

In 1881 in Holland, under the guidance of his relative, landscape painter Anton Mauve, 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 the Potatoes" (1883), the main motive of the artist's canvases was the theme of ordinary people and their labor, 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 masterpiece of this period is considered the canvas "The Potato Eaters" (April-May 1885).

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 live with his younger brother Theo, who by then had taken over as lead 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.

In Paris, Van Gogh developed an interest in creating images of human faces. Having no funds to pay for the work of models, he turned to self-portrait, having created about 20 paintings in this genre in two years.

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

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 deteriorated. During one of the uncontrolled outbursts of aggression, he threatened Paul Gauguin, who had come to him for the plein air, with an open razor, and then cut off a piece of his earlobe, sending it as a gift to one of the women he knew. After this incident, Van Gogh was first admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Arles, and then voluntarily went for treatment at the specialized clinic of St. Paul of the Mausoleum near Saint-Remy-de-Provence. The head physician of the hospital, Theophile Peyron, diagnosed his patient with acute manic disorder. However, the artist was given a certain freedom: he could paint outdoors under the supervision of the staff.

In Saint-Remy, Vincent alternated periods of intense activity and long breaks caused by major depression. In just a year at the clinic, Van Gogh painted about 150 paintings. Some of the most outstanding canvases of this period were: "Starry Night", "Irises", "Road with Cypresses and a Star", "Olives, 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 des Indépendants, an exhibition of contemporary art organized by the Society of Independent Artists in Paris.

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

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

Vincent was actively involved in painting, almost every day he finished a painting. During this period, he painted several outstanding portraits of Dr. Gachet and 13-year-old Adeline Ravu, daughter of the owner of the hotel where he settled.

On July 27, 1890, Van Gogh left the house at the usual time and went to paint. Upon his return, after persistent questioning by the Ravu couple, he 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 Auvers cemetery.

American biographers of the artist Stephen Nayfeh and Gregory White Smith in their study "Van Gogh: The Life" of Vincent's death, in which he died not from his own bullet, but from an accidental shot committed by two drunken young men.

During his ten-year creative activity, Van Gogh managed to write 864 paintings and almost 1200 drawings and prints. 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 on the basis of information from open sources

Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch.Vincent Willem van Gogh; March 30, 1853, Grotto-Zundert, near Breda, Netherlands - July 29, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France) - Dutch post-impressionist painter.

Biography of Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent van gogh was born in the Dutch city of Groot-Zundert on March 30, 1853. Van Gogh was the first child in the family (not counting his brother who was born dead). Father's name was Theodore Wang Gog, mother - Carnelia. They had a large family: 2 sons and three daughters. In the family of Van Gogh, all men, one way or another, dealt with paintings, or served the church. By 1869, without even finishing school, he began to work in a company that sold paintings. In truth, Van Gogh did not manage to sell paintings well, but he had an endless love of painting, and he was also given good languages. In 1873, at the age of 20, he came to London, where he spent 2 years that changed his whole life.

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

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

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

Vincent Wang Gogh After spending 3 months in an evangelistic school, which was in Brussels, he became a preacher. He distributed money and clothing to the needy poor, although he himself was not sufficiently wealthy. This aroused suspicion among the church authorities, and his activities were banned. He did not lose heart, and found solace in drawing.

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

It seemed that life began to improve, but again Van Gogh began to be haunted by failures, moreover love ones.

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

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

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

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

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

Van Gogh's work

Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) is considered a great Dutch painter who had a very strong influence on Impressionism in art. His works, created in a ten-year period, amaze with their color, carelessness and roughness of the brushstroke, images of a mentally ill person tormented by suffering, who committed suicide.

Van Gogh became one of the greatest post-impressionist painters.

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

In 1886 he moved to Paris, entered the studio of F. Cormon, where he met A. Toulouse-Lautrec and E. Bernard. Under the impression of Impressionist painting and Japanese engraving, the artist's manner changed: an intense color scheme and a wide energetic stroke characteristic of the late Wang G. appeared (Boulevard Clichy, Portrait of Tanguy's father).

In 1888 he moved to the south of Frania, to the town of Arles. This was the most fruitful period of the artist's work. During his life, Van G. created more than 800 paintings and 700 drawings in various genres, but his talent manifested itself most clearly in the landscape: it was in him that his choleric explosive temperament found a way out. In the mobile, nervous pictorial texture of his paintings, the artist's state of mind was reflected: he suffered from a mental illness, which eventually led him to commit suicide.

Features of creativity

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

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

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

Van Gogh's bright colors

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

The dominant feature of the impressionistic system is color. In the pictorial system, in the manner of Van Gogh, everything is equal and crumpled into one inimitable bright ensemble: rhythm, color, texture, line, form.

At first glance, there is some stretch in this. Are “red vineyards” pushed around with an unheard-of color intensity, is not the ringing chord of blue cobalt in “Sea at Saint-Marie” active, aren’t the colors of “Landscape at Auvers after the rain” dazzlingly clear and sonorous, next to which, any impressionistic picture looks hopelessly faded?

Exaggeratedly bright, these colors have the ability to sound in any intonation throughout the entire emotional range - from burning pain to the most delicate shades of joy. The sounding colors are sometimes intertwined in a softly and subtly harmonized melody, then they rise in dissonance that is cutting the ear. Just as in music there is a minor and a major scale, so the colors of the Vangogov palette are divided in two. For Van Gogh, cold and warm is like life and death. At the head of the opposing camps - yellow and blue, both colors - are deeply symbolic. However, this “symbolism” has the same living flesh as Vangogov's ideal of the beautiful.

Van Gogh saw a certain bright beginning in the yellow paint from gentle lemon to intense orange. The color of the sun and ripe bread in his understanding was the color of joy, solar warmth, human kindness, benevolence, love and happiness - everything that in his mind was included in the concept of “life”. The opposite blue in meaning, from blue to almost black-lead, is the color of sadness, infinity, longing, despair, mental anguish, fatal inevitability and, ultimately, death. Van Gogh's later paintings are the arena of the collision of these two colors. They are like a struggle between good and evil, daylight and night gloom, hope and despair. The emotional and psychological possibilities of color are the subject of constant reflections of Van Gogh: “I hope to make a discovery in this area, for example, to express the feelings of two lovers by combining two complementary colors, mixing and contrasting them, with a mysterious vibration of related tones. Or to express a thought that has arisen in the brain with a radiance of a light tone against a dark background ... ”.

Talking about Van Gogh, Tugendhold remarked: "... the notes of his experiences are the graphic rhythms of things and the reciprocal heartbeats." The concept of rest is unknown to Vangogov art. His element is movement.

In the eyes of Van Gogh, it is the same life, which means the ability to think, feel, empathize. Look at the painting of the "red vineyards". The strokes thrown onto the canvas by a swift hand run, rush, collide, scatter again. Similar to dashes, periods, blots, commas, they are a transcript of the Vangogov vision. From their cascades and whirlpools, simplified and expressive forms are born. They are a line drawn into a drawing. Their relief - now barely outlined, now piled up in massive clots - like plowed earth, forms a delightful, picturesque texture. And from all this a huge image emerges: in the red-hot heat of the sun, like sinners on fire, vines twist, trying to break away from the thick purple earth, to escape from the hands of winegrowers, and now the peaceful vanity of harvesting looks like a fight between man and nature.

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

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

Van Gogh's heritage and innovation

Van Gogh's heredity

[Mother's sister] “... Seizures of epilepsy, which testifies to a severe nervous inheritance, affecting Anna Cornelia herself. Naturally gentle and loving, she is prone to unexpected outbursts of anger. "
[Brother Theo] "... died six months after Vincent's suicide in a mental hospital in Utrecht, at 33 years of age."
"None of Van Gogh's brothers and sisters had epilepsy, while it is absolutely certain that the younger sister suffered from schizophrenia and spent 32 years in a psychiatric hospital."

Human soul ... not cathedrals

Let's turn to Van Gogh:

“I prefer to paint the eyes of people, not cathedrals ... the human soul, even the soul of an unfortunate beggar or a street girl, is, in my opinion, much more interesting.”

"Those who write peasant life will stand the test of time better than the makers of cardinal techniques and harems written in Paris." "I will remain myself, and even in raw works I will say strict, rough, but truthful things." "The worker against the bourgeois - this is not as well founded as a hundred years ago the third estate against the other two."

Could a person who, in these and in a thousand similar statements, so explained the meaning of life and art, count on success with “the mighty of this world? ”. The bourgeois environment plucked out Van Gogh.

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

"Art is a struggle ... it's better to do nothing than to express yourself weakly." "We have to work like a few blacks." Even his half-starved existence is turned into a stimulus for creativity: "In the severe tests of poverty, you learn to look at things with completely different eyes."

The bourgeois public does not forgive innovation, and Van Gogh was an innovator in the most direct and true sense of the word. His reading of the sublime and beautiful went through understanding the inner essence of objects and phenomena: from insignificant as torn shoes to crushing cosmic hurricanes. The ability to present these seemingly incomparable values on an equally huge artistic scale put Van Gogh not only outside the official aesthetic concept of artists of the academic direction, but also forced him to go beyond the framework of impressionist painting.

Quotes by Vincent Van Gogh

(from letters to brother Theo)

There is nothing more artistic than loving people.
When something in you says: "You are not an artist," immediately begin to write, my boy, - only in this way will you force this inner voice to silence. The one who, having heard him, runs to his friends and complains about his misfortune, loses part of his courage, part of the best that is in him.
And do not take your shortcomings too close to heart, for the one who does not have them still suffers from one thing - the absence of shortcomings; but he who thinks he has attained perfect wisdom will do well if he becomes foolish again.
A man carries a bright flame in his soul, but no one wants to bask in his presence; passers-by notice only the smoke leaving through the chimney and go their own way.
Reading books, as well as looking at pictures, one cannot hesitate or hesitate: one must be confident in oneself and find beautiful what is beautiful.
What is drawing? How is it possessed? It is the ability to break through the iron wall that stands between what you feel and what you can do. How can you get through such a wall? In my opinion, banging your head against it is useless, you need to slowly and patiently dig in and grind it.
Blessed is he who has found his own business.
I prefer not to say anything at all, than to express myself indistinctly.
I admit, I also need beauty and sublimity, but even more something else, for example: kindness, responsiveness, tenderness.
You are a realist yourself, so bear with my realism.
A person only needs to invariably love what is worthy of love, and not waste his feeling on things that are insignificant, unworthy and insignificant.
It is impossible for melancholy to stagnate in our souls, like water in a swamp.
When I see the weak being trampled on, I begin to doubt the value of what is called progress and civilization.

Bibliography

Van Gogh Letters. Per. with goll. - L.-M., 1966.
Rewald J. Post-Impressionism. Per. from English T. 1. - L.-M, 1962.
Perrusho A. The Life of Van Gogh. Per. from French - M., 1973.
Murina Elena Van Gogh. - M .: Art, 1978 .-- 440 p. - 30,000 copies.
Dmitrieva N.A. Vincent Van Gogh. Man and artist. - M., 1980.
Stone I. Lust for Life (book). The Story of Vincent Van Gogh. Per. from English - M., Pravda, 1988.
Constantino PorcuVan Gogh. Zijn leven en de kunst. (from the series Kunstklassiekers) The Netherlands, 2004.
Wolf Stadler Vincent van Gogh. (from the De Grote Meesters series) Amsterdam Boek, 1974.
Frank Kools Vincent van Gogh en zijn geboorteplaats: als een boer van Zundert. De Walburg Pers, 1990.
G. Kozlov, "The Legend of Van Gogh", "Around the World", No. 7, 2007.
Van Gogh V. Letters to Friends / Per. with fr. P. Melkova. - SPb .: Azbuka, Azbuka-Atticus, 2012 .-- 224 p. - Series "Alphabet-Classics" - 5,000 copies, ISBN 978-5-389-03122-7
Gordeeva M., Perova D. Vincent Van Gogh / In the book: Great Artists - T.18 - Kiev, JSC "Komsomolskaya Pravda - Ukraine", 2010. - 48 p.

Nowadays, 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, short ups and desperate falls. Few know that in his entire life Vincent managed to sell only one of his paintings for a substantial amount, and only after his death did his contemporaries recognize the enormous influence of the Dutch post-impressionist on painting of the 20th century. Van Gogh's biography can be summarized in the great master's dying words:

The sadness will never end.

Unfortunately, the life of an amazing and original creator was full of pain and disappointment. But who knows, maybe if not 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 were restored through the efforts of his brother Theo. Vincent had almost no friends, so everything that we now know about the great artist is 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 Groth-Zundert. The firstborn of Theodore and Anna Cornelia Van Gogh died in infancy - Vincent became the oldest child in the family. Four years after the birth of Vincent, 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 the biography of Van Gogh is that he grew up as a difficult and stubborn child with extravagant manners. At the same time, outside the family, Vincent was serious, gentle, thoughtful and calm. He did not like to communicate with other children, but 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 segment of his biography with pain: the departure caused him a lot of suffering. This place doomed him to loneliness, so Vincent took up his studies, but in 1868 he left his studies and returned home. In fact, this is all the formal education that the artist managed to get.

A brief biography and work of Van Gogh is still carefully preserved in museums and a few testimonies: no one could have thought that an obnoxious child would become a truly great creator - even if his significance was recognized only after his death.

Work and missionary work

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 rents a room from Ursula Loyer and her daughter Eugenie. Some biographers add that Van Gogh was in love with Eugene, although facts suggest that he loved the German woman Karlina Haanebik.

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

Then in the biography of Vincent Van Gogh there comes a moment when he again returns to London and teaches at a boarding school in Ramsgate. In the same life period, Vincent devoted a lot of time to religion, he has 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 to work as a teacher and assistant pastor. In the same place, Vincent read his first sermon. Interest in scripture grew and he was inspired by the idea of preaching to the poor.

At Christmas, Vincent went home, where he was begged not to travel back to England. So he stayed in the Netherlands to help in a bookstore 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 settled with his uncle Jan Van Gogh. Vincent studied hard under the supervision of Johannes Stricker, the renowned theologian, preparing for the 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 sermon course. There is also an opinion that Vincent did not complete the full course, because he was kicked out due to his unkempt appearance, quick temper and fits of anger.

In 1878, Vincent became a missionary for six months in the village of Patyurazh in Borinage. Here he visited the sick, read the Scriptures for those who could not read, taught children, and at night he was engaged in drawing maps of Palestine, earning a living. Van Gogh planned to enter the Evangelical school, but he considered the payment of education discrimination and abandoned this 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 the biography of Van Gogh. 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 as 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 drawing. Seeking salvation from despondency, Vincent again turns to painting. He turned to his brother Theo for support and in 1880 went to Brussels, where he attended classes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. A year later, Vincent is forced to leave school again and return to his family. It was then that he decided that the artist did not need any talent, the main thing was to work hard. Therefore, he continues painting and drawing on his own.

During this period, Vincent experiences a new love, this time turned to his cousin, the widow Kei Vos-Stricker, who was staying at the Van Gogh house. But she did not reciprocate, but Vincent continued to look after her, which caused the indignation of his relatives. In the end, he was told to leave. Van Gogh is experiencing another shock and abandons attempts to establish a 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 his works were born, such as Backyards, which he created with chalk, pen and brush, as well as the painting Roofs. View from Van Gogh's Studio ”, painted with watercolors and chalk. A great influence on the formation of his work was influenced by Charles Bargh's book "A Course in Drawing", lithographs from which he diligently copied.

Vincent was a man of fine mental organization, and, in one way or another, he was drawn to people and emotional return. Despite his decision to forget about his personal life, in The Hague, he nevertheless made another attempt to create a family. He met Christine right on the street and was imbued with her difficult situation so much that he invited her to live in his house with the children. This act finally broke off Vincent's relationship with all his loved ones, but they maintained a warm relationship with Theo. So Vincent got a girlfriend and a model. But Christine turned out to be a nightmare: Van Gogh's life turned into a nightmare.

When they parted, the artist went north to the province of Drenthe. He equipped the dwelling for a workshop, and spent whole days in the air, creating landscapes. But the artist himself did not call himself a landscape painter, devoting his paintings to the peasants and their daily life.

Van Gogh's early works are classified as realism, but his technique does not quite fit in this direction. One of the problems that Van Gogh faced in his work is the inability to correctly portray a human figure. But this only played into the hands of the great artist: it became a characteristic feature of his style: the interpretation of a person as an integral part of the world around him. This is clearly seen, for example, in the work "Peasant and 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.

In this segment of his biography, Van Gogh writes a series of works, including:

“Leaving the Protestant Church in Nuenen”;
Potato Eaters;
"Peasant";
"The old church tower in Nuenen".

The paintings are created in dark shades, which symbolize the painful perception by the author of human suffering and a feeling of general depression. Van Gogh portrayed 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, through the landscape the state of mind of a person is expressed through the connection between human psychology and nature.

Paris period

The artistic life of the French capital is flourishing: it was there that the great artists of the time flocked. A landmark event was the exhibition of the Impressionists on the rue Lafite: for the first time, the works of Signac and Seurat are shown, who proclaimed the beginning of the post-impressionism movement. It was impressionism that revolutionized art, changing the approach to painting. This trend presented confrontation with academism and outdated plots: pure colors and the very impression of what they saw are at the head of creativity, which are subsequently transferred to the canvas. Post-Impressionism was the final stage of Impressionism.

The Paris period, which lasted from 1986 to 1988, became the most fruitful in the artist's life; more than 230 drawings and canvases were added to his collection of paintings. Vincent Van Gogh forms his own view of art: the realistic approach is becoming a thing of the past, being replaced by the desire for post-impressionism.

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

Papa Tanguy's shop, where art materials were sold, became an iconic place. Here many artists met and exhibited their works. But Van Gogh's temper was still irreconcilable: the spirit of rivalry and tension in society often pissed off the impulsive artist, so Vincent soon quarreled with 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 for a living, and he sends him his paintings in gratitude in the hope that his brother will be able to sell them profitably. Van Gogh settles in a hotel, where he lives and creates, periodically inviting casual visitors or acquaintances to pose.

With the onset of spring, Vincent gets out into the street and draws flowering trees and nature that comes to life. The ideas of impressionism are gradually leaving 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", "Anglois Bridge at Arles".

Van Gogh worked even at night, once imbued with the idea of capturing the special night shades and glow of the stars. He works by candlelight: this is how the famous Starry Night over the Rhone and Night Cafe were created.

Severed ear

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

"Yellow House";
"Harvest. Valley of La Cro ";
"Armchair of Gauguin".

Vincent was overjoyed, but this union ends in a loud quarrel. Passions all ran high, and in one of his desperate turbidity, Van Gogh, according to some testimonies, attacks a friend with a razor in his hands. Gauguin manages to stop Vincent, and in the end he cuts off his earlobe. Gauguin leaves his house, while he wrapped the bloody flesh in a napkin and handed it to a familiar prostitute named Rachelle. Rulen's friend found him in a pool of his own blood. Although the wound soon healed, the deep mark on his heart shattered Vincent's mental health for life. Soon Vincent ends up in a psychiatric hospital.

The flowering of creativity

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

"Landscape with Olives";
"Wheat field with cypresses".

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

In 1890 he moved to Opére-sur-Urz, near Paris, where he saw his family for the first time in a long time. He continued to write, but his style became more and more gloomy and oppressive. A distinctive feature of that period was a curved and tearful contour, which can be traced in the following works:

Street and Staircase at Auvers;
"Rural road with cypresses";
"Landscape at Auvers after the rain".

Last years

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

In 1890, Vincent paints the canvas "Wheat Field with Crows", and a week later tragedy occurs.

The circumstances of the artist's death look mysterious. Vincent was shot in the heart with his own revolver, which he carried with him to scare away birds. While 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, a doctor was called for him. The doctor doubted the version with a suicide attempt - the bullet entry angle was suspiciously low, and the bullet did not pass right through, which suggests that 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 argument with Dr. Gachet. He accused him of insolvency, while his brother Theo literally dies of a disease that eats him, but still sends him money for life. These words could greatly hurt Vincent - after all, he himself felt great 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, recently leaving the hospital, Vincent could well decide to commit suicide.

Vincent died on July 30, 1890. Theo loved his brother endlessly and with great difficulty took this loss. He began organizing an exhibition of Vincent's posthumous works, but less than a year later, he died of a 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 next 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. Nevertheless, there are documents proving the sale of 14 more paintings.

Vincent Van Gogh received really wide recognition only after his death. His memorable exhibitions were organized in Paris, The Hague, Antwerp, 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 became interested in his work, and his work began to influence the younger generation of artists.

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

"Portrait of Dr. Gachet";
"Irises";
"Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin";
"Wheat field with cypresses";
"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 later adapted the features of Van Gogh's style for their work: Howart Hodgkin, Willem de Koening, Jackson Pollock. Fauvism soon came, which expanded the scope of color, 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 the art of modernity, having trod a new path in visual art.

It is almost impossible to briefly tell the biography of Van Gogh: for his, unfortunately, short life, his work was influenced by so many different events that it would be a terrible injustice to omit at least one of them. A difficult life path led Vincent to the pinnacle of fame, but posthumous fame. During his lifetime, the great painter knew neither about his own genius, nor about the huge legacy that he left to the world of art, nor about how his family and friends yearned for him in the future. Vincent lived a lonely and sad life, rejected by everyone. He found salvation in art, but he could not be saved. But, one way or another, he gave the world many amazing works that warm the hearts of people to this day, so many years later.