Vincent Willem van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on March 30th 1853, in Zundert, The Netherlands. Van Gogh spent his teenage year’s working for a firm of art dealers; however, he did not embark upon his art career until 1880. Originally, he worked only with dark and gloomy colors, until he came across the art movements developed in Paris known as, Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism (Meier-Graefe 4). Van Gogh than included their brighter colors and unique style of painting into his very own creations. He produced more than 2,000 works, including around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches, during the last ten years of his life (Meier-Graefe 10). However, most of his best-known works were produced in his last two years of living, and during that time when he cut off part of his left ear. After this trauma he suffered repeated attacks of mental illness, which led to his suicide. Many will argue that Van Gogh was in a mental state of mind, however many physicians and psychiatrists tried to define Van Gogh’s medical conditions, and there are many accusations of Van Gogh’s mental and physical diagnoses. Van Gogh suffered from seizures, which some doctors believe to be caused by temporal lobe epilepsy. Van Gogh was born with a brain lesion that many doctors believe was aggravated by his prolonged use of absinthe causing his epileptic condition (Lubin 28). Van Gogh was believed to have treated his epilepsy with digitalis, which is a treatment that can cause a person to see in yellow, or see many yellow spots. Which could have been the reason why Van Gogh had an obsession with this color. However, in response to seizures, anxiety, and depression Van Gogh drank absinthe, which is a toxic alcoholic dri... ... middle of paper ... ...Van Gogh became one of the most famous artists throughout history. Despite his mental illness, he is an inspiration to artist, singers, songwriters, and even poets. Van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet remains one of the most expensive paintings in the world. In 1990, a Japanese businessman Ryoei Saito, paid $82.5 million for the painting (Schapiro 112). But since his death, the painting has not been seen. Van Gogh’s unique combination and content is very powerful, dramatic, emotional, and imaginative, which has made his work as well known as it is today. Works Cited Lubin J. Albert: Stranger on the Earth: A Psychological Biography of Vincent Van Gogh. Da Capo Press: 1996: Chicago. Meier-Graefe, Julius: Vincent Van Gogh: A Biography. Courier Dover Publications: 1987: New York. Schapiro, Meyer: Vincent Van Gogh. Harry N. Abrams Inc: 1994: New York
Vincent Van Gogh is one of the world’s greatest and most well-known artists, but when he was alive he considered himself to be a complete failure. It was not until after he died that Van Gogh’s paintings received the recognition they deserved. Today he is thought to be the second best Dutch artist, after Rembrandt. Born in 1853, he was one of the biggest artistic influences of the 19th century. Vincent Van Gogh created a new era of art, he learned to use art to escape his mental illness, and he still continues to inspire artists over 100 years later.
Van Gogh, V. W. Memoir of J. Van Gogh-Bonger. The Vincent van Gogh Gallery. David
...ded after his death, it was Artaud that claimed, “No, Van Gogh is not crazy, he was pushed to suicidal despair by a society which rejected his works.” Whether or not Artaud’s theory is correct, Vincent Van Gogh was in fact very ill and his paintings are famous for how lucid they are in illustrating the way his mental illness affected him. Van Gogh’s post-impressionist style is very unique of the late 19th century in France and most of his work was done with impasto technique as a way of expression. It is recognizable that his illness had a larger impact on his paintings’ subject matters than the style they were painted in. Vincent Van Gogh’s fame mostly came after his death, and while his paintings did help him to express himself, they now live on to visually translate the true, unwritten stories of his life and the effects paintings have with a mental illness.
Vincent Willem van Gogh was born in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands on March 30, 1853. He was born into a middle class family that sometimes struggled financially. His grandfather was a famous preacher and his father was a minister so religion was pretty important within his family. The other passion within the family was art. His mother was an artist and three of his uncles and later his brother were art dealers. He got his first job at age 15, at his uncle’s art dealership. The fact that Vincent’s family was struggling at this time gave him the responsibility to leave school and go to work. Despite his family 's misfortune, van Gogh was fluent in 4 languages and his concern with art and religion kept growing. At the age of 20, he was transferred to the Goupil Gallery in London. It was there that he fell in love with art and English culture. He visited galleries in his spare time and in many aspects increased his understanding as a whole. In this period of time he started to fall in love with a woman named Eugenie Loyer. Vincent was prepared to ask her to marry him, but Eugenie didn’t feel the same as he did so she rejected the proposal and this caused van Gogh to suffer a mental breakdown. In this time he turned to God and threw away all unnecessary possessions except for the bible. He was fired from the Gallery for telling the customers “not to buy the worthless art.” Vincent then started teaching at a Methodist school and preached on the side a little. This was the first time in his life where he started to contemplate becoming a minister. He studied for a year planing to take the entrance exam to become a minister at the School of Theology in Amsterdam. He was denied entrance after refusing to take the Latin exam calling it a “de...
Vincent Van Gogh is celebrated today as the greatest Dutch painter, besides Rembrandt (“Vincent Willem”). Born in Holland on March 30, 1853, Van Gogh had five other siblings and two parents, and although his mother was an artist, he never bothered with art until much later in his life (“Vincent Willem”). Van Gogh had many shortcomings in his little and dismal time on earth and it was not until his late twenties, after all else had failed, that he gave art a chance. Thanks to the help of his older brother Theo, Van Gogh was able to put all of his emotions and mental worries into productive use, creating masterpieces that are sold today for millions of dollars (“Vincent Willem”). Although he is hugely successful today, Van Gogh had little to no fame in his lifetime and he struggled immensely with his mental state of mind for many years. Ultimately his mental illness (some believe there were more than one) lead to his untimely death, but his turbulent state of mind also helped him to create magnificent images that are revered as some of the greatest pieces of art of today.
Sweetman, David. The Love of Many Things: A Life of Vincent Van Gogh. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1990.
The life span of 37 years saw Vincent Willem van Gogh (Vincent) in creating beautiful works he dearly loved. Painting was an avenue, which allowed him to express his inner thoughts or vent his struggles. My decision to research on Vincent’s painting, Starry Night (1889) came with the inspiration from Don Mclean’s Song, Starry Starry Night where his lyrics spoke about Vincent’s life that further intrigued me in writing this paper.
The article Artists Mythologies and Media Genius, Madness and Art History (1980) by Griselda Pollock is a forty page essay where Pollock (1980), argues and explains her views on the crucial question, "how art history works" (Pollock, 1980, p.57). She emphasizes that there should be changes to the practice of art history and uses Van Gogh as a major example in her study. Her thesis is to prove that the meaning behind artworks should not be restricted only to the artist who creates it, but also to realize what kind of economical, financial, social situation the artist may have been in to influence the subject that is used. (Pollock, 1980, pg. 57) She explains her views through this thesis and further develops this idea by engaging in scholarly
Hailed as the founding father of the Pop Art movement in the late 1950's and early 1960's, Andy Warhol, through his endeavors, brought forward society's obsession with mass culture and allowed it to become the subject of his art. He produced works that defied and challenged the popular notion of what art should be by disputing the "traditional conventions pertaining to the uniqueness, authenticity, and authorship" of art (Faerna 28). However, it is an injustice to say that Warhol's goals primarily included the desire to create such a ground-breaking and salient style of American art or to entertain the public by making his own artistic contributions. Rather, Andy Warhol's interests were more entwined in his own self-interest and greed. Although a fraction of Andy Warhol's inspiration resided in his ambition to create a "unique" and exotic style of American art, his main motivation was purely materialistic and involved acquiring large sums of money and publicity to fuel his obsession with wealth and fame.
Vincent van Gogh lived from 1853 to 1890 and is arguably the most famous painter of the post-impressionism era of art. His painting style was often
Claude Monet made the art community address a revolutionary type of art called impressionism. In a style not previously before painted, impressionism captured a scene by using bright colors with lots of light and different shades to create the illusion of a glance. The traditional method of working in a studio was discarded and the impressionist artists carried any needed supplies with them into the countryside and painted the complete work outside. The manufacture of portable tin tubes of oil paints as well as the discovery of ways to produce a wider range of chemical pigments allowed artists to paint in a way unimaginable before this period in time (Stuckey 12). Monet and others, such as Pierre Auguste Renior, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, and Alfred Sisley, took this style of art to a new level never seen before.
But, when they were made no one gave them any recognition until time had passed for the artist. Pollack painting got famous a year later from his painting review when a life magazine article featured Pollock. His arms crossed and had a cigarette dangling from his lips, standing in front of one of his swirled, caffeinated images. What was written the caption of the photograph asked, “Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?” A powerful art critic named Clement Greenberg insistence that Pollock’s work represented a new, authentic American art. After that Pollock’s success was achieved over a period of years of making gesture, line, texture, and composition the very subject of his canvases. Van Gogh didn’t receive any recognition from his art-work on “The Starry Night,” or any of his piece of art until after his death. After many years later painters where moved by Van Gogh’s paintings in both heart and soul. Now it can’t be said that “The Starry Night” was worth as much as the rest of his paintings, but it has been known that his paintings are worth around 80 million
What drove Vincent Van Gogh, born March 30,1853, to his mental illness and suicide? Could it have been the many things he tried, but failed at in his life? He failed in many different careers, in love, and even his artwork. Van Gogh sold only one painting his entire life. Because of his mental illness, he was considered a crazy person.
Vincent van Gogh Biography. 2005. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Se Web. The Web. The Web.
When most people think of Paul Cezanne, they think of two words genius and painting. For these two words he is consider by far to be the Father of modern painting. Cezanne was born in Aix-en-Provence in 1839. He was to die in the same town in 1906.