Art Appreciation: Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh is one of the world’s most well-known artists. He was the son of a pastor and was brought up in a religious atmosphere. He thought his true calling was to preach the gospel like his father. He became a preacher in a small coal mining town. This is when he starting becoming very interested in the people and things that surrounded him. He became an artist at the age of 27.

While the painters after the Impressionism period were collectively called the “Post-Impressionists,” the label is quite reductive. Each artist had their own unique style, from Seurat’s pointillism to Signac’s mosaic-like divisionism, Cezanne, Émile Bernard, and others. These artists were all connected in that they were reacting to the aesthetics of Impressionism. Two of the more influential painters from this movement were Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, who aimed to connect with viewers on a deeper level by access Nature’s mystery and meaning beyond its superficial, observable level. However, each artist’s approach to achieving this goal was different. In close examination of Vincent van Gogh’s Self-Portrait (Dedicated to Paul Gauguin) and Paul Gauguin’s Self-Portrait with Portrait of Émile Bernard (Les misérables), one may clearly see the two artists’ contrasting styles on display.

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.

In my research / readings of my chosen Artist, I found a lot of information about them that I will descibe individually. Based on the biography, It has been stated that Vincent “was a most well known post-impressionism Artist, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, he was highly emotional, lacked self-confidence and struggled with his identity and with direction.” (Templeton Reid) In the late 1800’s is when Vincent basically made the decision to become an Artist, in which he wanted to provide some type of Happiness because he was able to create beauty (Templeton Reid). As you review the art chosen above by Vincent Van Gogh, you will notice the colors used were dark i.e. Greens, Oranges, Blues, with splashes of yellow to create the sun, which led me to believe that maybe this was when he was in the dark place of his life. In the Van Gogh painting, I see big trees with the nice bright sun shining over the blue water, while looking at the trees it makes me feel safe because of the openness of the surrounding space, also the brightness of the sun and the coolness of the water makes me calm and relaxed, it’s just something about being in nature that gives me a sense of peace and direction, nothing to distract or disturb me.

Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most infamous and influential artists of all time. When I saw that Van Gogh’s painting “Olive Trees With Yellow Sky and Sun” was on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, I knew I had to choose it for this paper. Before doing the research for this assignment, I didn’t know much about Vincent Van Gogh, but the fact that pretty much everyone knows his name and recognizes him as a huge part of art history, it made me naturally really curious about him.

Everybody has heard of the name Vincent Van Gogh. Maybe you’ve heard about his ear or you’ve seen his painting “The Starry Night”. Perhaps you had seen one of his paintings but didn’t know who he was. I am happy to tell you: today is your lucky day. You will be learning a little about him. He was a Dutch painter which was one of the 4 artists who led the movement Post-Impressionism (the use vivid colors, thick application of paint, and real-life subject matter), Van Gogh made about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 paintings. He didn’t have a good life. Van Gogh was constantly depressed, got heartbroken multiple times in his life (he never got married), and was insane. He suffered from psychotic episodes and hallucinations. Often, he didn’t care and neglected he was mentally unstable. For this reason, he did not eat properly and drank a lot.

Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch artist from the mid 1800’s who was considered to have created approximately 2000 artworks. Growing up, he was classified to be highly emotional and having low self-esteem. Within those depressed emotions, it helped him pioneer the path of expressionism in his art pieces. But as he got more into him artwork he came more mature with his artwork and caused his color patterns and brush strokes to evolve into another style of art called Impressionism. Starry Night Over the Rhone was one of his last ‘few years’ paintings. It was painted in September of 1888. The canvas resides in Musée d'Orsay,

I feel the song is a good example of a positive way to show appreciation to something you feel really touched or inspired you. I like that Don Mclean was touched enough by the life of Van Gogh to make a beautiful song in dedication to him and all of his art. I agree that the best part of the song to me is when Mclean mentions one of Van Goghs paiting called Starry night, which was one of my favorite

In conclusion, this artist has many prospective aspects in these two drawings that were made by the artist. In these two pieces that Vincent created, he uses extensive creativeness in the way he made his figures and shapes as well. My personal favorite piece that I wrote about is All That Remains, it shows an example of life, in my eyes. How life can be perceived whether it be a sparked interest in life or how quickly death can be for us. These pieces have balance to them as well as excellent blending techniques, the blending in All That Remains is also an excellent example of that technique. Also, the abstraction of both pieces is also quite extensive, the man with the candle as a head is extremely creative for Vincent. Finally, I appreciate

A great artist once wrote, “If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced”. This artist was Vincent van Gogh, soon to be an appraised artist known all around the world for his works, such as Starry Night. He is one of the very first artists of the post-impressionist style than is now adored in every continent. However, there is much more to the man than one painting. Creating a full timeline that stretches beyond Gogh’s life, this paper will discuss the life of Vincent van Gogh and the impression he made on the world.

One of the most renowned paintings around the world, Starry Night, created by none other than Vincent van Gogh, inspired many artists to produce a form of artwork that somehow relates back to the actual painting itself. No matter what form of art, Starry Night is a major influence on the works of many. The painting, Starry Night, connects to “The Starry Night” by Anne Sexton and the song “Vincent” by Don McLean because of the imagery and tone being used in these pieces of art. In the painting, poem, and song, imagery is being expressed to show the importance of the contrasting colors.

In our Art Appreciation class at RSU, during the fall semester, we watched a presentation on two artists. The artists were Vincent van Gogh and Don McLean. Our professor found the video on YouTube. The song “Vincent” by McLean played in the background, while a slideshow of van Gogh’s most famous works appeared on the screen. The song beautifully describes van Gogh’s life and work in a melancholy way. Because of the way the video was put together, it was almost like two artists talking to each other, though many years apart.

Vincent Van Gogh was formed by his social, cultural and historical context. This is expressed clearly in the underlying stories of both paintings, Starry Night, 1889 and Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1889. Both of these paintings portray a narrative relating to Van Gogh significantly as he emotionally connects to the subject in each painting. Van Gogh’s aim of these subjective works was to express meaning through colour and express the painting to a more personal emotion for the viewer. Van Gogh belonged to a small style of Post Impressionism which was a reaction against Impressionism and their formality.

A life full of color ranging from the darkest black to the brightest yellow and days of loneliness without the company of another person is what gave Vincent van Gogh dedication to his artwork through tons of time and unwavering compassion towards his works. Through a tough life experienced many times in the wilderness, Gary Paulsen uses his past experiences to personally reach the creative minds of young children and young adults through writing. When Paulsen was 14, he ran away and joined a carnival. Later in life, he took up dog sled racing, and spent hours in the wilderness, fending for both himself and his dogs. Some of this information can be found in Woodsong by Gary Paulsen. It is an autobiography about

Vincent Van Gogh had a rather depressing life. After being born into an upper-middle class family he quickly became depressed in life. He tried different things like working as an art dealer, becoming a Protestant missionary, and so on. None of these stuck for him as his mental health continued to decline. He was already a quiet, keep to himself kind of person, but over time he became more isolated. He got help from his younger brother Theo in the form of money and moved back home with his parents. This is when he began painting and eventually moved to Paris. Once moving there his paintings became more colorful and his painting style began to develop. He also began suffering from delusions and psychotic episodes and began neglecting his health by eating less and drinking alcohol more frequently and in