Who Is Vincent Van Gogh?

A person’s childhood could eventually lead them to either a success or failure. Two men, later to become widely known across the globe because of their success, have had situations that helped developed them during their childhoods. Two such men would be Frederick Douglass and Vincent Van Gogh. Both excerpts from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass and Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, the reader gets an insight into their childhoods. Frederick Douglass was born an American slave, and became an abolitionist. Vincent Van Gogh, lived a normal childhood in the Netherlands, and became a famous painter after death. The childhood of Frederick Douglass lead to his success while the childhood of Vincent Van Gogh did not lead to his success while he was still alive.

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.

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.

When I first saw Vincent van Gogh’s painting of The Starry Night, I was immediately drawn to the peaceful luminescent stars emanating outward like vibrant yellow halos into the captivating striking blue sky. I felt a sense of calm and tranquility as the bright orange moon shone intently over the serene village below. The sprawling mountain range, grassy hills and fields of wheat intensified this feeling as a soft wind swept through the countryside. Under the immense stars and vibrant night sky, the people of the village sleep soundly in their cottages. This painting exudes an overwhelming feeling of calmness and peace in my mind.

Vincent Willem Van Gogh was a post-Impressionist that lived in the 19th century. However, his art continues to influence the world of art today. On March 30, 1853 Vincent was born to minister Theodorus Van Gogh and Anna Cornelia Carbentus. He was born in Zundert, Netherlands. Vincent was named after his stillborn brother that had been born exactly a year before Vincent. The name Vincent was actually very common in the Van Gogh family. Vincent shared his name with his uncle and grandfather. He also shared the name with his great great uncle, the sculptor Vincent Van Gogh (1728-1802).

Hayakawa states a creative person “is not limited in his thinking to ‘what everyone else knows’” (167). As a painter, Vincent Van Gogh was forced to see things differently from others and he had to find a way to portray his ideas on canvas. Displaying one’s ideas on a piece of canvas is a very difficult task for all painters. In a letter to his brother, Theo, Van Gogh explains his attempts “to express the love of two lovers by a marriage of two complementary colours, their mingling and their opposition, the mysterious vibrations of kindred tones.”(Van Gogh 531). In this letter, he explains how he tried to show the love of two humans through the relationship that two colors have with each other. Love is a difficult emotion to describe with words yet Van Gogh manages to describe love using paint. He used his

The people back in the 19th century really didn’t accept Van Gaogh’s truthful and emotionally morbid way of expressing the way of art is to himself. It finally was seen as art through the people’s eyes. This set a stage of art that is now known as Expressionism. It is best characterized by the use of symbols and a style that expresses the artist’s inner feelings about his subject. His style of painting is exemplified by a projection of the painter’s inner experience onto the canvas he paints on. Van Gogh’s paintings are done with his feelings that goes on in his life. (Mark Harden’s Artchive)

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.

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-van-gogh-vincent.htm Giving a description on what his perception of what a real painter is and how emotions reflect through his artistic experience. Vincent Van Gogh experienced numerous jobs and love pursuits, all ending in a dramatic breakdown. His response to these experiences however, demonstrates a genetic and mental abnormality, causing behaviors that separated those around him. He became to be more isolated from society and began to pour all of his energies into painting, which progressed through past experiences. Many people in Van Gogh's life justifiably believe that his eccentricities, which were observable from a young

In my art appreciation class this spring, we watched a slide show of Vincent Van Gogh’s painting. There was a song playing during the slide show, it was called “Vincent” by Don McLean. We learned that Van Gogh was a sad artist. He would paint whatever he was feeling. In the middle of the night when he was sad and couldn’t sleep, he would go outside and just paint to get rid of any depressing thoughts. I saw his art the first time when I was in the doctor’s office.

Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most recognized artists in the world. Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. Van Gogh was born into a family of six children in which his father was a pastor and his mother was an artist. He was named after his stillborn brother who died exactly one year before he was born.

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

          4.Vincent would stay there for two years and transfer to paris for a year and then come back to london.

“Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul,” said William Maugham, a British playwright from the 19th century. Vincent Van Gogh, an artist who is considered by many one of the most inspirational artists in history, was no stranger to depicting his struggles in life or feelings in his work. Van Gogh’s piece Starry Night, designed in the year 1889, shows this to be true in that it was the result of his experiences in an asylum that encouraged this piece. Despite this work has being so well known, many critics and observers of the piece have differing views on what he was trying to communicate through it. Two prime examples of this can be seen by the views expressed in the poems entitled, “Vincent” and “The Starry Night”, written by Don McClean and Anne Sexton, respectively. While the poem “Vincent”, has a depressing tone to it, “The Starry Night”, by Anne Sexton, depicts Starry Night as having a more lively mood, which more accurately represents that of the painting, by Vincent Van Gogh.

Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most famous artists of all time. He is known for his paintings and is hailed as the quintessential expressionist painter in history. Yet, Van Gogh lived one of the most troubling lives one could ever imagine. Almost every painting can be viewed as a look into his troubled soul. Van Gogh’s Paintings today can be sold for millions of dollars, but during his life time he sold a single painting for a measly 40 francs. Van Gogh’s legacy has left behind stories of greatness and sadness having to do with both his personal life and his career as an artist.