Gogh And Vincent

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.

Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet are two highly influential contributors to the art world. Both are renowned artists whose creations are on display in several art museums throughout the world. They are two artistic geniuses who are more alike than they appear to be. While there are many similarities between the lives and art of these two prodigies there are numerous differences as well in their technique/style, subject matter, and personal lives.

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.

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.

Van Gogh felt believed that paintings were conceived in the imagination. He felt like a failure trying to findhis style. Van Gogh painted from nature and working in series. He thought of “A Starry Night” as a religious journey, as like a map, we follow the stars to our death. He was immensely immersed in religion with disillusion not far behind at this time in his life. He believed in life after death andwanted his paintings to show some religious depth. He talked extensively of existing in anotherdimension and used the sky as that

In “Van Gogh’s Agony”, Lauren Soth proposes the argument that Starry Night by artist Vincent Van Gogh is more than just a landscape created from direct observation, but a nontraditional outlet for Van Gogh’s repressed religious beliefs that could not be expressed through traditional Christian imagery. However, Soth presents little convincing evidence from sources both primary and secondary to support this theory. Although some of the evidence may support his thesis, readers are quickly forced to doubt his knowledge. Throughout the paper, Soth presents information that contradicts the theories and information he provides, questions his own arguments, and is very quick to make conclusions and over analyze the artwork. Although Soth does provide a couple points that seem to work in supporting his thesis, these are overshadowed by the time spent focusing on trivial matters.

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.

Vincent van Gogh is an icon to many in the art world “To Vincent, his art record of his life more true, more revealing (‘how deep-how infinitely deep’) even than the storm of letters that always accompanied it. Every wave of ‘serenity and happiness,’ as well as every shudder of pain and despair, he believed, found its way into paint; every heartbreak into heartbreaking imagery; every picture into self-portraiture. ‘I want to paint what I feel’ he said, ‘and feel what I paint” (Van Gogh the Life, Steven Naifeh and Gregory Whit Smith)

Both these artworks were constructed around the same times, 1889 in the 19th century. This was a time in Van Gogh’s life of great misplacement and the downhill run to his suicide in 1890 at 37. A series of events led to his downfall including such events as: chasing Gauguin with a knife, resulting in the fallout of their relationship; cutting his left ear off as a consequence for his misbehaviour and handing it to a prostitute as a ‘gift’ in 1888; finally shooting himself in the chest. Dying two days later in 1890. These series of events subsequently relate to Van Gogh’s paintings, as he painted with full attentive emotion within his artworks using colour as a vehicle to convey his subjective emotions.

One of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings is The Starry Night. Although, Van Gogh sold only one painting in his life, the aftermath of his work is enormous (Schapiro 31). Widely known as his greatest piece of work, the painting has been reproduced several times and is one of his most famous paintings. Van Gogh however, was not satisfied with this painting, in a letter to his brother Theo from Saint-Remy he states,

Starry Night by the renowned artist Vincent van Gogh has a significant meaning. Aside from the beautiful sea blue colors mixed with the sunny bright yellows, the graceful and thick brush strokes and meanings behind the colors tells a story of hope and passion.

One of Vincent Van Gogh’s most world renowned paintings is his landscape oil painting Starry Night. The painting displays a small town underneath an unusual yet still extremely beautiful night sky. In this night sky, Van Gogh utilizes an array of colors that blend well together in order to enhance the sky as a whole. The town is clearly a small one due to the amount of buildings that are present in the painting itself. In this small town most of the buildings have lights on which symbolize life in a community. Another visual in Starry Night is the mountain like figures that appear in the background of the illustrious painting. Several things contribute to the beauty of Van Gogh’s painting which are the painting’s function, context, style, and design. Van Gogh’s utilization of these elements help bring further emphasis to his work in Starry Night.