Van Gogh's 'Portrait Of Dr. Gachet'

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.

In Van Gogh’s piece of art “Prisoners Exercising” (1890) is shown sadness, depression, and despair of the prisoners. You can say that prisoners are also hopeless, by how the artist drew faces of some of the prisoners. The artist used black, gray, dark blue, brown and dull orange colors, these colors make you feel sad and distressed. By looking at this painting and the colours that were used we can say that Van Gogh was feeling depressed and he had a life crisis. I believe that the artist’s message that he wanted to deliver is, this is how life can look like, making circles in a small room, loneliness, being controlled by other people who are watching your each and every step that you take. Maybe he wanted to show how people look like when they are freedomless.

Vincent van Gogh was Dutch post-impressionistic painter who ended up own life by own hand. His paintings are notable for its power of touch in painting, colour and emotion. By picking up some words from his life that influenced his mind and painting style, were “religion”, “Paul Gauguin” and “Japonism”. (Brooks, 2016) (Vangoghmuseum.nl, n.d.). Also those words are related to the turning points of his life as well.

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.

This oil painting on a canvas grabbed my attention for various reasons. The first reason is that of the date. This painting was created around 1762. The quality of the painting amazed me because it remains in perfect condition, yet it was created two-hundred and fifty-five years ago. The painting was established by Allan Ramsay. Ramsay did an outstanding job on this painting. He incorporated many elements and principles of art into the masterpiece, which also made this piece a highlight of the museum.

Van gogh’s early life, hardships in his career, and death have made him into the influential figure we know him as today.

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.

Each artist is an individual with a unique style, and although these styles can be similar in practice – the individuality of the artist often proves the discriminating factor for a successful artwork. Self-portraits are beneficial when looking at the individuality of the artist as there are two aspects to look at – the artist’s style, and the artist’s view of him/herself. The latter can provide a brief insight into the mental situation of the artist as well as any apparent influencing factors of the artwork. This view can often also include fragmental insights into the society and culture of the time. Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh are 2 artists of whom are well represented by this statement.

Cynthia Saltzman, a former Forbes and Wall Street Journal reporter, investigates the history of the famous Vincent van Gogh’s work Portrait of Dr. Gachet by telling a century-long story of this single masterpiece's journey. Instead of focusing on the van Gogh’s background and the painting itself, Saltzman meticulously provides a case study of how the modern art market developed and how the forces of money, politics and taste can ensure that genius will out. From 1890 to 1990, the painting was taken from van Gogh's easel and valued as “an obscure object worth at most a few hundred francs” at beginning. It then was hung in private homes and world-famous museums, and traveled to Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and New York with 13 different owners.

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.

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.

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

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.