Vincent Van Gogh Essay

In 1880 at the age of 27, Van Gogh moved to Brussels began taking lessons on his own. He took some lessons from his cousin by marriage. He studied some books like Travaux des champs by Jean-Francois Millet and Cours de dessin by Charles Bargue. After completing his

Van Gogh and Monet had both lived exceptionally different lives. Van Gogh did not start off wanting to become an artist, he was actually very interested in theology and had eventually become a minister. It had seemed as though Van Gogh had found his calling. Unfortunately, he was released from the church after his generosity had betrayed him. While trying to help miners, he gave away all of his clothes and was only left with a cloth. The church committee overseeing Van Gogh let him go because he did not dress or preach eloquently. This led to Van Gogh gaining an interest in art which would lead him to go to an art school in Paris to

Most people have no idea that Van Gogh was a Christian. Before pursuing a career as an artist he desired to be a minister. In fact, he was very focused on pursuing ministry. He spent time ministering to coal miners. The

He had nine people in his family Vincent Van Gogh was born the second of six children into a religious Dutch Reformed Church family in the south of the Netherlands. His father, Theodorus Van Gogh, was a clergyman and his mother, Anna Cornelia Carbentus, was the daughter of a bookseller. Van Gogh exhibited unstable moods during his childhood, one of his favorite things to do were to paint. Though he excelled at different languages like French and English while attending two boarding schools. In 1868, he abandoned his studies and never successfully returned to formal schooling.

Just as Van Gogh struggled as a boy in relationships with his family and friends he struggled finding his calling as an artist. Van Gogh had explored the realms of working at art dealership’s as well as becoming minister as his father was. After finding that he was not

Van Gogh is commonly thought of as the typical eccentric, outsider or society but, interestingly enough, is not traditionally considered an outsider artist. The characterization of Van Gogh as an outsider artist is heavily contested, “The Van Gogh Museum can’t stand the notion of Vincent van Gogh as an outsider artist,” (Jones). He did communicate with other artists at the time, and was part of the art community by proxy of his brother, Theo. However, his works at this time were dark in tone, whereas the desire in the French art world was color. Theo often told the artist that his paintings were not selling because of his dark color scheme but Van Gogh continued to paint as he wished, never achieving widespread success during his lifetime. Van Gogh was raised in an upper middle class home but was an outsider to the traditional well-to-do lifestyle he was born into. Never truly able to support himself and never having settled down to

Van Gogh started gaining attention in his last 2 years. But this wasn’t enough. His brother Theo wanted to show the world who his brother was after his death. Sadly, Theo died 6 months after Van Gogh. His widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger did the work his dead husband couldn’t. She sold some of Vincent’s works, lend some for exhibitions and published the letters Van Gogh constantly wrote Theo. His unique life has inspired lots of people to become active in art. Who would think a “Redheaded Madman” could influence the world in the way he

"Vincent had queer manners and seemed to be more like an old man," said a servant of the Van Gogh family that worked for them when Vincent was a child. His mother was really disappointed in him and then eventually the entire family. Even his closes friend, his brother, Theo Van Gogh who helped him financially became disappointed. Vincent said that "Theo comforted his mother and is worthy to be comforted by his mother." On the other hand Vincent was rejected. Vincent later said that his childhood was "gloomy and cold and sterile." (Voyager)

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.

Theo and his folks viewed Vincent's enthusiasm for books as the foundation of all his inconvenience (Meier-Graefe). They felt that since he quit being a craftsmanship merchant he had by one means or another forsook workmanship. They couldn't have been more remote from reality. Huge numbers of the letters composed from Vincent and Theo have now turned out to be such an unprecedented wellspring of learning to Van Gogh life. From 1881 to 1885 van Gogh lived in the Netherlands.

When Van Gogh was sixteen, his first job was working for his uncle at Goupil et Cie, an art gallery in The Hague. When he was nineteen he went to work at the Groupil Gallery in London and then to the gallery in Paris. He was finally fired from the gallery because he was not happy with his job and discoursed customers from buying the artwork. After that he decided that he wanted to be a preacher and studied to get into a theological school but failed. In 1879 he went to Borinage, a coal mining town, as a missionary to the poor coal miners. He lasted there a couple of years and then was dismissed.

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.

          4. Later Van Gogh decide to moved to his next and final career which was An Artist.

The one close relationship Van Gogh had with his siblings was with his brother Theo who supported him not only emotionally but financially. (Letters to Theo from Van Gogh are big parts in understanding Van Gogh’s life and the troubles he faced. published in 1959.) Van Gogh was largely self-taught as an artist, although he received help from his cousin, Mauve. His first works were heavily painted, mud-colored and clumsy attempts to represent the life of the poor (e.g. Potato-Eaters, 1885, Amsterdam), influenced by one of his artistic heroes, Millet. He moved to Paris in 1886, living with his devoted brother, Theo, who as a dealer introduced him to artists like Gauguin, Pissarro, Seurat and Toulouse-Lautrec. In Paris, he discovered color as well as the divisionist ideas which helped to create the distinctive dashed brushstrokes of his later work (e.g. Pere Tanguy, 1887, Paris). He moved to Arles, in the south of France, in 1888, hoping to establish an artists' colony there, and was immediately struck by the hot reds and yellows of the Mediterranean, which he increasingly used symbolically to represent his own moods (e.g. Sunflowers, 1888, London, National Gallery). He was joined briefly by Gauguin in October 1888, and managed in some works to combine his own ideas with the latter's Synthetism (e.g. The Sower, 1888, Amsterdam), but the visit was not a success. A final argument led to the infamous episode in which Van Gogh mutilated

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