Essay about outline of 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.

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 looked at this painting, I thought to myself, "It's boring. It's boring to look at. Why paint a picture of an empty bedroom?" However, once I started looking at all the elements, my mind changed.

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.

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

When comparing the lines in the Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night painting and Sol LeWitt’s the Wall Drawing No. 681, the lines are the opposite. In the Starry Night painting the lines of the sky are very curvy and flowing, but the lines of the buildings are very straight. The artist in this painting is showing you a vision he has had during the time he was in the asylum. The lines of the sky are erratic, and it shows how the artist was feeling very unstable during the time he painted the piece. You can feel how peaceful the buildings are, but the sky is not peaceful. The artist is fighting with himself, and it shows in the painting. The Wall Drawing No.681 shows very straight and precise lines.

On a smaller canvas than two other similar paintings, Vincent Van Gogh carefully painted for the third time his bedroom in Arles, a charming town in the south of France, and thus created this approximately 22 ½ x 29’’ artwork. In fact, Van Gogh made three almost identical paintings on the theme of his bedroom and are named « Bedroom in Arles ». The first one, kept at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is painted in October 1888. About a year after, Van

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

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.

Observers of Van Gogh’s life believed that his eccentricities, compounded to create many distressing experiences that directly impacted the development of Expressionism. This was visible from his early childhood. Painting was no longer seen through pictures, it became a crucible that could hold all of the artist’s passions, conflicts, and unrealized dreams. (Encyclopedia.com)

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.

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.

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.

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 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