One of the brightest artists of the 19th century, whose name is known to all fans of painting, is Vincent Willem Van Gogh (03/30/1853 - 07/29/1890). His popularity, according to sociologists, is comparable to that of Pablo Picasso. Although the facets of their work are still different. The genius of the great Leonardo covers many branches of knowledge, Picasso was known not only as a painter, but also as a talented sculptor, graphic artist, and designer. Van Gogh devoted himself entirely to painting. The most famous paintings of Van Gogh with names that can be found on our website, he wrote in just ten years of his creative activity.
The post-impressionist painter from the Netherlands, who never received a special education, lived for 37 years. He created a lot of paintings, some of them after his death were recognized as real masterpieces and entered the list of the most expensive paintings in the world.
It cannot be said about Van Gogh that he was far from the art world until he seriously took up painting. After leaving school, young Vincent worked in the art company "Gupil and Co", co-owned by his uncle, was engaged in the sale of paintings. For seven years, Van Gogh was a successful art dealer and often visited the Hague Museum. In 1872, he began an active correspondence with his younger brother Theo. In 1873 he was promoted and transferred to London, where his career was ruined by unrequited love. After bitter disappointment, Van Gogh leaves for Belgium, to the mining village of Borinage, to serve there as a preacher, and then follow in the footsteps of his father and enter the Evangelical school. However, upon returning, he learns that tuition has already begun to be charged and indignantly rejects this opportunity. It was then that Van Gogh began to paint. For a whole year he attended classes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and then decided to return to his parents, since he believed that he could study on his own.
The character of the artist was not easy. His hot temper, constant overwork and alcohol abuse, mental turmoil influenced the onset of epileptic psychosis in him in the last years of his life, to which he had a predisposition. The severed earlobe story has several variations. But it is she who is considered a clear sign of mental illness, which further contributed to the deterioration of Van Gogh's mental health, which led him to commit suicide.
Van Gogh worked with gusto. He was a real workaholic. In two hours, he could paint a picture that would have taken other artists much longer. The controversy surrounding his name is still ongoing, and the legend of poverty and madness, which was created by the German gallery owner and art critic Julius Meyer-Graefe, is perceived by many as a real historical fact.
In fact, Van Gogh was an educated person and read a lot. He graduated from a prestigious gymnasium and was fluent in three foreign languages. For his erudition and developed thinking in the society of artists, he was even called Spinoza.
Of course, the throwing of Van Gogh did not please the family, but he was never left without financial support. The artist's grandfather was a well-known bookbinder of ancient documents and manuscripts, and carried out orders for several European courts. His family uncles were famous and wealthy people. Three of them were involved in the sale of paintings and other forms of art, and one was an admiral who was in charge of the port in Antwerp. Young Vincent lived in his house when he studied in the painting class at the Academy of Arts during the day and attended a private school in the evenings. In fact, the artist was a rather pragmatic person, he quite realistically assessed his capabilities and devoted himself entirely to work. He studied drawing according to the latest textbooks sent to him by his uncles, true connoisseurs of art.
In 1886, Van Gogh, on the recommendation of his younger brother Theo, left for Paris. It was Theo, who successfully traded art, advised the artist to take up joyful and light painting. He introduces him to critics, artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir and others. An agreement was made between the brothers that in exchange for Vincent's paintings, Theo undertakes to pay him 220 francs a month and, in addition, provides him with the best canvases, paints and brushes. In addition, the younger brother took upon himself all the costs associated with Vincent's treatment, and bought him books, clothes, and the necessary reproductions. In this regard, the artist never needed money, he even collected Japanese prints.
Van Gogh was a permanent member of the most prestigious art exhibitions, his paintings were shown by fashionable and successful art dealers in the so-called "home exhibitions". Vincent's sudden suicide interrupted the methodically calculated "path of glory", which he had already stepped on by that time. The younger brother, in whose arms the great artist was dying, could not survive him and died six months later. A lot of paintings, real masterpieces, which in the twentieth century were appreciated at their true worth, remained from their friendly joint work.
The paintings painted by the artist, some time after his death, were recognized as truly ingenious and priceless. Among the many canvases he wrote, there are the most famous, the names of which are familiar even to those who are generally far from art. Some features are characteristic of his paintings, namely:
- dynamic thick strokes;
- bright, in some cases almost "open" colors;
- bold, experimental color combinations.
"The Potato Eaters"
Vincent Van Gogh painted his first serious painting back in 1885. It was not created "in one breath", it was preceded by hard preliminary work. The artist completed 12 sketches for the canvas, which he later destroyed.
The painting depicts the peasant family of de Groot, who, after a hard day's work, gathered at the table to dine by the light of a kerosene lamp. There is only one dish on the table - baked potatoes and cups of barley coffee. The tired faces of the peasants, their large, hardened hands. The color palette of this work is very stingy, but extremely accurately conveys the atmosphere of a peasant life.
Some researchers of the artist's work argued that this picture is an open satire on people who are not even aware of their ignorance. But in his letters, Van Gogh spoke with great respect about this family, their honesty and simple moral principles. He wanted to show the steam from hot potatoes and tired peasants busy with food in the picture, as well as evoke a sense of compassion in the viewer.
"Self-portrait with a Bandaged Ear and a Pipe"
In January 1889, the artist created this painting with a very strange background. It is still impossible to say with certainty whether Van Gogh himself cut off his earlobe or whether it was an accident that occurred during his quarrel with another famous artist - Paul Gauguin. Tired and pensive, with a pipe in his mouth, Vincent wrote his work, which has truly become his calling card.
"Starlight Night"
The artist painted this picture in 1889 while being treated in a psychiatric hospital in the small town of Saint-Remy, in the French Provence, on the Côte d'Azur. The painting depicts the starry sky, which is the most important thing in the artist's plan. It shows the possibilities of human mental activity, which contribute to a deep understanding of the nature of things, the interweaving of cosmic secrets and earthly cypresses growing on a hill. The painter vividly demonstrates in the foreground the incomprehensible harmony of the Universe, its riddles and secrets. And somewhere in the shadow of the twilight, he placed city houses and mountains. He later confessed to his brother that the stars are very close to him, he can look at them for a very long time and indulge in dreams.
"Irises"
The painting is considered one of the most recent paintings by the great artist. Despite the fact that the disease continued to develop, he still worked. In this picture, he departs from his usual technique and fills it with extraordinary lightness and weightlessness. The color scheme he has chosen allows absolutely no tension, with a feeling of relaxation and even peace, endlessly examining the images of irises growing in the field. Here, the influence of Japanese art, which the artist liked so much, and French impressionism are obvious. Such a difficult combination of two different directions in art provided the painter with the complete success of this painting.
"Sunflowers"
Paintings with a wide variety of sunflowers are very famous among Van Gogh lovers and art connoisseurs. At first, in Paris, the artist begins to work on images of cut flowers, and later, in Arles, he paints bouquets in vases. As it became known, he just wanted to decorate the walls of the house for the arrival of his friend, Paul Gauguin. Gauguin liked the paintings so much that he even bought two of them for himself.
Even a little acquaintance with the work of this brilliant artist, who created more than one masterpiece in a very short time, can serve as a significant incentive for Van Gogh's paintings with names to become much more understandable. And such a short life of a hardworking master was appreciated by fans of his work.
He has written over 900 works. His biography is studied at school, and his name is always heard. Vincent Van Gogh. The works of this artist are countless and priceless, but we will tell you about the most famous and most charismatic paintings with titles and descriptions.
Starry Night (1889)
Looking at the painting "Starry Night", you immediately recognize Van Gogh in it. The artist worked on it in San Remy (city hospital), using a regular canvas of 920x730 mm.
To "understand" a picture, you need to look at it from afar, this is due to the specific style of writing. An unusual technique made it possible to depict the static moon and stars as if they were constantly moving.
The canvas is surprising in that all objects on it are conveyed either by color or by the nature of the stroke. Not in lines - in long or short strokes. And only for the depiction of the village, the contours were used. Apparently to emphasize the contrast between the heavenly and the earthly.
Starry Night is the fruit of the artist's recovering mind. Van Gogh's brother begged the doctors to let Vincent write for his recovery. And it helped.
It was this picture that Vag Gog painted from memory, which is not at all typical for him. He loved nature.
Of the plants, Van Gogh loved sunflowers most of all. I wrote them 11 times in several episodes. The most famous canvases with sunflowers were painted during the second "sunflower" period, when the artist lived in Arles in France - a fruitful era for him.
In letters to his brother, Van Gogh said that he writes with great zeal, and, of course, writes large sunflowers. I had to work from the very dawn and finish the canvas quickly, because the flowers immediately withered.
Irises (1889)
Another passion of the master is irises. And another fruit of the fight against the disease in the hospital. The canvas was written a year before the death of Van Gogh and was called by him "a lightning rod for my illness."
For the first time, the painting was sold to Octave Mirbeau (an art critic from France) for 300 francs. But in 1987, Irises became the most expensive painting in history, valued at $ 53.9 million.
Vincent's Bedroom at Arles (1889)
It is surprising that it is the canvases "from the hospital" that are world famous. "Vincent's Bedroom in Arles" is one of them created in Saint-Remy. This is not the original painting. The first work was damaged and then Theo advised his brother Vincent to copy the canvas before trying to restore the original.
Two versions of The Bedroom were made, one of which was a gift for mother and sister.
Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe (1889)
Sometimes the self-portrait is called "with the ear and pipe cut off." The canvas is written in Arles.
How exactly Van Gogh lost his earlobe is unknown. The background lies in the quarrel between Van Gogh and Gauguin amid creative differences. Either the ear was injured in a fight during a booze, or in a crazy fit, Van Gogh did it himself. He is 35.
Vincent's House at Arles (The Yellow House) (1888)
Van Gogh could not afford comfortable housing. Therefore, he rented a room in a yellow house. The building was located in the central square of the city and was very dilapidated. The Sunflowers were created here and the “southern workshop” was planned here - Van Gogh's idea to unite artists under one roof. In particular, Van Gogh dreamed of working here hand in hand with Gauguin.
Red Vineyards at Arles (1888)
Remember, we talked about "Irises" as the most expensive painting in its time? The painting "Red Vineyards in Arles" is known for being the only work that was sold during the artist's lifetime.
The Potato Eaters (1885)
Vincent Van Gogh loved this painting, and he himself highly appreciated it, sincerely calling it his masterpiece.
Yes, this is not "Starry Night" and not "Irises", not even "Sunflowers", but "Eaters" was written 2 days after the death of the shepherd Theodore Van Gogh, the artist's father. Being in a quarrel with his parent, Van Gogh could not calmly survive the loss of his father. This should have been reflected in the paintings and the zeal of the master.
The peasants are partly like potatoes themselves. Deliberately distorted to emphasize their provinciality and uncouthness. World art critics agree that while Van Gogh lacks experience and skill. And even during the artist's lifetime, the work was critically assessed by his friend Anton van Rappard, who called "The Eaters" a frivolous and careless canvas.
4 canvas options. The first on the left is a drawing. The bottom right is the finished version. Let this be one of the works of the novice Van Gogh, but you will not find so much invested young soul in any of his future works.
Van Gogh was surprised that Dr. Gachet, with so much knowledge in his field, himself suffered from melancholy and could not cope with what he saved others from.
Dr. Felix Rey assisted Van Gogh while he was in Arles Hospital. It is believed that the portrait was painted in gratitude for the treatment and support.
Contemporaries confirmed that the portrait turned out to be very similar, but Felix Rey himself did not have a special love either for art or for his portrait by Van Gogh - the canvas hung in his chicken coop for 20 years, covering a hole in the wall.
Like sunflowers with irises, Van Gogh's boots are presented in a series. It is believed that the artist decided in this way to continue the idea of reflecting the life of ordinary provincial peasants, those very potato eaters.
There is no information about the purpose for which this series of works was created. And there is no sacred meaning. These are just worn-out shoes through the prism of the vision of the recognized Van Gogh.
That's all for us. We hope you learned a little more about who we know as Vincent Van Gogh. The works of the great artist are paintings with a worldwide reputation. Do you have his favorite painting?
- the great Dutch painter, post-impressionist. Van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in Groth-Zundert. He died on July 29, 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. During his creative life, he created a large number of paintings, which today are considered masterpieces of world painting. The work of Vincent Van Gogh cannot be overestimated, since his art had a huge impact on the development of painting in the 20th century.
During his life, Van Gogh created more than 2100 works! During the artist's lifetime, his work was not as widely known as it is today. He lived in want and misery. At the age of 37, he attempted suicide by shooting himself with a pistol, after which he died. After the death of Vincent Van Gogh, connoisseurs and critics of painting paid close attention to his art; exhibitions of the artist's paintings began to open in different cities of the world and soon he was recognized as one of the greatest and most influential artists of all time. Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most recognizable artists in the world today. Some of his paintings are considered some of the most expensive works of art in the world. The painting "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" was sold for $ 82.5 million. The cost of the painting "Self-portrait with the cut off ear and pipe" in 1990 ranged from 80 to 90 million dollars. Painting "Irises" was sold in 1987 for $ 53.9 million.
The collection of paintings by Vincent Van Gogh contains a large number of paintings that are considered incredibly expensive, very famous, and from a cultural point of view, invaluable. However, among all the paintings of Van Gogh, there are also the most famous ones, which are not only fabulously expensive, but also real "visiting cards" of this artist. Below you can see paintings by Vincent Van Gogh with the names that are considered to be the most famous.
The most famous paintings by Vincent Van Gogh
Self-portrait with cut off ear and pipe
Self-portrait
Recollection of the garden at Etten
Potato eaters
Starry night over the Rhone
Starlight Night
Red vineyards in Arles
Bulbous fields
Night terrace in a cafe
Night cafe
Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch.Vincent Willem van Gogh; March 30, 1853, Grotto-Zundert, near Breda, Netherlands - July 29, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France) - Dutch post-impressionist painter.
Biography of Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent van gogh was born in the Dutch city of Groot-Zundert on March 30, 1853. Van Gogh was the first child in the family (not counting his brother who was born dead). Father's name was Theodore Wang Gog, mother - Carnelia. They had a large family: 2 sons and three daughters. In the family of Van Gogh, all men, one way or another, dealt with paintings, or served the church. By 1869, without even finishing school, he began to work in a company that sold paintings. In truth, Van Gogh did not manage to sell paintings well, but he had an unlimited love of painting, and he was also given good languages. In 1873, at the age of 20, he came to London, where he spent 2 years that changed his whole life.
In London, Van Gogh lived happily ever after. He had a very good salary, which was enough to visit various art galleries and museums. He even bought himself a top hat, which he simply could not do without in London. Everything went to the point that Van Gogh could become a successful merchant, but ... as often happens, love became on the way of his career, yes, it was love. Van Gogh fell unconsciously in love with the daughter of his landlady, but upon learning that she was already engaged, he became very withdrawn into himself, became indifferent to his work. When he returned to Paris he was fired.
In 1877, Van Gogh began to live again in Holland, and increasingly found solace in religion. After moving to Amsterdam, he began to study as a priest, but soon dropped out, as the situation at the faculty did not suit him.
In 1886, at the beginning of March, Van Gogh moved to Paris to live with his brother Theo, and lived in his apartment. There he took painting lessons from Fernand Cormon, and met such personalities as Pissarro, Gauguin and many other artists. Very quickly he forgets all the darkness of Dutch life, and quickly gains respect as an artist. Draws clearly, brightly in the style of impressionism and post-impressionism.
Vincent Wang Gogh After spending 3 months in an evangelistic school in Brussels, he became a preacher. He distributed money and clothing to the needy poor, although he himself was not sufficiently wealthy. This aroused suspicion among the church authorities, and his activities were banned. He did not lose heart, and found solace in drawing.
By the age of 27, Wang Gog understood what his vocation was in this life, and decided that he had to become an artist by all means. Although Van Gogh took drawing lessons, he can be confidently considered self-taught, because he himself studied many books, self-instruction manuals, copied paintings by famous artists. At first, he thought of becoming an illustrator, but then, when he took lessons from his artist relative, Anton Mouve, he painted his first works in oils.
It seemed that life began to improve, but again Van Gogh began to be haunted by failures, moreover love ones.
His cousin Kea Vos became a widow. He really liked her, but he received a refusal, which he worried for a long time. In addition, because of Kei, he quarreled very seriously with his father. This disagreement was the reason for Vincent's move to The Hague. It was there that he met Klazina Maria Hoornik, who was a girl of easy virtue. Van Gogh lived with her for almost a year, and more than once he had to be treated for venereal diseases. He wanted to save this poor woman, and even thought to marry her. But then his family intervened, and thoughts of marriage were simply dispelled.
Returning to his homeland to his parents, who by that time had already moved to Nyonen, his skills began to improve.
He spent 2 years at home. In 1885, Vincent settled in Antwerp, where he attended classes at the Academy of Arts. Then, in 1886, Van Gogh returned to Paris again, to his brother Theo, who helped him throughout his life, both morally and financially. France became the second home for Van Gogh. It was in it that he lived the rest of his life. He did not feel like a stranger here. Van Gogh drank a lot and had a very explosive character. He could be called a person with whom it is difficult to deal.
In 1888 he moved to Arles. The locals were not happy to see him in their town, which was located in the south of France. They thought he was an abnormal sleepwalker. Despite this, Vincent found friends here, and felt quite well. Over time, he got the idea to create a settlement for artists here, which he shared with his friend Gauguin. Everything was going well, but there was a falling out between the artists. Van Gogh rushed at Gauguin, who had already become an enemy, with a razor. Gauguin barely carried off his feet, miraculously survived. Out of the anger of failure, Van Gogh cut off part of his left ear. After spending 2 weeks in a psychiatric clinic, he returned there again in 1889, as he began to suffer from hallucinations.
In May 1890, he finally left the asylum for the mentally ill and went to Paris to live with his brother Theo and his wife, who had just given birth to a boy, who was named Vincent after his uncle. Life began to improve, and Van Gogh was even happy, but his illness returned again. On July 27, 1890, Vincent Van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a pistol. He died in the arms of his brother Theo, who loved him very much. After half a year, Theo also died. The brothers are buried in Auvers Cemetery nearby.
Van Gogh's work
Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) is considered a great Dutch painter who had a very strong influence on Impressionism in art. His works, created in a ten-year period, amaze with their color, carelessness and roughness of the brushstroke, images of a mentally ill person tormented by suffering, who committed suicide.
Van Gogh became one of the greatest Post-Impressionist painters.
He can be considered self-taught, because studied painting by copying pictures of old masters. During his life in the Netherlands, Van G. painted pictures about the nature, labor and life of peasants and workers, which he observed around ("The Potato Eaters").
In 1886 he moved to Paris, entered the studio of F. Cormon, where he met A. Toulouse-Lautrec and E. Bernard. Under the impression of Impressionist painting and Japanese engraving, the artist's manner changed: an intense color scheme and a wide energetic stroke characteristic of late Wang G. appeared (Boulevard Clichy, Portrait of Tanguy's father).
In 1888 he moved to the south of Frania, to the town of Arles. This was the most fruitful period of the artist's work. During his life, Van G. created more than 800 paintings and 700 drawings in various genres, but his talent manifested itself most clearly in the landscape: it was in him that his choleric explosive temperament found a way out. In the mobile, nervous pictorial texture of his paintings, the artist's state of mind was reflected: he suffered from a mental illness, which eventually led him to commit suicide.
Features of creativity
“Much remains unclear and controversial to this day in the pathography of this severe, bio-negative personality. Syphilitic provocation of schizo-epileptic psychosis can be assumed. His feverish creativity is quite comparable with the increased productivity of the brain before the onset of syphilitic brain disease, as was the case with Nietzsche, Maupassant, Schumann. Van Gogh provides a good example of how a mediocre talent, thanks to psychosis, turned into an internationally recognized genius. "
“The peculiar bipolarity, so clearly expressed in the life and psychosis of this wonderful patient, is also expressed in parallel in his artistic work. In essence, the style of his works remains the same all the time. Only the winding lines are repeated more and more often, giving his paintings a spirit of unbridledness, which reaches its culmination point in his last work, where the striving upward and the inevitability of destruction, fall, destruction are clearly emphasized. These two movements - the upward movement and the downward movement - form the structural basis of epileptic manifestations, just as the two poles form the basis of an epileptoid constitution.
“Van Gogh painted brilliant pictures in between attacks. And the main secret of his genius was the extraordinary purity of consciousness and a special creative upsurge that arose as a result of his illness between attacks. F.M. also wrote about this special state of consciousness. Dostoevsky, who at one time suffered from similar attacks of a mysterious mental disorder ”.
Van Gogh's bright colors
Dreaming of a brotherhood of artists and collective creativity, he completely forgot that he himself was an incorrigible individualist, irreconcilable to the point of restraint in matters of life and art. But that was also his strength. You need to have a sufficiently trained eye to distinguish Monet's paintings from paintings, for example, by Sisley. But only once having seen the "Red Vineyards", you will never confuse the works of Van Gogh with anyone and never. Each line and stroke is the expression of his personality.
The dominant feature of the impressionistic system is color. In the pictorial system, in the manner of Van Gogh, everything is equal and crumpled into one inimitable bright ensemble: rhythm, color, texture, line, form.
At first glance, there is some stretch in this. Are “red vineyards” pushed around with an unheard-of color intensity, is not the ringing chord of blue cobalt in “Sea at Saint-Marie” active, aren’t the colors of “Landscape at Auvers after the rain” dazzlingly clear and sonorous, next to which, any impressionistic picture looks hopelessly faded?
Exaggeratedly bright, these colors have the ability to sound in any intonation throughout the entire emotional range - from burning pain to the most delicate shades of joy. The sounding colors sometimes intertwine in a softly and subtly harmonized melody, then they rise in a dissonance that bites the ear. Just as in music there is a minor and a major scale, so the colors of the Vangogov palette are divided in two. For Van Gogh, cold and warm is like life and death. At the head of the opposing camps - yellow and blue, both colors - are deeply symbolic. However, this “symbolism” has the same living flesh as Vangogov's ideal of the beautiful.
Van Gogh saw a certain bright beginning in the yellow paint from gentle lemon to intense orange. The color of the sun and ripe bread in his understanding was the color of joy, solar warmth, human kindness, benevolence, love and happiness - everything that in his mind was included in the concept of “life”. The opposite blue in meaning, from blue to almost black-lead, is the color of sadness, infinity, longing, despair, mental anguish, fatal inevitability and, ultimately, death. Van Gogh's later paintings are the arena of the collision of these two colors. They are like a struggle between good and evil, daylight and night gloom, hope and despair. The emotional and psychological possibilities of color are the subject of constant reflections of Van Gogh: “I hope to make a discovery in this area, for example, to express the feelings of two lovers by combining two complementary colors, mixing and contrasting them, with a mysterious vibration of related tones. Or to express a thought that has arisen in the brain with a radiance of a light tone against a dark background ... ”.
Speaking about Van Gogh, Tugendhold noted: “… the notes of his experiences are the graphic rhythms of things and the reciprocal heartbeats”. The concept of rest is unknown to Vangogov art. His element is movement.
In Van Gogh's eyes, it is the same life, which means the ability to think, feel, empathize. Look at the painting of the "red vineyards". The strokes thrown onto the canvas by a swift hand run, rush, collide, scatter again. Similar to dashes, periods, blots, commas, they are a transcript of Vangogov's vision. From their cascades and whirlpools, simplified and expressive forms are born. They are a line drawn into a drawing. Their relief - now barely outlined, now piled up in massive clots - like plowed earth, forms a delightful, picturesque texture. And from all this a huge image emerges: in the red-hot heat of the sun, like sinners on fire, vines twist, trying to break away from the thick purple earth, to escape from the hands of winegrowers, and now the peaceful vanity of harvesting looks like a fight between man and nature.
So, color still dominates? But aren't these colors at the same time rhythm, and line, and form, and texture? This is the most important feature of the pictorial language of Van Gogh, in which he speaks to us through his paintings.
It is often believed that Vangogov painting is a kind of uncontrollable emotional element, whipped up by unbridled insight. This delusion is “helped” by the originality of Van Gogh's artistic manner, which really seems to be spontaneous, in fact, it is subtly calculated and thought out: “Work and sober calculation, the mind is extremely tense, like an actor performing a difficult role, when you have to think about a thousand things within one half hour…. "
Van Gogh's heritage and innovation
Van Gogh's heredity
- [Mother's sister] “... Seizures of epilepsy, which testifies to a severe nervous inheritance, affecting Anna Cornelia herself. Naturally gentle and loving, she is prone to unexpected outbursts of anger. "
- [Brother Theo] "... died six months after Vincent's suicide in a mental hospital in Utrecht, at 33 years of age."
- "None of Van Gogh's brothers and sisters had epilepsy, while it is absolutely certain that the younger sister suffered from schizophrenia and spent 32 years in a psychiatric hospital."
Human soul ... not cathedrals
Let's turn to Van Gogh:
"I prefer to paint the eyes of people, not cathedrals ... the human soul, even the soul of an unfortunate beggar or a street girl, is, in my opinion, much more interesting."
"Those who write peasant life will stand the test of time better than the makers of cardinal techniques and harems written in Paris." "I will remain myself, and even in raw works I will say strict, rough, but truthful things." "The worker against the bourgeois - this is not as well founded as a hundred years ago the third estate against the other two."
Could a person who, in these and in a thousand similar statements, so explained the meaning of life and art, count on success with “the mighty of this world? ”. The bourgeois environment plucked out Van Gogh.
Van Gogh had only one weapon against rejection - confidence in the correctness of the chosen path and work.
"Art is a struggle ... it's better to do nothing than to express yourself weakly." "We have to work like a few blacks." Even his half-starved existence is turned into a stimulus for creativity: "In the severe tests of poverty, you learn to look at things with completely different eyes."
The bourgeois public does not forgive innovation, and Van Gogh was an innovator in the most direct and true sense of the word. His reading of the sublime and beautiful went through understanding the inner essence of objects and phenomena: from insignificant as torn shoes to crushing cosmic hurricanes. The ability to present these seemingly incomparable values on an equally huge artistic scale put Van Gogh not only outside the official aesthetic concept of artists of the academic direction, but also forced him to go beyond the framework of impressionist painting.
Quotes by Vincent Van Gogh
(from letters to brother Theo)
- There is nothing more artistic than loving people.
- When something in you says: "You are not an artist," immediately begin to write, my boy, - only in this way will you force this inner voice to silence. The one who, having heard him, runs to his friends and complains about his misfortune, loses part of his courage, part of the best that is in him.
- And do not take your shortcomings too close to heart, for the one who does not have them still suffers from one thing - the absence of shortcomings; but he who thinks he has attained perfect wisdom will do well if he becomes foolish again.
- A man carries a bright flame in his soul, but no one wants to bask in his presence; passers-by notice only the smoke leaving through the chimney and go their own way.
- Reading books, as well as looking at pictures, one cannot hesitate or hesitate: one must be confident in oneself and find beautiful what is beautiful.
- What is drawing? How is it possessed? It is the ability to break through the iron wall that stands between what you feel and what you can do. How can you get through such a wall? In my opinion, banging your head against it is useless, you need to slowly and patiently dig in and grind it.
- Blessed is he who has found his own business.
- I prefer not to say anything at all, than to express myself indistinctly.
- I admit, I also need beauty and sublimity, but even more something else, for example: kindness, responsiveness, tenderness.
- You are a realist yourself, so bear with my realism.
- A person only needs to invariably love what is worthy of love, and not waste his feeling on things that are insignificant, unworthy and insignificant.
- It is impossible for melancholy to stagnate in our souls, like water in a swamp.
- When I see the weak being trampled on, I begin to doubt the value of what is called progress and civilization.
Bibliography
- Van Gogh Letters. Per. with goll. - L.-M., 1966.
- Rewald J. Post-Impressionism. Per. from English T. 1. - L.-M, 1962.
- Perrusho A. The Life of Van Gogh. Per. from French - M., 1973.
- Murina Elena Van Gogh. - M .: Art, 1978 .-- 440 p. - 30,000 copies.
- Dmitrieva N.A. Vincent Van Gogh. Man and artist. - M., 1980.
- Stone I. Lust for Life (book). The Story of Vincent Van Gogh. Per. from English - M., Pravda, 1988.
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