Van Gogh was born on March 30,1853 in a small village Zundert, in holland. In 1890, on July 29, Vincent Van Gogh committed suicide. On May 1, 1857 his brother Théodorus, known as Théo was born. A close relation of brotherly love existed between the two brothers.
Van Gogh was an indisputable genius, utterly ignored in his lifetime. He created hundreds of bold, brilliant paintings; only one was sold during his life.Indeed his total output of over 2000 drawings and paintings were made during the period 1880-1890. His published correspondence of 800 letters, mostly to his brother Theo, reveals the tormented spirit of the great unrecognised genius, Vincent Van Gogh. The anguish of a mental illness eventually resulted in suicide. He is generally considered the greatest Dutch painter and draughtsman after Rembrandt.
His first contact with art developed during his first employment, his uncle provided with an art dealer. He was engaged with art galleries at Hague, London and Paris for six years. He was familiar with the works of a large section of the great masters. He was not destined to be in art dealership business for long. He came back home to take after his father in theological pursuits. Destiny took him to many places on various pursuits, but he could not settle down in any career, love and relationships. History finds Van Gogh to be the most mentally troubled artist. He could not agree with the impressionist paintors either. He started doing landscapes and commonplace subjects with intense colors and used high contrast in his paintings.
He boldly influenced the current of Expressionism in modern art. His work produced during a period of only 10 years, depicts striking colour, coarse brushwork, and contoured forms with higher contrast. Among his masterpieces are numerous self-portraits and the well-known The Starry Night (1889), sun flowers, landscapes, olive orchard,cafe, portraits-self, larlesienne, adeline ravoux, arlesienne, exercise in the prison yard, the prayer, restaurant, the church, still life with shoes, the bed room, stairway, cottages, the bridge, women knitting. |
