Research - Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who after death became one of the foremost famous and persuasive figures within the history of Western craftsmanship. In a decade, he made approximately 2,100 works of art, counting around 860 oil canvases, most of which date from the final two a long time of his life. They incorporate scenes, still lifes, representations and self-portraits, and are characterised by striking colours and emotional, imprudent and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. He was not commercially effective, and his suicide at 37 came after a long time of mental sickness, misery and poverty. Born into an upper-middle-class family, Van Gogh drew as a child and was genuine, calm, and astute. As a youthful man he worked as an art dealer, frequently voyaging, but became discouraged after he was exchanged to London. He turned to religion and spent time as a Protestant evangelist in southern Belgium.

He lived through poor health and isolation some time recently taking up portray in 1881, having moved back domestic with his guardians. His more youthful brother Theo backed him monetarily, and the two kept a long correspondence by letter. His early works, generally still lifes and delineations of rworkers, contain few signs of the striking colour that recognized his afterward work. In 1886, he moved to Paris, where he met individuals of the avant-garde, counting Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were responding against the Impressionist sensibility. As his work created he made an unused approach to still lifes and nearby scenes. His canvases developed brighter in colour as he created a style that became defined amid his remain in Arles within the south of France in 1888. Amid this period he broadened his subject matter to incorporate arrangement of olive trees, wheat areas and sunflowers.

Van Gogh believed that to be a great painter you had to first master drawing before adding color. Over the years Van Gogh clearly mastered drawing and began to use more color. In time, one of the most recognizable aspects of Van Gogh’s paintings became his bold use of color. This is evident in both Van Gogh's landscapes and his still life paintings.

In the works of Van Gogh he explores a range of different styles of portraiture, using a broad range of colours and brush techniques. His work also stems from drawn elements like mine, and using paint he adds colour tones to set the mood of the image (as shown in Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin and Peasant Woman Peeling Potatoes) using more bleak and more dull colours in general, more so than traditional Impressionist woks. As my work will be mainly illustrated, I can apply a similar technique by using shading to represent the overall mood of the person.

Labeled as a 'madman' and a 'failure' due to his mental illness and lack of commercial success as an artist, his work expresses the place "where discourses on madness and creativity converge" as stated by McQuillan in 1989. I think that researching this artist was relevant even to the modern period as society nowadays is coming to terms with what it means to be 'mentally ill' as well as accepting it. It is also common amongst teenagers as their lives are changing at a quick pace and therefore can lead to mental illness, however in past generations (such as Baby Boomers to the Xennials) people were not as educated on the topic of mental illness. Mental illness can impact the style of art, and the work of Van Gogh is a good example of this.

Reference list

Google Arts & Culture. (2017). The Starry Night - Vincent van Gogh - Google Arts & Culture. [online] Available at: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-starry-night/bgEuwDxel93-Pg?hl=en-GB [Accessed 13 Apr. 2021].

MLA, H.G.S. of D. (n.d.). Did Van Gogh Really Sell Only One Painting During His Life? [online] ThoughtCo. Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/van-gogh-sold-only-one-painting-4050008 [Accessed 13 Apr. 2021].

Rea, N. (2020). Experts Conclude That This Odd Self-Portrait of Vincent van Gogh Giving the Side Eye Really Is by the Dutch Master. [online] artnet News. Available at: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/van-gogh-self-portrait-reattributed-1755954 [Accessed 13 Apr. 2021].

Vangoghgallery.com. (2021a). Vincent van Gogh Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin. [online] Available at: https://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/Painting/1/Agostina%20Segatori%20Sitting%20in%20the%20Cafe%20du%20Tambourin.html [Accessed 13 Apr. 2021].

Vangoghgallery.com. (2021b). Vincent van Gogh Boy Cutting Grass with a Sickle. [online] Available at: https://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/Watercolor/1803/Boy%20Cutting%20Grass%20with%20a%20Sickle.html [Accessed 13 Apr. 2021].

Wikipedia Contributors (2019). Vincent van Gogh. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh [Accessed 13 Apr. 2021].

www.vangoghgallery.com. (n.d.). Vincent van Gogh Peasant Woman Peeling Potatoes. [online] Available at: https://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/Painting/410/Peasant-Woman-Peeling-Potatoes.html [Accessed 13 Apr. 2021].

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