Life of Famed Painter Vincent Van Gogh.

¶ … life of famed painter Vincent Van Gogh. The writer explores his life and the things that contributed to the path of his career. In addition the writer examines the works and changes of Van Gogh's style throughout a one decade period of work. There were five sources used to complete this paper.

If a picture paints a thousand words famed painter Vincent Van Gogh has contributed volumes to the world at large and he did it in a short time span. Through a ten-year period the work of Van Gogh ranged in style and meaning. Many of the changes he experienced were founded in the fact that he spent time with other artists. Van Gogh spent years trying to find his nitch in different fields until he discovered a talent for painting. Once that talent was awakened he spent a decade turning out classic works for the world to enjoy. One of the reasons Van Gogh was so talented during such a short time without having to spend years studying the craft was because of his life experiences along the way. He had the information in his heart and head and only had to put it on the canvas.

Vincent Van Gogh has frequently been referred to as the greatest Dutch painter since the time and work of Rembrandt. One of the most remembered accomplishments of Van Gogh in the world of art is his powerful and long lasting contribution to the changes in the genre of Expressionism. He influenced that genre not only with his works and statements within those works but also with the changes that his work underwent as the genre adapted to those changes. He is single-handedly noted for affecting the genre and influencing changes.

One of the most unusual facts about Van Gogh is the span of his works. Most artists that sustain historic recognition spend their entire life producing the works that become classics. Van Gogh produced all of the works the world admires in a short ten-year span of life (Gogh, Vincent van (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/).

His work, all of it produced during a period of only 10 years, hauntingly conveys through its striking colour, coarse brushwork, and contoured forms the anguish of a mental illness that eventually resulted in suicide. Among his masterpieces are numerous self-portraits and the well-known The Starry Night (1889) (Gogh, Vincent van (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/)."

His works included the following:

Self-Portraits

Portraits

Irises

Still-Lives with Sunflowers

Views from the Asylum

Works after Millet

Vineyards

Fields and Cypresses

Other Landscapes (Gogh, Vincent van (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/)

All of this works occurred in a relatively short time span when held up and measured against the lifespan works of other famed historical artists. Van Gogh had many life experiences however before settling on art as a way to make his mark on the world and those experiences along with the emotions they evoked assisted him in knowing immediately how to touch the world through visual stories.

Among his experiences were career starts and losses, love that was not returned and giving away everything he owned. After gathering the years of life experience Van Gogh set to work sharing those experiences through color, canvas and interpretation and in the final ten years of his life turned out more than 800 works (Gogh, Vincent van (http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/).

As for me, I am rather often uneasy in my mind, because I think that my life has not been calm enough; all those bitter disappointments, adversities, changes keep me from developing fully and naturally in my artistic career."(Vincent van Gogh Letter W1116 June 1889) (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm).

Van Gogh's life began in the area of Groot Zundert in the Netherlands. His birthdate was recorded as 1853 on the 30th of March. The palette of Van Gogh's life experiences began from the moment of his birth when he was named after an older brother who had died a year earlier. In an almost mystic measure of time Vincent's mother had given birth one year to the day before Vincent was born and the family had named that baby Vincent as well. Since Van Gogh's death there has been much speculation that being named after a dead brother who was born on his same birthday placed psychological stress on Van Gogh that later affected his mind, life and choices (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm).

Van Gogh's father was a pastor of the Dutch reformed church. Van Gogh was sent to boarding school for ten years when he reached the age of educational need and at the age of 5 he decided he did not need any more formal education. He left school at that time and he never returned to formal education though he believed he was learning many valuable lessons through the experiences of his life (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm).

His first personal brush with the art world was when he got a job in a firm of art dealers. While this was his first personal work experiences in the field his family had long since been a part of it. He had two uncles that were well-known art dealers and his younger brother worked his life as an art dealer. These family connections in the art world have been speculated to have contributed to the work Van Gogh would later produce as a painter.

Vincent was relatively successful as an art dealer and stayed with Goupil & Cie. For seven more years (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm)."

Van Gogh's heart became touched by a transfer to a London branch of the company and he immediately fell in love with the climate of the nation. He rented a room in a house and the daughter of the owner became his first real romantic interest (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm).

Vincent van Gogh would remain in London for two more years. During that time he visited the many art galleries and museums and became a great admirer of British writers such as George Eliot and Charles Dickens. Van Gogh was also a great admirer of the British engravers whose works illustrated such magazines as The Graphic. These illustrations inspired and influenced Van Gogh in his later life as an artist. The relationship between Vincent and Goupil's became more strained as the years passed and in May of 1875 he was transferred to the Paris branch of the firm. It became clear as the year wore on that Vincent was no longer happy dealing in paintings that had little appeal for him in terms of his own personal tastes. Vincent left Goupil's in late March, 1876 and decided to return to England where his two years there had been, for the most part, very happy and rewarding (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm)."

To make a living Van Gogh became a teacher at Rev. William P. Stokes' school in Ramsgate. He was responsible for 24 boys between the ages of 10 and 14. His letters suggest that Vincent enjoyed teaching. After that he began teaching at another school for boys, this one lead by Rev. T. Slade Jones in Isleworth. In his spare time Van Gogh continued to visit galleries and admire the many great works of art he found there. He also devoted himself to his Bible study -- spending many hours reading and rereading the Gospel (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm).The summer of 1876 was truly a time of religious transformation for Vincent van Gogh. Although raised in a religious family, it wasn't until this time that he seriously began to consider devoting his life to the Church (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm)."

In his desire to become a pastor he began taking on responsibilities of the church which led to being allowed to perform sermons. The sermons however lacked charisma and fell on bored ears and he was eventually asked to step down. After this he got a job in a bookstore which lasted a few months before he left for Amsterdam to apply to the university. Once he accepted he began to study theology and Greek but after 15 months he dropped out. Van Gogh later said his time at university studying was the worst time in his life thus far.

In November Vincent failed to qualify for the mission school in Laeken after a three-month trial period. Never one to be swayed by adversity, Vincent van Gogh eventually made arrangements with the Church to begin a trial period preaching in one of the most inhospitable and impoverished regions in western Europe: the coal mining district of The Borinage, Belgium (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm)." He went back to preaching but this time to coal miners and their families.

He sympathized with their dreadful working conditions and did his best, as their spiritual leader, to ease the burden of their lives (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm).Unfortunately, this altruistic desire would reach somewhat fanatical proportions when Vincent began to give away most of his food and clothing to the poverty-stricken people under his care. Despite Vincent's noble intentions, representatives of the Church strongly disapproved of Van Gogh's asceticism and dismissed him from his post in July (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm)."

He loved the area and chose a life of poverty instead of returning home. For more than a year he lived from day-to-day trying to survive.

One day Vincent felt compelled to visit the home of Jules Breton, a French painter he greatly admired, so with only ten francs in his pocket he walked the entire 70 kilometers to Courrieres, France, to see Breton. Upon arriving, however, Vincent was too timid to knock and returned to Cuesmes utterly discouraged (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm)."

It was at that point, with no money and no prospects that Van Gogh turned to art as an outlet. He began drawing the coal miners and their families.

With no money and no hope of a prosperous future it would seem Van Gogh would be depressed but he was never one to give up or give in. Instead of despair he decided he would become an artist. The first thing he did was go to Brussels to study art while his brother helped support him during this endeavor. The brothers were always close and most of what the world now knows about Van Gogh comes from the more than 700 letters that were written to his brother Theo (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm).

Vincent seemed to be on his way when he fell in love with a young widow and began to obsess over her. During this time she rejected his attempts and he fell into despair. For the first time in his life he was being faced with an obstacle he could not change no matter how much he wanted to change it. When the woman spurned him one tragic night he went to her parent's home to confront her but her father refused to let Van Gogh see the woman of his affections. Van Gogh placed his hand over an oil lamp and said he would not stop till he saw the woman, at which time the dad blew out the lamp and humiliated Van Gogh (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm).

Vincent van Gogh met Clasina Maria Hoornik (1850-1904) in late February 1882, in The Hague. Already pregnant with her second child when Van Gogh met her, this woman, known as "Sien," moved in with Vincent shortly afterward. Vincent lived with Sien for the next year and a half. Their relationship was a stormy one, partly due to both of their volatile personalities and also because of the strain of living in complete poverty. Vincent's letters to Theo show him to be devoted to Sien and especially her children, but his art was always his first passion -- to the exclusion of all other concerns, including food. Sien and her children posed for dozens of drawings for Vincent, and his talents as an artist grew considerably during this period (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm).His early, more primitive drawings of the coal miners in the Borinage made way for far more refined and emotion-laden works. In the drawing Sien, Sitting on a Basket, with a Girl, for example, Vincent masterfully depicts quiet domesticity, as well as an underlying sense of despair -- feelings which would truly define Van Gogh's 19 months living with Sien (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm)."

Never one to sit still in life Van Gogh began to experiment with oil paintings. This helped influence the expressionism genre as well as he worked to bring the colors into a new realm for his patrons.

When his relationship with Sein ended he returned to Nuenen were his parents resided and worked to fine tune his ability to create works of art. During this time he painted and drew dozens of works using local peasants as subjects as well as the environment that they lived in.

Vincent's romantic life took yet another dramatic and unhappy turn that summer. Margot Begemann (1841-1907), whose family lived next door to Vincent's parents, had been in love with Vincent, and the emotional upheaval of the relationship lead her to attempt suicide by poison. Vincent was greatly distraught over the incident. Margot eventually recovered, but the episode upset Vincent a great deal and he referred to it in his letters on a number of occasions (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm)."

He worked hard on his craft changing things he believed did not work until he developed a style that was historical. It led to his first well-known great painting The Potato Eaters.

Vincent worked on The Potato Eaters throughout April of 1885. He had produced various drafts in preparation of the final, large oil on canvas version. The Potato Eaters is acknowledged to be Vincent van Gogh's first true masterpiece and he was encouraged by the outcome (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm).Although angered and upset by any criticism of the work (Vincent's friend and fellow artist, Anthon van Rappard (1858-1892), disliked the work and his comments would prompt Vincent to end their friendship), Vincent was pleased with the result and thus began a new, more confident and technically accomplished phase of his career (Van Gogh (http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.htm)."