Vincent Van Gogh Biography ( An Artist of exceptional talent.)

Biography:

Vincent   Van     Gogh     1853–1890. Vincent Van  Gogh    was   an  artist       of  exceptional talent.  Influenced                            by     impressionist painters  of  the  period, he  developed     his own  instinctive,       spontaneous style. Van Gogh became one of the most celebrated artists        of        the   twentieth        century       and played   a    key  role in   the   development of modern art.

“What am I in  the eyes  of most people   — a               nonentity,             an                     eccentric,    or    an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short,  the      lowest of   the   low.  All  right, then —  even   if  that  were  absolutely true, then I should  one day  like to  show by my work  what       such an            eccentric,  such    a nobody,  has   in      his         heart.    That   is        my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on       a           feeling                    of   serenity        than       on passion.”

– Vincent Van Gogh    (letter to   Theo,  July 1882)

Vincent Van Gogh

He was    born  in  Groot-Zundert,    a        small town          in       Holland     in   March       1853.   His father  was   a Protestant pastor   and          he had three uncles who were art dealers.

von goghHis early life seems generally to be  unhappy,      after a  period of working in his         uncles   art   dealership,      he     became frustrated  and    so became    a    Protestant minister.   He       became  a  preacher in     the poor agricultural  districts  of Brabant.  He empathised  with          the          poverty           of   the inhabitants      and     began       to  share        their poverty                and rough       living       conditions. Despite    trying   to  live        according   to     the gospel  message   of  poverty,       the  church authorities            were  displeased       that    Van Gogh     seemed            to      be  undermining   the ‘dignity          of              the     priesthood. He             was relieved of his post  and Van Gogh turned to       art.        Despite always              disliking      any formal       training,    he   studied  art    in     both Brussels        and    Paris.  He began   painting seriously, and   in Paris was influenced by the      new     impressionist painters:  Monet, Renoir  and  others.   Financially helped   by his        close brother    Theo, Van Gogh    later travelled   to  Arles in the   south  of France, where  he continued  his  painting  –   often outside                 –  another    feature            of               the impressionist movement.

“When I have  a  terrible need of     —   shall I say   the       word  —   religion. Then I  go       out and paint the stars.”

– Vincent Van Gogh

In  Arles,   he   had a  brief,  if  unsuccessful, period      of  time with     the      artist Gauguin. Van            Goghs               intensity             and         mental imbalance made him difficult to live with. At the  end    of     the   two  weeks, Van  Gogh approached  Gauguin   with a razor   blade. Gauguin fled back to Paris, and Van Gogh later cut off the lower part of his ear with the blade.

This action       was     symptomatic        of          his increasing    mental   imbalance.         He    was later        committed  to              a    lunatic    asylum where  he   would  spend   time   on   and    off until his death      in     1890. At     the      best    of times,          Van   Gogh               had      an   emotional intensity   that     flipped  between madness and genius. He himself wrote:

“Sometimes      moods         of          indescribable anguish, sometimes   moments when  the veil of time and fatality of circumstances seemed to be torn apart for an instant.”

It was  during these  last   two years  of his life          that    Van            Gogh was   at       his  most productive  as      a painter. He  developed  a style of painting that was quick and rapid – leaving  no  time for contemplation    and thought.                He            painted          with                  quick movements           of       the        brush     and      drew increasingly   avant-garde    style shapes – foreshadowing         modern     art            and            its abstract   style.      He felt  an  overwhelming need and desire to paint.

“The   work       is  an   absolute   necessity  for me.   I        cant           put    it  off,     I   dont      care  for anything   but  the work; that  is to   say,  the pleasure        in   something        else   ceases at once      and  I   become   melancholy when    I cant   go on with my work. Then I  feel   like a   weaver who    sees that his  threads   are tangled,    and       the   pattern he  had   on  the loom     is  gone to hell,  and    all his  thought and exertion is lost.”

– Vincent Van Gogh

In   1890,  a  series of  bad      news    affected his  mental       equilibrium  and     one   day     in July,    whilst painting,  he    shot   himself    in the  chest.  He  died        two  days  later   from his wound.