Post by philster on Jul 6, 2005 10:50:41 GMT
This is the second in a series of master artist profiles that I will be doing this summer - please feel free to comment in the thread. I used several book sources, but forgive me for not listing them here. But if you see anything that you're not sure on, please let me know.
*This profile is still in the works.*
Vincent Van Gogh
Full Name: Vincent Willem van Gogh
Nationality/Era: Late 19th Century Dutchman
Occupation: Art Dealer, Teacher, Missionary, Book Illustrator, Painter
Period/Style: Late 19th Century Western Art; Post-Impressionism
Year of Birth: 1853, March 30
Place of Birth: A small Dutch village of Groot-Zundert
Known Relatives: (Father), Theodorus Van Gogh, a parson, (Mother) Anna Cornelia van Gogh, nee Carbentus, (Siblings) Anna had given birth to a stillborn son also named Vincent Willem van Gogh before our own Vincent Van Gogh was born; Vincent was the eldest of six siblings: (1st) Anna (b. 1855); (2nd) Theo (b. 1857); (3rd) Elizabeth (b. 1859); (4th) Wilhelmien (b. 1862); and (5th) Cornelius (b. 1866) who also committed suicide at the even younger age of 34. Vincent had three uncles (all art dealers) and worked under one (also named Vincent). He also had a cousin, Kee Vos-Stricker, with whom he was enamored at one point, and the master artist he studied under, Anton Mauve, was also a relative.
Known Master(s)/Tutor(s): Painting - Anton Mauve; he also had some drawing tutors at the Academy of Fine Art in Antwerp.
Years of Apprenticeship: As an art dealer, he was apprenticed to an art dealer company, Goupil and Company, in the Hague offices at age 16 (1869) under the guidance of his uncle Vincent (nicknamed Uncle "Cent"). He worked as an apprentice there until he was promoted to the London offices in Stockwell at age 20 (1873). As a painter, he studied art under the tutelage of well-known painter and relative Anton Mauve in the Hague at the outset of the 1880s, and also studied art at the Academy of Fine Art in 1885.
Lived or Stayed At: 1 Groots-Zundert, Netherlands (1853-??), 2 The Hague, Netherlands, 3 Stockwell, London (1873), 4 Paris, 5 London (1876), 6 Netherlands (1877), 7 Brussels (1878), 8 The Borinage in South Belgium, near the town of Mons (1878), 9 The village of Paturges, South Belgium, 10 The town of Wasmes, South Belgium, 11 (Disappeared for a time), 12 Brussels (Oct. 1881-April 1881), 13 The parish of Etten, Netherlands (1881), 14 Amsterdam, 15 The Hague, 16 Drente in the NE of Holland (1883), 17 The parish at Nuenen in the east of North Brabant, Netherlands (1884-1885), 18 Antwerp (1885), 19 Paris (1886-Feb. 1888), 20 Provence, France - Arles, near the mouth of River Rhone (1888), 21 St Paul's Asylum near St. Remy, France (1888-1889), 22 Auvers-sur-Oise countryside 20 miles north of Paris (1890)
Married: Never married. Had a couple of unrequited loves (an already-engaged Englishwoman and a widowed cousin), and a "forbidden" love (a prostitute) named Sien Hoornik that caused great friction between him and his deeply Christian father.
Group Affiliation: Late Nineteenth Century Post-Impressionists
Known Patrons: None. Out of around 800 paintings, he only sold two of his paintings as far as we know. He was not truly discovered until about fifteen years after his death, tragically, but his paintings now number among the most valuable in the world. It's unfortunate that Van Gogh died believing himself as a failure.
Known Artistic Inspirations: Painting - Jean-Francois Millet, Anton van Rappard, Anton Mauve, Rubens, Camille Pisarro, Alfred Sisley, Armand Guillamin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas, Signac, Delacroix, Dore, Daumier, Paul Gauguin, and many others that he studied in Hague under Mauve and at the Academy of Fine Art in Antwerp and also saw in the fine art pieces that his brothers were selling. He also had a deep interest in Japanese art. He would develop a particularly unique painting style as a result of his studies and interests.
Known Rivals: Fellow artist Paul Gauguin, one of the four most influential Post-Impressionists (including Van Gogh himself) of the time, probably came the closest as a rival, but he was also a friend; they had a somewhat tempestuous relationship. The breaking of their friendship had led to Vincent's famous mental breakdown in which he cut off part of his ear, which in turn had led him to turn himself into an asylum.
Enemies: Obviously, his worst enemy was probably himself. He suffered from an unstable mind that might have been caused by either syphilis or porphyria (the same illness that caused the famous madness of King George III of England). Because of it, he had a tendency to suffer from severe depression whenever he had a life crisis (unrequited love and deaths of loved ones). At one point, he even put himself in an asylum for the insane at St. Remy. In the end, he killed himself.
Year of Death: 1890, July 29
Age at Death: 37
Place of Death: The countryside of Auvers-sur-Oise, 20 miles north of Paris.
Cause of Death: Suicide by self-inflicted gunshot. Died two days afterwards in the arms of his favorite brother, Theo.
History (Written by Phil!)
(Note by Phil - I'll probably elaborate more on his history more as I read some more about him this week.)
Vincent van Gogh was one of the most creative and emotional painters that ever lived, employing a diverse style that encompassed radical changes in style, color, and subject matter that was perhaps indicative of his varying states of mind. Despite the mental illness (of which the nature was uncertain) and the severe depression he suffered, he, however, was still an educated and an very intelligent man.
Vincent was born in a Dutch village named Groot-Zundert on March 30 1852 to a pastor, and lived a relatively happy childhood in a forward-thinking family environment.
He was not the first Vincent Willem van Gogh to be born to Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Cornelia van Gogh, however. His parents had had a stillborn baby exactly one year before Vincent was born, with an identical name. They buried him in the front yard. Though there seems to be no real evidence as to how this influenced the parents' treatment of the second Vincent Willem, there may be a truth in how Vincent felt like he had to prove himself as a worthy son and overcome the tragedy of that dead son's absence for his parents. The Spaniard Salvador Dali (1904-89) was born in similar circumstances and did think of the earlier Salvador as a haunting presence in his life, so who knows...
In any case, Vincent's father was a good-looking parson - he was nicknamed "the handsome pastor" - and a very charitable man. Vincent would look up to Theodorus as a hero, but also as an ideal figure that Vincent aspired to be and felt that he could not be. In fact, Vincent took more after his mother in both appearance and temperance.
Other than that, Vincent's childhood was very uneventful and happy. He was still seen as a problem child by most neighbor's accounts, an attention-starved, awkward child with horrible manners and one who felt more at home with "peasant children," but he out-grew it in time and was sent to the village school. He then was put in the charge of a governess. At the age of 11 he was sent to the first of two North Brabant boarding schools, Jan Provily's at Zevenbergen; then two years later, he moved on to a state-run establishment at Tilburg.
Van Gogh wasn't very happy at these boarding schools, and was seen often as a very reserved boy who would prefer to stand in the corner eating a piece of bread rather than sitting with the others at lunchtime. But other than learning to speak, write, and read French and German, he did develop a love for the beauty of the countryside, and would draw sketches almost constantly. Since he had three uncles that worked as art dealers, his career in the art world began at the age of 16, at which time he was selling other people's art, not creating his own.
He was given his first job to work under his uncle Vincent who worked at the Hague offices of a famous French art dealers, Goupil and Company. Vincent was soon employed as an apprentice in 1869. (Age 16)
In 1872, his brother Theo van Gogh, who would later finance Vincent and also help him throughout his numerous life crisies, also began working at Goupil's Brussels office and was a very successful businessman. By this time, Theo would become a valuable family member to Vincent Van Gogh, and they had pleaded to each other that they would stand by each other's side always. In his lifetime, Vincent would write over 600 letters to Theo on his side alone. In 1873, Vincent was promoted from the office and moved to the London offices of Goupil, in Stockwell.
In London he had his first emotional crisis - the unrequited love he felt for the daughter of his landlady, Eugenie Loyer, who was already engaged. This was his first experience with depression, which would worsen later on. Vincent longer cared for his job and decided to concentrate on religion, studying it with fervor but to the point where he would become less and less rational. His family and employers grew worried about Vincent's state of mind, and sent him to the Paris offices, hoping a change of environment would do him good.
This plan back-fired, however, as Vincent became even more miserable, reclusive, and isolated. He became a Bible fanatic, but also even more rude to people around him, including customers. Finally the company gave up on Vincent and dismissed him permanently on April 1876. Despite his heartbreak in London, Vincent still loved England and returned there and took an unpaid teaching job at a school in Ramsgate, Kent, but remained very poor.
After two months, Vincent was helped by a parson from London who offered him a place to stay as well as a paid teaching post. This led to a contented period, in which Vincent lived and worked with the Reverend and Mrs Slade-Jones, a couple with whom he forged a deep affection. During his time in London he worked in several areas that were not as urbanized as they are today, and made many detailed sketches of the countryside, buildings, and wildlife in his letters to his family, preferring drawing to writing descriptions of these places, even though he was a very talented correspondent and wrote in fine, elegant prose. His favorite people to write included his brother Theo and his mother.
During his time in London, he became more concerned for the welfare of the poor, as well as even more religious. This sympathy for the poor would influence many of his works later on. At the end of 1876, Vincent returned to the Netherlands and worked in a bookshop for the first few months in 1877, (Age 25) where he would constantly drown himself in literature.
Vincent at this time intended to become a minister, for which purpose he enrolled at the University of Amsterdam in May 1877. However, he did not complete the academic training, and left the university in July 1878 to move to Brussels to undertake three months of studying to become a missionary.
After completing training, Vincent moved to a poverty-stricken coal mining area in South Belgium called the Borinage, which was not far from the town of Mons. He still had a fervent belief to help the poor from his time in London and for the first six months as missionary he lived in the village of Paturges, before moving to the town of Wasmes. Over these last years, he also paid more attention to his artistic skills.
His religious zeal and rigidly ascetic lifestyle (stemming from his desire to become more Christ-like) made the people very suspicious of him, however, and even to think him insane and as an threat, and the church dismissed him from the post, seeing him as a failure.
This failure affected Vincent Van Gogh deeply, and for a time he disappeared, not even writing his family, including his brother Theo. Soon, however, he reappeared seemingly rejuvenated, writing to Theo and saying that he had came out of his despair and had realized his true vocation lay with painting. He had made this decision in September 1880.
"I am taking up my pencil again, I am putting myself to drawing anew and since then everything for me has been changed," Van Gogh wrote.
His time at the Borinage and the people (mostly coal miners) that he had met inspired many sketches and he began looking to the work of Jean-Francois Millet (1814-75) for inspiration and style.
As part of his self-taught technique, Vincent made copies of several of Millet's works, attempting to recreate the latter's themes and techniques.
This theme, that of the god fearing, hard-working people, the "salt of the earth" being more deserving of salvation, was to permeate his work, such as the Potato Eaters.
Vincent's first home as an artist was in Brussels (October 1880 until April 1881) in which he shared a studio with the Dutch painter Anton van Rappard. Van Gogh also began a new career as book illustrator and was financed by Theo.
Later in 1881 he returned home, spending several months living with his parents in their new parish of Etten, not far from Groot-Zundert. He continued his studies of rural life and the local workers, but the time at his parents' home also led to a second unrequited passion - this time for a widowed relative that was also his cousin! Not surprisingly, Kee Vos-Stricker was unmoved by his declarations, even though Vincent hopefully followed her and her family to Amsterdam where she, in exasperation, made it perfectly clear that she was not interested in him and never would be.
Dejected and depressed, Vincent nonetheless moved on after this second unrequited passion, and went back to the Hague, where he began studying art under the tutelage of one of the foremost artists of the day - Anton Mauve (1838-88) who was also related to the Van Gogh family. This time in the Hague began promisingly enough; Mauve introduced him to many celebrated painters of the time and Vincent began moving in the most respected artistic circles. He studied the styles of many different painters (for details, see Artistic Inspirations) and also began to love the works of contemporary novelists such as Charles Dickens, Emile Zola, and Victory Hugo. The months he spent working and studying under Mauve was extremely formative in the creation of his particularly unique style.
At this time, however, he also fell out with his father and was now totally dependant on any money he could earn from his art and the meagre allowance sent to him by Theo. The cause of the friction? Vincent van Gogh had befriended and moved in with a local prostitute named Sien Hoornik, the subject of some of his sketches during this time, the most poignant probably being Sorrow in which she appears with her head bowed. When she met Vincent, Sien was already a single mother and also pregnant with a second child. These sketches were evidence that Vincent had started to master drawing the human form.
But this relationship had led to financial disaster for Van Gogh. Not only had it caused friction between Vincent and his father, it also scandalized Hague society. As a result, Van Gogh never found patronage and a prosperous lifestyle. For a time his father considered admitting him to an asylum for the insane! But his brother Theo stood by him.
By the end of 1883 (age 31), Vincent had decided to part company with Sien. Leaving her behind, she moved to Drente in the north-east of Holland, where he lived from September to November. Here, guilt about Sien and frustration with his inability to make his way in the world without Theo's financial assistance depressed him, starting another period of deep melancholia.
The depression led him to return, in December, to the new home of his parents, who had moved to a parish at Nuenen, in the east of North Brabant.
The rift still remained, however, between him and his father, and there was an extremely strained family atmosphere for the few few months after his arrival. But this was resolved when his mother suffered a debilitating accident and Vincent became her nurse, tenderly guiding her back to health.
The reconciliation this brought about with his father was timely, as it came just weeks before the latter died suddenly, in the spring of 1885.
The rural area of Nuenen inspired Vincent and his work became more prolific around this time.
Between 1883 and 1885, he produced more than 50 sketches of local people, which he used as preliminary drawings for his 1885 masterpiece, the aforementioned The Potato Eaters.
In to this work he pushed all his creative energy, which was fueled by the emotions caused by his father's death. He was also fired by the energy of the peasants, particularly by the hard-working women of Nuenen.
The Potato Eaters was his tribute to the working classes; the social group he considered to be the closest to Christ.
He wrote the following comments about his paintings in a letter to Theo, "I thought of what had been said of those [peasants] of Millet, that they seem to have been painted with the very earth that they sow."
As he was later to do with The Sower (1888), he followed Millet's example in the pastoral subject matter chosen.
In November 1885, Vincent traveled to Antwerp, where he enrolled as a student at the Academy of Fine Art. There, he studied many more artists, but there was a falling out with his tutors who believed Vincent's drawing talents to be poor. Still, these few months at the Academy were to have a lasting effect on his art, introducing him to the works of Rubens and changing his previous conception about color. His palatee became lighter and paintings executed after this time often show a brightness not seen formerly.
In spring 1886, after leaving the Academy, Vincent moved to Paris, where he sought the companionship and reassurance of his favorite brother, Theo, after having been ill for a time. The brothers spent two years living together, during which Vincent's artwork became more and more prolific.
Vincent had seen the works that Theo was selling - by such painters as Camille Pisarro (1830-1903), Alfred Sisley (1839-99), and Armand Guillamin (1841-1927).
He also became acquainted with another famous artist, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and grew increasingly interested in Japanese art. The influence of these can be seen in several of his paintings from this time.
By now Vincent had mastered several media, including etching, watercolours, oils, and pencil. It was an exciting time for art, with Impressionism and Pointillism making a strong impact on the worlds of both artists and collectors.
Van Gogh was fascinated by these styles and spent much time studying the techniques and palettes of the radicaly new schools. Alongside Millet he began to study the works of Rubens, Degas, Signac, Delacroix, Dore, and Daumier, amongst other artists.
In Feb. 1888 Vincent left Theo and Paris, longing to return to the countryside. He moved to Provence, where he created some of his famous works, such as Sunflowers and The Harvest.
He lived in Arles, near the mouth of the River Rhome, for ten months, in what is now seen as the pinnacle of his career. The wonders of the countryside Vincent had seen here had inspired him to such extent that his works here as a result were mesmerizing. He also jumped between styles, sometimes switching from one to another direction in as short a time as one week.
In 1888, for instance, he produced, amongst others, The Sower at Sunset, Street in Saintes-Maries, Peach Trees in Blossom, and Harvest in Provence.
"At times his style appears strongly influenced by Impressionism: a strong sense of natural light merging the colors together and blurring the edges; the brushstrokes are heavy, leaving the canvases encrusted with a richly tactile layer of paint, the edges of shadows and object blurred, to give the viewer an indistinct impression of looking at a scene in full sunlight. Yet, in stark comparison, his work can also be bitingly sharply defined in bold primary colors. In this latter style, he uses fine, unbroken lines, thinner paints, strong blocks of color, and finer brush strokes. Both styles are equally masterful in content and construction, and both evoke the same sense of a reality of light, albeit through wildly differing methdos."
During Vincent's time in Provence, he was visited by fellow artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) with whom he had developed a close relationship. Gauguin was intending to make the move to Provence permanent, raising Vincent's hopes of creating a community of artists who would be all living and working in the same area, feeding off one another's artistic energy and providing a close-knit community of assistance and understanding.
Sadly, after a couple of months of living together, the two men fought and Gauguin left.
That had contributed to Vincent's suffering a severe mental breakdown - the fit of madness that led to his cutting off part of his ear. One of his most poignant self portrait shows himself with the ear bandaged. Terrified by this fit of insanity, he admitted himself to St Paul's Asylum, situated not far from St. Remy, the bills footed by Theo.
For a year he had fits of madnesses but also many periods of sanity aided by viewing the beautiful grounds of the asylum.
For whatever reason, Vincent had his most productive year at this asylum, creating over 200 works. The most famous and memorable work done at St Pauls, of course, was the evocative oil painting The Starry Night.
The words Vincent used to explain his painting to his brother indicate his state of mind: "Why should those points of light in the firmament... be less accessible than the dark ones on the map of France? We take a train to go to Tarascon or Rouen and we take death to reach a star."
January 1980 saw the first positive artistic review of Vincent's work, which was written by the critic Albert Aurier. Suddenly Vincent felt positive about his life and work, and began to hope for success again.
He moved out of the asylum, returned to live with his brother Theo, who had now married. The artist's life seemed to be back on track, and soon he had moved 20 miles north of Paris, to the countryside of Auvers-sur-Oise.
In the weeks that followed he painted constantly, producing more than 70 works between May and July. Tragically his mental recovery proved only temporary and, on July 27 1890, Vincent shot himself.
It took two days for him to die. Befittingly, Theo was with him for his last hours.
(( This Profile is still under Construction and WILL be modified several times in the next two weeks. ))
*This profile is still in the works.*
Vincent Van Gogh
Full Name: Vincent Willem van Gogh
Nationality/Era: Late 19th Century Dutchman
Occupation: Art Dealer, Teacher, Missionary, Book Illustrator, Painter
Period/Style: Late 19th Century Western Art; Post-Impressionism
Year of Birth: 1853, March 30
Place of Birth: A small Dutch village of Groot-Zundert
Known Relatives: (Father), Theodorus Van Gogh, a parson, (Mother) Anna Cornelia van Gogh, nee Carbentus, (Siblings) Anna had given birth to a stillborn son also named Vincent Willem van Gogh before our own Vincent Van Gogh was born; Vincent was the eldest of six siblings: (1st) Anna (b. 1855); (2nd) Theo (b. 1857); (3rd) Elizabeth (b. 1859); (4th) Wilhelmien (b. 1862); and (5th) Cornelius (b. 1866) who also committed suicide at the even younger age of 34. Vincent had three uncles (all art dealers) and worked under one (also named Vincent). He also had a cousin, Kee Vos-Stricker, with whom he was enamored at one point, and the master artist he studied under, Anton Mauve, was also a relative.
Known Master(s)/Tutor(s): Painting - Anton Mauve; he also had some drawing tutors at the Academy of Fine Art in Antwerp.
Years of Apprenticeship: As an art dealer, he was apprenticed to an art dealer company, Goupil and Company, in the Hague offices at age 16 (1869) under the guidance of his uncle Vincent (nicknamed Uncle "Cent"). He worked as an apprentice there until he was promoted to the London offices in Stockwell at age 20 (1873). As a painter, he studied art under the tutelage of well-known painter and relative Anton Mauve in the Hague at the outset of the 1880s, and also studied art at the Academy of Fine Art in 1885.
Lived or Stayed At: 1 Groots-Zundert, Netherlands (1853-??), 2 The Hague, Netherlands, 3 Stockwell, London (1873), 4 Paris, 5 London (1876), 6 Netherlands (1877), 7 Brussels (1878), 8 The Borinage in South Belgium, near the town of Mons (1878), 9 The village of Paturges, South Belgium, 10 The town of Wasmes, South Belgium, 11 (Disappeared for a time), 12 Brussels (Oct. 1881-April 1881), 13 The parish of Etten, Netherlands (1881), 14 Amsterdam, 15 The Hague, 16 Drente in the NE of Holland (1883), 17 The parish at Nuenen in the east of North Brabant, Netherlands (1884-1885), 18 Antwerp (1885), 19 Paris (1886-Feb. 1888), 20 Provence, France - Arles, near the mouth of River Rhone (1888), 21 St Paul's Asylum near St. Remy, France (1888-1889), 22 Auvers-sur-Oise countryside 20 miles north of Paris (1890)
Married: Never married. Had a couple of unrequited loves (an already-engaged Englishwoman and a widowed cousin), and a "forbidden" love (a prostitute) named Sien Hoornik that caused great friction between him and his deeply Christian father.
Group Affiliation: Late Nineteenth Century Post-Impressionists
Known Patrons: None. Out of around 800 paintings, he only sold two of his paintings as far as we know. He was not truly discovered until about fifteen years after his death, tragically, but his paintings now number among the most valuable in the world. It's unfortunate that Van Gogh died believing himself as a failure.
Known Artistic Inspirations: Painting - Jean-Francois Millet, Anton van Rappard, Anton Mauve, Rubens, Camille Pisarro, Alfred Sisley, Armand Guillamin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas, Signac, Delacroix, Dore, Daumier, Paul Gauguin, and many others that he studied in Hague under Mauve and at the Academy of Fine Art in Antwerp and also saw in the fine art pieces that his brothers were selling. He also had a deep interest in Japanese art. He would develop a particularly unique painting style as a result of his studies and interests.
Known Rivals: Fellow artist Paul Gauguin, one of the four most influential Post-Impressionists (including Van Gogh himself) of the time, probably came the closest as a rival, but he was also a friend; they had a somewhat tempestuous relationship. The breaking of their friendship had led to Vincent's famous mental breakdown in which he cut off part of his ear, which in turn had led him to turn himself into an asylum.
Enemies: Obviously, his worst enemy was probably himself. He suffered from an unstable mind that might have been caused by either syphilis or porphyria (the same illness that caused the famous madness of King George III of England). Because of it, he had a tendency to suffer from severe depression whenever he had a life crisis (unrequited love and deaths of loved ones). At one point, he even put himself in an asylum for the insane at St. Remy. In the end, he killed himself.
Year of Death: 1890, July 29
Age at Death: 37
Place of Death: The countryside of Auvers-sur-Oise, 20 miles north of Paris.
Cause of Death: Suicide by self-inflicted gunshot. Died two days afterwards in the arms of his favorite brother, Theo.
History (Written by Phil!)
(Note by Phil - I'll probably elaborate more on his history more as I read some more about him this week.)
Vincent van Gogh was one of the most creative and emotional painters that ever lived, employing a diverse style that encompassed radical changes in style, color, and subject matter that was perhaps indicative of his varying states of mind. Despite the mental illness (of which the nature was uncertain) and the severe depression he suffered, he, however, was still an educated and an very intelligent man.
Vincent was born in a Dutch village named Groot-Zundert on March 30 1852 to a pastor, and lived a relatively happy childhood in a forward-thinking family environment.
He was not the first Vincent Willem van Gogh to be born to Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Cornelia van Gogh, however. His parents had had a stillborn baby exactly one year before Vincent was born, with an identical name. They buried him in the front yard. Though there seems to be no real evidence as to how this influenced the parents' treatment of the second Vincent Willem, there may be a truth in how Vincent felt like he had to prove himself as a worthy son and overcome the tragedy of that dead son's absence for his parents. The Spaniard Salvador Dali (1904-89) was born in similar circumstances and did think of the earlier Salvador as a haunting presence in his life, so who knows...
In any case, Vincent's father was a good-looking parson - he was nicknamed "the handsome pastor" - and a very charitable man. Vincent would look up to Theodorus as a hero, but also as an ideal figure that Vincent aspired to be and felt that he could not be. In fact, Vincent took more after his mother in both appearance and temperance.
Other than that, Vincent's childhood was very uneventful and happy. He was still seen as a problem child by most neighbor's accounts, an attention-starved, awkward child with horrible manners and one who felt more at home with "peasant children," but he out-grew it in time and was sent to the village school. He then was put in the charge of a governess. At the age of 11 he was sent to the first of two North Brabant boarding schools, Jan Provily's at Zevenbergen; then two years later, he moved on to a state-run establishment at Tilburg.
Van Gogh wasn't very happy at these boarding schools, and was seen often as a very reserved boy who would prefer to stand in the corner eating a piece of bread rather than sitting with the others at lunchtime. But other than learning to speak, write, and read French and German, he did develop a love for the beauty of the countryside, and would draw sketches almost constantly. Since he had three uncles that worked as art dealers, his career in the art world began at the age of 16, at which time he was selling other people's art, not creating his own.
He was given his first job to work under his uncle Vincent who worked at the Hague offices of a famous French art dealers, Goupil and Company. Vincent was soon employed as an apprentice in 1869. (Age 16)
In 1872, his brother Theo van Gogh, who would later finance Vincent and also help him throughout his numerous life crisies, also began working at Goupil's Brussels office and was a very successful businessman. By this time, Theo would become a valuable family member to Vincent Van Gogh, and they had pleaded to each other that they would stand by each other's side always. In his lifetime, Vincent would write over 600 letters to Theo on his side alone. In 1873, Vincent was promoted from the office and moved to the London offices of Goupil, in Stockwell.
In London he had his first emotional crisis - the unrequited love he felt for the daughter of his landlady, Eugenie Loyer, who was already engaged. This was his first experience with depression, which would worsen later on. Vincent longer cared for his job and decided to concentrate on religion, studying it with fervor but to the point where he would become less and less rational. His family and employers grew worried about Vincent's state of mind, and sent him to the Paris offices, hoping a change of environment would do him good.
This plan back-fired, however, as Vincent became even more miserable, reclusive, and isolated. He became a Bible fanatic, but also even more rude to people around him, including customers. Finally the company gave up on Vincent and dismissed him permanently on April 1876. Despite his heartbreak in London, Vincent still loved England and returned there and took an unpaid teaching job at a school in Ramsgate, Kent, but remained very poor.
After two months, Vincent was helped by a parson from London who offered him a place to stay as well as a paid teaching post. This led to a contented period, in which Vincent lived and worked with the Reverend and Mrs Slade-Jones, a couple with whom he forged a deep affection. During his time in London he worked in several areas that were not as urbanized as they are today, and made many detailed sketches of the countryside, buildings, and wildlife in his letters to his family, preferring drawing to writing descriptions of these places, even though he was a very talented correspondent and wrote in fine, elegant prose. His favorite people to write included his brother Theo and his mother.
During his time in London, he became more concerned for the welfare of the poor, as well as even more religious. This sympathy for the poor would influence many of his works later on. At the end of 1876, Vincent returned to the Netherlands and worked in a bookshop for the first few months in 1877, (Age 25) where he would constantly drown himself in literature.
Vincent at this time intended to become a minister, for which purpose he enrolled at the University of Amsterdam in May 1877. However, he did not complete the academic training, and left the university in July 1878 to move to Brussels to undertake three months of studying to become a missionary.
After completing training, Vincent moved to a poverty-stricken coal mining area in South Belgium called the Borinage, which was not far from the town of Mons. He still had a fervent belief to help the poor from his time in London and for the first six months as missionary he lived in the village of Paturges, before moving to the town of Wasmes. Over these last years, he also paid more attention to his artistic skills.
His religious zeal and rigidly ascetic lifestyle (stemming from his desire to become more Christ-like) made the people very suspicious of him, however, and even to think him insane and as an threat, and the church dismissed him from the post, seeing him as a failure.
This failure affected Vincent Van Gogh deeply, and for a time he disappeared, not even writing his family, including his brother Theo. Soon, however, he reappeared seemingly rejuvenated, writing to Theo and saying that he had came out of his despair and had realized his true vocation lay with painting. He had made this decision in September 1880.
"I am taking up my pencil again, I am putting myself to drawing anew and since then everything for me has been changed," Van Gogh wrote.
His time at the Borinage and the people (mostly coal miners) that he had met inspired many sketches and he began looking to the work of Jean-Francois Millet (1814-75) for inspiration and style.
As part of his self-taught technique, Vincent made copies of several of Millet's works, attempting to recreate the latter's themes and techniques.
This theme, that of the god fearing, hard-working people, the "salt of the earth" being more deserving of salvation, was to permeate his work, such as the Potato Eaters.
Vincent's first home as an artist was in Brussels (October 1880 until April 1881) in which he shared a studio with the Dutch painter Anton van Rappard. Van Gogh also began a new career as book illustrator and was financed by Theo.
Later in 1881 he returned home, spending several months living with his parents in their new parish of Etten, not far from Groot-Zundert. He continued his studies of rural life and the local workers, but the time at his parents' home also led to a second unrequited passion - this time for a widowed relative that was also his cousin! Not surprisingly, Kee Vos-Stricker was unmoved by his declarations, even though Vincent hopefully followed her and her family to Amsterdam where she, in exasperation, made it perfectly clear that she was not interested in him and never would be.
Dejected and depressed, Vincent nonetheless moved on after this second unrequited passion, and went back to the Hague, where he began studying art under the tutelage of one of the foremost artists of the day - Anton Mauve (1838-88) who was also related to the Van Gogh family. This time in the Hague began promisingly enough; Mauve introduced him to many celebrated painters of the time and Vincent began moving in the most respected artistic circles. He studied the styles of many different painters (for details, see Artistic Inspirations) and also began to love the works of contemporary novelists such as Charles Dickens, Emile Zola, and Victory Hugo. The months he spent working and studying under Mauve was extremely formative in the creation of his particularly unique style.
At this time, however, he also fell out with his father and was now totally dependant on any money he could earn from his art and the meagre allowance sent to him by Theo. The cause of the friction? Vincent van Gogh had befriended and moved in with a local prostitute named Sien Hoornik, the subject of some of his sketches during this time, the most poignant probably being Sorrow in which she appears with her head bowed. When she met Vincent, Sien was already a single mother and also pregnant with a second child. These sketches were evidence that Vincent had started to master drawing the human form.
But this relationship had led to financial disaster for Van Gogh. Not only had it caused friction between Vincent and his father, it also scandalized Hague society. As a result, Van Gogh never found patronage and a prosperous lifestyle. For a time his father considered admitting him to an asylum for the insane! But his brother Theo stood by him.
By the end of 1883 (age 31), Vincent had decided to part company with Sien. Leaving her behind, she moved to Drente in the north-east of Holland, where he lived from September to November. Here, guilt about Sien and frustration with his inability to make his way in the world without Theo's financial assistance depressed him, starting another period of deep melancholia.
The depression led him to return, in December, to the new home of his parents, who had moved to a parish at Nuenen, in the east of North Brabant.
The rift still remained, however, between him and his father, and there was an extremely strained family atmosphere for the few few months after his arrival. But this was resolved when his mother suffered a debilitating accident and Vincent became her nurse, tenderly guiding her back to health.
The reconciliation this brought about with his father was timely, as it came just weeks before the latter died suddenly, in the spring of 1885.
The rural area of Nuenen inspired Vincent and his work became more prolific around this time.
Between 1883 and 1885, he produced more than 50 sketches of local people, which he used as preliminary drawings for his 1885 masterpiece, the aforementioned The Potato Eaters.
In to this work he pushed all his creative energy, which was fueled by the emotions caused by his father's death. He was also fired by the energy of the peasants, particularly by the hard-working women of Nuenen.
The Potato Eaters was his tribute to the working classes; the social group he considered to be the closest to Christ.
He wrote the following comments about his paintings in a letter to Theo, "I thought of what had been said of those [peasants] of Millet, that they seem to have been painted with the very earth that they sow."
As he was later to do with The Sower (1888), he followed Millet's example in the pastoral subject matter chosen.
In November 1885, Vincent traveled to Antwerp, where he enrolled as a student at the Academy of Fine Art. There, he studied many more artists, but there was a falling out with his tutors who believed Vincent's drawing talents to be poor. Still, these few months at the Academy were to have a lasting effect on his art, introducing him to the works of Rubens and changing his previous conception about color. His palatee became lighter and paintings executed after this time often show a brightness not seen formerly.
In spring 1886, after leaving the Academy, Vincent moved to Paris, where he sought the companionship and reassurance of his favorite brother, Theo, after having been ill for a time. The brothers spent two years living together, during which Vincent's artwork became more and more prolific.
Vincent had seen the works that Theo was selling - by such painters as Camille Pisarro (1830-1903), Alfred Sisley (1839-99), and Armand Guillamin (1841-1927).
He also became acquainted with another famous artist, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and grew increasingly interested in Japanese art. The influence of these can be seen in several of his paintings from this time.
By now Vincent had mastered several media, including etching, watercolours, oils, and pencil. It was an exciting time for art, with Impressionism and Pointillism making a strong impact on the worlds of both artists and collectors.
Van Gogh was fascinated by these styles and spent much time studying the techniques and palettes of the radicaly new schools. Alongside Millet he began to study the works of Rubens, Degas, Signac, Delacroix, Dore, and Daumier, amongst other artists.
In Feb. 1888 Vincent left Theo and Paris, longing to return to the countryside. He moved to Provence, where he created some of his famous works, such as Sunflowers and The Harvest.
He lived in Arles, near the mouth of the River Rhome, for ten months, in what is now seen as the pinnacle of his career. The wonders of the countryside Vincent had seen here had inspired him to such extent that his works here as a result were mesmerizing. He also jumped between styles, sometimes switching from one to another direction in as short a time as one week.
In 1888, for instance, he produced, amongst others, The Sower at Sunset, Street in Saintes-Maries, Peach Trees in Blossom, and Harvest in Provence.
"At times his style appears strongly influenced by Impressionism: a strong sense of natural light merging the colors together and blurring the edges; the brushstrokes are heavy, leaving the canvases encrusted with a richly tactile layer of paint, the edges of shadows and object blurred, to give the viewer an indistinct impression of looking at a scene in full sunlight. Yet, in stark comparison, his work can also be bitingly sharply defined in bold primary colors. In this latter style, he uses fine, unbroken lines, thinner paints, strong blocks of color, and finer brush strokes. Both styles are equally masterful in content and construction, and both evoke the same sense of a reality of light, albeit through wildly differing methdos."
During Vincent's time in Provence, he was visited by fellow artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) with whom he had developed a close relationship. Gauguin was intending to make the move to Provence permanent, raising Vincent's hopes of creating a community of artists who would be all living and working in the same area, feeding off one another's artistic energy and providing a close-knit community of assistance and understanding.
Sadly, after a couple of months of living together, the two men fought and Gauguin left.
That had contributed to Vincent's suffering a severe mental breakdown - the fit of madness that led to his cutting off part of his ear. One of his most poignant self portrait shows himself with the ear bandaged. Terrified by this fit of insanity, he admitted himself to St Paul's Asylum, situated not far from St. Remy, the bills footed by Theo.
For a year he had fits of madnesses but also many periods of sanity aided by viewing the beautiful grounds of the asylum.
For whatever reason, Vincent had his most productive year at this asylum, creating over 200 works. The most famous and memorable work done at St Pauls, of course, was the evocative oil painting The Starry Night.
The words Vincent used to explain his painting to his brother indicate his state of mind: "Why should those points of light in the firmament... be less accessible than the dark ones on the map of France? We take a train to go to Tarascon or Rouen and we take death to reach a star."
January 1980 saw the first positive artistic review of Vincent's work, which was written by the critic Albert Aurier. Suddenly Vincent felt positive about his life and work, and began to hope for success again.
He moved out of the asylum, returned to live with his brother Theo, who had now married. The artist's life seemed to be back on track, and soon he had moved 20 miles north of Paris, to the countryside of Auvers-sur-Oise.
In the weeks that followed he painted constantly, producing more than 70 works between May and July. Tragically his mental recovery proved only temporary and, on July 27 1890, Vincent shot himself.
It took two days for him to die. Befittingly, Theo was with him for his last hours.
(( This Profile is still under Construction and WILL be modified several times in the next two weeks. ))