Vincent Van Gogh 1853-1890
Born the son of a Dutch minister, Vincent van Gogh painted only for a 10-year period beginning in 1880, after trying several other careers in his short life: art dealer, teacher, and missionary.
During those 10 years, he produced a high volume of works in the Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist styles, although he sold only one painting during his life. Van Gogh hoped
...see more »to create an artist's colony in Arles, Provence, in the south of France and invited his friend Paul Gauguin and others to live with him there. He painted over 200 canvases in 15 months after moving to Arles in 1888.
Studying in Brussels in 1861 and Paris in 1886, Van Gogh was influenced by many other famous painters of the time, including Toulouse-Lautrec, Camille Pisarro, and Emile Bernard. These artists' influences contributed to a changed style where he used a brighter color palette and more dramatic patterns in his works. After spending a year in the St. Remy Hospital because of a mental breakdown, he shot himself in July 1890 at the scene of his last painting 'Cornfields with Flight of Birds'.
Along with Cezanne and Gauguin, Van Gogh is considered a pioneer of Expressionism, using color to generate emotions, and greatly influenced the Fauve movement and other subsequent experiments in art.
At Arles, the Provençal landscape gave him many of his favorite subjects, such as "Sunflowers" and 'The Bridge'.
Other well-known works:
1885 The Potato Eaters (Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam)
1888 Harvest in Provence (Private Collection)
1888 Sunflowers (Tate, London)
1888 The Bridge (Cologne)
1888 Night Café (Yale University Art Gallery, Connecticut)
1888-9 The Chair and the Pipe (Tate, London)
1889 Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (Courtauld Institute Galleries, London)
1889 Starry Night (Museum of Modern Art, New York City)
1889 Hospital Corridor at Saint-Rémy (Museum of Modern Art, New York City)
1889 Portrait of the Artist Without Beard (Private Collection)
1889 Green Corn (Národní Galerie, Prague)
1890 The Church at Auvers-sur-Oise (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)
1890 Cornfields with Flight of Birds (Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam)« see less
