Programs about the work of Van Gogh. Vincent van Gogh: works

Everyone knows the Dutch painter. The difficult fate was reflected in his paintings, which became famous only after the death of the artist. He created over 200 paintings and over 500 drawings, carefully preserved by his brother, and later his wife and nephew, and devoted to the museum. Van Gogh lived a short life, but in his life there were many interesting stories that are passed down from generation to generation.

ear story

The most interesting story that excites the minds of contemporaries is about severed ear. But it is reliably known that the artist cut off only his earlobe. What prompted him to do this? And how did it really happen? The most reliable version is that during a quarrel with the French painter Gauguin, Van Gogh attacked him with a razor. But Gauguin turned out to be more dodgy and managed to stop him.


The quarrel was over a woman, and a worried Van Gogh cut off his own earlobe that very night. The cut off earlobe was presented by the artist to this woman – she was a prostitute. This event occurred at the moment of insanity from the frequent use of absinthe - a tincture of bitter wormwood, with a large use of which hallucinations, aggressiveness, and a change in consciousness occur.

Two births of Van Gogh

The Dutch pastor had his first child in 1852, named Vincent, but he died a few weeks later. And a year later, on the day of March 30, 1953, a boy is born again, whom they also decide to call Vincent van Gogh.

Understanding life

Working in different places and constantly watching the hard lot of the poor, the son of a Protestant pastor decided to also become a priest and celebrate masses in favor of the poor. He helped the poor, cared for the sick, taught children, painted at night to earn money. The artist decided to write a petition for better working conditions for the poor, but he was refused. He realized that sermons play no role in the fight against the hard lot of the poor. The young priest leaves home, distributes all his savings to those in need, and as a result, he is deprived of the priesthood. All this was reflected in the mental state of the artist and later decided the whole fate of Van Gogh.

Van Gogh's inspiration

Van Gogh was inspired by a French artist millet, who in his paintings depicted the hard lot of the poor, their work and plight in society. Van Gogh painted from Millet's black and white drawings, conveying his gaze into them. The difference is that Van Gogh's paintings are bright, expressive, in contrast to the melancholic works of Millet. Van Gogh imagined the life of the poor, as they saw themselves, their attitude to work - this is what ensures their life, as a reverence for the hard lot that contributes to their existence. Their faces express gratitude to the land that gave the harvest. Gratitude to the harvest that now lies on their table.

Extraordinary vision of color

Van Gogh was able to mix colors on his canvases as no one else had done before him. He mixed warm colors with cold ones, primary colors with complementary ones, and achieved amazing effects. The main color of his paintings is yellow. Yellow field, yellow sun, yellow hat, yellow flowers. Yellow color expresses energy, uplift, creative inspiration. Surrounding himself with yellow, he tried to escape from life's troubles, paint life in bright colors. It is claimed that by drinking absinthe, a person sees the world as through a yellow prism. Perhaps that is why its yellow color is even brighter than ordinary yellow.
Yellow was combined with blue, purple, blue-black. A strange combination - combinations of madness.

Sunflowers in Van Gogh's painting

The artist created 10 paintings with sunflowers. They are in a vase: three, twelve, five, cut sunflowers, sunflowers with roses. 10 canvases have been proven to belong to the painter’s brush, another canvas has not been confirmed, they believe that this is a copy. It is known from letters to his brother that Van Gogh loved sunflowers and considered them his flowers. The yellow sunflower represents friendship and hope. He wanted to decorate the “yellow house” inside with them. Because there were very white walls, which he complained to his brother Theo.

friendship with brother

Van Gogh had five brothers and sisters, but he kept in touch and was friends only with his brother Theo. They corresponded and exchanged information. More than 900 letters from the artist have been found, and most of them are addressed to his brother. Theo helped him with money. At the time of a serious condition, he determined him to the clinic. He was with him in the last days of his life.

Attitude towards family life

Having experienced disappointments in love, Van Gogh decides for himself that the artist should devote himself to painting. And that's why he uses random connections.

"Starlight Night"

In a state of severe depression, the artist went to a psychiatric clinic, where a room was assigned to him. And there he painted his paintings. There he created one of the most recognizable paintings " Starlight Night". Characterizing the color scheme and the quality of the strokes, it is confirmed that the picture was painted by a person experiencing loneliness, vulnerable, with mood swings to the depressive. He painted the picture from memory, which is rare for his manner, and confirms his serious condition.

Painter's disease

Numerous scientific studies have failed to provide a medical opinion on Van Gogh's disease. It was claimed that he was ill with epilepsy, or schizophrenia, but there is no medical confirmation of this. His aunt had epilepsy and his sister had schizophrenia. More and more confirmation finds the answer in the constant depression of the artist. He was oppressed by the hard work of the miners, he was worried about the hard lot of the plowmen, and that he could not help them in any way.

Van Gogh's suicide

Van Gogh committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart with a revolver. The bullet missed the heart, and he came home and went to bed. He lived for two more days and died at the age of 37, without waiting for the recognition of his work. During the funeral, only a few people walked behind the coffin.

Nowadays, few people do not know about the great artist Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh's biography was destined to be not too long, but eventful and full of hardships, brief ups and desperate falls. Few people know that in his entire life Vincent managed to sell only one of his paintings for a significant amount, and only after his death did his contemporaries recognize the enormous influence of the Dutch post-impressionist on the painting of the 20th century. The biography of Van Gogh can be briefly summarized in the dying words of the great master:

The sadness will never end.

Unfortunately, the life of an amazing and original creator was full of pain and disappointment. But who knows, maybe, if not for all the losses in life, the world would never have seen his amazing works, which people still admire?

Childhood

A brief biography and work of Vincent van Gogh was restored through the efforts of his brother Theo. Vincent had almost no friends, so everything we now know about the great artist was told by a man who loved him immensely.

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in North Brabant in the village of Grot-Zundert. Theodore and Anna Cornelia Van Gogh's first-born child died in infancy - Vincent became the eldest child in the family. Four years after the birth of Vincent, his brother Theodorus was born, with whom Vincent was close until the end of his life. In addition, they also had a brother Cornelius and three sisters (Anna, Elisabeth and Willemina).

An interesting fact in the biography of Van Gogh is that he grew up as a difficult and stubborn child with extravagant manners. At the same time, outside the family, Vincent was serious, gentle, thoughtful and calm. He did not like to communicate with other children, but his fellow villagers considered him a modest and friendly child.

In 1864 he was sent to a boarding school in Zevenbergen. The artist Van Gogh recalled this segment of his biography with pain: the departure caused him a lot of suffering. This place doomed him to loneliness, so Vincent took up his studies, but already in 1868 he left his studies and returned home. In fact, this is all the formal education that the artist managed to receive.

A brief biography and work of Van Gogh is still carefully kept in museums and a few testimonies: no one could have thought that an unbearable child would become a truly great creator - even if his significance was recognized only after his death.

Work and missionary activity

A year after returning home, Vincent goes to work in the Hague branch of his uncle's art and trading company. In 1873 Vincent was transferred to London. Over time, Vinset learned to appreciate painting and understand it. He later moves to 87 Hackford Road, where he rents a room with Ursula Leuer and her daughter Eugenie. Some biographers add that Van Gogh was in love with Eugenia, although the facts say that he loved the German Karlina Haanebiek.

In 1874, Vincent was already working in the Paris branch, but soon he returned to London. Things are getting worse for him: a year later he is again transferred to Paris, visits art museums and exhibitions, and finally gains the courage to try his hand at painting. Vincent cools off to work, fired up with a new business. All this leads to the fact that in 1876 he was fired from the company for poor performance.

Then in the biography of Vincent van Gogh there comes a moment when he returns to London again and teaches at a boarding school in Ramsgate. In the same life period, Vincent devoted a lot of time to religion, he has a desire to become a pastor, following in the footsteps of his father. A little later, Van Gogh moved to another school in Isleworth, where he began to work as a teacher and assistant pastor. Vincent gave his first sermon there. Interest in writing grew, he was inspired by the idea of ​​preaching to the poor.

At Christmas, Vincent went home, where he was begged not to go back to England. So he stayed in the Netherlands to help in a bookshop in Dordrecht. But this work did not inspire him: he mainly occupied himself with sketches and translations of the Bible.

His parents supported Van Gogh's desire to become a priest by sending him to Amsterdam in 1877. There he settled with his uncle Jan van Gogh. Vincent studied hard under the supervision of Johannes Stricker, a famous theologian, preparing for the exams for admission to the theology department. But very soon he quits classes and leaves Amsterdam.

The desire to find his place in the world led him to Pastor Bokma's Protestant Missionary School in Laeken near Brussels, where he took a course in preaching. There is also an opinion that Vincent did not complete the full course, because he was expelled due to his untidy appearance, quick temper and fits of anger.

In 1878, Vincent became a missionary for six months in the village of Paturazh in the Borinage. Here he visited the sick, read the Scriptures for those who could not read, taught children, and at night he was engaged in drawing maps of Palestine, earning a living. Van Gogh planned to enter the Gospel School, but he considered the tuition fees to be discrimination and abandoned this idea. Soon he was removed from the priesthood - this was a painful blow for the future artist, but also an important fact of Van Gogh's biography. Who knows, perhaps, if not for this high-profile event, Vincent would have become a priest, and the world would never have known the talented artist.

Becoming an artist

Studying a brief biography of Vincent van Gogh, we can conclude that fate seemed to push him all his life in the right direction and led him to drawing. Seeking salvation from despondency, Vincent again turns to painting. He turns to his brother Theo for support and in 1880 goes to Brussels, where he attends classes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. A year later, Vincent is forced to leave school again and return to his family. It was then that he decided that the artist does not need any talent, the main thing is to work hard and tirelessly. Therefore, he continues painting and drawing on his own.

During this period, Vincent experiences a new love, this time addressed to his cousin, the widow Kay Vos-Stricker, who was visiting the Van Goghs' house. But she did not reciprocate, but Vincent continued to court her, which caused the indignation of her relatives. In the end, he was told to leave. Van Gogh is experiencing another shock and refuses to try to establish a further personal life.

Vincent leaves for The Hague, where he takes lessons from Anton Mauve. Over time, the biography and work of Vincent van Gogh was filled with new colors, including in painting: he experimented with mixing different techniques. Then such works of his as “Backyards” were born, which he created with the help of chalk, pen and brush, as well as the painting “Roofs. View from Van Gogh's workshop, painted in watercolor and chalk. A great influence on the formation of his work was influenced by the book of Charles Bargue "Drawing Course", lithographs from which he diligently copied.

Vincent was a man of fine mental organization, and, one way or another, he was drawn to people and emotional returns. Despite his decision to forget about his personal life, in The Hague, he nevertheless again attempted to create a family. He met Christine right on the street and was so imbued with her plight that he invited her to settle in his house with the children. This act finally severed Vincent's relationship with all his relatives, but they maintained a warm relationship with Theo. So Vincent got a girlfriend and a model. But Christine turned out to be a nightmare character: Van Gogh's life turned into a nightmare.

When they parted, the artist went north to the province of Drenthe. He equipped a dwelling for a workshop, and spent whole days outdoors, creating landscapes. But the artist himself did not call himself a landscape painter, dedicating his paintings to the peasants and their everyday life.

Van Gogh's early works are classified as realism, but his technique does not quite fit into this direction. One of the problems that Van Gogh faced in his work is the inability to correctly depict the human figure. But this only played into the hands of the great artist: it became a characteristic feature of his manner: the interpretation of man as an integral part of the world around him. This is clearly seen, for example, in the work "Peasant and Peasant Woman Planting Potatoes". Human figures are like mountains in the distance, and the elevated horizon seems to press on them from above, preventing them from straightening their backs. A similar device can be seen in his later work "Red Vineyards".

In this segment of his biography, Van Gogh writes a series of works, including:

• "Exit from the Protestant Church in Nuenen";
• "Potato Eaters";
• "Peasant Woman";
• "The Old Church Tower at Nuenen".

The paintings are created in dark shades, which symbolize the author's painful perception of human suffering and a feeling of general depression. Van Gogh depicted the heavy atmosphere of hopelessness of the peasants and the sad mood of the village. At the same time, Vincent formed his own understanding of landscapes: in his opinion, the state of mind of a person is expressed through the landscape through the connection of human psychology and nature.

Parisian period

The artistic life of the French capital is flourishing: it was there that the great artists of that time flocked. A landmark event was the exhibition of the Impressionists on the rue Lafitte: for the first time, the works of Signac and Seurat, who proclaimed the beginning of the post-impressionism movement, are shown. It was impressionism that revolutionized art, changing the approach to painting. This trend presented a confrontation with academicism and outdated subjects: pure colors and the very impression of what they saw, which are later transferred to the canvas, are at the head of creativity. Post-Impressionism was the final stage of Impressionism.

The Parisian period, lasting from 1986 to 1988, became the most fruitful in the life of the artist, his collection of paintings was replenished with more than 230 drawings and canvases. Vincent van Gogh forms his own view of art: the realistic approach is becoming a thing of the past, giving way to the desire for post-impressionism.

With the acquaintance with Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet, the colors in his paintings begin to lighten and become brighter and brighter, eventually becoming a real riot of colors, characteristic of his latest works.

The shop of papa Tanga, where art materials were sold, became a landmark place. Here many artists met and exhibited their work. But Van Gogh's temper was still irreconcilable: the spirit of rivalry and tension in society often drove the impulsive artist out of himself, so Vincent soon quarreled with friends and decided to leave the French capital.

Among the famous works of the Parisian period are the following paintings:

• "Agostina Segatori at the Tambourine Café";
• "Daddy Tanguy";
• "Still life with absinthe";
• "Bridge over the Seine";
• "View of Paris from Theo's apartment on Rue Lepic."

Provence

Vincent goes to Provence and is imbued with this atmosphere for the rest of his life. Theo supports his brother's decision to become a real artist and sends him money to live on, and he sends him his paintings in gratitude in the hope that his brother will be able to sell them profitably. Van Gogh settles in a hotel where he lives and creates, periodically inviting random visitors or acquaintances to pose.

With the onset of spring, Vincent gets out into the street and draws flowering trees and reviving nature. The ideas of impressionism gradually leave his work, but remain in the form of a light palette and pure colors. During this period of his work, Vincent writes "The Peach Tree in Blossom", "The Anglois Bridge in Arles".

Van Gogh even worked at night, once imbued with the idea of ​​capturing the special night shades and the glow of the stars. He works by candlelight: this is how the famous "Starry Night over the Rhone" and "Night Café" were created.

severed ear

Vincent is inspired by the idea of ​​creating a common home for the artist, where creators could create their masterpieces while living and working together. An important event is the arrival of Paul Gauguin, with whom Vincent had a long correspondence. Together with Gauguin, Vincent writes works filled with passion:

• "Yellow House";
• "Harvest. Valley of La Crau;
• "Armchair of Gauguin".

Vincent was beside himself with happiness, but this union ends in a loud quarrel. Passions were running high, and in one of his desperate cloudings, Van Gogh, according to some reports, attacks a friend with a razor in his hands. Gauguin manages to stop Vincent, and in the end he cuts off his earlobe. Gauguin leaves his house, while he wrapped the bloody flesh in a napkin and handed it to a familiar prostitute named Rachel. In a pool of his own blood, he was found by his friend Roulin. Although the wound soon healed, a deep mark on Vincent's heart shook Vincent's mental health for life. Vincent soon finds himself in a psychiatric hospital.

The heyday of creativity

During periods of remission, he asked to return to the workshop, but the inhabitants of Arles signed a statement to the mayor with a request to isolate the mentally ill artist from civilians. But in the hospital he was not forbidden to create: until 1889, Vincent worked on new paintings right there. During this time, he created over 100 pencil and watercolor drawings. The canvases of this period are distinguished by tension, vivid dynamics and contrasting contrasting colors:

• "Landscape with Olives";
• "Wheat field with cypresses".

At the end of the same year, Vincent was invited to participate in the G20 exhibition in Brussels. His works aroused great interest among connoisseurs of painting, but this could no longer please the artist, and even a laudatory article about the "Red Vineyards in Arles" did not make the exhausted Van Gogh happy.

In 1890, he moved to the Opera-sur-Ourze, near Paris, where he saw his family for the first time in a long time. He continued to write, but his style became more and more gloomy and oppressive. A distinctive feature of that period was a twisted and hysterical contour, which can be seen in the following works:

• "Street and stairs in Auvers";
• "Rural road with cypresses";
• "Landscape at Auvers after the rain".

Last years

The last bright memory in the life of the great artist was an acquaintance with Dr. Paul Gachet, who also loved to write. Friendship with him supported Vincent in the most difficult periods of his life - except for his brother, the postman Roulin and Dr. Gachet, by the end of his life, he had no close friends left.

In 1890, Vincent paints the canvas "Wheat Field with Crows", and a tragedy occurs a week later.

The circumstances of the death of the artist looks mysterious. Vincent was shot in the heart with his own revolver, which he carried with him to scare away birds. Dying, the artist admitted that he shot himself in the chest, but missed, hitting a little lower. He himself got to the hotel where he lived, he called the doctor. The doctor was skeptical about the version of a suicide attempt - the angle of entry of the bullet was suspiciously low, and the bullet did not go right through, which suggests that they were shooting as if from afar - or at least from a distance of a couple of meters. The doctor immediately called Theo - he arrived the next day and was next to his brother until his death.

There is a version that on the eve of Van Gogh's death, the artist seriously quarreled with Dr. Gachet. He accused him of insolvency, while his brother Theo is literally dying from a disease that eats him, but still sends him money to live. These words could have hurt Vincent greatly - after all, he himself felt great guilt before his brother. In addition, in recent years, Vincent had feelings for the lady, which again did not lead to reciprocity. Being as depressed as possible, upset by a quarrel with a friend, having recently left the hospital, Vincent could well decide to commit suicide.

Vincent died July 30, 1890. Theo loved his brother infinitely and with great difficulty experienced this loss. He set about organizing an exhibition of Vincent's posthumous works, but less than a year later, he died of a severe nervous shock on January 25, 1891. Years later, Theo's widow reburied his remains next to Vincent: she felt that the inseparable brothers should be next to each other at least after death.

Confession

There is a widespread misconception that during his lifetime, Van Gogh was able to sell only one of his paintings - "Red Vineyards in Arles". This work was only the first, sold for a large amount - about 400 francs. Nevertheless, there are documents showing the sale of 14 more paintings.

Indeed, Vincent van Gogh received wide recognition only after his death. His commemorative exhibitions were organized in Paris, The Hague, Antwerp, Brussels. Interest in the artist began to grow, and at the beginning of the 20th century, retrospectives began in Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Cologne and Berlin. People began to be interested in his work, and his work began to influence the younger generation of artists.

Gradually, the prices of the painter's paintings began to increase until they became one of the most expensive paintings ever sold in the world, along with the works of Pablo Picasso. Among his most expensive works:

• "Portrait of Dr. Gachet";
• "Irises";
• "Portrait of the postman Joseph Roulin";
• "Wheat field with cypresses";
• "The Plowed Field and the Ploughman".

Influence

In his last letter to Theo, Vincent wrote that, having no children of his own, the artist perceived the paintings as his continuation. To some extent, this was true: he did have children, and the first of them was expressionism, which later began to have many heirs.

Many artists later adapted the features of Van Gogh's style to their work: Gowart Hodgkin, Willem de Kening, Jackson Pollock. Fauvism soon came, which expanded the scope of color, and expressionism became widespread.

The biography of Van Gogh and his work gave the expressionists a new language that helped the creators to delve deeper into the essence of things and the world around them. Vincent became, in a sense, a pioneer in modern art, blazing a new path in visual art.

It is almost impossible to tell a brief biography of Van Gogh: his work during his, unfortunately, short life, was influenced by so many different events that it would be a nightmarish injustice to omit even one of them. A difficult life path led Vincent to the pinnacle of fame, but posthumous fame. During his lifetime, the great painter did not know either about his own genius, or about the huge legacy that he left to the world of art, or about how his family and friends yearned for him in the future. Vincent led a lonely and sad life, rejected by everyone. He found salvation in art, but he could not be saved. But, one way or another, he gave the world a lot of amazing works that warm the hearts of people so far, so many years later.

Vincent Willem van Gogh (Dutch. Vincent Willem van Gogh; March 30, 1853, Grotto-Zundert, near Breda, the Netherlands - July 29, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France) was a Dutch post-impressionist painter.

Biography of Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh was born in the Dutch town of Groot-Sundert on March 30, 1853. Van Gogh was the first child in the family (not counting the brother who was born dead). His father's name was Theodore Wang Gogh, and his mother's name was Karnelia. They had a large family: 2 sons and three daughters. In the Van Gogh family, all men, one way or another, dealt with paintings, or served the church. Already by 1869, without even finishing school, he began working in a company that sold paintings. In truth, Van Gogh was not good at selling paintings, but he had an unbounded love for painting, and he was also good at languages. In 1873, at the age of 20, he came to London, where he spent 2 years that changed his whole life.

In London, Van Gogh lived happily ever after. He had a very good salary, which was enough to visit various art galleries and museums. He even bought himself a top hat, which was simply indispensable in London. Everything went to the fact that Van Gogh could become a successful merchant, but ... as often happens, love, yes, love, got in the way of his career. Van Gogh fell unconsciously in love with the daughter of his landlady, but after learning that she was already engaged, he became very withdrawn into himself, became indifferent to his work. When he returned to Paris he was fired.

In 1877, Van Gogh began to live again in Holland, and increasingly found solace in religion. After moving to Amsterdam, he began to study as a priest, but soon dropped out, as the situation at the faculty did not suit him.

In 1886, at the beginning of March, Van Gogh moved to Paris to his brother Theo, and lived in his apartment. There he takes painting lessons from Fernand Cormon, and meets such personalities as Pissarro, Gauguin and many other artists. Very quickly he forgets all the darkness of Dutch life, and quickly gains respect as an artist. He draws clearly, brightly in the style of impressionism and post-impressionism.

Vincent Van Gogh, after spending 3 months in an evangelical school, which was located in Brussels, he became a preacher. He distributed money and clothes to the needy poor, although he himself was not well off. This aroused the suspicion of the authorities of the church, and his activities were banned. He did not lose heart, and found solace in drawing.

By the age of 27, Van Gogh understood what his calling in this life was, and decided that he must become an artist at all costs. Although Van Gogh took drawing lessons, he can be safely considered self-taught, because he himself studied many books, self-study books, copied paintings by famous artists. At first he thought of becoming an illustrator, but then, when he took lessons from his artist relative Anton Mouve, he painted his first works in oils.

It seems that life began to improve, but again Van Gogh began to be haunted by failures, and love ones at that.

His cousin Kay Vos became a widow. He liked her very much, but he received a refusal, which he experienced for a long time. In addition, because of Kei, he quarreled very seriously with his father. This quarrel was the reason for Vincent's move to The Hague. It was there that he met Clazina Maria Hoornik, who was a girl of easy virtue. Van Gogh lived with her for almost a year, and more than once he had to be treated for sexually transmitted diseases. He wanted to save this poor woman, and even considered marrying her. But then his family intervened, and thoughts of marriage were simply dispelled.

Returning to his homeland to his parents, who by that time had already moved to Nyonen, his skills began to improve.

He spent 2 years in his homeland. In 1885 Vincent settled in Antwerp, where he attended classes at the Academy of Arts. Then, in 1886, Van Gogh returned to Paris again, to his brother Theo, who throughout his life helped him, both morally and financially. France became the second home for Van Gogh. This is where he lived for the rest of his life. He didn't feel like a stranger. Van Gogh drank a lot and had a very explosive temper. He could be called a person who is difficult to deal with.

In 1888 he moved to Arles. The locals were not happy to see him in their town, which was located in the south of France. They considered him an abnormal lunatic. Despite this, Vincent found friends here, and felt quite good. Over time, he got the idea to create a settlement for artists here, which he shared with his friend Gauguin. Everything was going well, but there was a quarrel between the artists. Van Gogh rushed at Gauguin, who had already become an enemy, with a razor. Gauguin barely blew his legs, miraculously surviving. From the anger of failure, Van Gogh cut off part of his left ear. After spending 2 weeks in a psychiatric clinic, he returned there again in 1889, as he began to suffer from hallucinations.

In May 1890, he finally left the asylum for the mentally ill and went to Paris to his brother Theo and his wife, who had just given birth to a boy, who was named Vincent in honor of his uncle. Life began to improve, and Van Gogh was even happy, but his illness returned again. On July 27, 1890, Vincent van Gogh shot himself in the chest with a pistol. He died in the arms of his brother Theo, who loved him very much. Six months later, Theo also died. The brothers are buried in the Auvers cemetery nearby.

Creativity Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890) is considered a great Dutch painter who had a very strong influence on impressionism in art. His works, created in a ten-year period, amaze with their color, negligence and roughness of the brushstroke, images of a mentally ill man, exhausted by suffering, who committed suicide.

Van Gogh became one of the greatest post-impressionist painters.

He can be considered self-taught, because. studied painting, copying the paintings of old masters. During his life in the Netherlands, Van G. painted pictures about the nature, work and life of peasants and workers, which he observed around (“The Potato Eaters”).

In 1886 he moved to Paris, entered the studio of F. Cormon, where he met A. Toulouse-Lautrec and E. Bernard. Under the influence of Impressionist painting and Japanese engraving, the artist's style changed: an intense color scheme and a wide, energetic brushstroke, characteristic of the late Van G. ("Clichy Boulevard", "Portrait of Papa Tanguy"), appeared.

In 1888 he moved to the south of France, to the town of Arles. It was the most fruitful period of the artist's work. During his life, Van G. created more than 800 paintings and 700 drawings in various genres, but his talent manifested itself most clearly in the landscape: it was in it that his choleric explosive temperament found an outlet. The moving, nervous pictorial texture of his paintings reflected the state of mind of the artist: he suffered from a mental illness, which eventually led him to suicide.

Features of creativity

“Much remains unclear and controversial to date in the pathography of this severe bionegative personality. We can assume syphilitic provocation of schizo-epileptic psychosis. His feverish creativity is quite comparable to the increased productivity of the brain before the onset of a syphilitic disease of the brain, as was the case with Nietzsche, Maupassant, Schumann. Van Gogh is a good example of how a mediocre talent, thanks to psychosis, turned into an internationally recognized genius.

“The peculiar bipolarity, so clearly expressed in the life and psychosis of this remarkable patient, is expressed in parallel in his artistic work. In essence, the style of his works remains the same all the time. Only winding lines are repeated more and more often, giving his paintings a spirit of unbridledness, which reaches its climax in his last work, where the upward aspiration and the inevitability of destruction, fall, annihilation are clearly emphasized. These two movements - the movement of ascent and the movement of falling - form the structural basis of epileptic manifestations, just as the two poles form the basis of the epileptoid constitution.

“Van Gogh painted brilliant paintings in between attacks. And the main secret of his genius was the extraordinary purity of consciousness and a special creative upsurge that arose as a result of his illness between attacks. F.M. also wrote about this special state of consciousness. Dostoevsky, who at one time suffered from similar attacks of a mysterious mental disorder.

Bright colors of Van Gogh

Dreaming of a brotherhood of artists and collective creativity, he completely forgot that he himself was an incorrigible individualist, irreconcilable to the point of restraint in matters of life and art. But therein lay his strength. You need to have a sufficiently trained eye to distinguish Monet's paintings from those of Sisley, for example. But only once having seen the “Red Vineyards”, you will never confuse the works of Van Gogh with anyone else. Each line and stroke is the expression of his personality.

The dominant impressionist system is color. In the pictorial system, Van Gogh's manner, everything is equal and crumpled into one inimitable bright ensemble: rhythm, color, texture, line, form.

At first glance, this is somewhat of a stretch. Do the “red vineyards” push around with the unheard-of intensity color, is not the ringing chord of blue cobalt in the “Sea in Saint-Marie” active, is it not the dazzlingly pure and sonorous colors of the “Landscape in Auvers after the rain”, next to which, any impressionistic picture looks hopelessly faded?

Exaggeratedly bright, these colors have the ability to sound in any intonation throughout the entire emotional range - from burning pain to the most delicate shades of joy. The sounding colors either intertwine into a softly and subtly harmonized melody, or rear up in an ear-piercing dissonance. Just as in music there is a minor and major system, so the colors of the Vangogh palette are divided in two. For Van Gogh, cold and warm are like life and death. At the head of the opposing camps - yellow and blue, both colors - are deeply symbolic. However, this "symbolism" has the same living flesh as Vangogh's ideal of beauty.

Van Gogh saw a certain bright beginning in the yellow paint, from soft lemon to intense orange. The color of the sun and ripened bread in his understanding was the color of joy, solar warmth, human kindness, benevolence, love and happiness - all that in his understanding was included in the concept of "life". Opposite in meaning, blue, from blue to almost black-lead, is the color of sadness, infinity, longing, despair, mental anguish, fatal inevitability and, ultimately, death. Van Gogh's late paintings are the arena of the clash of these two colors. They are like a struggle between good and evil, daylight and night twilight, hope and despair. The emotional and psychological possibilities of color are the subject of Van Gogh's constant reflections: “I hope to make a discovery in this area, for example, to express the feelings of two lovers by combining two complementary colors, mixing and contrasting them, by the mysterious vibration of related tones. Or to express the idea that has arisen in the brain with the radiance of a light tone against a dark background…”.

Speaking of Van Gogh, Tugendhold noted: "... the notes of his experiences are the graphic rhythms of things and the reciprocal heartbeats." The concept of rest is unknown to Vangogh art. His element is movement.

In the eyes of Van Gogh, it is the same life, which means the ability to think, feel, empathize. Take a look at the painting of the "red vineyards". The strokes, thrown onto the canvas by a swift hand, run, rush, collide, scatter again. Similar to dashes, dots, blots, commas, they are a transcript of Vangogh's vision. From their cascades and whirlpools, simplified and expressive forms are born. They are a line that forms into a drawing. Their relief, sometimes barely outlined, sometimes piled up in massive clumps, like plowed earth, forms a delightful, picturesque texture. And out of all this, a huge image arises: in the hot heat of the sun, like sinners on fire, vines wriggle, trying to break away from the fat purple earth, to escape from the hands of the winegrowers, and now the peaceful bustle of harvesting looks like a fight between man and nature.

So, it means that color still dominates? But aren't these colors at the same time rhythm, line, form, and texture? This is the most important feature of the pictorial language of Van Gogh, in which he speaks to us through his paintings.

It is often believed that Vangogh painting is a kind of uncontrollable emotional element, spurred on by unbridled insight. This delusion is “helped” by the originality of Van Gogh’s artistic manner, which really seems to be spontaneous, but in fact it is subtly calculated, thought out: “Work and sober calculation, the mind is extremely tense, like an actor’s when playing a difficult role, when you have to think about a thousand things within one half hour….”

Van Gogh's heritage and innovation

Van Gogh heritage

• [Mother's sister] “... Seizures of epilepsy, which indicates a severe nervous heredity, which also affects Anna Cornelia herself. Naturally gentle and loving, she is prone to sudden outbursts of anger.
• [Brother Theo] "...died six months after Vincent's suicide in the insane asylum in Utrecht, having lived for 33 years."
• "None of Van Gogh's brothers and sisters had epilepsy, while it is absolutely certain that the younger sister suffered from schizophrenia and spent 32 years in a psychiatric hospital."

The human soul ... not cathedrals

Let's turn to Van Gogh:

“I prefer to paint the eyes of people, not cathedrals… the human soul, even the soul of an unfortunate beggar or a street girl, in my opinion, is much more interesting.”

“Those who write peasant life will stand the test of time better than the makers of cardinal devices and harems written in Paris.” “I will remain myself, and even in raw works I will say strict, rude, but truthful things.” “The worker against the bourgeois is not as well founded as the third estate against the other two a hundred years ago.”

Could a person who in these and a thousand similar statements so explained the meaning of life and art count on success with “the powers that be? ". The bourgeois environment uprooted Van Gogh.

Against rejection, Van Gogh had the only weapon - confidence in the correctness of the chosen path and work.

“Art is a struggle… it is better to do nothing than to express yourself weakly.” "You have to work like a few blacks." Even a half-starved existence is turned into a stimulus for creativity: “In the severe trials of poverty, you learn to look at things with completely different eyes.”

The bourgeois public does not forgive innovation, and Van Gogh was an innovator in the most direct and true sense of the word. His reading of the sublime and beautiful went through an understanding of the inner essence of objects and phenomena: from as insignificant as torn shoes to crushing cosmic hurricanes. The ability to present these seemingly disparate values ​​on an equally huge artistic scale put Van Gogh not only outside the official aesthetic concept of academic artists, but also forced him to go beyond the scope of impressionistic painting.

Quotes by Vincent van Gogh

(from letters to brother Theo)

• There is nothing more artistic than loving people.
• When something in you says: "You are not an artist," immediately begin to write, my boy - only in this way will you silence this inner voice. The one who, having heard it, runs to his friends and complains about his misfortune, loses part of his courage, part of the best that is in him.
• And one should not take one's shortcomings too close to one's heart, for the one who does not have them still suffers from one thing - the absence of shortcomings; but he who thinks he has attained perfect wisdom will do well to become foolish again.
• A man carries a bright flame in his soul, but no one wants to bask near it; passers-by notice only the smoke leaving through the chimney, and pass on their way.
• Reading books, as well as looking at pictures, one should neither doubt nor hesitate: one must be self-confident and find beautiful that which is beautiful.
• What is drawing? How are they mastered? This is the ability to break through the iron wall that stands between what you feel and what you can do. How is it possible to get through such a wall? In my opinion, it is useless to beat your head against it, you need to slowly and patiently dig in and gouge it.
• Blessed is he who has found his work.
• I prefer not to say anything at all than to express myself indistinctly.
• I confess that I also need beauty and sublimity, but even more something else, for example: kindness, responsiveness, tenderness.
• You are a realist yourself, so bear with my realism.
• A person only needs to unfailingly love what is worthy of love, and not squander his feeling on insignificant, unworthy and insignificant things.
• It is impossible for melancholy to stagnate in our souls, like water in a swamp.
• When I see the weak being trampled on, I begin to question the value of what is called progress and civilization.

Bibliography

• Van Gogh.Letters. Per. with a goal - L.-M., 1966.
• Rewald J. Post-Impressionism. Per. from English. T. 1. - L.-M, 1962.
• Perryusho A. Life of Van Gogh. Per. from French - M., 1973.
• Murina Elena.Van Gogh. - M.: Art, 1978. - 440 p. - 30,000 copies.
• Dmitrieva N. A. Vincent Van Gogh. Man and artist. - M., 1980.
• Stone I. Lust for Life (book). The Tale of Vincent Van Gogh. Per. from English. - M., Pravda, 1988.
• Constantino Porcu Van Gogh. Zijn leven en de kunst. (from the Kunstklassiekers series) Netherlands, 2004.
• Wolf Stadler Vincent van Gogh. (from the De Grote Meesters series) Amsterdam Boek, 1974.
• Frank Kools Vincent van Gogh en zijn geboorteplaats: als een boer van Zundert. De Walburg Pers, 1990.
• G. Kozlov, "The Legend of Van Gogh", "Around the World", No. 7, 2007.
• Van Gogh V. Letters to friends / Per. from fr. P.Melkova. - St. Petersburg: ABC, ABC-Atticus, 2012. - 224 p. - ABC-classic series - 5,000 copies, ISBN 978-5-389-03122-7
• Gordeeva M., Perova D. Vincent Van Gogh / In the book: Great Artists - V.18 - Kyiv, CJSC "Komsomolskaya Pravda - Ukraine", 2010. - 48 p.

­ Brief biography of Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem Van Gogh - Dutch artist and graphic artist; the largest representative of post-impressionism. Born March 30, 1853 in the small Dutch village of Grot-Zundert, located near the Belgian border. The father of the future artist was a Protestant pastor, and his mother was the daughter of a bookseller. Vincent was the second child in a large family, but since the elder brother died in infancy, he remained with the elder.

Already at the age of 16, he worked for a company selling paintings. Although he was not an excellent businessman, he had a boundless love for painting. The life of the artist has changed dramatically in the two years spent in London. His work was so well paid that he could not deny himself anything. During this period, Vincent actively attended exhibitions in art galleries. On the way to a glorious career, love prevented. A young art dealer fell unconsciously in love with a woman who was already engaged, after which he withdrew into himself.

He became indifferent to his work, and when he returned to Holland, he fell into religion. From 1886 he lived with his brother in Paris. There he studied painting with F. Cormon, and also met Pissarro, Gauguin and other prominent artists. He draws with bright and clear sketches in the style of the Impressionists. By the age of 27, he already knew for sure that he wanted to be a professional artist. By nature, Van Gogh was very kind and compassionate. He could distribute money and clothes to people in need, even when he himself was not particularly well off.

Life slowly improved, but another personal crisis followed. The widowed cousin, whom he had liked for a long time, refused him, which he was very worried about. This spat caused him to move to The Hague. In 1888, he moved to Arles, as France had long become his second home. The locals avoided him, considering him abnormal. Despite this, he made new acquaintances there and made many good friends. For some time they were in close contact with Gauguin, but after a serious quarrel, he almost killed him by attacking with a razor. In the same period, he cut off his ear, after which he was placed in a psychiatric clinic.

The madness of Van Gogh was already known. The treatment did not give the desired result, as the artist was tormented by hallucinations. In 1890, he went to see his brother Theo, who had just had a son named Vincent after him. The disease seemed to recede and life began to improve again. However, in July of that year, Van Gogh committed suicide. He died by shooting himself in the chest with a pistol. In the last moments of his life, his brother Theo, who loved him dearly, was next to him.

(Vincent Willem Van Gogh) was born March 30, 1853 in the village of Groot-Zundert in the province of North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands in the family of a Protestant pastor.

In 1868, Van Gogh left school, after which he went to work in a branch of a large Parisian art company, Goupil & Cie. Successfully worked in the gallery, first in The Hague, then in offices in London and Paris.

By 1876, Vincent finally lost interest in the painting trade and decided to follow in his father's footsteps. In the UK, he found work as a teacher at a boarding school in a small town outside London, where he also served as an assistant pastor. On October 29, 1876, he gave his first sermon. In 1877 he moved to Amsterdam, where he studied theology at the university.

Van Gogh "Poppies"

In 1879, Van Gogh obtained a position as lay preacher at Vama, a mining center in the Borinage, in southern Belgium. He then continued his preaching mission in the nearby village of Kem.

In the same period, Van Gogh had a desire to paint.

In 1880, in Brussels, he entered the Royal Academy of Arts (Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles). However, due to his unbalanced nature, he soon dropped out of the course and continued his art education on his own, using reproductions.

In 1881 in Holland, under the guidance of his relative, the landscape painter Anton Mauve, Van Gogh created his first paintings: "Still Life with Cabbage and Wooden Shoes" and "Still Life with Beer Glass and Fruit".

In the Dutch period, starting with the painting "Potato Harvesting" (1883), the main motif of the artist's canvases was the theme of ordinary people and their work, the emphasis was on the expressiveness of scenes and figures, dark, gloomy colors and shades, sharp changes in light and shadow prevailed in the palette. . The masterpiece of this period is the canvas "Potato Eaters" (April-May 1885).

In 1885 Van Gogh continued his studies in Belgium. In Antwerp, he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp). In 1886, Vincent moved to Paris to live with his younger brother Theo, who had by then taken over as the leading manager of the Goupil gallery in Montmartre. Here, Van Gogh took lessons from the French realist painter Fernand Cormon for about four months, met the Impressionists Camille Pizarro, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, from whom he adopted their style of painting.

© Public Domain "Portrait of Doctor Gachet" by Van Gogh

© Public Domain

In Paris, Van Gogh developed an interest in creating images of human faces. Having no funds to pay for the work of models, he turned to self-portraiture, creating about 20 paintings in this genre in two years.

The Parisian period (1886-1888) became one of the artist's most productive creative periods.

In February 1888, Van Gogh went to the south of France to Arles, where he dreamed of creating a creative community of artists.

In December, Vincent's mental health took a turn for the worse. During one of the uncontrollable outbursts of aggression, he threatened with an open razor Paul Gauguin, who came to him in the open air, and then cut off a piece of his earlobe, sending it as a gift to one of the women he knew. After this incident, Van Gogh was placed first in a psychiatric hospital in Arles, and then voluntarily went to the specialized clinic of St. Paul of Mausoleum near Saint-Remy-de-Provence for treatment. The head physician of the hospital, Theophile Peyron, diagnosed his patient with "acute manic disorder." However, the artist was given a certain freedom: he could paint outdoors under the supervision of staff.

In Saint-Remy, Vincent alternated periods of intense activity and long breaks caused by deep depression. In just a year of being in the clinic, Van Gogh painted about 150 paintings. Some of the most outstanding paintings of this period were: "Starry Night", "Irises", "Road with Cypresses and a Star", "Olives, Blue Sky and White Cloud", "Pieta".

In September 1889, with the active assistance of Brother Theo, Van Gogh's paintings took part in the Salon des Indépendants, an exhibition of contemporary art organized by the Society of Independent Artists in Paris.

In January 1890, Van Gogh's paintings were exhibited at the eighth exhibition of the Group of Twenty in Brussels, where they were enthusiastically received by critics.

In May 1890, Van Gogh's mental state improved, he left the hospital and settled in the town of Auvers-sur-Oise (Auvers-sur-Oise) in the suburbs of Paris under the supervision of Dr. Paul Gachet.

Vincent actively took up painting, almost every day he finished a painting. During this period, he painted several outstanding portraits of Dr. Gachet and 13-year-old Adeline Rava, the daughter of the owner of the hotel in which he lodged.

On July 27, 1890, Van Gogh left the house at the usual time and went to paint. On his return, after persistent questioning by the Ravos, he confessed that he had shot himself with a pistol. All attempts by Dr. Gachet to save the wounded were in vain, Vincent fell into a coma and died on the night of July 29 at the age of thirty-seven. He was buried in the Auvers cemetery.

American biographers of the artist Stephen Nayfeh and Gregory White Smith in their study "Van Gogh's Life" (Van Gogh: The Life) of Vincent's death, according to which he died not from his own bullet, but from an accidental shot by two drunken young people.

During the ten-year creative activity, Van Gogh managed to write 864 paintings and almost 1200 drawings and engravings. During his lifetime, only one painting by the artist was sold - the landscape "Red Vineyards in Arles". The cost of the painting was 400 francs.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources