Vincent van gogh life story. Vincent van Gogh - biography and paintings of the artist in the genre of Post-Impressionism - Art Challenge

Vincent Van Gogh. This name is familiar to every student. Even as a child, we joked among ourselves “you draw like Van Gogh”! or “well, you are Picasso!”… After all, only the one whose name will forever remain in the history of not only painting and world art, but also humanity is immortal.

Against the backdrop of the fate of European artists, the life path of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) stands out in that he discovered his craving for art quite late. Until the age of 30, Vincent did not suspect that painting would become the ultimate meaning of his life. The vocation ripens in him slowly, in order to break out like an explosion. At the cost of labor almost on the verge of human capabilities, which will become the lot of his entire remaining life, during the years 1885-1887, Vincent will be able to develop his own individual and unique style, which in the future will be called "impasto". His artistic style will contribute to the rooting in European art of one of the most sincere, sensitive, humane and emotional trends - expressionism. But, most importantly, it will become the source of his work, his paintings and graphics.

Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in the family of a Protestant pastor, in the Dutch province of North Brabant, in the village of Grotto Zundert, where his father was in the service. The family environment determined a lot in the fate of Vincent. The Van Gogh family was ancient, known since the 17th century. In the era of Vincent van Gogh, there were two traditional family activities: one of the representatives of this family was necessarily engaged in church activities, and someone in the art trade. Vincent was the eldest, but not the first child in the family. A year earlier, he was born, but his brother died soon after. The second son was named in memory of the deceased by Vincent Willem. After him, five more children appeared, but only with one of them would the future artist be connected by close fraternal ties until the last day of his life. It would not be an exaggeration to say that without the support of his younger brother Theo, Vincent van Gogh as an artist would hardly have taken place.

In 1869, Van Gogh moved to The Hague and began to trade paintings in the Goupil firm and reproductions of works of art. Vincent works actively and conscientiously, in his free time he reads a lot and visits museums, and draws a little. In 1873, Vincent begins a correspondence with his brother Theo, which will last until his death. In our time, the letters of the brothers are published in a book called “Van Gogh. Letters to Brother Theo” and you can buy it in almost any good bookstore. These letters are moving evidence of Vincent's inner spiritual life, his searches and mistakes, joys and disappointments, despair and hopes.

In 1875, Vincent was assigned to Paris. He regularly visits the Louvre and the Luxembourg Museum, exhibitions of contemporary artists. By this time, he is already drawing himself, but nothing foreshadows that art will soon become an all-consuming passion. In Paris, there is a turning point in his spiritual development: Van Gogh is very fond of religion. Many researchers attribute this condition to the unhappy and one-sided love that Vincent experienced in London. Much later, in one of his letters to Theo, the artist, analyzing his illness, notes that mental illness is their family trait.

From January 1879, Vincent received a position as a preacher in Vama, a village located in the Borinage, an area in southern Belgium, the center of the coal industry. He is deeply struck by the extreme poverty in which the miners and their families live. A deep conflict begins, which opens Van Gogh's eyes to one truth - the ministers of the official church are not at all interested in truly alleviating the plight of people who find themselves in inhuman conditions.

Having fully understood this sanctimonious position, Van Gogh experiences another deep disappointment, breaks with the church and makes his final life choice - to serve people with his art.

Van Gogh and Paris

Van Gogh's last visits to Paris were related to his work at Goupil. However, never before had the artistic life of Paris had a noticeable influence on his work. This time Van Gogh's stay in Paris lasts from March 1886 to February 1888. These are two extremely eventful years in the artist's life. During this short period, he masters the impressionistic and neo-impressionistic techniques, which contributes to the lightening of his own color palette. The artist, who arrived from Holland, turns into one of the most original representatives of the Parisian avant-garde, whose innovation breaks from within all the conventions that fetter the enormous expressive possibilities of color as such.

In Paris, Van Gogh communicates with Camille Pissarro, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Emile Bernard and Georges Seurat and other young painters, as well as with the paint dealer and collector dad Tanguy.

last years of life

By the end of 1889, at this difficult time for himself, aggravated by fits of insanity, mental disorders and a craving for suicide, Van Gogh received an invitation to take part in the exhibition of the Salon des Indépendants, organized in Brussels. At the end of November, Vincent sends 6 paintings there. On May 17, 1890, Theo has a plan to settle Vincent in the town of Auvers-sur-Oise under the supervision of Dr. Gachet, who was fond of painting and was a friend of the Impressionists. Van Gogh's condition is improving, he works hard, paints portraits of his new acquaintances, landscapes.

July 6, 1890 Van Gogh arrives in Paris to Theo. Albert Aurier and Toulouse-Lautrec visit Theo's house to meet him.

From the last letter to Theo, Van Gogh says: “... Through me, you took part in the creation of some canvases that even in a storm keep my peace. Well, I paid with my life for my work, and it cost me half my sanity, that's right… But I'm not sorry.”

Thus ended the life of one of the greatest artists not only of the 19th century, but of the entire history of art as a whole.

Vincent van Gogh is one of the greatest artists in the world, whose work has a great influence on the development of modern trends in painting and gives impetus to the development of impressionism. Today, countries such as the Netherlands, France and England are proud that such a great creator once lived and worked on their territory, and the value of his paintings, located in different parts of the world, cannot be calculated by any monetary unit, like the cost of irobot. However, no matter how sad it may sound, during the life of Vincent van Gogh, his paintings were of no value to the society of that time, and this genius was dying in a state of madness and complete loneliness.

Van Gogh's work was influenced by many factors, so, undoubtedly, his childhood, his temperament, the time in which he was born influenced him. However, despite the fact that in his short life the creator experienced many illnesses, depressions, poverty, loneliness, he was never afraid and did not stop experimenting. And he experimented with everything that was possible. So during his short career, Van Gogh experimented with light and shadow, with color schemes, with form, with models and with various artistic techniques. His work also changed as his worldview changed.

So, born at the end of the nineteenth century in a low-income Dutch family of the working class, Van Gogh used to observe the life of ordinary people and empathize with her. At that time, the poor barely had enough money for food, and therefore it was not possible to imagine that in a couple of centuries people would be able, sitting at home in an armchair, to purchase equipment for themselves by asking in the browser search line: “buy irobot roomba 790”.

The hard times and impressionability of the young Van Gogh served as the main impetus for the development of his work, in which the main characters were people of the working class. In the paintings of that time, the creator conveyed the gravity of the situation of poor people. Performing canvases in dark colors, the artist clearly and accurately conveyed the oppressive and oppressive atmosphere of that time.

However, having moved to sunny France, the artist begins to paint life-filled landscapes and still lifes. The paintings of that period of Van Gogh's work seemed to flow with light, thanks to the use of blue, golden yellow, red colors, as well as writing them using the technique of small strokes.

The end of the short, but so rich artistic life of Vincent van Gogh, is considered the dawn of his work. It was in the last years of his life that the creator was determined with his style and technique of painting.

1853-1890 .

The biography below is by no means a complete and thorough study of the life of Vincent van Gogh. On the contrary, this is only a brief overview of some of the important events in the chronicle of Vincent van Gogh's life. early years

Vincent van Gogh was born in Grote Zundert, Netherlands on March 30, 1853. A year before the birth of Vincent van Gogh, his mother gave birth to her first, stillborn child - also named Vincent. Thus Vincent, being the second, became the eldest of the children. There have been many suggestions that Vincent van Gogh was psychologically traumatized as a result of this fact. This theory remains a theory because there is no real historical evidence to support it.

Van Gogh was the son of Theodor van Gogh (1822-85), pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church, and Anna Cornelia Carbenthus (1819-1907). Unfortunately, there is practically no information about the first ten years of Vincent van Gogh's life. Since 1864 Vincent spent a couple of years at a boarding school in Zevenbergen, and then continued his studies at the King Wilhelm II School in Tilburg for about two years. In 1868, Van Gogh left his studies and returned home at the age of 15.

In 1869, Vincent van Gogh began working for Goupil & Cie, an art dealer firm in The Hague. The Van Gogh family has long been associated with the world of art - Vincent's uncles, Cornelis and Vincent, were art dealers. His younger brother Theo worked as an art dealer all his adult life and, as a result, had a huge impact on the subsequent stages of Vincent's career as an artist.

Vincent was relatively successful as an art dealer and worked for Goupil & Cie for seven years. In 1873 he was transferred to the London branch of the company and quickly fell under the spell of England's cultural climate. In late August, Vincent rents a room in the home of Ursula Leuer and her daughter Eugenia at 87 Hackford Road. Vincent is thought to have been romantically inclined towards Eugenia, but many early biographers mistakenly refer to Eugenia by her mother's name, Ursula. It can be added to the years of name confusion that the latest evidence suggests that Vincent was not in love with Eugenia, but was in love with his compatriot named Caroline Haanebeek. True, this information remains unconvincing.

Vincent van Gogh spent two years in London. During this time he visited many art galleries and museums and became a great admirer of British writers such as George Eliot and Charles Dickens. Van Gogh was also a great admirer of the work of British engravers. These illustrations inspired and influenced Van Gogh in his later life as an artist.

Relations between Vincent and Goupil & Cie became more tense, and in May 1875 he was transferred to the Paris branch of the firm. In Paris, Vincent is engaged in paintings that were not very attractive to him in terms of personal tastes. Vincent leaves Goupil & Cie at the end of March 1876 and returns to England, remembering where he spent two, for the most part, very happy and fruitful years.

In April, Vincent van Gogh began teaching at the Reverend William P. Stokes School in Ramsgate. He was responsible for 24 boys aged 10 to 14. His letters show that Vincent enjoyed teaching. After that he began teaching at another boys' school, the Rev. T. Jones parish of Slade in Isleworth. In his spare time, Van Gogh continued to visit galleries and admire the many great works of art. He also devoted himself to Bible study - spending many hours reading and rereading the Gospels. In the summer of 1876, it is time for a religious conversion for Vincent van Gogh. Although he grew up in a religious family, he did not imagine that he would seriously consider dedicating his life to the Church.

As a means of making the transition from teacher to priest, Vincent asks Reverend Jones to give him more clergy duties. Jones agreed and Vincent began to speak at prayer meetings in the parish of Turnham Green. These talks served as a means of preparing Vincent for a goal he had long been working toward: his first Sunday sermon. Although Vincent himself was delighted with this prospect as a preacher, his sermons were somewhat lackluster and lifeless. Like his father, Vincent had a passion for preaching, but he lacked something.

After visiting his family in the Netherlands for Christmas, Vincent van Gogh stays in his homeland. After a short work in a bookstore in Dordrecht in early 1877, Vincent left for Amsterdam on May 9th to prepare for the entrance exams to the university, where he was to study theology. Vincent learns Greek, Latin, and math, but eventually drops out after fifteen months. Vincent later described this period as "the worst time of my life". In November, after a three-month probationary period, Vincent fails to enter the missionary school in Laeken. Vincent van Gogh eventually arranged with the church to begin probationary preaching in one of the most rugged and impoverished areas in Western Europe: the Borinage coal mining region, Belgium.

In January 1879, Vincent took up his duties as a preacher to the miners and their families in the mountain village of Wasmes. Vincent felt a strong emotional attachment to the miners. He saw and sympathized with their terrible working conditions, and as their spiritual leader, did everything possible to lighten the burden of their lives. Unfortunately, this altruistic desire reached such fanatical proportions that Vincent began to give away most of his food and clothing to the poor people under his care. Despite Vincent's noble intentions, van Gogh's asceticism was strongly condemned by Church officials and removed from his post in July. Refusing to leave the area, Van Gogh moved to a nearby village, Cuesmes, where he lived in extreme poverty. The following year, Vincent struggled to get by day by day and, although unable to help the village of people in any official capacity as a clergyman, he still chose to remain a member of their community. The next year was so hard that the question of survival for Vincent van Gogh was every day. And although he could not help people as an official representative of the church, he remains a village. A notable occasion for Van Gogh, Vincent decided to visit the home of Jules Breton, a French artist he admired. Vincent had only ten francs in his pocket and walked the entire 70 km to Courrières, France to see Breton. However, Vincent was too timid to get through to Breton. So without a positive result and absolutely discouraged, Vincent returned back to Cuesmes.

It was then that Vincent began to paint miners, their families and life in harsh conditions. At this turning point in fate, Vincent van Gogh chooses his next and final career path: as an artist.

Vincent van Gogh as an artist

In the autumn of 1880, after more than a year of poverty in the Borinage, Vincent went to Brussels to begin his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. Vincent was inspired to start training with financial support from his brother Theo. Vincent and Theo have always been close, both as children and through most of their adult lives, they maintained a constant correspondence. Based on this correspondence, and there are more than 800 letters, the idea of ​​Van Gogh's life is based.

1881 would prove to be a turbulent year for Vincent van Gogh. Vincent successfully studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels. Although biographers have different opinions on the details of this period. In any case, Vincent continues to study at his own discretion, taking examples from books. In the summer, Vincent again visits his parents, who already live in Etten. There he meets and develops romantic feelings for his widowed cousin Cornelia Adrian Vos Stricker (Key). But Key's unrequited love and a break with his parents lead to his imminent departure to The Hague.

Despite the failures, Van Gogh works hard and improves under the guidance of Anton Mauve (a famous artist and his distant relative). Their relationship was good, but it deteriorated due to tension when Vincent started living with a prostitute.

Vincent van Gogh met Christina Maria Hornik, nicknamed Sin (1850-1904), at the end of February 1882 in The Hague. She was already pregnant with her second child at that time. Vincent lived with Sin for the next year and a half. Their relationship was turbulent, partly due to the complexity of the characters of both personalities, and also because of the imprint of a life of complete poverty. From Vincent's letters to Theo, it becomes clear how well Van Gogh treated the Sin children, but drawing is his first and most important passion, the rest fades into the background. Sin and her children posed for dozens of Vincent's drawings, and his talent as an artist grew considerably during this period. His earlier, more primitive drawings of miners in the Borinage give way to a much more refined manner and emotion at work.

In 1883, Vincent began to experiment with oil paints, he used oil paints before, but now this direction is his main one. In the same year, he breaks up with Sin. Vincent leaves The Hague in mid-September to move to Drenthe. For the next six weeks, Vincent leads a nomadic life, moving throughout the region, working on landscapes and images of peasants.

For the last time, Vincent returns to his parents' home, now in Nuenen, at the end of 1883. Over the next year, Vincent van Gogh continued to improve his skills. He created dozens of paintings and drawings during this period: weavers, counters and other portraits. The local peasants turned out to be his favorite subjects - partly because Van Gogh felt a strong kinship with the poor working people. There is another episode in Vincent's romantic life. Dramatic this time. Margot Begemann (1841-1907), whose family lived next door to Vincent's parents, was in love with Vincent and the emotional turmoil in the relationship leads her to attempt suicide by poison. Vincent was greatly shocked by this incident. Margo eventually recovered, but this incident greatly upset Vincent. He himself, in letters to Theo, repeatedly returned to this episode.

1885: First Great Works

In the first months of 1885 Van Gogh continued his series of portraits of peasants. Vincent viewed them as a good practice where you can improve your skills. Vincent works productively during March and April. At the end of March, he takes a break from work due to the death of his father, with whom relations have been very tense in recent years. Several years of hard work, improvement of craftsmanship, technology, and in 1885 Vincent approaches his first serious work, The Potato Eaters.

Vincent worked on The Potato Eaters during April 1885. In advance, he prepared several sketches and worked on this painting in the studio. Vincent ball is so inspired by the success that even criticism from his friend Anthony Van Rappard only led to a break. This is a new stage in the life and skill of Van Gogh.

Van Gogh continues to work in 1885, he does not calm down and at the beginning of 1886 he enters the Art Academy in Antwerp. He once again comes to the conclusion that formal training is too narrow for him. Vincent's choice is practical work, the only way he can hone his skills, as evidenced by his "Potato Eaters". After four weeks of study, Van Gogh leaves the Academy. He is interested in new methods, techniques, self-improvement, all this Vincent can no longer get in Holland, his path lies in Paris.

New Beginning: Paris

In 1886, Vincent van Gogh arrives unannounced in Paris to visit his brother Theo. Prior to this, in letters he wrote to his brother, in need of moving to Paris for further development. Theo, in turn, knowing the difficult nature of Vincent, resisted this move. But Theo had no choice and his brother had to be accepted.

The period of life in Paris for Van Gogh is important in terms of his role in the transformation as an artist. Unfortunately this period of Vincent's life (two years in Paris) is one of the least documented. Since the description of Van Gogh's life is based on his correspondence with Theo, and this Vincent lived with Theo (Montmartre district, rue Lepic, house 54) and naturally there was no correspondence.

However, the importance of Vincent's time in Paris is clear. Theo, as an art dealer, had many contacts among artists and Vincent soon entered this circle. During his two years in Paris, Van Gogh visited the early Impressionist exhibitions (where there were works by Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Georges Seurat and Sisley). There is no doubt that Van Gogh was influenced by the Impressionists, but he always remained true to his own unique style. Over the course of two years, Van Gogh adopted some of the techniques of the Impressionists.

Vincent enjoying painting around Paris during 1886. His palette began to move away from the dark, traditional colors of his homeland and would include the brighter hues of the Impressionists. Vincent became interested in Japanese art, Japan in that period of its cultural isolation. The Western world has become fascinated by everything Japanese and Vincent acquires several Japanese prints. As a result, Japanese art influenced Van Gogh and throughout the rest of his work, this is read.

Throughout 1887, Van Gogh honed his skills and practiced a lot. His mobile and stormy personality does not calm down, Vincent, sparing his health, eats poorly, abuses alcohol and smoking. His hopes that by living with his brother he would be able to control his expenses did not come true. Relations with Theo are tense. .

As was often the case throughout his life, the bad weather during the winter months makes Vincent irritable and depressed. He is depressed, wants to see and feel the colors of nature. The winter months of 1887-1888 are not easy. Van Gogh decided to leave Paris after the sun, his road lies in Arles.

Vincent van Gogh moved to Arles in early 1888 for a variety of reasons. Tired of the hectic energy of Paris and the long winter months, Van Gogh yearns for the warm sun of Provence. Another motivation is Vincent's dream of creating a kind of artist's commune in Arles, where his comrades from Paris can find refuge, where they can work together, support each other in achieving common goals. Van Gogh boarded the train from Paris to Arles on February 20, 1888 inspired by his dream for a prosperous future and watches the landscape pass by.

No doubt Van Gogh was not disappointed by Arles in his first few weeks there. In search of the sun, Vincent saw Arles unusually cold and covered with snow. This must have been discouraging for Vincent, who left everyone he knew behind to find warmth and recovery in the south. However, the bad weather was short-lived and Vincent began to paint some of his most beloved work in his career.

As soon as the weather warmed up, Vincent wasted no time in creating his work outdoors. In March, the trees woke up and the landscape looked somewhat gloomy after the winter. However, after a month, the buds on the trees are visible and Van Gogh paints flowering gardens. Vincent is pleased with his ability to work and feels renewed along with the gardens.

The following months were happy. Vincent rented a room at the Café de la Gare at 10 Place Lamartine at the beginning of May and rented his famous "Yellow House" (at 2 Place Lamartine) for the studio. Vincent won't actually be moving into the Yellow House until September.

Vincent works hard during the spring and summer and starts sending Theo his pieces. Van Gogh is often perceived today as an irritable and lonely person. But in reality, he enjoys the company of people and does his best during these months to make friends with many. Although deeply lonely at times. Vincent never lost hope of creating an artists' commune and began a campaign to persuade Paul Gauguin to join him in the south. The prospect seems unlikely because Gauguin's relocation would require even more financial assistance from Theo, who had reached their limit.

At the end of July, Van Gogh's uncle died and left a legacy to Theo. This financial influx allows Theo to sponsor Gauguin's move to Arles. Theo was interested in this move as a brother and as a business person. Theo knows that Vincent would be happier and calmer in the company of Gauguin, and Theo also hoped that the paintings he would receive from Gauguin, in exchange for his support, would be profitable. Unlike Vincent, Paul Gauguin is not entirely sure of the success of his work.

Despite the improvement in Theo's financial situation, Vincent remained true to himself and spent almost everything on art supplies and furnishings in the apartment. Gauguin arrived in Arles by train early in the morning on 23 October.

In the next two months this move will be decisive and disastrous for both Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Initially, Van Gogh and Gauguin got along well, working on the outskirts of Arles, discussing their art. Weeks passed, the weather worsened, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin were forced to stay at home more and more often. The temperament of both artists, forced to work in the same room, gives rise to many conflicts.

Relations between Van Gogh and Gauguin deteriorated during December. Vincent wrote that their heated arguments became more and more frequent. December 23 Vincent van Gogh, in a fit of madness, mutilated the lower part of his left ear. Van Gogh cut off part of the left earlobe, wrapped it in cloth and gave it to a prostitute. Vincent then returned to his apartment, where he lost consciousness. He was discovered by the police and admitted to the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Arles. After sending the telegram to Theo, Gauguin immediately left for Paris without visiting Van Gogh in the hospital. They will never meet in person again, although their relationship will improve..

During his stay in the hospital, Vincent was under the care of Dr. Felix Ray (1867-1932). The first week after the injury was crucial to Van Gogh's life - both mentally and physically. He suffered a great loss of blood and continued to suffer from severe seizures. Theo, who rushed from Paris to Arles, was certain that Vincent would die, but by the end of December and into the first days of January, Vincent had almost completely recovered.

The first weeks of 1889 were not easy for Vincent van Gogh. After recovering, Vincent returned to his Yellow House, but continued to visit Dr. Ray for observations and to wear a bandage on his head. After his recovery, Vincent was on the rise, but money problems and the departure of his close friend, Joseph Roulin (1841-1903), who accepted a better offer and moved with his family to Marseille. Roulin was a dear and faithful friend of Vincent most of the time in Arles.

During January and early February, Vincent worked hard, during which time he created "Sunflowers" and "Lullaby". However, on February 7, Vincent's next attack. He was taken to the Hotel-Dieu hospital for observation. Van Gogh is in the hospital for ten days, but then returns to the Yellow House again.

By this time, some of the citizens of Arles had become alarmed by Vincent's behavior and signed a petition detailing the problem. The petition was presented to the mayor of the city of Arles, ultimately the chief of police, ordered Van Gogh to go again to the Hôtel-Dieu hospital. Vincent remained in the hospital for the next six weeks and was allowed to leave in order to paint. It was a productive but emotionally difficult moment for Van Gogh. As in the case a year before, Van Gogh returns to the flowering gardens around Arles. But even when he creates one of his best works, Vincent understands that his condition is unstable. And after discussion with Theo, he agrees to voluntary treatment at the specialized clinic Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Remy-de-Provence. Van Gogh leaves Arles on May 8th.

Upon arrival at the clinic, Van Gogh was placed under the care of Dr. Theophile Zacharie Peyron Auguste (1827–95). After studying Vincent, Dr. Peyron is convinced that his patient suffers from epilepsy - a diagnosis that remains one of the most likely to determine Van Gogh's condition, even today. Being in the clinic puts pressure on Van Gogh, he was discouraged by the screams of other patients and bad food. This atmosphere depresses him. Van Gogh's course of treatment included hydrotherapy, frequent immersions in a large bath of water. Although this "therapy" was not cruel, it was in any case the least useful in terms of helping to restore Vincent's mental health.

As the weeks passed, Vincent's mental state remained stable and he was allowed to resume work. The staff was encouraged by Van Gogh's progress, and in mid-June, Van Gogh creates Starry Night.

The relatively calm state of Van Gogh does not last long, until mid-July. This time, Vincent tried to swallow his paints, as a result, he was limited in access to materials. After this aggravation, he quickly recovers, Vincent is drawn by his art. A week later, Dr. Peyron allows Van Gogh to resume his work. The resumption of work coincided with an improvement in mental state. Vincenta writes to Theo, describing her poor physical condition.

For two months, Van Gogh could not leave his chamber and writes to Theo that when he goes out into the street, he is seized by a strong loneliness. In the coming weeks, Vincent once again overcomes his anxieties and resumes work. During this time, Vincent plans to leave the St. Remy clinic. He expresses these thoughts to Theo, who begins to make inquiries about possible alternatives for medical care for Vincent - this time much closer to Paris.

Van Gogh's mental and physical health was fairly stable throughout the remainder of 1889. Theo's health is improving, he will help organize an exhibition Octave Maus, in Brussels, in which six paintings by Vincent were shown. Vincent is delighted with the venture and remains highly productive throughout this time.

On December 23, 1889, a year after the attack, when Vincent cut off his earlobe, a new week-long attack strikes Van Gogh. The aggravation was serious and lasted about a week, but Vincent recovers quickly enough and resumes painting. Unfortunately, Van Gogh suffers from a large number of seizures during the first months of 1890. These exacerbations become frequent. Ironically, at this time, when Van Gogh was probably at his most mentally depressed, his work is finally beginning to receive critical acclaim. News of this leads Vincent to hope to leave the clinic and return north.

After consulting, Theo realizes that the best solution for Vincent would be to return to Paris, under the care of Dr. Paul Gachet (1828-1909), an internist in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris. Vincent agrees to Theo's plans and completes his treatment at Saint-Remy. On May 16, 1890, Vincent van Gogh left the clinic and boarded an overnight train to Paris.

"Sadness will last forever....

Vincent's journey to Paris was uneventful and he was met by Theo upon arrival. Vincent stayed with Theo, his wife Joanna and their newborn son, Vincent Willem (named Vincent) for three pleasant days. Having never liked the hustle and bustle of city life, Vincent felt some tension and decided to leave Paris for the quieter Auvers-sur-Oise.

Vincent met Dr. Gachet shortly after his arrival in Auvers. Although initially impressed by Gachet, Van Gogh later expresses serious doubts about his competence. Despite his misgivings, Vincent finds himself a room in a small hotel owned by Arthur Gustave Ravoux and immediately begins to paint around Auvers-sur-Oise.

Over the next two weeks, Van Gogh's opinion of Gache softens. Vincent was pleased with Auvers-sur-Oise, here he was given the freedom that was denied in Saint-Remy, and at the same time provided him with broad themes for his painting and graphics. The first weeks in Auvers were pleasant and uneventful for Vincent van Gogh. June 8 Theo, Joe and the child came to Auvers to visit Vincent and Gachet. Vincent spends a very pleasant day with his family. Apparently, Vincent appeared to be completely restored - mentally and physically.

Throughout June, Vincent remained in good spirits and was extremely productive, producing "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" and "Church at Auvers". The initial calm of the first month at Auvers was interrupted when Vincent received word that his nephew was seriously ill. Theo is going through the most difficult time: uncertainty about his own career and future, current health problems and his son's illness. After the child's recovery, Vincent decided to visit Theo and his family on July 6 and took the early train. Very little is known about the visit. Vincent soon tires and quickly returns to the quieter Auvers.

During the next three weeks, Vincent resumed his work and, as can be seen from his letters, was quite happy. In the letters, Vincent writes that he is currently feeling well and is calm, comparing his condition with last year. Vincent was immersed in the fields and plains around Auvers and produced some brilliant scenery throughout July. Vincent's life becomes stable, he works hard.

Nothing foreshadowed such a denouement. July 27, 1890 Vincent van Gogh sets off with an easel and paints to the fields. There he took out a revolver and shot himself in the chest. Vincent managed to walk back to the Ravoux Inn, where he collapsed into bed. The decision was made not to attempt to extract the bullet in Vincent's chest, and Gachet wrote an urgent letter to Theo. Unfortunately, Dr. Gachet did not have Theo's home address and had to write to him at the gallery where he worked. This did not cause a major delay and Theo arrived the next day.

Vincent and Theo remained together during the last hours of Vincent's life. Theo was devoted to his brother, holding him and speaking to him in Dutch. Vincent seemed resigned to his fate and Theo later wrote that Vincent wanted to die himself when Theo I was sitting at his bedside. Vincent's last words were "The sadness will last forever."

Vincent van Gogh died at 1:30 am. July 29, 1890. Costel Auvers refused to allow Vincent to be buried in his cemetery because Vincent had committed suicide. The nearby village of Meri, however, agreed to allow burial and the funeral took place on 30 July.

Dutch Post-Impressionist painter whose work had a timeless influence on 20th-century painting

Vincent Van Gogh

short biography

Vincent Willem van Gogh(Dutch. Vincent Willem van Gogh; March 30, 1853, Grot-Zundert, the Netherlands - July 29, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France) is a Dutch post-impressionist painter whose work had a timeless influence on the painting of the 20th century. In a little over ten years, he created more than 2,100 works, including about 860 oil paintings. Among them - portraits, self-portraits, landscapes and still lifes, depicting olive trees, cypresses, fields of wheat and sunflowers. Most critics did not notice van Gogh until his suicide at the age of 37, which was preceded by years of anxiety, poverty and mental breakdown.

Childhood and youth

Born March 30, 1853 in the village of Grot-Zundert (Dutch. Groot Zundert) in the province of North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands, not far from the Belgian border. Vincent's father was Theodor van Gogh (born February 8, 1822), a Protestant pastor, and his mother was Anna Cornelia Carbentus, the daughter of a venerable bookbinder and bookseller from The Hague. Vincent was the second of seven children of Theodore and Anna Cornelia. He received his name in honor of his paternal grandfather, who also devoted his whole life to the Protestant church. This name was intended for the first child of Theodore and Anna, who was born a year before Vincent and died on the first day. So Vincent, although he was born the second, became the eldest of the children.

Four years after Vincent's birth, on May 1, 1857, his brother Theodorus van Gogh (Theo) was born. In addition to him, Vincent had a brother Cor (Cornelis Vincent, May 17, 1867) and three sisters - Anna Cornelia (February 17, 1855), Liz (Elizabeth Hubert, May 16, 1859) and Wil (Willemina Jacob, March 16, 1862). Vincent is remembered by the family as a wayward, difficult and boring child with "strange manners", which was the reason for his frequent punishments. According to the governess, there was something strange about him that distinguished him from others: of all the children, Vincent was less pleasant to her, and she did not believe that something worthwhile could come out of him. Outside the family, on the contrary, Vincent showed the opposite side of his character - he was quiet, serious and thoughtful. He hardly played with other children. In the eyes of his fellow villagers, he was a good-natured, friendly, helpful, compassionate, sweet and modest child. When he was 7 years old, he went to a village school, but a year later he was taken away from there, and together with his sister Anna, he studied at home, with a governess. On October 1, 1864, he left for a boarding school in Zevenbergen, located 20 km from his home. Leaving home caused a lot of suffering to Vincent, he could not forget this, even as an adult. On September 15, 1866, he began his studies at another boarding school - Willem II College in Tilburg. Vincent is good at languages ​​- French, English, German. There he received drawing lessons. In March 1868, in the middle of the school year, Vincent suddenly left school and returned to his father's house. This concludes his formal education. He recalled his childhood as follows: “My childhood was dark, cold and empty…”.

Work in a trading company and missionary work

In July 1869, Vincent got a job in the Hague branch of a large art and trading company Goupil & Cie, owned by his uncle Vincent ("Uncle Saint"). There he received the necessary training as a dealer. Initially, the future artist set to work with great zeal, achieved good results, and in June 1873 he was transferred to the London branch of Goupil & Cie. Through daily contact with works of art, Vincent began to understand and appreciate painting. In addition, he visited the city's museums and galleries, admiring the work of Jean-Francois Millet and Jules Breton. At the end of August, Vincent moved to 87 Hackford Road and rented a room in the home of Ursula Leuer and her daughter Eugenia. There is a version that he was in love with Eugenia, although many early biographers mistakenly call her the name of her mother, Ursula. Adding to this decades-old naming confusion, recent research suggests that Vincent was not in love with Eugenia at all, but with a German woman named Caroline Haanebiek. What actually happened remains unknown. The refusal of the beloved shocked and disappointed the future artist; gradually he lost interest in his work and began to turn to the Bible. In 1874, Vincent was transferred to the Paris branch of the firm, but after three months of work he again leaves for London. Things were getting worse for him, and in May 1875 he was again transferred to Paris, where he visited exhibitions at the Salon and the Louvre, and eventually he began to try his hand at painting. Gradually, this occupation began to take more time from him, and Vincent finally lost interest in work, deciding for himself that "art has no worse enemies than art dealers." As a result, at the end of March 1876, he was fired from Goupil & Cie due to poor performance, despite the patronage of relatives who co-owned the company.

In 1876 Vincent returned to England, where he found unpaid work as a boarding school teacher at Ramsgate. At the same time, he has a desire to become a priest, like his father. In July, Vincent moved to another school - in Isleworth (near London), where he worked as a teacher and assistant pastor. On November 4, Vincent delivered his first sermon. His interest in the gospel grew and he got the idea to preach to the poor.

Vincent went home for Christmas and was persuaded by his parents not to return to England. Vincent stayed in the Netherlands and worked for half a year in a bookstore in Dordrecht. This work was not to his liking; he spent most of his time sketching or translating passages from the Bible into German, English and French. Trying to support Vincent's desire to become a pastor, the family sends him in May 1877 to Amsterdam, where he settled with his uncle, Admiral Jan van Gogh. Here he studied diligently under the guidance of his uncle Johannes Stricker, a respected and recognized theologian, in preparation for passing the university entrance examination for the department of theology. In the end, he became disillusioned with his studies, gave up his studies and left Amsterdam in July 1878. The desire to be useful to ordinary people sent him to the Protestant missionary school of pastor Bokma in Laeken near Brussels, where he completed a three-month sermon course (however, there is a version that he did not complete the full course of study and was expelled because of his sloppy appearance, short temper and frequent fits of rage).

In December 1878, Vincent went for six months as a missionary to the village of Paturazh in Borinage, a poor mining area in southern Belgium, where he launched a tireless activity: he visited the sick, read the Scriptures to the illiterate, preached, taught children, and drew maps of Palestine at night to earn money. Such selflessness endeared him to the local population and members of the Evangelical Society, which resulted in the appointment of a salary of fifty francs to him. After completing a six-month period, van Gogh intended to enter the Gospel School to continue his education, but considered the introduced tuition fees to be a manifestation of discrimination and refused to study. At the same time, Vincent turned to the management of the mines with a petition on behalf of the workers to improve their working conditions. The petition was rejected, and van Gogh himself was removed from his position as a preacher by the Synodal Committee of the Protestant Church of Belgium. This was a serious blow to the emotional and mental state of the artist.

Becoming an artist

Fleeing the depression caused by the events in Paturazh, Van Gogh again turned to painting, seriously thought about his studies, and in 1880, with the support of his brother Theo, he left for Brussels, where he began attending classes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. However, a year later, Vincent dropped out and returned to his parents. During this period of his life, he believed that it was not at all necessary for an artist to have talent, the main thing was to work hard and hard, so he continued his studies on his own.

At the same time, van Gogh experienced a new love interest, falling in love with his cousin, the widow Kay Vos-Stricker, who was staying with her son in their house. The woman rejected his feelings, but Vincent continued courtship, which set all his relatives against him. As a result, he was asked to leave. Van Gogh, having experienced a new shock and deciding to forever abandon attempts to arrange his personal life, left for The Hague, where he plunged into painting with renewed vigor and began to take lessons from his distant relative, a representative of the Hague school of painting Anton Mauve. Vincent worked hard, studied the life of the city, especially the poor neighborhoods. Achieving an interesting and surprising color in his works, he sometimes resorted to mixing different writing techniques on one canvas - chalk, pen, sepia, watercolor ("Backyards", 1882, pen, chalk and brush on paper, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; "Roofs. View from van Gogh's workshop", 1882, paper, watercolor, chalk, private collection of J. Renan, Paris). The artist was greatly influenced by Charles Bargue's "Drawing Course". He copied all the lithographs of the manual in 1880/1881, and then again in 1890, but only part of it.

In The Hague, the artist tried to start a family. This time, his chosen one was the pregnant street woman Christine, whom Vincent met right on the street and, driven by sympathy for her situation, offered to move in with him with the children. This act finally quarreled the artist with his friends and relatives, but Vincent himself was happy: he had a model. However, Christine turned out to be a difficult character, and soon van Gogh's family life turned into a nightmare. They separated very soon. The artist could no longer stay in The Hague and headed to the north of the Netherlands, to the province of Drenthe, where he settled in a separate hut, equipped as a workshop, and spent whole days in nature, depicting landscapes. However, he was not very fond of them, not considering himself a landscape painter - many paintings of this period are dedicated to peasants, their daily work and life.

According to their subject matter, van Gogh's early works can be classified as realism, although the manner of execution and technique can only be called realistic with certain significant reservations. One of the many problems caused by the lack of art education that the artist faced was the inability to portray the human figure. In the end, this led to one of the fundamental features of his style - the interpretation of the human figure, devoid of smooth or measured graceful movements, as an integral part of nature, in some ways even becoming like it. This is very clearly seen, for example, in the painting “A Peasant and a Peasant Woman Planting Potatoes” (1885, Kunsthaus, Zurich), where the figures of the peasants are likened to rocks, and the high horizon line seems to press on them, not allowing them to straighten up or even raise their heads. A similar approach to the topic can be seen in the later painting "Red Vineyards" (1888, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow). In a series of paintings and studies of the mid-1880s. (“Exit from the Protestant Church in Nuenen” (1884-1885), “Peasant Woman” (1885, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo), “Potato Eaters” (1885, Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), “Old Church Tower in Nuenen "(1885), written in a dark pictorial range, marked by a painfully acute perception of human suffering and feelings of depression, the artist recreated the oppressive atmosphere of psychological tension. At the same time, the artist also formed his own understanding of the landscape: an expression of his inner perception of nature through the analogy with man His artistic credo was his own words: "When you draw a tree, interpret it as a figure."

In the autumn of 1885, van Gogh unexpectedly left Drenthe, because a local pastor took up arms against him, forbidding the peasants to pose for the artist and accusing him of immorality. Vincent left for Antwerp, where he again began attending painting classes - this time in a painting class at the Academy of Arts. In the evenings, the artist attended a private school, where he painted nude models. However, already in February 1886, van Gogh left Antwerp for Paris to his brother Theo, who was engaged in the trade in works of art.

The Parisian period of Vincent's life began, which turned out to be very fruitful and rich in events. The artist visited the prestigious private art studio of Fernand Cormon, a teacher famous throughout Europe, studied impressionist painting, Japanese engraving, and synthetic works by Paul Gauguin. During this period, van Gogh's palette became light, the earthy tint of paint disappeared, pure blue, golden yellow, red tones appeared, his characteristic dynamic, as if flowing brushstroke ("Agostina Segatori in the Tambourine Cafe" (1887-1888, Vincent Museum van Gogh, Amsterdam), "Bridge over the Seine" (1887, Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), "Papa Tanguy" (1887, Rodin Museum, Paris), "View of Paris from Theo's apartment on Rue Lepic" (1887, Museum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam). In the work there were notes of calm and tranquility, caused by the influence of the Impressionists. With some of them - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Emile Bernard - the artist met shortly after his arrival in Paris thanks to These acquaintances had the most beneficial effect on the artist: he found a kindred environment that appreciated him, enthusiastically took part in exhibitions of the Impressionists - in the La Fourche restaurant, the Tambourine cafe, then in the lobby of the Free Theater. However, the public was horrified by van Gogh's paintings, which made him again engage in self-education - to study the theory of color by Eugene Delacroix, the textured painting of Adolphe Monticelli, Japanese color prints and planar oriental art in general. The Parisian period of his life accounts for the largest number of paintings created by the artist - about two hundred and thirty. Among them stand out a series of still lifes and self-portraits, a series of six canvases under the general title "Shoes" (1887, Art Museum, Baltimore), landscapes. The role of a person in Van Gogh's paintings is changing - he is not at all, or he is a staffage. Air, atmosphere and rich color appear in the works, however, the artist conveyed the light-air environment and atmospheric nuances in his own way, dividing the whole without merging the forms and showing the “face” or “figure” of each element of the whole. A striking example of this approach is the painting "The Sea in St. Mary" (1888, State Museum of Fine Arts named after A. S. Pushkin, Moscow). The creative search of the artist led him to the origins of a new artistic style - post-impressionism.

Last years. The heyday of creativity

Despite the creative growth of van Gogh, the public still did not perceive and did not buy his paintings, which was very painfully perceived by Vincent. By mid-February 1888, the artist decided to leave Paris and move to the south of France - to Arles, where he intended to create the "Workshop of the South" - a kind of brotherhood of like-minded artists working for future generations. Van Gogh gave the most important role in the future workshop to Paul Gauguin. Theo supported the undertaking with money, and in the same year Vincent moved to Arles. There, the originality of his creative manner and artistic program were finally determined: "Instead of trying to accurately depict what is in front of my eyes, I use color more arbitrarily, so as to express myself most fully." The result of this program was an attempt to develop "a simple technique that, apparently, will not be impressionistic." In addition, Vincent began to synthesize pattern and color in order to more fully convey the very essence of local nature.

Although van Gogh declared a departure from impressionistic methods of depiction, the influence of this style was still very much felt in his paintings, especially in the transfer of light and air ("Peach Tree in Blossom", 1888, Museum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo) or in the use of large coloristic spots ("Anglois Bridge in Arles", 1888, Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne). At this time, like the Impressionists, van Gogh created a series of works depicting the same species, however, achieving not the exact transmission of changing lighting effects and conditions, but the maximum intensity of the expression of the life of nature. His brush of this period also includes a number of portraits in which the artist tried out a new art form.

A fiery artistic temperament, a painful impulse towards harmony, beauty and happiness, and, at the same time, a fear of forces hostile to man, are embodied in the landscapes shining with sunny colors of the south (“Yellow House” (1888), “Gauguin’s Armchair” (1888), “Harvest. Valley of La Crau "(1888, Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), then in ominous, reminiscent of a nightmare images ("Cafe Terrace at Night" (1888, Kröller-Muller Museum, Otterlo); the dynamics of color and stroke fills with spiritual life and movement not only nature and the people who inhabit it (“Red Vineyards in Arles” (1888, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow)), but also inanimate objects (“Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles” (1888, Museum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam)). The artist’s paintings become more dynamic and intense in color (“The Sower”, 1888, E. Buerle Foundation, Zurich), tragic in sound (“Night Cafe”, 1888, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven van Gogh's bedroom in Arles" (1888, Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam).

On October 25, 1888, Paul Gauguin arrived in Arles to discuss the idea of ​​creating a southern painting workshop. However, a peaceful discussion very quickly turned into conflicts and quarrels: Gauguin was dissatisfied with the carelessness of van Gogh, while van Gogh himself was perplexed that Gauguin did not want to understand the very idea of ​​​​a single collective direction of painting in the name of the future. In the end, Gauguin, who was looking for peace in Arles for his work and did not find it, decided to leave. On the evening of December 23, after another quarrel, van Gogh attacked a friend with a razor in his hands. Gauguin accidentally managed to stop Vincent. The whole truth about this quarrel and the circumstances of the attack is still unknown (in particular, there is a version that van Gogh attacked the sleeping Gauguin, and the latter was saved from death only by the fact that he woke up on time), but on the same night Van Gogh cut himself ear lobe. According to the generally accepted version, this was done in a fit of remorse; at the same time, some researchers believe that this was not repentance, but a manifestation of insanity caused by the frequent use of absinthe. The next day, December 24, Vincent was taken to a psychiatric hospital, where the attack recurred with such force that the doctors placed him in the ward for violent patients with a diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy. Gauguin hurriedly left Arles without visiting van Gogh in the hospital, having previously informed Theo about what had happened.

During periods of remission, Vincent asked to be released back to the studio in order to continue working, but the inhabitants of Arles wrote a statement to the mayor of the city with a request to isolate the artist from the rest of the inhabitants. Van Gogh was asked to go to the Saint-Paul mental hospital in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, near Arles, where Vincent arrived on May 3, 1889. There he lived for a year, tirelessly working on new paintings. During this time, he created more than one hundred and fifty paintings and about a hundred drawings and watercolors. The main types of canvases during this period of life are still lifes and landscapes, the main differences of which are incredible nervous tension and dynamism (“Starry Night”, 1889, Museum of Modern Art, New York), contrasting contrasting colors and - in some cases - the use of halftones ( Landscape with Olives, 1889, J. G. Whitney Collection, New York; Wheat Field with Cypresses, 1889, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

At the end of 1889, he was invited to participate in the Brussels exhibition of the "Group of Twenty", where the artist's work immediately aroused the interest of colleagues and art lovers. However, this no longer pleased van Gogh, just as the first enthusiastic article about the painting "Red Vineyards in Arles" signed by Albert Aurier, which appeared in the January issue of the magazine Mercure de France in 1890, did not please either.

In the spring of 1890, the artist moved to Auvers-sur-Oise, a place near Paris, where he saw his brother and his family for the first time in two years. He still continued to write, but the style of his latest work has changed completely, becoming even more nervous and depressing. The main place in the work was occupied by a whimsically curved contour, as if squeezing one or another object (“Country Road with Cypresses”, 1890, Kröller-Muller Museum, Otterlo; “Street and Stairs in Auvers”, 1890, City Art Museum, St. Louis ; "Landscape at Auvers after the rain", 1890, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow). The last bright event in Vincent's personal life was an acquaintance with an amateur artist, Dr. Paul Gachet.

On the 20th of July 1890, van Gogh painted his famous painting “Wheatfield with Crows” (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), and a week later, on July 27, a tragedy occurred. Going out for a walk with drawing materials, the artist shot himself in the heart area with a revolver bought to scare away flocks of birds while working in the open air, but the bullet went lower. Thanks to this, he independently got to the hotel room where he lived. The innkeeper called a doctor, who examined the wound and informed Theo. The latter arrived the next day and spent all the time with Vincent, until his death 29 hours after being wounded from blood loss (at 1:30 am on July 29, 1890). In October 2011, an alternative version of the artist's death appeared. American art historians Stephen Naifeh and Gregory White Smith have suggested that van Gogh was shot by one of the teenagers who regularly accompanied him in drinking establishments.

According to Theo, the artist's last words were: La tristesse durera toujours("The sadness will last forever") Vincent van Gogh was buried in Auvers-sur-Oise on 30 July. On his last journey, the artist was seen off by his brother and a few friends. After the funeral, Theo set about organizing a posthumous exhibition of Vincent's works, but fell ill with a nervous breakdown and exactly six months later, on January 25, 1891, he died in Holland. After 25 years in 1914, his remains were reburied by a widow next to Vincent's grave.

Heritage

Recognition and sales of paintings

Artist on the way to Tarascon, August 1888, Vincent van Gogh on the road near Montmajour, oil on canvas, 48×44 cm, former museum of Magdeburg; the painting is believed to have perished in a fire during World War II

It is a common misconception that only one of his paintings, The Red Vineyards at Arles, was sold during van Gogh's lifetime. This painting was only the first to be sold for a significant amount (at the Brussels exhibition of the Group of Twenty at the end of 1889; the price for the painting was 400 francs). Documents have been preserved on the lifetime sale of 14 works by the artist, starting in 1882 (about which van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo: “The first sheep passed through the bridge”), and in reality there should have been more transactions.

After the first exhibition of paintings in the late 1880s, van Gogh's fame steadily grew among colleagues, art historians, dealers and collectors. After his death memorial exhibitions were organized in Brussels, Paris, The Hague and Antwerp. At the beginning of the 20th century there were retrospectives in Paris (1901 and 1905) and Amsterdam (1905) and significant group exhibitions in Cologne (1912), New York (1913) and Berlin (1914). This had a noticeable impact on subsequent generations of artists. By the middle of the 20th century, Vincent van Gogh is regarded as one of the greatest and most recognizable artists in history. In 2007, a group of Dutch historians compiled " The Canon of Dutch History" for teaching in schools, in which van Gogh was placed as one of the fifty themes, along with other national symbols such as Rembrandt and the art group Style.

Along with the creations of Pablo Picasso, van Gogh's works are among the first on the list of the most expensive paintings ever sold in the world, according to estimates from auctions and private sales. Sold for more than 100 million (2011 equivalent) include: "Portrait of Dr. Gachet", "Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin" and "Irises". Wheat Field with Cypresses was sold in 1993 for $57 million, an unbelievably high price at the time, and his Self-Portrait with Ear and Pipe Cut Off was sold privately in the late 1990s. The sale price was estimated at $80-90 million. Van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" was sold at auction for $82.5 million. Plowed Field and Ploughman went on sale at Christie's New York auction house for $81.3 million.

Influence

In his last letter to Theo, Vincent admitted that since he had no children, he viewed his paintings as offspring. Reflecting on this, the historian Simon Schama concluded that he "did have a child - expressionism, and many, many heirs." Schama mentions a wide range of artists who adapted elements of van Gogh's style, including Willem de Kooning, Howard Hodgkin and Jackson Pollock. The Fauvists expanded the scope and freedom of color, as did the German Expressionists of the Die Brücke group and other early modernists. The abstract expressionism of the 1940s and 1950s is seen as partly inspired by van Gogh's broad, gestural brushstrokes. Here's what art historian Sue Hubbard has to say about the exhibition "Vincent van Gogh and Expressionism":

At the beginning of the twentieth century, van Gogh gave the expressionists a new pictorial language that allowed them to go beyond superficial vision and penetrate deeper into the essence of truth. It is no coincidence that at that very moment Freud was also discovering the depths of an essentially modern concept - the subconscious. This beautiful intellectual exhibition gives Van Gogh his rightful place as a pioneer of Art Nouveau.

original text(English)
At the beginning of the twentieth century Van Gogh gave the Expressionists a new painterly language which enabled them to go beyond surface appearance and penetrate deeper essential truths. It is no coincidence that at this very moment Freud was also mining the depths of that essentially modern domain -the subconscious. This beautiful and intelligent exhibition places Van Gogh where he firmly belongs; as the trailblazer of modern art.

Hubbard, Sue. Vincent Van Gogh and Expressionism. Independent, 2007

In 1957, the Irish artist Francis Bacon (1909-1992) based on a reproduction of a painting by van Gogh "The Artist on the Way to Tarascon", the original of which was destroyed during the Second World War, wrote a series of his works. Bacon was inspired not only by the image itself, which he described as "obtrusive", but also by Van Gogh himself, whom Bacon regarded as an "alienated superfluous man" - a position that resonated with Bacon's mood.

Subsequently, the Irish artist identified himself with Van Gogh's theories in art and quoted lines from van Gogh's letter to his brother Theo: "real artists do not paint things as they are ... They paint them because they themselves feel they are."

From October 2009 to January 2010, the Vincent van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam hosted an exhibition dedicated to the artist's letters, then, from the end of January to April 2010, the exhibition moved to the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

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Vincent Van Gogh. Biography. life and creation

We do not know who Vincent van Gogh was in a past life... In this life, he was born as a boy on March 30, 1853 in the village of Groot Zunder in the province of North Brabant, near the southern border of Holland. At baptism, he was given the name Vincent Willem in honor of his grandfather, and the prefix Gog, perhaps, comes from the name of the small town of Gog, which stood by a dense forest next to the border ...
His father, Theodor van Gogh, was a priest, and besides Vincent, there were five more children in the family, but only one of them was of great importance to him - the younger brother Theo, whose life was intertwined with the life of Vincent in an intricate and tragic way.

The fact that in the case of Vincent fate chose the factor of surprise, making the author extremely famous and revered, unknown and despised during his lifetime, begins to appear, as it seems, already in the events of 1890, a decisive year for the unfortunate artist, which ended tragically for him in July. And this year began with the best omens, with that first, only and unexpected sale of his painting "Red Vineyards in Arles".
The January issue of the magazine Mercure de France published the first enthusiastic critical article on his work signed by Albert Aurier. In May, he moved from the psychiatric hospital of Saint-Remy-de-Provence to the town of Auvers-on-Oise, near Paris. There he met Dr. Gachet (amateur artist, friend of the Impressionists), who highly appreciated him. There he painted almost eighty canvases in a little over two months. In addition, signs of an extraordinary fate, something destined from above, appear from birth. By a strange coincidence, Vincent was born on March 30, 1853, exactly one year after the death of the first-born of Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Cornelius Carbentus, who received the same name at baptism. The grave of the first Vincent was located next to the church door through which the second Vincent passed every Sunday of his childhood.
It must have been not very pleasant, besides, in the Van Gogh family papers there is a direct indication that the name of the stillborn predecessor was often mentioned in the presence of Vincent. But whether this somehow affected his "guilty" or his supposed sense of being an "illegal usurper" is anyone's guess.
Following tradition, the Van Gogh generations chose two spheres of activity for themselves: the church (Theodorus himself was the son of a pastor) and the art trade (like the three brothers of his father). Vincent will take both the first and the second paths, but will fail in both cases. However, both the accumulated experience will have a great influence on his further choice.

The first attempt to find his place in life dates back to 1869, when, at the age of sixteen, Vincent goes to work - with the help of his uncle, his namesake (affectionately called Uncle Saint) - in a branch of the Parisian art firm Goupil, opened in The Hague . Here, for the first time, the future artist comes into contact with painting and drawing and enriches the experience he receives at work with informative visits to city museums and abundant reading. Everything goes well until 1873.
First of all, this is the year of his transfer to the London branch of Goupil, which had a negative impact on his future work. Van Gogh stayed there for two years and experienced a painful loneliness that comes through in his letters to his brother, more and more sad. But the worst comes when Vincent, having changed the apartment that has become too expensive for a boarding house maintained by the widow Loyye, falls in love with her daughter Ursula (according to other sources, Eugenia) and is rejected. This is the first acute love disappointment, this is the first of those impossible relationships that will permanently overshadow his feelings.
In that period of deep despair, a mystical understanding of reality begins to mature in him, growing into a downright religious frenzy. His impulse grows stronger, while crowding out his interest in working at Gupil. And the transfer in May 1875 to the central office in Paris, supported by Uncle Saint in the hope that such a change would do him good, would no longer help. On April 1, 1876, Vincent was finally fired from the Parisian art firm, which by then had been taken over by his partners Busso and Valadon.

Increasingly asserting himself in the thought of his religious vocation, in the spring of 1877, Van Gogh moved to Amsterdam to his uncle Johannes, the director of the city shipyard, in order to prepare for the entrance exams to the theological faculty. For him, who read “On the Imitation of Christ” with delight, becoming a servant of the Lord meant, first of all, devoting oneself to the concrete service of one’s neighbor, in full accordance with the gospel postulates. And great was his joy when, in 1879, he managed to get a position as a secular preacher in Vama, a mining center in the Borinage in southern Belgium.
Here he teaches the miners the Law of God and selflessly helps them, voluntarily dooming himself to a beggarly existence: he lives in a shack, sleeps on the floor, eats only bread and water, and exposes himself to bodily torture. However, the local authorities do not like such extremes, and they deny him this position. But Vincent stubbornly continues his mission as a Christian preacher in the nearby village of Kem. Now he does not even have such an outlet as the correspondence with his brother Theo, which is interrupted from October 1879 to July 1880.
Then gradually something changes in him, and his attention turns to painting. This new path is not as unexpected as it might seem. First, art for Vincent was no less familiar than reading. Work in the Goupil Gallery could not help honing his taste, and during his stay in various cities (in The Hague, London, Paris, Amsterdam) he never missed the opportunity to go to museums.
But first of all, it is his deep religiosity, his sympathy for the outcasts, his love for people and for the Lord that find their embodiment through artistic creativity. “One must understand the defining word contained in the masterpieces of the great masters,” he writes to Theo in July 1880, “and God will be there.”

In 1880, Vincent entered the Academy of Arts in Brussels. However, due to his irreconcilable nature, he very soon abandons her and continues his art education by self-taught, using reproductions and regularly drawing. Back in January 1874, in his letter, Vincent listed Theo's fifty-six favorite artists, among which the names of Jean-Francois Millet, Théodore Rousseau, Jules Breton, Constant Troyon and Anton Mauve stood out.
And now, at the very beginning of his artistic career, his sympathy for the realist French and Dutch school of the nineteenth century has not weakened in the least. In addition, the social art of Millet or Breton, with their populist themes, could not help but find an unconditional follower in him. As for the Dutchman Anton Mauve, there was another reason: Mauve, along with Johannes Bosboom, the Maris brothers and Joseph Israels, was one of the largest representatives of the Hague school, the most significant artistic phenomenon in Holland in the second half of the 19th century, which united the French realism of the Barbizon the school that formed around Rousseau, with the great realist tradition of Dutch art of the seventeenth century. Mauve was also a distant relative of Vincent's mother.
And it was under the guidance of this recognized master in 1881, upon returning to Holland (to Etten, where his parents moved), that Van Gogh created his first two paintings: “Still Life with Cabbage and Wooden Shoes” (now in Amsterdam, in the Vincent Van Museum Gog) and "Still Life with a Beer Glass and Fruit" (Wuppertal, Von der Heidt Museum).

Everything seems to be going well for Vincent, and the family seems to be happy with his new calling. But soon, relations with parents deteriorate sharply, and then completely interrupted. The reason for this is again his rebellious nature and unwillingness to adapt, as well as a new, inappropriate and again unrequited love for his cousin Kay, who recently lost her husband and was left alone with a child.

Having fled to The Hague, in January 1882, Vincent meets Christina Maria Hoornik, nicknamed Sin, a prostitute older than his age, an alcoholic, with a child, and even pregnant. Being at the height of his contempt for existing decorum, he lives with her and even wants to marry. Despite financial difficulties, he continues to be true to his calling and completes several works. Most of the paintings of this very early period are landscapes, mostly sea and urban: the theme is quite in the tradition of the Hague school.
However, her influence is limited to the choice of subjects, since Van Gogh was not characterized by that exquisite texture, that elaboration of details, those ultimately idealized images that distinguished the artists of this direction. From the very beginning, Vincent gravitated towards the image of the truthful rather than the beautiful, trying first of all to express a sincere feeling, and not just to achieve a sound performance.