The life story of van gogh. Biography of Vincent Van Gogh. Rural life away from politics

Vincent Willem Van Gogh (1853-1890) is a famous Dutch artist who, with his work, had a huge influence on the painting of the XIX-XX centuries. His creative way was short-lived, only ten years, but during this time he managed to create about 2100 paintings, of which 860 were painted in oil. Created in artistic direction post-impressionism. He painted portraits, landscapes, still lifes, self-portraits. He lived in poverty and constant anxiety, lost his mind and committed suicide, only after that critics appreciated his great work.

Birth and family

Vincent was born in the southern Dutch province of North Brabant, which is located near the border with Belgium. There was a small village Grot-Zundert, where the future great artist was born on March 30, 1853.

His father, Theodore Van Gogh, born in 1822, was a Protestant pastor.
Mom, Anna Cornelia Carbentus, was from The Hague, which is located in the west of the Netherlands. Her father bound and sold books.

In total, seven children were born in the family, Vincent was the second, but the oldest, because the first child died. The name Vincent, meaning "winner", was intended for the first son, mother and father dreamed that he would grow up, become successful in life and glorify their family. That was the name of his paternal grandfather, who served in the Protestant church all his life. But after a month and a half from birth, the child died, his death was a heavy blow, the parents were inconsolable in their grief. However, a year passed and they had a second baby, whom it was decided to name again Vincent in honor of his deceased brother. He became that great winner who brought glory to the name Van Gogh.

Two years after the birth of Vincent, a girl named Anna Cornelia appeared in the family. In 1857, the boy Theodorus (Theo) was born, who later became a well-known dealer of paintings in Holland, in 1859 the sister of Elizabeth Hubert (Liz), in 1862 another sister of Willemin Jacob (Wil), and in 1867 the boy Cornelis (Cor) ...

Childhood

Among all the children, Vincent was the most boring, difficult and wayward, distinguished by strange manners, for which he often received punishments. The governess, who was involved in raising children, loved Vincent less than the others and did not believe that something worthwhile could come of him.

He grew up gloomy and lonely. While the rest of the children ran around the house and prevented their father from preparing for the pastor's sermon, Vincent retired. He went to wander around the countryside, carefully examining the plants and flowers, weaving braids from woolen threads, combining bright shades and admiring the play of colors.

However, as soon as Vincent left the family environment and found himself among people, he became a completely different child. Among the villagers, completely different sides of his character were manifested - modesty, good nature, compassion, friendliness, courtesy. People saw in him a sweet, quiet, thoughtful and serious child.

Surprisingly, such duality then pursued the artist until the end of his days. He really wanted to have a family and children, but he lived his life alone. He worked for people, and they answered him with ridicule.

Among the brothers and sisters, Vincent was the closest to Theo, their friendship lasted until the artist's last breath. Van Gogh himself recalled his childhood as empty, cold and gloomy.

Education

When Vincent was seven years old, his parents sent him to study at a village school. However, a year later they were taken away from there, and the boy received his education at home from the governess.

In the fall of 1864, he was taken to a boarding school, which was located 20 kilometers from his native village, in the town of Zevenbergen. Departure from his home left a deep impression on the boy, he suffered greatly and remembered this all his life. During this period, Van Gogh made his first sketches and copies of lithographs.

Two years later, he was transferred to another boarding school, it was the college of Willem II in the city of Tilburg. Best of all, the teenager was given foreign languages, and here he began to learn drawing.

In the early spring of 1868, while his studies had not yet ended, Vincent dropped out of college and went home to his parents. This was the end of his formal education. Parents were very worried that their son had grown up so unsociable. They were also worried that Vincent was not attracted to any profession. As soon as the father started a conversation with him about the need to work, the son agreed with him, shortly answering: "Of course, work is a necessary condition for human existence."

Youth

Van Gogh's father served all his life in not very prestigious parishes, so he dreamed that his son would have a good high-paying job. He turned to his brother, whose name was also Vincent, to help arrange young Van Gogh somewhere. Uncle Saint used to work in a large art and trade firm, but he had already retired and was gradually engaged in the sale of paintings in The Hague. However, he remained in touch, and in the summer of 1869 he gave his nephew his recommendations and helped to get a job in the Hague branch of the firm "Gupil".

Here Vincent completed his initial training as a picture dealer and began to work with great zeal. He showed good results, and in the summer of 1873 the guy was transferred to the London branch from this company.

Every day, due to the nature of his service, he had to deal with works of art, and the guy began to understand painting very well, and not only understand, but also deeply appreciate it. On weekends, he went to city galleries, antique shops and museums, where he admired the works French artists Jules Breton and Jean-Francois Millet. I tried to draw myself, but then, looking at each new drawing, grinned with displeasure.

In London, he lived in an apartment with the widow of the priest, Ursula Loyer. Vincent fell in love with the owner's daughter Eugene. But the girl has a young boy who speaks bad English language, caused only a sense of fun. Van Gogh invited Eugene to become his wife. She gave a sharp refusal, saying that she had been engaged for a long time, and he, a provincial Flemish, was not interesting to her. Vincent received such a blow for the first time, but the consequences of this mental wound remained for life.

Young Van Gogh was crushed, he did not want to work or live. Vincent wrote in letters to his brother Theo that only God helps him to survive, and, probably, he will become a priest, like his grandfather and father.

In the late spring of 1875, Vincent was transferred to work in Paris. But lost interest to life led to the fact that he was fired due to poor performance of his duties, even the patronage of Uncle Sent did not help. Van Gogh returned to London, where he worked for some time in a boarding school as an unpaid teacher.

Finding yourself

In 1878, Vincent went home to the Netherlands. He was already 25 years old, and he still had not decided how to continue to live. The parents sent their son to Amsterdam, where he settled with Uncle Jan and began to diligently prepare for entering the university at the faculty of theology. Very soon, studies disappointed young Van Gogh, he wanted to be as useful as possible for ordinary people, and he decided to leave for the south of Belgium.

Vincent came to the Borinage mining area as a priest. He rescued miners who fell under the rubble, held conversations with dying people, read sermons to miners. With the last money he bought wax and lamp oil, tore his clothes into bandages. He did not have the slightest idea about medicine, but he helped hopeless patients, and soon they began to consider him "out of this world."

At the same time, Vincent constantly had a desire to draw. He wanted to jot down on paper every object that came along the way. But Van Gogh realized that drawing would distract him from his main business and decided not to start. Every time he wanted to pick up a brush or pencil, he said a firm "no".

He had nothing. He could not even think about women after Evgenia's refusal. Theo's younger brother helped Vincent with money. Relatives insisted that it was time to give up their sermons, which did not bring income and return to life, to acquire a home and family.

Creative way

In the end, Vincent decided to listen to the reproaches of his relatives, he left the sermons and determined for himself the only desired and true path in life - drawing. In this matter, he had no experience, but as Van Gogh himself said: "Where there is a desire, there will be a way out." He began to master the technique of drawing, to study the laws of perspective, for the sake of art he was ready to endure all sorts of hardships.

In 1880, Brother Theo helped Vincent financially so that he could go to Brussels to study at the Royal Academy fine arts... After studying there for four months, Van Gogh had a fight with the teacher and went home to his parents. At this time, his cousin Kee Vos-Stricker was staying with them, with whom Vincent tried to establish a love relationship. The woman who liked him rejected him again. Unable to suffer any more failures on the love front, Van Gogh decided to give up forever trying to create a family and devote his life only to drawing.

He moved to The Hague, where the landscape painter Anton Mauve became his teacher in the world of painting. Van Gogh still had no money, Theo supported him. Vincent began to work very hard to thank his younger brother for his kindness and patronage. He walked a lot around the city, studying every little thing, especially the artist was interested in the poor quarters. This is how his first paintings "Backyards" and "Roofs" appeared. View from Van Gogh's workshop ”.

Soon from The Hague, Vincent left for the province of Drenthe in the north-east of the Netherlands. There he rented a hotel hut, equipped it as a workshop and painted landscapes from morning to night. He was also very interested in the topic of peasants, their everyday life and work.

The lack of art education still affected the paintings of Van Gogh, it was problematic for him to depict human figures. This is how his own style was developed, in which a person was deprived of graceful, smooth, measured movements, he seemed to merge with nature and became an integral part of it. This approach is clearly visible in his paintings:

"A peasant woman at the hearth";
“Two Women in the Moorland”;
"Digging Peasant Woman";
"Villagers Planting Potatoes";
“Two women in the forest”;
"Two peasant women digging potatoes."

In 1886, the artist moved from Drenthe to Paris to live with his brother. This fruitful period was marked in the work of Van Gogh by the fact that his palette became much lighter. Previously, in his paintings, earthy colors prevailed, but now the purity of blue, red, golden yellow colors has appeared:

"Exterior of a restaurant in Asnieres";
"Bridges along the Seine at Asnier";
"Daddy Tanguy";
"On the outskirts of Paris";
Factories in Asnieres;
Sunset in Montmartre;
"Corner of the park d'Argenson in Asnieres";
"Courtyard of the hospital in Henri".

Unfortunately, the public did not accept or buy Van Gogh's paintings in any way. This inflicted mental anguish on the artist. But he continued to work day and night, while he could sit for weeks on end only on tobacco, absinthe and coffee.

The last years of life and death

The consumption of large amounts of absinthe as a result led to the development of mental disorders. Once, during an attack, Vincent cut off a lobe on his ear, after which he was placed in a psychiatric hospital in a violent ward.

In the spring of 1889 he was transferred to an institution for the mentally ill in Saint-Remy-de-Provence. Here he lived for a year, during which time he painted about 150 paintings.

At the end of 1889, his work first aroused genuine interest at the Brussels exhibition, and in January 1890 an enthusiastic article about Van Gogh's paintings was published. However, the artist was no longer happy with anything.

At the beginning of 1890 he was released from the clinic, and Van Gogh came to his brother. He managed to write his famous canvases:

"Rural road with cypresses";
Street and Staircase at Auvers;
"Wheat field with crows".

And on July 27, 1890, Vincent shot himself with a revolver he bought to scare away birds while drawing. He missed and missed the heart, so he died only a day and a half later, on July 29, from blood loss. He left quietly, without saying a word. Everything that he wanted to say to this world, Van Gogh depicted on his canvases. Exactly six months later, his younger brother Theo died.

During the artist's lifetime, only fourteen of his paintings were sold. A hundred years later, his work was included in the list of the most expensive paintings sold in the world. For example, Self-Portrait with Cut Off Ear and Pipe was sold to a private collection in the late 1990s for $ 90 million.

1853-1890 .

The biography below is by no means a complete and thorough study of the life of Vincent Van Gogh. On the contrary, it is only short review some of important events in the chronicle of the life of Vincent Van Gogh. early years

Vincent Van Gogh was born in Groth-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 speculations that Vincent Van Gogh suffered psychological trauma as a result of this fact. This theory remains a theory as there are no real historical facts in her support.

Van Gogh was the son of Theodore Van Gogh (1822-85), pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church, and Anna Cornelia Carbentus (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 school of King Wilhelm II 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 joined Goupil & Cie, an art dealer firm in The Hague. The Van Gogh family has long been associated with the art world - 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 at 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 at the home of Ursula Loyer and her daughter Eugenie at 87 Hackford Road. It is believed that Vincent was romantically inclined towards Eugenie, but many early biographers mistakenly refer to Eugenia after her mother, Ursula. It can be added to the long-standing confusion of names that recent evidence suggests that Vincent was not in love with Eugene, but was in love with his compatriot named Caroline Haanebeek. True, and 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 big fan of British writers such as George Eliot and Charles Dickens. Van Gogh was also a big fan of the work of British engravers. These illustrations inspired and influenced Van Gogh in his later life as an artist.

The relationship between Vincent and Goupil & Cie grew more tense, and in May 1875 he was transferred to the firm's Paris office. In Paris, Vincent worked with paintings that were of little interest to him from the point of view of personal tastes. Vincent leaves Goupil & Cie at the end of March 1876 and returns to England, remembering where his two, for the most part, very happy and fruitful years have passed.

In April, Vincent Van Gogh began teaching at the Reverend William P. Stokes School at Ramsgate. He was responsible for 24 boys between the ages of 10 and 14. His letters show that Vincent enjoyed teaching. After that he began teaching at another school for boys, the parish of the Rev. T. Jones Slade in Isleworth. In his spare time, Van Gogh continued to visit galleries and admire many great works of art. He also devoted himself to Bible study - spending many hours reading and rereading the Gospel. The summer of 1876 is the time of a religious transformation for Vincent Van Gogh. Although he grew up in a religious family, he did not expect to 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 priestly responsibilities. Jones agreed and Vincent began speaking at prayer meetings at Turnham Green. These speeches served as a means of preparing Vincent for the goal he had long pursued: his first Sunday sermon. Although Vincent himself was delighted with such a prospect as a preacher, his sermons were somewhat lackluster and lifeless. Like his father, Vincent had a passion for preaching but lacked something.

After visiting his family in the Netherlands for Christmas, Vincent Van Gogh remains at home. After working for a short time in a bookstore in Dordrecht in early 1877, Vincent left for Amsterdam on May 9 to prepare for the entrance exams to the university, where he was to study theology. Vincent learns Greek, Latin, studies math, but ultimately 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 does not go to the missionary school in Laeken. Vincent Van Gogh eventually made arrangements with the church to begin preaching on probation in one of the harshest and poorest neighborhoods in Western Europe: Borinage coal mining area, Belgium.

In January 1879, Vincent took up his duties as a preacher for 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 dire working conditions and, as their spiritual leader, did his best to lighten the burden of their lives. Unfortunately, this altruistic desire reached such fanatical proportions that Vincent began to donate most of his food and clothing to poor people under his care. Despite Vincent's noble intentions, Church officials strongly condemned Van Gogh's asceticism and removed him from office in July. Refusing to leave the area, Van Gogh moved to a neighboring village, Cuesmes, where he lived in extreme poverty. The following year, Vincent struggled to live from day to day and, although unable to help the village of people in any official capacity as a clergyman, he nevertheless decided to remain a member of their community. The next year was so difficult that the question of survival for Vincent Van Gogh faced every day. And although he could not help the people as an official representative of the church, he remains the village. A notable occasion for Van Gogh, Vincent decided to visit the home of Jules Breton, a French artist whom 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 make his way 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 of fate, Vincent Van Gogh will choose his next and final career path: as an artist.

Vincent van Gogh as artist

In the fall of 1880, after more than a year living in poverty in Borinage, Vincent went to Brussels to begin his studies at the Academy of 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 throughout most of their adult lives, they kept a constant correspondence. On the basis of this correspondence, and there are more than 800 letters, the idea of Van Gogh's life is based.

1881 will prove to be a tumultuous 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 learning at his own discretion, adopting examples from books. In the summer, Vincent again visits his parents who already live in Etten. There he meets and experiences romantic feelings for his widowed cousin Cornelia Adrian Vos Stricker (Key). But Ki's unrequited love and breakup with his parents lead to his imminent departure to The Hague.

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

Vincent Van Gogh met Christina Maria Hornik, nicknamed Sin (1850-1904) at the end of February 1882 in The Hague. At that time she was already pregnant with her second child. Vincent lived with Sin for the next year and a half. Their relationship was turbulent, partly due to the complexity of the personalities of both personalities, and also because of the imprint of a life of utter poverty. From Vincent's letters to Theo, it becomes clear how well Van Gogh treated the children of Sin, 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 significantly during this period. His earlier, more primitive drawings of the miners at Borinage give way to a much more refined manner and emotion at work.

In 1883, Vincent begins to experiment with oil paints, he used oil paints earlier, but now this direction is main for him. In the same year, he parted ways with Sin. Vincent leaves The Hague in mid-September to move to Drenthe. For the next six weeks, Vincent leads a nomadic lifestyle, traveling throughout the region to work on landscapes and depictions of peasants.

The last time Vincent returns to his parents' house, now in Nuenen, is at the end of 1883. Over the next year, Vincent Van Gogh continued to improve his craft. He created dozens of paintings and drawings during this period: weavers, counters and other portraits. The local peasants turned out to be his favorite topics - in part 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 her relationship leads her to a poisonous suicide attempt. Vincent was greatly shocked by this incident. Margot eventually recovered, but the incident upset Vincent greatly. He himself, in letters to Theo, repeatedly returned to this episode.

1885: First Great Works

In the early months of 1885, Van Gogh continued his series of portraits of peasants. Vincent saw them as good practice where you can improve your skills. Vincent is productive during March and April. At the end of March, he slightly breaks away from work in connection with the death of his father, with whom last years were very tense. Several years of hard work, improvement of skills, technology and Vincent in 1885 comes to his first serious work "The Potato Eaters".

Vincent worked on The Potato Eaters during April 1885. He prepared several sketches in advance and worked on this painting in the studio. Vincent Ball is so enthusiastic about the success that even criticism from his friend Anthony Van Rappard has only led to a breakup. 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 entered the Art Academy in Antwerp. Once again, he comes to the conclusion that formal training is too narrow for him. Vincent's choice is practical work, only in this way can he hone his skills, as evidenced by his "Potato Eaters". After four weeks of training, Van Gogh leaves the Academy. He is interested in new methods, technology, self-improvement, all this Vincent can no longer get in Holland, his path lies in Paris.

A new beginning: Paris

In 1886, Vincent Van Gogh, without warning, arrives in Paris to his brother Theo. Prior to that, in letters he wrote to his brother about the need to move to Paris for further development... Theo, in turn, knowing Vincent's complex nature, resisted this move. But Theo had no choice and had to accept his brother.

The period of his life in Paris for Van Gogh is important in terms of his role in 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. For two years in Paris, Van Gogh visited early Impressionist exhibitions (which included 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 enjoy painting in the vicinity of Paris during 1886. His palette began to move away from the dark, traditional colors of his homeland and will include brighter impressionist hues. Vincent became interested in Japanese art, Japan during this period of its cultural isolation. The Western world was fascinated by everything Japanese and Vincent acquired several Japanese prints. As a result, Japanese art influenced Van Gogh and throughout the rest of the time it is read in his works.

Throughout 1887, Van Gogh hones his skills, practices a lot. His lively 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 materialize. The relationship with Theo is tense. ...

As has often happened throughout his life, poor weather conditions during the winter months make 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 following the sun, his road lies to Arles.

Arles Studio. South.

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 strives for the warm sun of Provence. Another motivation is Vincent's dream of creating a kind of artists' commune in Arles, where his comrades from Paris can find refuge, where they will work together, support each other in achieving a common goal. Van Gogh boarded the train from Paris to Arles on February 20, 1888, inspired by his dream for a prosperous future, and watched the landscape pass by.

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

As soon as it got warmer, Vincent wasted no time creating his works in the open air. In March, the trees were awakening and the landscape looked somewhat gloomy after winter. However, a month later, buds are visible on the trees and Van Gogh paints flowering gardens. Vincent is pleased with his performance and feels renewal along with the gardens.

The months that followed were happy. Vincent rented a room at the Café de la Gare in Place Lamartine 10 in early May and rented his famous "Yellow House" for the studio (at Place Lamartine 2). Vincent won't actually move to the Yellow House until September.

Vincent works hard throughout the spring and summer, starting to send his pieces to Theo. 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. Though 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 will require even more financial assistance from Theo, who have reached their limit.

At the end of July, Van Gogh's uncle died and left a legacy to Theo. This financial inflow allows Theo to sponsor Gauguin's move to Arles. Theo was interested in this move as a brother and as a business man. Theo knows that Vincent would be happier and more relaxed 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 affairs, 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 of 23 October.

In the next two months, this move will be critical and disastrous for both Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Initially, Van Gogh and Gauguin got along well, worked on the outskirts of Arles, discussed their art. As the weeks passed, the weather worsened, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin were forced to stay at home more and more often. The temperaments of both artists, forced to work in the same room, give rise to many conflicts.

Relations between Van Gogh and Gauguin deteriorated during December; Vincent wrote that their heated debates became more and more frequent. December 23 Vincent Van Gogh, in a fit of insanity, mutilated the lower left ear. Van Gogh cut off part of his left earlobe, wrapped it in cloth and presented it to a prostitute. Then Vincent returned to his apartment, where he lost consciousness. He was discovered by the police and hospitalized at the Hotel-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 the relationship will improve ..

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

The first weeks of 1889 were not easy for Vincent Van Gogh. After recovering, Vincent returned to his Yellow Home, but continued to visit Dr. Ray for observation and 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 the whole family to Marseille. Roulin was a dear and loyal friend of Vincent most of his time in Arles.

During January and early February, Vincent worked hard, during this time he created "Sunflowers" and "Lullaby". However, on February 7, another attack of Vincent. He was taken to the Hôtel-Dieu hospital for observation. Van Gogh is in the hospital for ten days, but after that he 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, eventually the chief of police, ordered Van Gogh to go back to the Hôtel-Dieu hospital. Vincent stayed 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 was the case a year before, Van Gogh returns to the blossoming gardens around Arles. But even when he creates one of his best works, Vincent realizes 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 8 May.

Deprivation of liberty

Upon arrival at the clinic, Van Gogh was placed under the supervision of Dr. Théophile Zacharie Peyron Auguste (1827-95). After examining Vincent, Dr. Peyron is convinced that his patient is suffering from epilepsy - a diagnosis that remains one of the most likely predictors of 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. He is depressed by this atmosphere. Van Gogh's treatment includes hydrotherapy, frequent immersion in a large bath of water. While this "therapy" was not brutal, it was least helpful in 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 were inspired by Van Gogh's progress, and in mid-June, Van Gogh creates Starry Night.

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

For two months, Van Gogh could not leave his ward and writes to Theo that when he goes out into the street, he is seized by a strong loneliness. In the coming weeks, Vincent again overcomes his worries and resumes work. During this time, Vincent plans to leave the Saint-Remy Clinic. He expresses these thoughts to Theo, who begins to inquire 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 is helping to organize the Octave Maus exhibition, in Brussels, in which six paintings by Vincent were displayed. Vincent is delighted with the venture and remains highly prolific throughout this time.

On December 23, 1889, a year after the seizure, when Vincent cut off his earlobe, another weekly seizure slays Van Gogh. The aggravation was serious and lasted about a week, but Vincent recovered quickly enough and resumed painting. Unfortunately, Van Gogh suffered from a large number of seizures during the first months of 1890. These exacerbations become frequent. Ironically, during this time, when Van Gogh was probably at his most mentally depressed state, his work is finally beginning to gain critical acclaim. News of this pushes Vincent to the hope of leaving the clinic and heading north.

After consultations, Theo realizes that the best solution for Vincent would be to return to Paris, under the supervision of Dr. Paul Gachet (1828-1909), a therapist in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris. Vincent agrees with Theo's plans and completes treatment in Saint-Remy. On May 16, 1890, Vincent Van Gogh left the clinic and took the night train to Paris.

“The sadness will last forever ....

Vincent's trip 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, to the quieter Auvers-sur-Oise.

Vincent met with Dr. Gachet shortly after his arrival in Auvers. Although initially impressed by Gachet, Van Gogh later expressed serious doubts about his competence. Despite his misgivings, Vincent finds himself a small hotel room owned by Arthur Gustave Ravoux and immediately begins to paint the neighborhood of 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 freedom, which 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 passed pleasantly and without incident for Vincent Van Gogh. On June 8, Theo, Joe and the child came to Auvers to visit Vincent and Gachet. Vincent is having a very pleasant day with his family. Apparently, Vincent was completely recovered - mentally and physically.

Throughout June, Vincent remained in good spirits and was extremely productive with The Portrait of Dr. Gachet and The Church at Auvers. The initial calm of the first month at Auvers was cut short when Vincent received news that his nephew was seriously ill. Theo is going through the hardest time: uncertainty about his own career and future, current health problems and his son's illness. After the child recovered, Vincent decided to visit Theo and his family on 6 July and set off on an early train. Very little is known about the visit. Vincent soon gets tired and quickly returns to the quieter Over.

Over the next three weeks, Vincent resumed his work and, as can be seen from his letters, was quite happy. In his letters, Vincent writes that at the present time he is feeling well and he is calm, comparing his condition with the previous year. Vincent was immersed in the fields and plains around Auvers and produced several brilliant landscapes during July. Vincent's life is gaining stability, he works hard.

Nothing foreshadowed such a denouement. July 27, 1890 Vincent Van Gogh sets out 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 try to remove 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 caused no major delay and Theo arrived the next day.

Vincent and Theo stayed 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 to come to terms with his fate and Theo later wrote that Vincent himself wanted to die when Theo was sitting by his bed. Vincent's last words were "The sadness will last forever."

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

When Vincent Van Gogh, 37, died on July 29, 1890, his work was almost unknown. Today, his paintings are staggering amounts and adorn the best museums in the world.

125 years after the death of the great Dutch painter the time has come to learn more about him and dispel some of the myths with which, like the whole history of art, his biography is full.

He changed several jobs before becoming an artist.

The son of a minister, Van Gogh began working at the age of 16. His uncle took him as an intern for an art dealer position in The Hague. He traveled to London and Paris, where the firm's offices were located. In 1876 he was fired. After that, he worked for some time as a school teacher in England, then as a bookstore seller. From 1878 he served as a preacher in Belgium. Van Gogh was in need, he had to sleep on the floor, but less than a year later he was fired from this post. Only after that did he finally become an artist and did not change his occupation anymore. In this field, he became famous, however, posthumously.

Van Gogh's career as an artist was short

In 1881, the Dutch self-taught artist returned to the Netherlands, where he devoted himself to painting. He was financially and financially supported by his younger brother Theodore, a successful art dealer. In 1886, the brothers settled in Paris, and these two years in the French capital turned out to be fateful. Van Gogh took part in exhibitions of the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists, he began to use a light and bright palette, experimenting with methods of applying brush strokes. The artist spent the last two years of his life in the south of France, where he created a number of his most famous paintings.

Over the course of his ten-year career, he has sold only a few of over 850 paintings. His drawings (there are about 1300 of them left) were then unclaimed.

Most likely, he did not cut off his ear.

In February 1888, after living in Paris for two years, Van Gogh moved to the south of France, to the city of Arles, where he hoped to found a community of artists. He was accompanied by Paul Gauguin, with whom they became friends in Paris. The officially accepted version of events is as follows:

On the night of December 23, 1888, they quarreled, and Gauguin left. Van Gogh, armed with a razor, pursued his friend, but without catching up, he returned home and in frustration partially cut off his left ear, then wrapped it in a newspaper and gave it to some prostitute.

In 2009, two German scientists published a book in which it was suggested that Gauguin, being a good swordsman, cut off part of Van Gogh's ear with a saber during a duel. According to this theory, Van Gogh agreed to hide the truth in the name of friendship, otherwise Gauguin would have been threatened with prison.

The most famous paintings were written by him in a psychiatric clinic.

In May 1889, Van Gogh sought help at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole psychiatric hospital, located in a former convent in Saint-Remy-de-Provence in southern France. Initially, the artist was diagnosed with epilepsy, but the examination also revealed bipolar disorder, alcoholism and metabolic disorders. Treatment consisted mainly of taking baths. He stayed in the hospital for a year and painted a number of landscapes there. More than a hundred paintings from this period include some of his most famous works, such as Starry Night (acquired by the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1941) and Irises (purchased by an Australian industrialist in 1987 for a record $ 53.9 million)

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, Grotto-Zundert, Netherlands - July 29, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France) - Dutch post-impressionist painter, whose work had a timeless influence on painting of the XX 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 disorders.

Childhood and youth

Born March 30, 1853 in the village of Groot Zundert (Dutch. Groot Zundert) in the province of North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands, near the Belgian border. Vincent's father was Theodore Van Gogh (born 02/08/1822), 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 entire life to Protestant Church... This name was intended for the first child of Theodore and Anna, who was born a year earlier than 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 (Willemin Jacob, March 16, 1862). Households remember Vincent 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 the 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 other side of his character - he was quiet, serious and thoughtful. He hardly played with other children. In the eyes of 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 the governess. On October 1, 1864, he left for a boarding school in Zevenbergen, which was 20 km from his home. Leaving home caused a lot of suffering for Vincent, he could not forget it, 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. He also received drawing lessons there. In March 1868, in the middle school year, Vincent suddenly dropped out of school and returned to his father's house. This is where his formal education ends. He recalled his childhood this way: "My childhood was dark, cold and empty ...".

Trading Firm and Missionary Work

In July 1869, Vincent got a job at the Hague branch of the large art and trade firm Goupil & Cie, owned by his uncle Vincent ("Uncle Saint"). There he received the necessary training as a dealer. Initially, the future artist took 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 city museums and galleries, admiring the works of Jean-Francois Millet and Jules Breton. At the end of August, Vincent moved to 87 Hackford Road and rented a room at the house of Ursula Loyer and her daughter Eugenie. There is a version that he was in love with Eugene, although many early biographers mistakenly call her after her mother, Ursula. In addition to this name confusion that has existed for decades, recent research suggests that Vincent was not in love with Eugene, but with a German woman named Caroline Haanebik. What actually happened remains unknown. The refusal of his 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 left for London. Things were getting worse for him, and in May 1875 he was again transferred to Paris, where he attended exhibitions in the Salon and Louvre, and in the end he began to try his hand at painting. Gradually, this occupation began to take more of his time, and Vincent finally lost interest in work, deciding for himself that "art has no worse enemies than the art dealers." As a result, at the end of March 1876, he was fired from the Goupil & Cie firm because of poor work, despite the patronage of the relatives - co-owners of the company.

In 1876, Vincent returned to England, where he found unpaid work as a teacher at a boarding school in 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 was fired up with the idea of preaching to the poor.

At Christmas, Vincent drove home, and his parents talked him into not returning to England. Vincent stayed in the Netherlands and worked for six months in a bookstore in Dordrecht. This work was not to his liking; he spent most of his time sketching or translating Bible passages into German, English, and French. Trying to support Vincent's aspirations to become a pastor, the family sent 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, preparing to surrender entrance exam to the university at the department of theology. He eventually became disillusioned with his studies, dropped out of 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 took a three-month preaching course (however, there is a version that he did not complete full course training and was kicked out due to sloppy appearance, irascible nature and frequent bouts of rage).

In December 1878, Vincent went for six months as a missionary to the village of Paturage in Borinage, a poor mining area in southern Belgium, where he launched an indefatigable activity: he visited the sick, read the Scriptures to the illiterate, preached, taught children, and at night drew maps of Palestine to earn money. This dedication endeared him to the local population and members of the Evangelical Society, which resulted in the appointment of a salary of fifty francs. After completing a six-month experience, van Gogh intended to enter the Evangelical school to continue his education, but he considered the introduced tuition fees 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 post as preacher by the Synod Committee of the Protestant Church in Belgium. This was a serious blow to the emotional and mental state of the artist.

Becoming as an artist

Fleeing from the depression caused by the events in Paturage, Van Gogh again turned to painting, seriously thought about studying and in 1880, with the support of his brother Theo, left for Brussels, where he began to attend 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 Kee Vos-Stricker, who was staying with her son in their house. The woman rejected his feelings, but Vincent continued courting, which turned all his relatives against him. As a result, he was asked to leave. Van Gogh, having experienced a new shock and deciding to give up forever 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, the representative of the Hague school of painting, Anton Mauve. Vincent worked hard, studied the life of the city, especially the poor neighborhoods. In pursuit of an interesting and surprising color in his works, he sometimes resorted to mixing various writing techniques on one canvas - chalk, pen, sepia, watercolors (Backyards, 1882, pen, chalk and brush on paper, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; "Roofs. View from the workshop of van Gogh", 1882, paper, watercolor, chalk, private collection of J. Renan, Paris). The artist was greatly influenced by Charles Bargh's textbook “Drawing training course”. He copied all the lithographs of the manual in 1880/1881, and then again in 1890, but this time only a part.

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 position, 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 family life van Gogh turned into a nightmare. They broke up very soon. The artist could no longer stay in The Hague and went 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 devoted to peasants, their daily work and life.

In terms of their subject matter, van Gogh's early works can be attributed to realism, although the manner of performance and technique can be called realistic only 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 a 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 measuredly graceful movements, as an integral part of nature, in some way even similar to 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 peasants are likened to rocks, and the high horizon seems to press on them, not allowing them to straighten or even raise their heads. A similar approach to the topic can be seen in the later painting "Red Vineyards" (1888, State Museum fine arts them. A.S. Pushkin, Moscow). In a series of paintings and sketches from the mid-1880s. ("Exit from the Protestant Church in Nuenen" (1884-1885), "Peasant Woman" (1885, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo), "The Potato Eaters" (1885, Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), "Old Church Tower in Nuenen "(1885), painted in a dark painting range, marked by a painfully acute perception of human suffering and feelings of depression, the artist recreated an oppressive atmosphere of psychological tension. At the same time, the artist formed his own understanding of the landscape: the expression of his inner perception of nature through an analogy with man His own words became his artistic credo: "When you draw a tree, treat it like a figure."

In the fall 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 to attend 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 art trade.

The Parisian period of Vincent's life began, which turned out to be very fruitful and eventful. The artist attended a prestigious private art studio of the famous throughout Europe teacher Fernand Cormon, studied impressionism painting, Japanese engraving, synthetic works by Paul Gauguin. During this period, van Gogh's palette became light, the earthy shade of paint disappeared, pure blue, golden yellow, red tones appeared, his characteristic dynamic, as if flowing smear ("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, Musée Rodin, Paris), "View of Paris from Theo's apartment on rue Lepic" (1887, Museum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam) .In his work, there were notes of calmness and pacification caused by the influence of the Impressionists.Some of them - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Emile Bernard - the artist met soon after arriving 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 the exhibitions of the Impressionists - in the restaurant "La Fourche", cafe "Tambourine", then - in the foyer of the "Free Theater". However, the public was horrified by the paintings of van Gogh, which made him again engage in self-education - to study the theory of color by Eugene Delacroix, textured painting by Adolphe Monticelli, Japanese color prints and flat oriental art in general. The Parisian period of life accounts for the largest number 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 his works, but the artist in his own way conveyed the light-airy environment and atmospheric nuances, dismembering the whole, not merging 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 Saint Mary" (1888, State Museum of Fine Arts named after A. Pushkin, Moscow). The artist's creative search led him to the origins of a new artistic style- post-impressionism.

Last years. The flowering of creativity

In spite of creative growth van Gogh, the public still did not perceive or buy his paintings, which was very painful for 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. The most important role in the future workshop, Van Gogh gave to Paul Gauguin. Theo supported the venture with money, and in the same year Vincent moved to Arles. There the originality of it was finally determined. creative manner and the art program: "Instead of trying to accurately depict what is in front of my eyes, I use color more arbitrarily, so that I can most fully express myself." The consequence of this program was an attempt to develop "a simple technique, which, apparently, will not be impressionistic." In addition, Vincent began to synthesize pattern and color in order to better convey the very essence of the local nature.

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

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

On October 25, 1888, Paul Gauguin came to 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 van Gogh's carelessness, while van Gogh himself wondered how 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 in time), but on the same night Van Gogh cut himself off earlobe. 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 remorse, 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 was repeated with such force that the doctors placed him in a ward for violent patients diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy. Gauguin hastily left Arles without visiting van Gogh in the hospital, having previously reported the incident to Theo.

During periods of remission, Vincent asked to be released back to the workshop in order to continue working, but the residents of Arles wrote a statement to the mayor of the city asking him to isolate the artist from the rest of the residents. Van Gogh was asked to go to the hospital for the mentally ill Saint-Paul 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 paintings 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 works immediately aroused the interest of colleagues and art lovers. However, this no longer pleased van Gogh, nor did 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.

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

On the 20th of July 1890, van Gogh wrote his famous canvas"Wheat field with crows" (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam), and a week later, on July 27, tragedy struck. Going out for a walk with materials for drawing, 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 passed below. Thanks to this, he independently reached 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 the entire 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 Nayfeh 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 sorrow will last forever.”) Vincent van Gogh was buried in Auvers-sur-Oise on 30 July. On his last journey, the artist was accompanied by his brother and a few friends. After the funeral, Theo took up the organization of a posthumous exhibition of Vincent's works, but fell ill with a nervous breakdown and exactly six months later, on January 25, 1891, died in Holland. 25 years later, in 1914, his remains were reburied by a widow next to Vincent's grave.

Heritage

Recognition and sales of paintings

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

It is a common misconception that during the lifetime of van Gogh, only one of his paintings was sold - "The Red Vineyards in Arles". This canvas was only the first to be sold for a substantial 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 about the lifetime sale of 14 works by the artist, starting in 1882 (which van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo: “The first sheep passed through the bridge”), and in reality more transactions should have taken place.

After the first exhibition of paintings in the late 1880s, van Gogh's fame grew steadily 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, retrospectives took place 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 “ Canon Dutch history» for teaching in schools, in which van Gogh was placed as one of fifty themes, along with other national symbols such as Rembrandt and art group"Style".

Along with the works 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 over 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 incredibly high price at the time, and his Self-Portrait with Cut Off Ear and Pipe was sold privately in the late 1990s. The estimated sale price was $ 80-90 million. Van Gogh's painting "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" was auctioned for $ 82.5 million. The Plowed Field and the Plowman was auctioned off 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 considers his paintings as offspring. Reflecting on this, the historian Simon Schama came to the conclusion that he "really had a child - Expressionism, and many, many heirs." Shama mentions wide circle artists who adapted elements of van Gogh's style, including Willem de Kooning, Howard Hodgkin, and Jackson Pollock. The Fauves have expanded the scope of color and the freedom to use it, as well as German Expressionists from the group "Die Brücke" and other early modernists. Abstract Expressionism of the 1940s and 1950s is seen as partly inspired by van Gogh's broad, gesticulating strokes. Here's what art critic Sue Hubbard says 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 external superficial vision and penetrate deeper into the essence of truth. It is no coincidence that at that very moment Freud also discovered the depths of the essentially modern concept - the subconscious. This beautiful intellectual exhibition gives Van Gogh the place that rightfully belongs to him - the pioneer of modern art.

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, 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 "intrusive", but also by Van Gogh himself, whom Bacon regarded as "aloof extra person"- a position that resonated with Bacon's mood.

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

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

Gallery

Self-portraits

As an artist

Dedicated to Gauguin

Vincent Van Gogh is one of greatest artists 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 quantified by any monetary unit, like the value of an irobot. However, as sad as 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.

Many factors influenced the work of Van Gogh, so, undoubtedly, he was influenced by his childhood, his character, the time at which he was born. However, despite the fact that for its short life the creator has experienced many diseases, depression, poverty, loneliness, he was never afraid and never stopped experimenting. And he experimented with everything that was possible. So during his short career, Van Gogh experimented with light and shadow, with color solutions, with form, with models and with various artistic techniques... His work also changed as his worldview changed.

So, born in the late nineteenth century into a low-income Dutch working class family, Van Gogh was used to observing and empathizing with the life of ordinary people. 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 will be able to sit in an armchair at home and buy equipment by asking in the browser search bar: “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 whole 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 landscapes and still lifes filled with life. The paintings of that period of Van Gogh's creativity 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 Vincent Van Gogh's short but rich artistic life is considered the dawn of his work. It was in the last years of his life that the creator determined his style and technique of painting.