Vincent Willem Van Gogh

March 30th 1853 - July 27th 1890

Contents

Fame Interesting facts about Van Gogh`s life Biography Youth Young art dealer Unknown devotion The artist Impressionism A story about Van Gogh`s ear Final breakdown and death Van Gogh`s museum Сonclusion

Тhe aim of my presentation is to show a

turbulent life of this eccentric genius.

Fame• Vincent van Gogh is a post-impressionist

painter whose masterpieces are well known all over the world.

• He is considered the greatest Dutch painter after Rembrandt.

• He is famous for his ability to project his

turbulent emotional experience onto the canvas.

• Several of his paintings rank among the most expensive in the world. «Irises» sold for $53.9 million.

Irises

Interesting facts about Van Gogh`s life

• His incredible artistic talent was undeveloped and unrecognized until he was 27 years old.

• He had tried a lot of careers before he became a painter: art dealer, Protestant minister.

• He was very modest and used to sign himself only

• He sold only 1 painting during his life-time.

• He struggled with mental illness, and remained poor and unknown throughout his lifetime.

• His career and romantic pursuits all ended in failure.

BiographyYouth

• Born in 1853, in Zundert, Netherlands.

• The second of six children.

• From childhood Van Gogh was melancholy. «Odd, aloof child who had queer manners and seemed more like an old man».

• His father, Theodorus van Gogh, an austere country minister.

• His mother, Anna Cornelia Carbentus, a moody artist whose love of nature and drawing was transferred to Van Gogh.

Young Art Dealer• Vincent Van Gogh first tried to learn the

art by selling the works of other artists.

• At 15, Van Gogh’s family was struggling financially, and he was forced to leave school and go to work.

• In 1869 he got a job at his uncle`s art dealership, Goupil & Cie, in the Hague.

• From the Hague, in 1872, Vincent begins writing regular letters to Theo, his beloved brother. From this correspondence we have a complete understanding of his feelings and experiences.

Theo

Vincent

.

• In 1873, he was transferred to the Groupil Gallery in London.

• Daily contact with works of art in London kindles his appreciation of paintings and drawings.

• Van Gogh fell in love with Eugenie Loyer. When she rejected his marriage proposal, Van Gogh suffered a breakdown. He became angry with people at work, telling customers not to buy the “worthless art,” and was fired.

• He decides to become a clergyman and devoted his life to God.

The Groupil Gallery

Unknown devotion

• In 1876 he was offered a position as an assistant preacher at Isleworth, near London.

• His interest in evangelical Christianity and ministering to the poor becomes obsessional.

• In the winter of 1878, Van Gogh volunteered to move to a coal mine, a place where preachers were usually sent as punishment. He preached to the sick, and also drew pictures of the miners, who called him “The Christ of the Coal Mines.”

• The evangelical committees were not pleased with Van Gogh’s lifestyle. And he was forced to find another occupation.

Miners

The artist«I cannot do without something which is greater than I,

which is my life - the power to create».

Vincent Van Gogh

• In 1880, at the age of 27, he decided to devote himself entirely to drawing and became a full-time artist.

• He began taking lessons on his own, studying books like «Travaux des champs» by Jean Millet.

• In Etten in 1881, Van Gogh falls in love with his cousin Kee, who rejects his advances. The marriage with one's own cousin was forbidden in the XIXth century Holland.

• After this his intense religiosity begins to decrease.

• Vincent then fell in love with Clasina Maria Hoornik, an alcoholic prostitute. She became his companion and model. When Hoornik went back to prostitution, Van Gogh became depressed.

• For the next six weeks he lived a nomadic life, moving throughout the region while drawing and painting the peasants. His greatest painting, "The Potato Eaters" was the result of his deep sympathy to the peasant class.

Impressionism In 1886 Van Gogh enrolls in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in

Antwerp. He did not accept the pedantic academic style of training, and he withdraws.

After that he arrives in Paris. He lives with Theo in Montmartre, an artists' quarter.

In Paris, Van Gogh first saw impressionist art, and he was inspired by the color and light. He began studying with Toulouse-Lautrec, Pissarro and others.

Pissarro Toulouse-Lautrec

• Van Gogh became influenced by Japanese art and began studying eastern philosophy to enhance his art. He dreamed of traveling there.

• Toulouse-Lautrec told him that the light in the village of Arles was just like the light in Japan.

• In 1888 he moved into the “little yellow house” and spent his money on paint rather than food. He found himself feeling sick and strange, even sipping turpentine and eating paint. Yellow house

The Blooming Plumtree

A story about Van Gogh`s ear.• After two years of working

among the Parisian artistic community, Van Gogh's nervous system began to collapse.

• His friendship with Paul Gauguin was "electric" but like all of his other relationships it was doomed by Van Gogh's inability to comprehend normal social relationships.

• In 1888, there was an argument between them. Van Gogh attacked Gauguin, then mutilated himself by cutting a large piece off of his ear, he wrapped his ear in paper, and gave it to a prostitute.

Final Breakdown and Death• In one of his last letters he sadly wrote to his brother Theo, «I feel a failure. I feel that this is the destiny that I accept, that will never change».

• When he began to slip into depression, his paintings took on a deep, dark feeling, with only hints of light optimism. It is easy to recognize his mood by comparing these two pictures:

Crows in a Wheat Field The drawbridge

• In 1890, killed himself with a gunshot to the chest. He was 37.

• His brother Theo died of lung disease 6 months after the death of Vincent.

• On March 17, 1901, 71 of Van Gogh’s paintings were displayed at a show in Paris, after which his fame grew enormously.

Van Gogh Museum

• Established in 1973 in Amsterdam.

• Holds over 200 paintings as well as drawings and letters of Vincent van Gogh.

• More than 1.5 million people visit every year.

• The most visited museum in the Netherlands.

Conclusion Van Gogh is an extraordinary person and painter.

He highly influenced 20th-century art.

Surprisingly, he did not begin painting until his late twenties. And completed all his famous works in a very short time of 10 years.

All his life he was followed by deep depressions, which influenced his works.

He had a tragic life, and died at an early age.

Links

• http://

www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/expressionism/Vincent-V

an-Gogh.html

• http://www.vangoghoilpaintingsreproductions.com/

• http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=12259&la

ng=en

• http://www.biography.com/people/vincent-van-gogh-9515695