Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853, in Zundert, in the south of the Netherlands, as the oldest son of Theodorus van Gogh, a preacher and Anna Cornelia Carbentus.

Vincent died on July 29, 1890. Vincent Van Gogh is famous for using vivid colors and wild brush strokes in his paintings.

All of his work was produced during a period of only 10 years. In those 10 years Vincent van Gogh has painted nearly 900 paintings and completed about 1000 drawings! This is on average one finished piece of work every two days.

It is widely agreed that Van Gogh suffered from some sort of mental illness and his health in general wasn’t in the best shape. However it is still largely unknown what exact medical conditions he had. Most of the information we know is from his letters. He’s often complained about digestion and stomach problems. He’s also known to suffer from hallucinations and nightmares.

“The Case of the Artist’s Missing Ear”

Van Goghs Ear

This could have been a title for another Arthur Conan Doyle crime fiction work and possibly Sherlock Holmes would be able to reveal the true line of events and identify the villain who had cut the artist’s ear.

The widely accepted theory is that Van Gogh cut his ear with a razor after the row in Arles, France, in 1888. However Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans in their book “Van Gogh’s Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence” claim that Paul Gauguin might be the one who injured the artist with a sword. Paul Gauguin was staying with Van Gogh in Arles at the time and the art couple is known to argue occasionally. Paul Gauguin was a keen fencer and would have been perfectly capable to cause this injury. The incident (according to the book) was covered up on a mutual agreement to protect Paul Gauguin from the punishment.

Whether this is true or not, unfortunately we cannot know for sure.

Van Gogh techniques

Van Gogh developed his own unique technique of painting. He deliberately set about using colors to capture mood and emotion, rather than using colors realistically. In his own words:

Instead of trying to exactly what I see before me, I make more arbitrary use of color to express myself more forcefully.

His first paintings have dark and gloomy colours, but the later works exhibits much brighter and happier tones: reds, yellows, oranges, greens, and blues.

Van Gogh painted very rapidly using the paint straight from the tube in thick, graphic brush strokes. He started to paint dark outlines around objects, filling these in with areas of thick colour. This technique is often used in Japanese paintings.

Look at the selection of Van Gogh’s painting in the gallery below and appreciate the mastership of this great artist.