Vincent van Gogh

Lore & Background

Van Gogh was born into an upper-middle-class family in Zundert. He drew as a child and was serious, quiet and thoughtful. As a young man he worked as an art dealer, often travelling, but became depressed after he was transferred to London. He turned to religion and spent time as a Protestant missionary in southern Belgium. He drifted in ill health and solitude before taking up painting in 1881, having moved back home with his parents. His younger brother Theo supported him financially, and the two kept up a long correspondence by letter. His early works, mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers, contain few signs of the vivid colour that distinguished his later work. In 1886, he moved to Paris, where he met members of the avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin. His paintings grew brighter in colour as he developed a style that became fully realised during his stay in Arles in 1888. During this period he broadened his subject matter to include series of olive trees, wheat fields and sunflowers.

Reader's Guide

Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime and was considered a madman and a failure. He became famous after his suicide, and exists in the public imagination as the quintessential misunderstood genius, the artist 'where discourses on madness and creativity converge.' His reputation began to grow in the early 20th century as elements of his painting style came to be incorporated by the Fauves and German Expressionists. He attained widespread critical, commercial and popular success over the ensuing decades, and is remembered as an important but tragic painter, whose troubled personality typifies the romantic ideal of the tortured artist. The most comprehensive primary source on Van Gogh is his correspondence with his younger brother, Theo. Their lifelong friendship, and most of what is known of Vincent's thoughts and theories of art, are recorded in the hundreds of letters they exchanged from 1872 until 1890. Theo kept all of Vincent's letters to him, and after both had died, Theo's widow Johanna van Gogh-Bonger arranged for the publication of some of their letters. The letters are eloquent and expressive, have been described as having a 'diary-like intimacy,' and are regarded as an important source for understanding Van Gogh's artistic methods, working practices, and evolving theories of colour and composition.

Did You Know?

• Van Gogh created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most in the last two years of his life.
• He severed part of his own left ear after a confrontation with Paul Gauguin.
• He shot himself in the chest with a revolver on 27 July 1890 and died two days later.
• There are more than 600 letters from Vincent to his brother Theo.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Vindt maar mooi zooveel je kunt, de meesten vinden niet genoeg mooi." — Vincent van Gogh "Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful." — Vincent van Gogh "Always continue walking a lot and loving nature, for that’s the real way to learn to understand art better and better. Painters understand nature and love it, and teach us to see." — Vincent van Gogh "I've got nature and art and poetry, and if that isn't enough, what is?" — Vincent van Gogh