“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time”. – Thomas Merton
This inspired us to start a series called ‘Appreciating Art’ where we take a closer look at the journey of a prominent artist through his art. First up is:
Vincent Willem van Gogh
Like most artists, he came from humble beginnings because of a family that struggled with financial problems for most of his life. Fathered by a minister and a mother who loved drawing nature with watercolours, Vincent would go on to imbibe both aspects of his parents however he would not discover this until much later. At the age of 15, Vincent’s education ended and his professional life began. He went to work in his Uncle Cornelis’s art dealership, Goupil & Cie. At age 20, he was transferred to the Goupil gallery in London where he fell in love with the architecture of the city, the culture of the people and everything in between. One of those things included his landlady’s daughter, Eugenie Loyer. He wanted to marry her but his proposal was rejected and this led to a breakdown for him that pushed him away from all art.
Even though his upbringing was in a religious household, Vincent had never felt close to God. Being rejected changed something inside him; he devoted his life to God and soon, he became a teacher in a Methodist boys’ school. He studied persistently over a year to become a minister. Later, he refused to take the ministerial exams and instead, volunteered to go to a coal mine in the south of Belgium a place where preachers were usually sent as punishment. He preached the word of God, ministered to the sick and occasionally drew pictures of the miners and their families, who called Van Gogh, “Christ of the coal mines.” This activity was not appreciated by the church committees who refused to renew his contract which forced him to find another source of income. With help of his brother, he decided to move to Brussels and become an artist in 1880.
Paintings
Even though he struggled through emotional instability, Vincent van Gogh completed more than 2,100 artworks in his lifetime. He didn’t get any recognition for his artwork until after his death. His indulgence in art helped him stay emotionally balanced.
Potato Eaters
In 1885, he started working on “Potato Eaters”, which would be his first masterpiece. Aiming to prove himself, this artwork began to show his skills in figure painting and composition. Van Gogh painted a family of five sitting around a small table under an oil lamp eating from a common dish on the table.
A meal shared by peasants.
This painting depicts the harsh reality of the peasants living in the countryside, he gave them rough faces, a lean body structure and bony hands. The subjects in the painting are reaching for the food on the table that they have earned. The single oil lamp above the small table in the room emphasizes the poor conditions of the family. His palette consisted mainly of sombre earth tones and dark colours to depict the relation of the subject to the earth itself. The same soil on which peasants worked the whole day which resulted in the earthy colours of their clothes as well.
Sunflowers
In 1888, Van Gogh wanted to decorate the room in the ‘yellow house’ that he rented in Arles in the South of France for his fellow painter Paul Gauguin as a welcome gesture. He told Gauguin that he would follow him to invent a new art style. With that thought in mind, he painted a vase full of sunflowers to portray himself as sunflowers because they follow the sun. Fourteen sunflowers in a vase have 5 versions in total which reside in different museums across the world. My personal favourite is the one displayed in the Van Gogh Museum in Netherlands.
Van Gogh painted a vase of fourteen sunflowers on the table in his yellow room in the Arles.
In the vase, sunflowers are in various stages of their life cycle, from full bloom to dying blossom. His experimentation with the lines and textures in this series give the flowers in the painting a new life and a sense of singularity. The use of yellow palette in this painting depicts his gratitude towards Gauguin for coming to stay and work with him. The yellow colour in the background of the painting depicts Gauguin as the sun who radiates with the warm energy and as a leader that he is ready to follow.
Bedroom in Arles
In 1888, he wrote a letter with few sketches of the new painting that he wanted to work on called “The Bedroom”. This painting is not just loved by people; it was one of the Van Gogh’s favourite as well. After he returned from the Asylum in 1889, he saw this painting and considered to be one his best works. He later sent this painting to his brother to be lined as it suffered water damaged which was sent back by his brother to him to make a copy for safety’s sake. He then created a third, smaller version of it for his mother.
His furniture in the bedroom along with the paintings on the walls and his possessions at his time in Arles south of France.
The non-conventional perspective makes it so recognisable and gives it a unique identity. The use of a primitive colour palette clearly reflects his views on the Post-Impressionism art style. Bright colours in the painting give it a sense of warmth and calmness and I think that’s why Van Gogh liked this painting after his mental breakdown.
Self-Portraits
Van Gogh was taking selfies before it was cool except that he had done it in the form of portraits. He created many renditions of himself over the years but my personal favourite is the one with a bandaged ear. It was made after he returned to his studio at the ‘yellow house’ from the asylum. He wrote Gauguin an apology letter explaining ‘the incident’ and assuring him he would continue their friendship. He was keen to start painting again and a few weeks later, worked on his self-portrait.
A portrait of himself where his ear is bandaged which he cut himself after a mental breakdown.
In this painting, Van Gogh has painted what he had perceived of himself at that time. He believed that painting himself after the incident would bring emotional balance to his life. His use of a deeper green colour and steady brush strokes creates tension in the atmosphere. In the background is a copy of a Japanese print, Utagawa Togokuni’s Geishas in a Landscape. The lime yellow background indicated that he is in the back of his house.
The Starry Night
Widely recognised and appreciated, this painting is considered to be the pinnacle of his achievement. Unlike most of his art, Starry Night was not created during his viewing of the landscape; he painted this from his memory. He has painted variations of the view multiple times but the Starry Night is the only nocturne in the series of views from his bedroom window. In early June, Vincent wrote to Theo, “This morning I saw the countryside from my window a long time before sunrise with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big”.
He painted the view of the Saint-Rémy village from his room at the mental asylum in the month of June.
Using swirling strokes and wavy lines to depict the sky outside, it reflects the mental imbalance that he faced during his time at Saint-Rémy. The village is calm and still, all the people in the village are asleep and a bright star is illuminating the sky. Using this contrast, it shows how he perceived nature as being in constant movement. He wanted to create the night sky and the stars interacting with each other’s energy. The shades of blue, black and yellow create a balance and sense of calmness in this chaotic world.
Conclusion
Though Van Gogh, in his lifetime, was viewed as a madman who cut off his ear and gave it to a woman in a brothel; he exemplifies the struggling artist. Van Gogh was aspirational, innovative and looked at the world in a new way. He was kind, passionate and sympathetic to the suffering of those around him. What we must learn from his life is that art can be the best coping mechanism for the troubles in our lives. It may not gain fame and appreciation from the world but you will definitely gain a deeper appreciation of yourself in the world you live in.
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This article was written by Aarin Garg. He also made the image you saw the top of the article. If you’d like to speak to him about art and design, send him an email at aarin@indiefolio.com
All images have been sourced from https://www.vangogh.net/