Vincent Van-Gogh

Unsuccessfull Painter in his Lifetime

Born 1853, died 1890, Netherlands, the son of a pastor.

Vincent was a highly emotional and lacked self confidence.

Two unhappy romances, unsuccessful as a sales clerk in a bookstore, tried his hand as an art salesman, in that occupation maybe seeds of an artist were sown.

Dismissed as a preacher for enthusiasm beyond the scope of his duties.

SIDEBAR   I can see quite clearly, preaching as he eventually painted would rock the local small time church

He remained in Belgium to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty.  The works of his early Dutch period are somber-toned, sharply lit, genre paintings of which the most famous is "The Potato Eaters" (2885).  In that year van Gogh went to Antwerp where he discovered the works of Rubens and purchased many Japanese prints.

In 1886 he went to Paris to join his brother Theo, the manager of Goupil's Gallery.  In Paris, van Gogh studied with Cormon, inevitably met Pissarro, Monet and Gauguin, and began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists.

His nervous temperament combined with painting all day undermined his health.  He decided to go south to Arles where he hoped his friends would join him and help found a school of art.  Gauguin did join him but with disastrous results.

In a fit of epilepsy, van Gogh pursued his friend with an open razor, was stopped by Gauguin, but ended up cutting a portion of his ear lobe off.  Van Gogh then began to alternate between fits of madness and lucidity and was sent to the asylum in Saint-Remty for treatment.

In May of 1890, he seemed much better and went to live in Auvers-sur-Oise under the watchful eye of Dr. Gachet. Two months later he was dead, having shot himself "for the good of all:. During his brief career he sold one painting ,to one of his relative.

Van Gogh's finest works were produced in less than three years in a technique that grew more and more impassioned in brushstrokes, in symbolic and intense color, in surface tension, and in the movement and vibration of form and line.

Van Gogh's inimitable fusion of form and content is powerful; dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and emotional, for the artist was completely absorbed in the effort to explain either his struggle against madness or his comprehension of the spiritual essence of man and nature.

Vincent van Gogh's watercolors are not as well known as his oil painting.  He knew that he was perfecting his skills and in that he was on the verge of something great.  A the age of 28 Vincent wrote the following in a letter to Theo.

"I came away from him with some painted studies and a few watercolours.  They are not masterpieces, of course, yet I really believe that there is some soundness and truth in them, more at any rate than what I've done up to now.  And so I reckon that I am now at the beginning of the beginning of doing something serious.  And because I can call on a couple of technical resources, that is to say, paint and brush, everything seems fresh again as it were."

When he first started using watercolors they were studies for later oil painting. Here is one of his watercolors.

As he continued to work on his techniques he used brighter colors.  He then started to produce more impressive watercolors, they then began not to be studies, but watercolor paintings that stood alone.

In a letter to Theo in the latter part of 1888 he wrote:  "I wish you could see the two watercolours I have brought back with me, for you would realize that they are watercolours just like any other watercolours.,  They may still be full of imperfections, que soit, I am the first to say that I am still very dissatisfied with them, and yet they are quite different from what I have done before and look fresher and brighter.  That doesn't alter the fact, however, that they must get fresher and brighter still, but one can't do everything one wants just like that. It will come little by little".

I have included just a few of his 150 plus watercolors.    What makes this group interesting is. NOBODY KNOWS WHERE THEY ARE.      FIND ONE a become wealthy overnight   Good luck

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