Vincent Willem van Gogh (March 30, 1853 to July 29, 1890) was a Dutch post-impressionist painter whose work, notable for its beauty, emotion and color, highly influenced 20th-century art.
During his lifetime, Vincent van Gogh completed more than 2,100 works, consisting of 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings and sketches. He used an impulsive, gestural application of paint and symbolic colors to express subjective emotions. These methods and practices came to define many subsequent modern movements from Fauvism to Abstract Expressionism. Van Gogh's dedication to articulating the inner spirituality of man and nature led to a fusion of style and content that resulted in dramatic, imaginative, rhythmic, and emotional canvases that convey far more than the mere appearance of the subject.
It was not until he was around 26 that he finally decided to become an artist. At first he felt his calling was for the church. Once he became disappointed with the clerical life, he thought of helping the poor as a missionary.
During this time, though, references to paintings and art, and close descriptions of landscapes, fill his letters he exchanged with his brother. What comes across clearly, is his unbridled passion and ecstatic contemplation on life, nature, and art, the profound intensity with which he approached anything he undertook and the intensity with which he defended his ideas.
Vincent van Gogh struggled with mental illness and remained poor and virtually unknown throughout his life. Ahough he worried a lot about his mental stability, he often neglected his physical health, did not eat properly and drank heavily. He spent time in psychiatric hospitals and swung between periods of inertia, depression and incredibly concentrated artistic activity, his work reflecting the intense colours and strong light of the French countryside around him.
In a letter, Vincent sent to his brother Théo on Thursday, 25 October 1888 he said:
“I can't change the fact that my paintings don't sell. The day will come, though, when people will recognize that they are worth more than the value of the paints used in the picture. ”
On 27 July 1890, again suffering from depression, Van Gogh shot himself. He died two days later.
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