Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in Groot-Zundert (today: Zundert) in Breda, the Netherlands. He died by committing suicide on 29 July 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. Vincent van Gogh is one the founders of modern art, who left us (as far as we know today) not less than 864 paintings and more than 1,000 and drawings. All of them were executed in the last ten years of his life. His main work, usually classified post-Impressionist style, had a strong influence on later artists, especially on Fauvism and Expressionism. During van Gogh’s lifetime only a few paintings were sold, though during the 1980s, they received maximum prices at art auctions. Moreover, van Gogh left us a vast number of letters and correspondence which offer us deep insight into his artistic motivation and are themselves of a high literally value.
Van Gogh’s Childhood
Vincent van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853 in today’s Zundert, a small country town in North Brabant. His parents were the pastor Theodorus van Gogh and his wife, Anna Cornelia, the daughter of a bookbinder. Exactly one year before, a non-viable brother was born, also named Vincent. It has been argued that van Gogh felt unloved and as a substitute for the firstborn, and left Vincent with psychological harm. However, after Vincent five more siblings were born. The father was a pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church and Christian values played an important role in the family. But there were also some connections to the art market, where three of Vincent’s uncles were active.
The child Vincent van Gogh was described as solitary. After he attended the local school in Zundert he changed to a boarding school in Zevenbergen when he was eleven years old. Starting in 1866 he attended the high school in Tilburg, where he lived again, far from his family. In Tilburg Vincent learned French, English and German (later on van Gogh used to read French and English books in their original language). Furthermore, four hours of drawing were scheduled per week. Despite his good grades, he left the school as early as of March 1868 for unknown reasons. He spent the following 15 months with his parents. We do not know anything about Vincent’s activitites during this time. According to the wish of the family council, Vincent van Gogh started in July 1869 to work for the Hague branch of the art dealer Goupil & Cie, where his uncle cent was a shareholder.
Van Gogh’s first Work Experiences and Career Attempts
Goupil was a major company having offices in several capitals. Thus, Vincent van Gogh learned a lot about established art and how to evaluate it. Here, but also at the subsequent locations Vincent visited the local museums eagerly. After his first time of training he was transferred the London branch (during summer 1873), where Goupil held a warehouse. As he felt lonely that far from his family Vincent van Gogh took long walks during his spare time and also started his first drawings. He also fell in love with the daughter of his landlady, but got rejected. Van Gogh suffered even years later from this rejection and also his parents took notice of this depressive struck during a vacation in summer 1874. Vincent’s family decided to transfer him to Paris; in 1875 van Gogh lived again for some month in London but returned soon to Paris, where he remained permanently.
Still, even in Paris Vincent isolated himself and showed an increasingly “strange” behavior even at work. He turned more and more to religion, read only the Bible and devotional books. After he left work for Christmas 1875 – apparently without the accordance of the company -, his superior suggested Vincent to resign. That was exactly what van Gogh did in April 1876. The main reason for the termination of his work as art dealer might be problems when dealing with clients: Vincent van Gogh, who was not a good pretender, was unsuitable as salesmen.
In the next three and a half years van Gogh tried various professions, however, without success. After working some time as an assistant teacher at a school in Ramsgate, he moved to another school in Isleworth, near London, which was headed by a Methodist minister. There he had also the opportunity assist the pastor. After a short time as bookseller Vincent decided to study theology. Thus, he left to an uncle in Amsterdam and took the preparation classes in Latin, Greek and mathematics. Again, after one year he quit as he considered “the whole university, at least the theological, to be an incredible fraud, where nothing but righteousness” was cultivated (Letters 326). Instead, he started in August 1878 to attend a seminar for lay ministers in Brussels, but was classified after only three-month as unsuitable. As it seems, because Van Gogh failed to integrate.
Van Gogh – The Priest
Nevertheless, Vincent found a job as a trial assistant preacher in Borinage, a Belgian coal district, where the people lived under extremely harsh conditions. He identified himself to a large extent with the fate of the miners, gave away his own clothing, neglected his personal appearance, and lived in miserable conditions. This behavior was not really what his superiors expected. Hence, in July 1879 van Gogh was informed that his contract would not be renewed. Both rejections by the Church are probably a major reason why Vincent completely abandoned Christianity. Instead, in autumn 1880, van Gogh had 27 years and decided to become a painter.
Vincent and Theo van Gogh
Yet, from mid-1880, Vincent’s four years younger brother Theo van Gogh started to pay the living for Vincent. Theo van Gogh had also entered Goupil and led a Parisian branch. In return, Theo received a large part of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings, who sent them regularly to Paris. Though the financial support by Theo was by no means minor in nature, Vincent van Gogh ran constantly out of money. Obviously, he could not handle money. Contemporaries reported that he generously gave the needy.
In addition, Theo was not only Vincent’s art dealer (with limited success, though) but also his friend and confidant. The voluminous correspondence of the two brothers, starting in 1872, is an important source for Van Gogh’s research.
In a letter to his future wife, Theo van Gogh characterized his brother in 1889 as somebody who has “broken with what are called conventions. His way of dressing and his manners reveal immediately that he is a special person, and for years people say about him that he is a lunatic” even from his “way of speaking it becomes apparent that one either can stand him or not”.
Van Gogh as Painter
Vincent van Gogh’s early works cannot really be said to reveal his genius. Vincent just wanted to learn and was constrained to teach himself the very essential. He copied drawings and prints he admired or from textbooks. In order to come into touch with other artists van Gogh moved in 1880 to Brussels. There is no clear evidence that he attended the local art academy, yet he was enrolled. Anyhow, he met Anthon van Rappard, who taught him and exchanged some artistic debates with van Gogh. After Rappard had left Brussels, van Gogh returned to his parent’s house (April 1881). Probably money was an additional reason.
In Etten, Vincent drew mainly the surrounding landscape and motifs of rural workers. During summer he fell in love with his cousin Kee Voss, who had come to visit. Despite her negative reply van Gogh kept being persistent and, thus, came in conflict with his parents and relatives. As Vincent’s relationship to his family anyway was tensely – he was considered a loser – the arising dispute ended shortly after Christmas 1881 with Vincent’s departure.
Vincent and Sien
For some weeks Vincent van Gogh settled over to his cousin in-law, Anton Mauve in The Hague. Vincent appreciated his works a lot and Mauve was it who had introduced him to watercolor and oil painting. Nonetheless, beside some to artistic disagreements, the socially unacceptable affair of van Gogh with his model “Sien”, a pregnant whore, was the essential reason for Vincent’s separation from his teacher. The relationship to “Sien” reinforced also the pressure from his family and not even Theo supported Vincent in this regard. In autumn 1883 van Gogh broke up with Sien. From now on van Gogh limited his relation to women to more lose women.
Van Gogh in Nuenen
After his separation from Sien, Vincent soon returned to his parents, which lived now in Nuenen and received him rather halfhearted. After Vincent’s father died on 26 March 1885, van Gogh moved to his studio nearby.
Overall, Vincent spent some two years in Nuenen. As a painter he executed mainly pictures of peasants and the environment. Starting in 1884 he had four students, which rather paid him with food than money. In 1885 he executed The Potato Eaters. His main work from this period. However, as an artist Vincent suffered under the isolation in the province. Thus, in November 1885 he headed towards Antwerp.
Vincent in Antwerp
Van Gogh remained for three month in Antwerp, but soon he was again out of money. The painter rather saved when it came to food than with painting materials and in his letters, he complained of health problems and weakness due to his poor nutrition. Tobacco, alcohol and bread were his main menu, so even his teeth should become lose. Mainly because of its free and heated rooms, Vincent visited the Art Academy where former classmates described him as eccentric. After the vacation started, Vincent van Gogh drove to his brother Theo. Paris, the center of the artistic world was waiting for him.
Van Gogh in Paris
Indeed, Vincent was not that isolated in Paris, though his brother Theo did not welcome him without hesitation. Their two-years of coexistence are characterized by several ups and downs.
Van Gogh attended for a few months the classes at Fernand Cormon, a private art school. There he met many other painters, including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Signac, Louis Anquetin and Paul Gauguin. With Emile Bernard he became friend. In the circle of young artists, all still waiting for their breakthrough, he was obviously well integrated. Vincent even organized two joint exhibitions in restaurants for the competing and often fractious artists. For van Gogh himself, these exhibitions remained without commercial success. Likewise, the exhibition of paintings in the window of the color merchant and art lover Julien Tanguy did not yield any tangible success.
In Paris, van Gogh got familiar with the current art style, impressionism. Under this impression his formerly dark palette brightened a lot, and Vincent began to experiment with different painting techniques. He painted often in open space, especially in the rural area of Paris, in Montmartre and in Asnières.
Anyhow, in the long run, the hectic city life and the frequent quarrels among the painters, moreover the fact that had been forbidden to paint outside, seemed intolerable to Vincent. He decided to leave the city and moved to Arles, southern France.
Vincent Van Gogh in Arles
Van Gogh had opted for several reasons for Southern France. One of them was that he wanted to escape from the northern winter and hoped the “blue tones and bright colors” of the South. Actually, Arles was intended only as a stopover on his way to Marseilles, where he wanted work on sales for Theo. The latter plan was cancelled. From the artistic point of view, Vincent was extremely productive here. In just sixteen months van Gogh executed 187 paintings.
First, he rented a studio in a boarding house. The so-called Yellow House. In the absence of models, he turned landscapes. After the The Langlois Bridge at Arles, van Gogh painted a series of spring blooming orchards and other motifs from the vicinity of Arles. In May, he took a several-day visit to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, where he made the sketches for the later-made painting Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries.
Gaugin and van Gogh’s left Ear
After van Gogh finished in September to furnish his apartment he tried to realize his dream: the “Studio of the South”, where artists should live and work together. Only Paul Gauguin accepted, after much hesitation, however, and not before Theo van Gogh promised him the payment of travel expenses and a monthly allowance. Vincent van Gogh saw the arrival of Gauguin, both joyfully and with tension. In order to impress his colleague and to decorate his room for him, he painted several pictures in a short time, including the famous Sunflowers.
Gauguin arrived in Arles on the 23th October, but only a little later their relationship suffered due to the difficult characters of both of them. After just two months they quit living together after an incident which has never been fully explained. After all, after a quarrel with Gaugin van gogh cut off his left ear or a part of it, as far as reported by Gaugin himself. The latter however, might be the culprit himself.
Van Gogh in Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
This incident was the first manifestation of a disease that was, probably falsely diagnosed as epilepsy. Posthumously several doctors were eager to add a large range of other diagnosis. None, however is confirmed. According to the patient himself, van Gogh suffered from hallucinations, nightmares and depression. They prevented him several times for days or even weeks from doing his work during the last one and a half year of his life. In the intermediate phases, though, Vincent was clear and powerful.
Van Gogh stood more than once in the hospital in Arles during 1889, at one time due to a petition from citizens who complained about his “weird” behavior. Though he was released soon, he felt not ready for staying alone and thus opted for the mental hospital Saint-Paul-de-Mausole not far from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (especially as his brother Theo has gotten married and Vincent didn’t want to disturb the family life).
