Vincent Van Gogh

Early Life

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in Zundert, Netherlands to protestant minister Theodorus and wife Anna Cabentus van Gogh. Vincent was named after his parent's first child, who died upon birth. Later his mother gave birth to his beloved brother Theo, and his three younger sisters. He had a quiet childhood, and often spent time wandering outdoors, admiring nature. Although not much is known about his early education, his mother did encourage him to draw and paint.

Early Adulthood

Vincent's Uncle Cent was a partner in Goupil and Company, a group of art dealers. At 16 Vincent worked for the company at The Hauge branch. This job took him from the Netherlands, London, England and Paris, France. During this time he worked daily with artwork, developing his artistic taste. He admired the works of dutch painters Rembrant and Frans Hal, as well as French painters Jean-François Millet and Camille Corot, who influenced him throughout his career. While he stayed in London he fell in love with his landlady's daughter. Starved of human affection, Vincent was rejected and fell into a state pf solitary. Upon this he hated his occupation, and after working for Goupil for 6 years, he was let off due to his attitude.

That same year in 1876, Vincent moved back to England to work at a boy school at Ramsgate as a language teacher and occasionally preached. The following year Vincent worked as a clerk in a bookstore at Dordretch, Netherlands. Desiring to serve people he felt a calling towards ministry and began taking a theological seminar. IN 1878 he quit the seminar, took the shorter route and began training as an evangelist in Brussels. After a dispute with authority over the orthodox doctrinal approach, Vincent abandoned this also and began missionary work in a poor coal-mining region in southwestern Belgium. During the winter of 1879-1880 Vincent was dedicated to these people, giving away many of his belongings including his clothes. Regardless of his caring actions, the miners kept a distance from him due to his differing personality. Again he was dismissed from his job, and another dark time ensued. Vincent again felt broken a withdrew from others, “They think I’m a madman,” said Vincent, “because I wanted to be a true Christian. They turned me out like a dog, saying that I was causing a scandal.”

The Becomings of an Artist

(Girl in White in the Woods, 1882)

(The Sower, 1881)

Through this extreme sadness Vincent began to take his art seriously, vowing to devote his art to help humanity. “I want to give the wretched a brotherly message,” he tells his brother Theo. “When I sign [my paintings] ‘Vincent,’ it is as one of them. Vincent's artistic career began in 1880 and continued throughout the rest of the decade. Vincent then enrolled at an art school in Brussles where he studied the basics of perspective and human anatomy. From April 1880 to December of 1881 he resided at his parents house in Etten where he began to work from nature. During this time he studied at an art school in The Hauge, where he worked under his cousin Anton Mauve and obtained an influence he would carry with him throughout his career

(At Eterenity's gate 1882)

(Bulb Fields, 1883)

The Dutch Period

(The Potato Eaters, 1885)

This period occurred between 1880 and 1886. Models for these painting were the people he longed to help; peasants, miners, farmers, and the poor. In 1883 Vincent traveled to a northern part of the Netherlands called Drenthe where he stayed for three months, when he then returned home for most of 1884 and 1885. For the first 4 years of his career Vincent's pieces almost entirely consisted of watercolor drawings, first experimenting with oils in the summer of 1882. Vincent's color palette of this time consisted mostly of dark brown and greenish hues. In 1885 Vincent painted one of his many masterpieces, the Potato Eaters.

(Still Life with Vegetables And Fruit, 1884)

(Still Life With Vegetables And Fruits, 1883)

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