Vincent Willem van Gogh

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Vincent van Gogh::"A good picture is equivalent to a good deed." ≤ref>Vincent van Gogh Gallery.≤/ref>

Biography

Dutch NotablesVincent van Gogh is considered the greatest Dutch painter after Rembrandt, although he remained poor and virtually unknown throughout his life.≤ref>Wikipedia Vincent Van Gogh.≤/ref>
Vincent van Gogh was born Vincent Willem van Gogh on March 30, 1853, in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands, the son of Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Cornelia Carbentus. Vincent's father was an austere country preacher. His mother was a moody artist, the living prediction of his future temperament.≤ref>Biography: Vincent van Gogh.≤/ref>

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Van Gogh was born exactly one year after his parents' first son, also named Vincent, was stillborn. At a young age—his name and birthdate already etched on his dead brother's headstone—van Gogh was melancholy. ≤ref>Biography: Vincent van Gogh.≤/ref>
Vincent went to school and learned several languages. When his father's lack of income necessitated his return, Vincent was sent to work in his uncle's art gallery at The Hague. He soon grew tired of this and began to study theology.
Vincent did not think that Latin was a language for preaching to the poor. During this period, he worked as a missionary in a coal mining community living with hard working poor common people, speaking a language they understood. He grew less and less interested in theology and more and more interested in people. This is where his artist career wasinspired.
In 1880, at 27 years old, Van Gogh entered the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Belgium. He had little success at first. He lived in Amsterdam during this time reportedly falling in love and having no success with that either. And then he painted The Potato Eaters.

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Van Gogh’s Potato Eaters, his first major work, was painted in 1885. He had watched hard working farm families go about their daily routine and wanted to illustrate their connection to the earth. ≤ref>How Stuff Works: The Potato Eaters≤/ref>
He was now fully devoting himself to painting: living frugally, studying color theory, and admiring the works of his contemporaries. His paintings just didn't sell. His brother Theo, an art dealer and the recipient of many letters from Vincent, commented that there should be morecolor in his work. Van Gogh was painting peasants and rural landscapes using dark earth tones. Around this same time, Impressionism, with its bright vivid colors, was becoming popular. Vincent's brother encouraged him to paint what was popular.
Vincent moved to Paris. He was surrounded by works of impressionisticartists such as Gauguin, Bernard, and Toulouse-Lautrec. He was usingmore color, applying the paint with thick, bold brushstrokes. He arranged a show which received positive reviews but still no one would buyhis work.

Vincent began to decline mentally and physically

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A local newspaper report dated 30 December 1888 recording Vincent's self-mutilation:
"Last Sunday night at half past eleven a painter named Vincent Vangogh, appeared at the maison de tolérance No 1, asked for a girl calledRachel, and handed her ... his ear with these words: 'Keep this object like a treasure.' Then he disappeared. The police, informed of theseevents, which could only be the work of an unfortunate madman, lookedthe next morning for this individual, whom they found in bed with scarcely a sign of life. The poor man was taken to hospital without delay."
It is reported that a falling out with his friend Gauguin precipitatedthis event. The hospital diagnosis was "generalized delirium", and within a few days van Gogh was involuntarily committed.≤ref>van Gogh, the Letters≤/ref> van Gogh continued to suffer with mental illness and physical decline while he struggled to progress as an artist.≤ref>Wikipedia:Vincent van Gogh.≤/ref>
One of Van Gogh’s dreams as an artist was to start a colony for artists in Arles in the south of France. Vincent moved to Arles where hewas joined by Gauguin. While there, Van Gogh entered the most productive and creative period of his life painting his famous Sunflowers. However, it also was a time of great turmoil for Vincent beginning a period of hospital stays for mental illness and physical decline.≤ref>Biography: Vincent van Gogh.≤/ref>. These may have included "regular awakening experiences rather than wakefulness as an ongoing state"≤ref>Steve Taylor, 2017, "The Leap: The psychology of spiritual awakening", An Eckhart Tolle Edition, New World Library, Novato, California≤/ref>.

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Vincent actually started the Sunflower Series in Paris and continues to pain them after he moved. Vincent became more prolific and creative,despite his illness and produced paintings that are now recognized asworks of genius, across all cultures. His most renowned work is of course The Starry Night.

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In 1890, after just ten years of painting Vincent van Gogh took his own life. He is buried beside his brother Theo at Auvers-sur-Oise Town Cemetery, Auvers-sur-Oise, Departement du Val-d'Oise, Île-de-France, France.≤ref>1055.≤/ref>≤ref>acte de décès: Auvers-sur-Oise, REGISTRE D'ETAT CIVIL, 1889-1894, Cote 3E12 50, acte 60, vue 75, consulté le 28 octobre 2017. Lien permanent.≤/ref>

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Vincent van Gogh never achieved success in his lifetime. He painted over 900 paintings. Ironically, it wouldn’t take long for the art world to recognize the genius they lost. Within 20 years of his death he had become famous. ≤ref>Complete Catalog of Paintings by van Gogh.≤/ref>

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Listen to Don McLean sing Vincent (Starry, Starry Night).

For Children

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Muppet Sky with Elmo and Dorothy the Fish
Paintlike van Gogh
van Gogh Style Finger Painting

Sources

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See also:* Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art

• Wikipedia:Vincent van Gogh
• Q5582* Vincent van Gogh's 152nd Birthday: Google Doodle for March 29, 2005: