Vincent Van Gogh (van GO) was born in the
Netherlands. When he was
27 years old, he taught himself how to paint. His brother, Theo, was an
art dealer. He recognized Vincent's talent and encouraged him and
supported him financially. He introduced him to famous artists who
influenced him.
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Some of his earlier paintings were done in
watercolor. Then he
started using oil paints. Sometimes he would squeeze the paint directly
on the canvas and work with it there.
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He liked to paint pictures of flowers as shown by this
painting, Irises.
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Another of his early paintings,
The Potato Eaters,
became one of his most well known works. The setting of this painting
is almost cavelike and the colors are dark. In describing the painting
himself, he wrote about how the people are eating the potatoes they
planted and dug from the earth. He appreciated the fact that they had
honestly earned their food. This is the only picture he ever painted
that had a lot of
people in it. About three years later he painted a still life with
potatoes in it,
Potatoes in a Yellow Dish .
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His painting,
Starry Night became very famous, but he felt that
it was not realistic enough. A year earlier he had painted another
starry sky picture, Starry Night Over the Rhone
.
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He loved children, especially his nephew. Even though
he was a great
artist, he never painted pictures of children to make them look like
children. They always looked like small people with adult facial
features. Two Little Girls and Child
With an Orange .
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Sometimes his actions were violent and his neighbors
were afraid of
him. Once he tried to slash an associate, Gauguin, with a razor, and
that same night he cut off his own ear. Later he painted some pictures
of himself with a bandage over his ear. Interestingly though, he had
cut off his left ear, but his right ear was bandaged in the pictures.
Do you suppose he was looking in the mirror and just painted what he
saw?
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After the ear incident, he committed himself to an
asylum, a mental institution. There were beautiful gardens there.
During his stay he painted over 200 pictures including Starry
Night .
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He did not get along well with his father, but
something happened once
that helped to heal their relationship.
His mother was in a terrible accident and Vincent cared for her for a
long time after the accident. His father saw the love Vincent had for
his mother and he loved him because of his actions toward his mother.
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Van Gogh had a good friend, a postman named Roulin.
He thought of
him as a father and said he had the wisdom of Socrates. Roulin stood by
his friend when others
thought he was dangerous. Vincent painted many pictures of the postman
and
The Roulin Family .
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During his lifetime, he produced over 800 oil
paintings and even more
drawings. He liked to paint scenes from nature, and he tried to show
the lives of the common people as they worked at their jobs.
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Some say that during his lifetime he only sold one
painting. It is a
fact though that he would trade paintings for art supplies, and the
dealers sold some of those paintings. He had no idea that he would
become so famous, but after his death people began to appreciate his
work. One of his paintings sold for $82.5 million. That's the most
anyone has ever paid for a painting.
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He wrote over 700 letters to
his brother, Theo. From these letters people were able to learn about
him and how he felt.
His life ended sadly in 1890, when at the age of 37, he died from a
self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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