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Vincent Van Gogh was born at Groot-Zundert (Netherlands) in 1853. Son of a Dutch pastor, he only discovered his vocation as a painter, when he was twenty-seven. He first stayed in Nuenen and in Le Borinage (Belgium). In 1886 Van Gogh left Belgium and went off to Paris where Theo, his brother lived. I can easily imagine the difference between Paris and the place he had just left. I know Le Borinage very well, the only things you could find there were coal-minings, miners, poverty, misery, grey sky above, I understand why Van Gogh's earliest paintings were so dark. Paris was surely a more hospitable place, and he came into contact with avant-garde artists like Toulouse-Lautrec and Emile Bernard so,that isn't to be wondered at his paintings were then very different, he made use of complementary colours, even though |
| his paintings were still severe, almost abstract, with regid edging striped, vigorously painted, with a nervous brush-stroke, which corresponded with his own temperament. He became a precursor of Fauvism, and of a succession of Expressionist artists, such as Munch, Ensor ... and abstractionist art movements which followed. Van Gogh left Paris and went off to the Midi to live at Arles where he painted some of his best-known works, (The Sunflowers, Roulin the Postman, Woman of Arles...). For instance "The Dance-hall at Arles" he painted in 1888, you can imagine Gauguin's influence with Van Gogh, when you look at this picture. He painted self-portraits as well, nearly forty. Unfortunately, it's well-known that he was mentally unstable and subject to frequent and violent nervous crises. |
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 The Dance-hall at Arles |
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In 1889 he was confined at the mental hospital of Saint-Paul at Saint-Rémy- de-Provence, where he painted his room. Van Gogh's Room at Arles, shows us the way the artist lived then, a very simple furnished room, he probably could hardly afford, this is the impression I get from this painting, even though the numerous of blazingly colours he used, the brillant light, the harmony relieve me a bit. The same year he made one of his best-known self-portrait, the one he painted, when he had cut off his own ear. He left Arles and went off to Auvers in the valley of the Oise, where some of most famous painters like Pissarro, Cézanne, Guillaumin... |
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also worked and was just like Cezanne one of Dr Gachet's guest. Before he killed himself, in 1890 when he was only thirty-seven, he had painted "The Church at Auvers-sur- Oise", one of his last masterpieces. Despite of his short career he left us incredible gifts and I can't help felling sadness for one of the most misunderstood painters of his time. His paintings worth invaluable fortune now. |
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 The Italian Woman |
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 Woman of Arles |
 Back to the Museum |