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Artist's Spotlight: Vincent van Gogh
One of the most influential artists in history, Vincent van Gogh left behind a huge collection of art. Often reflecting on his own life through his art, the great artist helped lay the foundations of modern art. Posthumously celebrated as one of the most prolific artists of all time, van Gogh’s life, with its looming cloud of mental distress and gloom, along with his enormous talent, made the post-impressionist master the perfect fit for the tag of the quintessential “tortured artist.”
Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30th, 1853 in a small town in the Netherlands. His artistic career was extremely short, lasting only 10 years from 1880 to 1890. Arriving in Arles in southern France in 1888, the artist finally had his breakthrough in art. The time that van Gogh spent in Arles was his most productive – he fell in love with the bright southern sun and painted in ecstatic outbursts of creativity. He painted olive trees, sunflowers, wheat fields and cafes, in some of his most iconic works. van Gogh was joined by his acquaintance and French artist, Paul Gauguin at his Yellow House in Arles. Towards the end of 1888, van Gogh and Gauguin had a fallout, and a physically and emotionally exhausted van Gogh charged at Gauguin with a razor, ultimately cutting off the lower half of his own left ear. Gauguin then left for Paris and van Gogh had to be hospitalized.
van Gogh painted three similar paintings depicting his bedroom in Arles.
There are three versions of Bedroom in Arles by van Gogh housed in three different museums. One hangs in the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, another is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, and the third is housed in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
As soon as he arrived in southern France, van Gogh rented a room in Arles and here discovered the power of color and began using it on his canvas like an expression of his own feelings. You can’t think of Arles without thinking at least of one of the paintings the artist painted in this city.
van Gogh’s paintings of sunflowers are among his most famous. He did them in Arles, in the south of France, in 1888 and 1889. Vincent painted a total of five large canvases with sunflowers in a vase, with three shades of yellow ‘and nothing else’.
Some of Vincent van Gogh's most famous works are his Sunflower series. He painted a total of eleven of these canvases, although the most commonly referred to are the seven he painted while in Arles in 1888 - 1889. The other five he had painted previously while in Paris in 1887.
In 1889 after several episodes of self-mutilation and hospitalization, van Gogh chose to enter an asylum. Spending the next 12 months of his life in the asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, van Gogh was haunted by recurrent attacks of despair. He worked from his memory, due to the limited choice of subjects in the asylum, and his works from the period are marked by sadness and calm. During this period in his life, he created over 120 paintings, including The Starry Night.
The Starry Night is an oil-on-canvas painting. It was painted in June 1889 and it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an imaginary village. The Starry Night's home is at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and it remains today one of the most famous works of art in the world.
"Irises" was the first painting van Gogh started after arriving at the asylum. The flowers were growing in a garden in the small outdoor area where the artist was allowed to stroll and sit. In all, the artist did four paintings of the iris. The first, "Irises," showed a bed of purple irises with a single white blossom, and the second, "The Iris" showed a smaller patch of the flowers with only a single blossom, both of which he painted soon after his arrival at Saint-Remy. The third and fourth artworks featuring irises, painted a year later, were still life paintings of cut flowers in vases. One had a vibrant yellow background while the other had a pink one.
"Irises" held the record for the most expensive artwork in 1987 when it sold for $53.9 million, which would be around $100 million in the current economy.
Each iris petal in the "Irises" painting is unique, featuring different shading, shape and size. Only one blossom, however, is a completely different color.
van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime and was considered a madman and a failure. Today he is considered one of the greatest artists who ever lived. His works have been recreated in thousands of objects and are beloved around the world. He created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. Van Gogh died by suicide in 1890, never having known how his art would eventually touch people around the world.
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