“I have tried to express the terrible passions of
humanity.” Vincent Van Gogh wrote these
words in a letter to his brother about his painting The Night Café, one of his most well-known works. It is this idea that underlies Van Gogh’s
art. He, the artist, sees this
particular café as the embodiment of ruinous human desires. However, we can only see the outcome of
humanity’s darkness; “night prowlers,” the destitute, the drunks take up
residence in the all night café. The
desolation is not conveyed in the details.
Van Gogh chooses to use the contrast between colors to create the
loneliness and despair of the scene. The
viewer is left dispirited and alone.
Van Gogh is considered a post-impressionist painter. He used color and thick brush strokes to
evoke feelings and his perception of the scene.
Impressionism sought to recreate sensation in the viewer. Through stylistic techniques, ordinary
subject matter, and emphasis on light and angles, painters presented elements
of human perception and experience. Van
Gogh derived his art from this style. Having
been born in March of 1853 in the Netherlands and spending most of his career
in France, he would have had great exposure to the impressionists of the
time. While he was influenced by
impressionism, he expanded on some of the techniques, colors, and subject
matter to create a more expressive effect.
Vincent began drawing as a child and never stopped. He took up professional painting relatively
late in his life. The last two years of
his life saw the production of some his best known and critically acclaimed
work. He painted extensively including
oils, watercolors, drawings, sketches, and prints. In his nearly ten years as a painter Van Gogh
produced more than 2,100 works of art. His
work covers a wide variety of subject matter including portraits,
self-portraits, and landscapes. One of
the theories Van Gogh held about art was that “real painters do not paint
things as they are . . . They paint them as they themselves feel them to
be.” This emotion and perspective forms
the basis of his work.
Van Gogh suffered years of painful anxiety and frequent
bouts of mental instability. The
well-known incident of Vincent cutting off his own ear, while shrouded in
mystery as to the motive and precise timeline of events, is a clear indication
that he was not mentally well. The sheer
volume of his productions is even more astonishing considering that he would,
from time to time, enter periods where he was unable to work due to despair and
mental illness. The demons in his mind
could, and would, shout down the artistic angels. Perhaps the greatest gift Van Gogh documented
for us was the emotional honesty he was able to convey in his works. Today, we can only speculate the extent his
mental health influenced his paintings.
But, for an artist who wanted to paint the world as he saw it, we can
only surmise that his art does not necessarily speak for itself, rather, for
himself.
At the early age of 37, Vincent Van Gogh died. Again, the exact series of events is shrouded
in mystery and conspiracy. However,
death is death, regardless of the cause.
On July 27, 1890, he was shot in chest with a revolver. There were no witnesses and it is unclear
where the event even took place. He died
on the 29th of July. Thus
ended a tormented life.
Van Gogh only ever sold a couple paintings, and those he did
sell were to family members. He was not
celebrated as a great artist in his lifetime.
Through all the uncertainties of his life, we can be certain of this: he
used all of his passion and all of his pain to portray the magnificence of our
world. We see the world slightly
different after viewing his work. He
was, and continues to be, one of the world’s greatest artists who has ever
lived.
Vincent Van Gogh did not have any children. He viewed his paintings as his progeny, a
piece of himself. In this regard, he is
the father of modern art. His work has
influenced generations of painters producing heirs that paint today.
