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Vincent van Gogh, artist
Dutch, 1853 - 1890
Shelter on Montmartre, circa 1886
oil on canvas
14 x 10 3/4 (35.6 x 27.3 cm)
Bequest of Frederick J. Hellman 1965.28

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Artist Biography: Born VINCENT WILLEM VAN GOGH. ~~Generally considered one of the two greatest Dutch painters (along with Rembrandt), and one of the greatest Post-Impressionists. Profoundly influenced the development of Expressionism in modern art. ~~Van Gogh, the oldest of six children of a Protestant pastor, grew up in the Brabant region of the southern Netherlands. His early years were happy, and he loved the countryside. Vincent's introduction to the art world came at 16 when he was apprenticed to the Hague office of his uncle's art dealership, Goupil and Co.~~Van Gogh's artistic output can be divided into two periods. During the first (1873-1885) he struggled with his own temperment while seeking his true means of self-expression. It was a period of repeated apprenticeships, perceived failures, and changes in direction. The second (1886-1890) was a period of complete dedication, rapid development, and artistic fulfillment. Sadly it was interrupted by a series of mental breakdowns that lasted from 1889 until his suicide. ~~Van Gogh worked for Goupil in London from 1873 until May 1875, and then in Paris until April 1876. Daily contact with works of art piqued his artistic sensibilities, and he developed profound fondness for Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and other Dutch masters, along with preferences for two contemporary French painters, Jean-FranÁois Millet and Camille Corot. Van Gogh hated art dealing. Moreover, his outlook on life darkened when he suffered a broken heart in 1874. His desire for human affection thwarted, he became and remained increasingly solitary. He then became a language teacher and lay preacher in England. Feeling called to give himself to his fellow men, he envisioned joining the ministry. He began the study of theology but abandoned his project for short-term training as an evangelist in Brussels (1878). However, he argued with the orthodox doctrinal approach. He failed to get an appointment after three months, so he left to do missionary work among the poverty-striken population of the Borinage, a coal-mining region in southwestern Belgium. There, in the winter of 1879-80, he underwent a major spiritual crisis. In a moment of great passion Van Gogh gave away all his worldly goods, and was immediately dismissed for taking an overly-literal interpretation of the Christian teaching. Destitute, and with his faith destroyed, Van Gogh sank swiftly into despair. He completely isolated from everyone, and began to draw seriously, which led to the discovery of his true vocation. He thus made it his new mission to console humanity through art. Such a realization of his creative powers did much to restore his self-confidence. ~~Van Gogh's career as an artist was tragically short, lasting only 10 years (1880 to 1890). During the first four years of this period, while acquiring technical proficiency, he limited himself almost exclusively to drawing and watercolor. He studied drawing at the Brussels Academy, but in 1881 he moved to his father's parsonage at Etten, Neth., and began to paint from nature. ~~Van Gogh worked hard and methodically. However he eventually realized the difficulty of self-training and sought the guidance of a more experienced artist. In 1881 he settled at the Hague to work with the Dutch landscape painter Anton Mauve. He also went to museums and met with other painters. In this way Van Gogh extended his technical knowledge and in 1882 he began to experiment with oil paint. In 1883 an urge to be "alone with nature" took him to Drenthe, a desolate part in the northern Netherlands which was frequented by Mauve and other Dutch artists. He spent three months there before returning home, which was now in Nuenen, a different village in the Brabant. He remained in Nuenen during most of 1884-1885, and his art grew stronger and more assured. He painted three types of subjects: still life, landscape, and figure. All were related to the~daily life of the peasants, and to the countryside.~~Van Gogh's understanding of the possibilities of painting evolved rapidly. The study of works by Paolo Veronese and EugËne Delacroix showed him that color can express something in and of itself. This led into an enthusiasm for Peter Paul Rubens and his sudden departure for Antwerp, where the greatest number of Rubens' works could be seen. The revelation of Rubens' simple means, of his direct notation, and of his ability to depict a mood with a combination of colors was like an epiphany. Around the same time, Van Gogh discovered Japanese prints and Impressionist painting. His refusal to adhere to academic principles led to disputes at the Antwerp academy, where he was a student, and after three months he left (1886) to live with his brother Theo in Paris. There, still concerned with improving his drawing, Van Gogh met Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, and other influential artists. He was introduced to the latest developments in French painting. Simultaneously, Theo introduced him to Camille Pissarro and Georges Seurat.~~The changes that his painting underwent in Paris between 1886-1888 led to the creation of his personal idiom and style of brushwork. His palette suddenly became colorful, his vision less traditional, and his tonalities lighter. By the summer of 1887 hewas painting in pure colors and using a broken brushwork that was owed something to pointillistism. Van Gogh's Postimpressionist style had crystallized by the beginning of 1888.~~After two years Van Gogh grew weary of life in the city. His passion was now for "a full effect of color." Thus he left Paris in February 1888 for Arles, in the southeast of France. ~~With his work during the following year he strove to respect the external, visual aspect of a figure or landscape but found himself unable to suppress his own feelings about the subject. These feelings found their expression in emphatic contours and heightened color effects. Van Gogh's pictorial style was not calculated, but rather spontaneous and intuitive. He worked with amazing speed and intensity, determined to capture an effect or a mood while it still gripped him. His subjects at Arles included blossoming fruit trees, views of the town and surroundings, self-portraits, portraits of friends, interiors and exteriors of his house, a series of sunflowers, and a starry night sky.~~Van Gogh's approach to painting was individualistic, but he understood that to accomplish an artistic revolution was beyond the power of the individual. In Paris he had hoped to form a separate Impressionist group with Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, and others whom he supposed to share his aims. He rented and decorated a house in Arles, hoping to persuade them to join him. Gauguin arrived in October 1888, and for two months they worked together. While each influenced the other to some extent, their relationship rapidly deteriorated with tragic results. They had opposing ideas and incompatible personalities. ~~On Christmas Eve 1888, Van Gogh snapped under the strain and cut off part of his left ear. Gauguin fled, and Van Gogh was taken to a hospital. He returned to the house two weeks later and resumed painting, producing the famous "Self-Portrait with Pipe and Bandaged Ear," several still lifes, and "La Berceuse." Several weeks later, he again showed symptoms of mental illness and was sent back to the hospital.~~Van Gogh feared losing his renewed capacity for work, which he regarded as a guarantee of sanity. At the end of April 1889, he asked to be temporarily committed to the asylum at Saint-RÈmy-de-Provence in order to be under medical supervision. ~~Van Gogh stayed there for a full year, troubled by recurring attacks, swinging between calm and despair, and working only intermittently. ~~Plagued by homesickness and loneliness, he longed to see Theo and the north once more. He arrived in Paris in May 1890. Four days later he went to stay with a homeopathic doctor/artist, Paul-Ferdinand Gachet, a friend of Camille Pissarro and Paul CÈzanne, at Auvers-sur-Oise. Back in a village community such as he had not known since Nuenen, at first Van Gogh worked enthusiastically. This phase was short-lived, however, and ended in quarrels with Gachet and feelings of guilt for his lifelong dependence on Theo and his failure to succeed as an artist. In loneliness and despair, and in fear of another psychotic episode, Van Gogh shot himself and died two days later. Theo, despondant, died six months later (Jan. 25, 1891) of chronic nephritis. ~~Van Gogh's work exerted a powerful influence on the development of modern painting, in particular on the works of the Fauve painters, Chaim Soutine, and the German Expressionists. Yet of more than 800 oil paintings and 700 drawings that constitute his life's work, he sold only one during his lifetime. Always desperately poor, he was sustained by the urgency of what he needed to communicate and by the generosity of his brother, who believed in him implicitly. The letters that he wrote to Theo from 1872 forward give a vivid account of his aims and beliefs, his hopes and disappointments, and his fluctuating physical and mental state.~~Van Gogh was a virtual unknown at the time of his death. He had exhibited a~few canvases at the Salon des IndÈpendants in Paris between 1888 and 1890 and in Brussels in 1890. Both salons showed small commemorative groups of his work in 1891.~~One-man shows of his work did not occur until 1892, and only a single article about him appeared during his lifetime. His fame dates from the early years of the 20th century, and since then his legend has only continued to grow. ~~Reference: de la Faille, J. B. The Works of Vincent van Gogh, (Amsterdam: 1970)~Hulsker, Jan. The Complete Van Gogh. (New York: Harrison House/Harry N. Abrams, Inc.)~

Related Keywords
Montmartre on Shelter Hellman J Frederick Bequest Europe Holland Painting canvas oil Vincent van Gogh van Gogh Dutch 7852312238520021 A303290 1965.28 EPTG