Van Gogh

The tragic painter of all times

Vincent Van Gogh's portraits were never beautiful to look at, lacked a attractive character and fro most time, very morbid. Did he find beauty in the ugly? a question many art collectors and critics have asked for centuries.

And Van Gogh had reasons to be so. He vent his feelings to his characters; but he was spectacular with his sceneries, especially flowers, cut flowers in vases. Van Gogh's young life was dented with highly-strung emotion that led to his early death by suicide.

His adult life started off on an unfortunate note. His love life marred with disappointment and when he finally found love, it was with a woman of ill fame.

Van Gogh was born on 30 March, 1853 in a Dutch village called Zundert. His father was a priest, Theodurus and mother, Anne Catherine. Naturally, his religious beliefs were fundamental to his short and troubled life and had a strong influence over his paintings.

He started life as a lay preacher among miners in Belgium and next decided to be an artist. His life was dominated by his restless spirit and suffered from mental depression but together, they fired his artistic imagination that was full of great joy.

However, they were with equal despair. Van Gogh was much influenced by the works of post impressionists that spurred him to produce some of the world's great masterpieces, some of which were autobiographical. He changed the face of the nineteenth century art but tragically his genius was to recognised during his lifetime.

Irises by Van Gogh. Oil on canvas 1890. His admiration for flowers was overwhelming.

Twelve Sunflowers - By Van Gogh. Oil on canvas - 1889

He was a prolific post-impressionist painter whose spectacular talents were short lived because he died young. During his brief career, he developed a philosophical impact in the artistic scene.

He began his art a career at the age of sixteen by which time he was selling other people's art works because his three uncles were art dealers. The young Gogh was employed by the famous art dealers, Goupil and Company which was the turning point in his career.

However, he went through a very emotional crisis when he fell in love with his landlord's daughter who was already engaged to be married. As a result, his work slipped though however much he persuaded Eugenie Loyer to give up her lover but she rejected the offer.

His parents and employer were concerned and decided to send Gogh to the Paris office but by this time he had thrown himself into religious work. Paris did not help him at all. He became something of a hermit and led an isolated life where his work suffered. Gogh was permanently dismissed by Gopil and Company when customers complained about his rudeness to them in April, 1876.

He left Paris for London despite his heartbreaks because by then he had developed a liking to be in England. He became increasingly poverty striken when he took up an unpaind job in Kent. He was offered bed and board along with a unpaid teaching job by a priest. Gogh's life turned around when he lived with Reverend and Mrs Slade-Johns.

Gogh's religious and social life expanded as maintained a faithful correspondence with his mother and brother, Theo. It was during this time that some of his great works mergedbut by end of 1876 Gogh returned to Netherlands and worked in a bookshop for a few months.

Among books, he found his eloquent style and the love for literature that enraptured his whole life. During this time he wanted to become a priest and moved into a missionary to study the scriptures.

After completing his theological studies, he moved over to the poverty stricken coal-mining area of Belgium with a strong belief that his vocation would help the poor. For the first time as priest he lived in the village of Paturges. He preached for years. Some of his later paintings were inspired by the coal mining areas.

He was gripped by the influence of his religion that his actions were bordering insanity. The rigid and ascetic lifestyle when he gave all possessions and lived a squalid life, insanitary hut, was an attempt to become more like Jesus Christ.

The church found this ridiculous and dismissed him from priesthood. By now his correspondence to his mother and Theo had ceased but after a few months of rehabilitation, Gogh turned around to be his normal self. He painted like a man possessed with the brilliance the world was to know later until he fell in love again only to be rejected all over again.

This time it was his cousin, Kee Vos-Stricker who was newly widowed. He had fallen out with his father by now and was no dependent on him any more. He moved with the Masters of his era along with contemporary novelists such as Charles Dickens, Emile Zola and Victor Hugo.

Just as EugeneLoyer and Kee Vos-Stricker and made him highly emotional, Gogh looked around for someone to love after settling down in Hague. He met a local woman, Sien Hoornik who was a single mother, prostitute and already pregnant with her second child.

He appeared in several of his sketches, especially in his painting titled, Sorrow. She is naked sitting with her head bowed and this painting was a spectacular piece of art work. She became his model for many more paintings and it was obvious that Gogh was enamoured with her form.

This unconventional attitude scandalised his Christian bearing and the Hague society effectively cut him off. Simultaneously, his father considered having his son committed to an asylum although his ever faithful brother, Theo stood firmly by him By end of 1883, Gogh and Sien had parted for good and later, he reconciled with his father who died in 1885.

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