2. Contents
Fame
Interesting facts about Van Gogh`s life
Biography
Youth
Young art dealer
Unknown devotion
The artist
Impressionism
A story about Van Gogh`s ear
Final breakdown and death
Van Gogh`s museum
Сonclusion
3. Тhe aim of my presentation is to show a turbulent life of this
eccentric genius.
4. Fame
• Vincent van Gogh is a post-impressionist painter
whose masterpieces are well known all over the
world.
• He is considered the greatest Dutch painter after
Rembrandt.
• He is famous for his ability to project his
turbulent emotional experience onto the canvas.
• Several of his paintings rank among the most
expensive in the world. «Irises» sold for $53.9
million.
Irises
5. Interesting facts about Van Gogh`s life
• His incredible artistic talent was undeveloped and unrecognized until he was
27 years old.
• He had tried a lot of careers before he became a painter: art dealer, Protestant
minister.
• He was very modest and used to sign himself only
• He sold only 1 painting during his life-time.
• He struggled with mental illness, and remained poor and unknown throughout
his lifetime.
• His career and romantic pursuits all ended in failure.
6. Biography
Youth
• Born in 1853, in Zundert, Netherlands.
• The second of six children.
• From childhood Van Gogh was melancholy.
«Odd, aloof child who had queer manners
and seemed more like an old man».
• His father, Theodorus van Gogh, an austere
country minister.
• His mother, Anna Cornelia Carbentus, a
moody artist whose love of nature and
drawing was transferred to Van Gogh.
7. Young Art Dealer
• Vincent Van Gogh first tried to learn the art by
selling the works of other artists.
• At 15, Van Gogh’s family was struggling
financially, and he was forced to leave school and
go to work.
• In 1869 he got a job at his uncle`s art Vincent
dealership, Goupil & Cie, in the Hague.
• From the Hague, in 1872, Vincent begins writing
regular letters to Theo, his beloved brother. From
this correspondence we have a complete
understanding of his feelings and experiences.
Theo
8. • In 1873, he was transferred to the
Groupil Gallery in London.
• Daily contact with works of art in
London kindles his appreciation of
paintings and drawings.
• Van Gogh fell in love with Eugenie
.
Loyer. When she rejected his marriage
proposal, Van Gogh suffered a
breakdown. He became angry with
people at work, telling customers not
to buy the “worthless art,” and was The Groupil Gallery
fired.
• He decides to become a clergyman and
devoted his life to God.
9. Unknown devotion
• In 1876 he was offered a position as an assistant
preacher at Isleworth, near London.
• His interest in evangelical Christianity and
ministering to the poor becomes obsessional.
• In the winter of 1878, Van Gogh volunteered to
move to a coal mine, a place where preachers were
usually sent as punishment. He preached to the
sick, and also drew pictures of the miners, who
called him “The Christ of the Coal Mines.”
• The evangelical committees were not pleased with Miners
Van Gogh’s lifestyle. And he was forced to find
another occupation.
10. The artist
«I cannot do without something which is greater than I, which is my life - the
power to create».
Vincent Van Gogh
• In 1880, at the age of 27, he decided to devote himself entirely to drawing and
became a full-time artist.
• He began taking lessons on his own, studying books like «Travaux des champs»
by Jean Millet.
• In Etten in 1881, Van Gogh falls in love with his cousin Kee, who rejects his
advances. The marriage with one's own cousin was forbidden in the XIXth
century Holland.
• After this his intense religiosity begins to decrease.
11. • Vincent then fell in love with Clasina Maria Hoornik, an alcoholic prostitute. She
became his companion and model. When Hoornik went back to prostitution, Van Gogh
became depressed.
• For the next six weeks he lived a nomadic life, moving throughout the region while
drawing and painting the peasants. His greatest painting, "The Potato Eaters" was the
result of his deep sympathy to the peasant class.
12. Impressionism
In 1886 Van Gogh enrolls in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp. He did not
accept the pedantic academic style of training, and he withdraws.
After that he arrives in Paris. He lives with Theo in Montmartre, an artists'
quarter.
In Paris, Van Gogh first saw impressionist art, and he was inspired by the
color and light. He began studying with Toulouse-Lautrec, Pissarro and
others.
Toulouse-Lautrec Pissarro
13. The
Blooming
• Van Gogh became influenced by Plumtree
Japanese art and began studying
eastern philosophy to enhance his
art. He dreamed of traveling
there.
• Toulouse-Lautrec told him that the
light in the village of Arles was just
like the light in Japan.
• In 1888 he moved into the “little
yellow house” and spent his
money on paint rather than food.
He found himself feeling sick and
strange, even sipping turpentine
and eating paint. Yellow house
14. • After two years of working among
the Parisian artistic
community, Van Gogh's nervous
system began to collapse.
• His friendship with Paul Gauguin
was "electric" but like all of his
other relationships it was doomed
by Van Gogh's inability to
comprehend normal social
relationships.
• In 1888, there was an argument
between them. Van Gogh attacked
Gauguin, then mutilated himself
by cutting a large piece off of his
ear, he wrapped his ear in
paper, and gave it to a prostitute.
15. Final Breakdown and Death
• In one of his last letters he sadly wrote to his brother Theo,
«I feel a failure. I feel that this is the destiny that I accept, that will never
change».
• When he began to slip into depression, his paintings took on a deep, dark
feeling, with only hints of light optimism. It is easy to recognize his mood
by comparing these two pictures:
Crows in a Wheat Field The drawbridge
16. • In 1890, killed himself with a gunshot to the chest. He was 37.
• His brother Theo died of lung disease 6 months after the death of Vincent.
• On March 17, 1901, 71 of Van Gogh’s paintings were displayed at a show in
Paris, after which his fame grew enormously.
17. Van Gogh Museum
• Established in 1973 in
Amsterdam.
• Holds over 200 paintings
as well as drawings and
letters of Vincent van
Gogh.
• More than 1.5 million
people visit every year.
• The most visited museum
in the Netherlands.
18. Conclusion
Van Gogh is an extraordinary person and painter.
He highly influenced 20th-century art.
Surprisingly, he did not begin painting until his late twenties.
And completed all his famous works in a very short time of 10
years.
All his life he was followed by deep depressions, which
influenced his works.
He had a tragic life, and died at an early age.
