vincent van gogh art
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Vincent Van Gogh
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Van Gogh's Paintings:

Allee des Alyscamps
Almond Blossom San Ramy 1890
Autumn Garden
Bedroom at Arles
Bivouac of Gypsy
Bles Vert
Blick auf Arles
Boats at Saint-Maries
Cafe Terrace At Night, 1888
Case ad Auvers
The Church at Auvers
Dorfstrasse in Saintes-Maries, 1888
Field of Poppies
Field of Poppies at Saint Remy
First Steps
Fisherman and His Boat
Fishing Boats on the Beach
Flower Field in Holland
Flowering Garden with Path
Fritillaria in a Vase of Copper
Garden with Flowers
Garden with Irises
Garden in Full Bloom
Garden of Irises
Gypsy Caravan
House at Auvers
Houses at Auvers
Iris
Landscape with Olive Trees
Les Alyscamps
Les Irises (in vase)
Long Grass with Butterflies
The Old Mill, 1888
Oleanders
Olive Grove
Olive Grove (red)
Olive Orchard
The Olive Trees, 1889
The Orchard
Orchard in Blossom
Peschi in Fiore (Flowering Peach Tree)
Pair of Boots
Pink and White Roses
Poppies, 1886
Portrait of the Artist
Postman Roulin
Rami Di Mandorlo
The Reaping
Red Vineyard at Arles
Seascape at Saintes-Maries
Self Portrait, 1889
Self Portrait with Grey Hat
The Siesta
Seminatore col Sole che Tramonta
Skull with Cigarette
Sower with the Setting Sun
Stairway at Auvers
Starlight over the Rhone, 1888
The Starry Night
Sunflowers
Sunflowers No. 2
Sunflowers on Blue, 1888
The Mulberry Tree, 1889
Van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles
Van Gogh's Chair
Vases de Fleurs
Vase of Flowers, 1887
Vase of Flowers with Poppies
Vase of Irises, Strauss 1890
Vase of Lilacs
Vase with 15 Sunflowers
Vaso di Fiori
View of Arles with Irises
A Wheat Field
The Wheat Field
Wheatfield with Crows
Wheatfield with Cypresses
The Yellow House


Van Gogh's Art - What should I know about Vincent van Gogh?

Vincent van Gogh came to art because his spiritual goals included a passionate desire to make a difference in the world. In Belgium and Holland, Van Gogh began identifying with the peasants and laborers and tried to depict their lives in his art. Encouraged by his brother, Theo, Vincent van Gogh spent two years in Paris, observing and absorbing the works of the leading Impressionists of the day. After two years, Van Gogh was willing to forge an artistic path beyond Impressionism.

Van Gogh - Church at Auvers
The Church at Auvers
Van Gogh deliberately distorted colors, perspective, lines

He moved to the south of France, attracted by the more intense light, which Van Gogh believed would help him see more truly and would more accurately depict his inner vision. Van Gogh developed his distinctive style in Provence, which included:

  • exaggerated, intense color
  • aggressive brushwork
  • bold impasto paint application (thickly applied paint)


Why is Van Gogh not considered an Impressionist?

Van Gogh - The Starry Night
The Starry Night
Van Gogh worked with symbolism

Most importantly, Vincent van Gogh did not consider himself an Impressionist. He saw himself as working to create the next level beyond Impressionism. The Impressionists believed firmly in several tenets which Vincent van Gogh examined, then discarded.

  • Impressionists believed art was highest when it stood on its own, with no added symbolic or deeper meaning. Van Gogh's art was consciously symbolic.
  • Impressionist art tried to be an objective reflection of nature. Van Gogh's art exploited nature to reflect his inner vision and emotional state: line, color, spatial composition, distortion and exaggeration were all manipulated to express his personal interior world.
  • Impressionists tried to reflect the world as it was. Van Gogh's art was a communication, or expression of intellect, mystery, emotion and imagination.

Vincent Van Gogh is considered a forerunner of Expressionism. Art historians classify Van Gogh with the post-Impressionists, but this is not the name of an art movement or style. It is simply the time period and peers among whom Van Gogh created his art. Other post-Impressionists include Gauguin, Cézanne, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Vuillard and Bonnard.

Expressionism didn't appear as an art movement until 1911 when German critics coined the term to describe the work of the Fauves and the early Cubists. Expressionist artists include Matisse, Boccioni, Kirchner, Pollock and Munch.



What were the conflicts that inspired Van Gogh's art?

Van Gogh - The Sower
The Sower
Van Gogh celebrated common people and peasants



Like many artists, Vincent van Gogh's art reflected several conflicts that he worked to resolve in his art:

  1. His desire to reflect the simplicity of the material world vs. his desire to express himself through symbols.
  2. His desire to live simply and humbly, like the peasants vs. his desire to live in a community of artists and to participate in the avant-garde of European culture.
  3. His religious beliefs and a desire to alleviate spiritual suffering vs. his practical desires to help the poor through education and social reform.
  4. His desire for community, family, marriage vs. a need for solitude both because of his illness and because of his need to focus on his art.
  5. His admiration of his Dutch heritage of painting and the Dutch masters' skill at detailed, observational painting vs. his sympathy with the French avant-garde and the desire to paint based on ideas not simple observation.

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