Van Gogh. The Complete Paintings

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Van Gogh's early works consisted of mostly still lifes and depictions of peasant labourers. In 1886, he moved to Paris, where he met members of the artistic avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were seeking new paths beyond Impressionism. Frustrated in Paris and inspired by a growing spirit of artistic change and collaboration, Van Gogh moved to Arles in south of France in February 1888 with the goal of establishing an artistic retreat and commune. Once there, Van Gogh's art changed. His paintings grew brighter and he turned his attention to the natural world, depicting local olive groves, wheat fields and sunflowers. Van Gogh invited Gauguin to join him in Arles and eagerly anticipated Gauguin's arrival in the fall of 1888.

In 1957, Francis Bacon based a series of paintings on reproductions of Van Gogh's The Painter on the Road to Tarascon, the original of which was destroyed during the Second World War. Bacon was inspired by an image he described as "haunting", and regarded Van Gogh as an alienated outsider, a position which resonated with him. Bacon identified with Van Gogh's theories of art and quoted lines written to Theo: "[R]eal painters do not paint things as they are... [T]hey paint them as they themselves feel them to be." [302]

1. The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles

Van Gogh's love life was nothing short of disastrous: He was attracted to women in trouble, thinking he could help them. When he fell in love with his recently widowed cousin, Kate, she was repulsed and fled to her home in Amsterdam. The Olive Garden, 1889". Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. 2011. Archived from the original on 10 May 2011 . Retrieved 25 March 2011. Van Gogh's Van Goghs: The Van Gogh Museum, National Gallery of Art, archived from the original on 29 May 2010 , retrieved 23 April 2011 Theo died in January 1891, removing Vincent's most vocal and well-connected champion. [283] Theo's widow Johanna van Gogh-Bonger was a Dutchwoman in her twenties who had not known either her husband or her brother-in-law very long and who suddenly had to take care of several hundreds of paintings, letters and drawings, as well as her infant son, Vincent Willem van Gogh. [278] [note 14] Gauguin was not inclined to offer assistance in promoting Van Gogh's reputation, and Johanna's brother Andries Bonger also seemed lukewarm about his work. [278] Aurier, one of Van Gogh's earliest supporters among the critics, died of typhoid fever in 1892 at the age of 27. [285] Painter on the Road to Tarascon, August 1888 (destroyed by fire in the Second World War) a b interview with Hilary Spurling (8 June 2005). "The Unknown Matisse... – Book Talk". ABC Online. Archived from the original on 12 October 2011 . Retrieved 1 August 2016.

Van Gogh was captivated by the fields in May when the wheat was young and green. His Wheatfields at Auvers with White House shows a more subdued palette of yellows and blues, which creates a sense of idyllic harmony. [275] Van Gogh’s Sunflowers (August 1888), in a plain white frame, and other works lent by Bonger to the Sonderbund exhibition, Cologne, 1912 Credit: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne hoakley (6 April 2017). "Jules Breton's Eternal Harvest: 4 1877–1889". The Eclectic Light Company. Archived from the original on 15 January 2021 . Retrieved 1 January 2021. In July, Van Gogh wrote that he had become absorbed "in the immense plain against the hills, boundless as the sea, delicate yellow". [196] He had first become captivated by the fields in May, when the wheat was young and green. In July, he described to Theo "vast fields of wheat under turbulent skies". [197] In preparation for Gauguin's visit, Van Gogh bought two beds on advice from the station's postal supervisor Joseph Roulin, whose portrait he painted. On 17 September, he spent his first night in the still sparsely furnished Yellow House. [139] When Gauguin consented to work and live in Arles with him, Van Gogh started to work on the Décoration for the Yellow House, probably the most ambitious effort he ever undertook. [140] He completed two chair paintings: Van Gogh's Chair and Gauguin's Chair. [141]They contain a wide array of physiognomical representations. [246] Van Gogh's mental and physical condition is usually apparent; he may appear unkempt, unshaven or with a neglected beard, with deeply sunken eyes, a weak jaw, or having lost teeth. Some show him with full lips, a long face or prominent skull, or sharpened, alert features. His hair is sometimes depicted in a vibrant reddish hue and at other times ash colored. [246] But what about the rest of the family collection? Surprisingly, there is nothing to suggest that Jo and her son Vincent ever discussed the possibility of establishing a museum. After many decades, it did eventually go ahead, with her son generously reaching an agreement with the Dutch state in 1962, leading to the opening of the Van Gogh Museum in 1973. In May 1890, Van Gogh left the clinic in Saint-Rémy to move nearer to both Dr Paul Gachet in the Paris suburb of Auvers-sur-Oise and to Theo. Gachet was an amateur painter and had treated several other artists – Camille Pissarro had recommended him. Van Gogh's first impression was that Gachet was "iller than I am, it seemed to me, or let's say just as much." [192] Van Gogh (2009), Letter 677. Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Sunday, 9 September 1888; Letter 681 Vincent to Theo van Gogh. Arles, Sunday, 16 September 1888; Gayford (2006), 18; Nemeczek (1999), 61.

When one has fire within oneself, one cannot keep bottling [it] up—better to burn than to burst. What is in will out.

Vincent van Gogh (left) in 1873, when he worked at the Goupil & Cie gallery in The Hague; [14] His brother, Theo (pictured right, in 1878), was a life-long supporter and friend. On January 31, 1890, Theo and his wife, Johanna, gave birth to a boy and named him Vincent Willem van Gogh after Theo's brother. Around this time, Theo sold van Gogh's "The Red Vineyards" painting for 400 francs. From a family point of view Vincent was impossible, emulating the Prodigal Son one moment, or collecting birds' nests, or sloping off to dedicate himself to poverty and taking in a pregnant prostitute whom he threatened to marry. "She knows how to quiet me," he wrote, knowing full well that every extreme move he made provoked the family on whom he still depended to righteous despair. And then, daftest whim of all, there was the sudden fixation on drawing. The only evidence for this is from interviews with the grandson of the doctor. [105] For an overall review see Naifeh and Smith. [106]

Van Gogh then moved to The Hague and fell in love with Clasina Maria Hoornik, an alcoholic prostitute. She became his companion, mistress and model. By March 1882, Mauve appeared to have gone cold towards Van Gogh, and he stopped replying to his letters. [80] He had learned of Van Gogh's new domestic arrangement with an alcoholic prostitute, Clasina Maria "Sien" Hoornik (1850–1904), and her young daughter. [81] Van Gogh had met Sien towards the end of January 1882, when she had a five-year-old daughter and was pregnant. She had previously borne two children who died, but Van Gogh was unaware of this. [82] On 2 July, she gave birth to a baby boy, Willem. [83] When Van Gogh's father discovered the details of their relationship, he put pressure on his son to abandon Sien and her two children. Vincent at first defied him, [84] and considered moving the family out of the city, but in late 1883, he left Sien and the children. [85]The eldest of six living children, van Gogh had two younger brothers (Theo, who worked as an art dealer and supported his older brother’s art, and Cor) and three younger sisters (Anna, Elizabeth and Willemien). See also: Décoration for the Yellow House, Langlois Bridge at Arles, and Saintes-Maries (Van Gogh series) The Yellow House, 1888. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Bonger also cannily promoted sales of some Van Gogh works, dispersing pieces to private collections and later to museums—and thereby raising his profile. Although Bonger’s minimal experience of the art world all came from her brief marriage to Theo, who was a dealer, Luijten records that she “learned to play the market shrewdly”. See also: Peasant Character Studies (Van Gogh series), Still life paintings by Vincent van Gogh (Netherlands), and List of drawings by Vincent van Gogh