The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere,
Vincent was highly emotional, lacked self-confidence and struggled with
his identity and with direction. He believed that his true calling was to
preach the gospel; however, it took years for him to
discover his calling as an artist. Between 1860 and 1880, when he finally
decided to become an artist, van Gogh had already experienced two
unsuitable and unhappy romances and had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk
in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in the Borinage (a dreary
mining district in Belgium) where he was dismissed for overzealousness.
In 1886, he went to Paris to join his brother Théo, the manager of
Goupil's gallery. In Paris, van Gogh studied with Cormon, inevitably met
Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin. Having met the new Impressionist
painters, he tried to imitate their techniques; he began to lighten his
very dark palette and to paint in the short brush strokes of the
Impressionists’ style. Unable to successfully copy the style, he developed
his
own more bold and unconventional style.
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During his brief career, he did not experience much success, he sold
only one painting, lived in poverty, malnourished and overworked. The
money he had was supplied by his brother, Theo, and was used primarily
for art supplies, coffee and cigarettes. Van Gogh's finest works were
produced in less than three years in a technique that grew more and more
impassioned in brush stroke, in symbolic and intense color, in surface
tension, and in the movement and vibration of form and line. Van Gogh's
inimitable fusion of form and content is
powerful; dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and
emotional, for the artist was completely absorbed in the effort to explain
either his struggle against madness or his comprehension of the
spiritual essence of man and nature. In spite of his lack of success
during his lifetime, van Goghs legacy lives on having left a lasting
impact on the world of art.
Van Gogh is now viewed as one of the most influential artists having
helped lay the foundations of modern art.
