He was born on 30th. March 1853 in the small Dutch village of Groot Zundert, near the Belgian frontier. Young Vincent worked as an evangelist before turning to art at the age of 27.
His father, Theodorus Van Gogh was a local pastor and his wife, Cornelia, was a gentle, artistic woman. Vincent was born exactly one year to the day after his mother Cornelia had delivered a stillborn baby also called Vincent Willem. Vincent’s parents placed a gravestone in the village churchyard for their lost infant that served as a constant reminder to Vincent Van Gogh of his dead namesake.
Vincent in his early childhood was described as a difficult child who spent most of his time walking alone in the fields, rarely playing with his other siblings. There are no records of his school career, but he drew and painted regularly from his early teens with the encouragement of his mother.
When he left school at the age of 16, his uncle who was a successful art dealer got him a job in his office at The Hague where he worked for the next four years.
In 1873, Vincent was transferred to London, where he fell in love with his landlady’s daughter. The affair was said to have affected his ability to work and he was dismissed.
In 1876, he returned to England and worked as an unpaid assistant at a private school in Ramsgate. The school moved to London and he was assigned to collect overdue fees in some of the poorest areas. He later resigned after failing to collect a penny because of the squalor he saw around him which greatly distressed him. It is believed that this awakened his religious zeal to become an assistant preacher to a Methodist minister.
At the age of 25 he moved to the Borinnage, a coal-mining district in south Belgium as an evangelist. There was so much poverty around, more than what he witnessed in London. He threw himself into his work and literally gave away all he had and ate almost nothing for days. He was later dismissed because of his ‘ excessive zeal ‘ and shabby looks. He lived in poverty for two years, and during these hard two years he came to a personal resolve to be an artist.
Vincent Van Gogh went back home to his parents and worked with the same vigour he had worked as an evangelist, this greatly improved his work and for months he was happier than ever before.
In 1881, Vincent walked away from his father’s house on Christmas Day after a quarrel with his father and moved to The Hague. Before then, there had been signs of instability in his behaviour after another abortive love affair. With little or no money he asked his brother Theo for help, he sent him a meagre sum each month from his own small salary. After much toil and no success he returned home in 1884. His parents had moved to a new church but welcomed him like a lost son. He plunged himself into working on portraits of peasants and came up with his most ambitious picture called Potato Eaters, a sombre paintings of peasants having their evening meal.
His father Pastor Theodorous died in 1885, Vincent left the same year for Holland never to return. He first went to Belgium and enrolled in an academy in Antewerp, but failed his first term of study. He left before the results were declared.
While in Paris he studied for a few months at the studio of an academic painter named Fernand Cormon with another painter Emile Bernard and Toulouse-Lautrec. All three later broke with Cormon for his hostility towards the new impressionist artists Monet, Renoir and Degas whose paintings inspired Gogh.
Through his brother Theo, Vincent met Camille Pissarro one of the elder impressionists and the revolutionary figure Paul Gauguin.
Vincent liked Japanese arts and this influenced his choice of where to live. He moved to Arles-a provincial city near Marseilles in the South of France that he imagined being the equivalent of Japan. While there he rented a two-storied house in a place called Lamartine. The outside walls were yellow-symbolic of friendship in Japanese cultu
re. He delighted with the yellow house, and plunged into his work with a mood of rare happiness, bordering on ecstasy. He was recalled to have written to his brother ‘Ideas, are coming to me in swarms’. Although his strange behaviour and appearance caused some derision among townspeople he managed to strike a genuine relationship with the postman and his family, a local café owner and an army lieutenant.
At the yellow house, Van Gogh worked furiously but he felt secure and full of hope. He felt ready to embark on a project he had long desired: the establishment of an artist’ colony.
He invited his fellow artist Gauguin to come and be part of the colony. A few months after his arrival at the yellow house, they quarrelled fiercely mostly because of Gogh’s untidiness. Vincent threatened Gauguin with a razor that caused Gauguin to flee. Something seemed to snap in Van Gogh in 1888 and he lost self-control. It was said he cut off one of his ears, put it in a
envelope and gave it to a prostitute.
He was taken to Arles hospital suffering from hallucinations as well as loss of blood. He was released after two weeks, but over work and a terror of madness brought on a relapse. Vincent Van Gogh never recovered his mental stability.
During this time the townspeople of Arles wrote a petition against him to be put away because he was mad. By the spring of 1889 he had been in Arles a year but had lost all hope. The artist colony had come to nothing. His friends had vanished; the postman had been transferred to another town. Vincent dreaded the return of his insanity so in May 1889 he voluntarily committed himself to an asylum in the nearby town of Saint Remy. He had slowly begun to come to terms with his illness- epilepsy and schizophrenia- a result of brain damage at birth. Although bouts of convulsions and hallucinations reoccurred in three monthly cycles, he still produced s
ome 200 canvases during his year in the asylum.
In 1890 he moved to Auvers, a village northwest of Paris that was popular with artists suggested by Camillie Pissarro. He took a small room in a café and kept regular hours. On Sunday 27th July 1890, Van Gogh walked out of Auvers into the countryside and shot himself in the chest. He returned home late evening and lay awake on the bed and smoking his pipe, Theo his brother arrived after being alerted by the doctor and all through Monday his friends watched over him until one o’clock in the morning. He died in his brother’s arms. He was 37yr old.
His father, Theodorus Van Gogh was a local pastor and his wife, Cornelia, was a gentle, artistic woman. Vincent was born exactly one year to the day after his mother Cornelia had delivered a stillborn baby also called Vincent Willem. Vincent’s parents placed a gravestone in the village churchyard for their lost infant that served as a constant reminder to Vincent Van Gogh of his dead namesake.
Vincent in his early childhood was described as a difficult child who spent most of his time walking alone in the fields, rarely playing with his other siblings. There are no records of his school career, but he drew and painted regularly from his early teens with the encouragement of his mother.
When he left school at the age of 16, his uncle who was a successful art dealer got him a job in his office at The Hague where he worked for the next four years.
In 1873, Vincent was transferred to London, where he fell in love with his landlady’s daughter. The affair was said to have affected his ability to work and he was dismissed.
In 1876, he returned to England and worked as an unpaid assistant at a private school in Ramsgate. The school moved to London and he was assigned to collect overdue fees in some of the poorest areas. He later resigned after failing to collect a penny because of the squalor he saw around him which greatly distressed him. It is believed that this awakened his religious zeal to become an assistant preacher to a Methodist minister.
At the age of 25 he moved to the Borinnage, a coal-mining district in south Belgium as an evangelist. There was so much poverty around, more than what he witnessed in London. He threw himself into his work and literally gave away all he had and ate almost nothing for days. He was later dismissed because of his ‘ excessive zeal ‘ and shabby looks. He lived in poverty for two years, and during these hard two years he came to a personal resolve to be an artist.
Vincent Van Gogh went back home to his parents and worked with the same vigour he had worked as an evangelist, this greatly improved his work and for months he was happier than ever before.
In 1881, Vincent walked away from his father’s house on Christmas Day after a quarrel with his father and moved to The Hague. Before then, there had been signs of instability in his behaviour after another abortive love affair. With little or no money he asked his brother Theo for help, he sent him a meagre sum each month from his own small salary. After much toil and no success he returned home in 1884. His parents had moved to a new church but welcomed him like a lost son. He plunged himself into working on portraits of peasants and came up with his most ambitious picture called Potato Eaters, a sombre paintings of peasants having their evening meal.
His father Pastor Theodorous died in 1885, Vincent left the same year for Holland never to return. He first went to Belgium and enrolled in an academy in Antewerp, but failed his first term of study. He left before the results were declared.
While in Paris he studied for a few months at the studio of an academic painter named Fernand Cormon with another painter Emile Bernard and Toulouse-Lautrec. All three later broke with Cormon for his hostility towards the new impressionist artists Monet, Renoir and Degas whose paintings inspired Gogh.
Through his brother Theo, Vincent met Camille Pissarro one of the elder impressionists and the revolutionary figure Paul Gauguin.
Vincent liked Japanese arts and this influenced his choice of where to live. He moved to Arles-a provincial city near Marseilles in the South of France that he imagined being the equivalent of Japan. While there he rented a two-storied house in a place called Lamartine. The outside walls were yellow-symbolic of friendship in Japanese cultu
re. He delighted with the yellow house, and plunged into his work with a mood of rare happiness, bordering on ecstasy. He was recalled to have written to his brother ‘Ideas, are coming to me in swarms’. Although his strange behaviour and appearance caused some derision among townspeople he managed to strike a genuine relationship with the postman and his family, a local café owner and an army lieutenant.At the yellow house, Van Gogh worked furiously but he felt secure and full of hope. He felt ready to embark on a project he had long desired: the establishment of an artist’ colony.
He invited his fellow artist Gauguin to come and be part of the colony. A few months after his arrival at the yellow house, they quarrelled fiercely mostly because of Gogh’s untidiness. Vincent threatened Gauguin with a razor that caused Gauguin to flee. Something seemed to snap in Van Gogh in 1888 and he lost self-control. It was said he cut off one of his ears, put it in a
envelope and gave it to a prostitute.He was taken to Arles hospital suffering from hallucinations as well as loss of blood. He was released after two weeks, but over work and a terror of madness brought on a relapse. Vincent Van Gogh never recovered his mental stability.
During this time the townspeople of Arles wrote a petition against him to be put away because he was mad. By the spring of 1889 he had been in Arles a year but had lost all hope. The artist colony had come to nothing. His friends had vanished; the postman had been transferred to another town. Vincent dreaded the return of his insanity so in May 1889 he voluntarily committed himself to an asylum in the nearby town of Saint Remy. He had slowly begun to come to terms with his illness- epilepsy and schizophrenia- a result of brain damage at birth. Although bouts of convulsions and hallucinations reoccurred in three monthly cycles, he still produced s
ome 200 canvases during his year in the asylum.In 1890 he moved to Auvers, a village northwest of Paris that was popular with artists suggested by Camillie Pissarro. He took a small room in a café and kept regular hours. On Sunday 27th July 1890, Van Gogh walked out of Auvers into the countryside and shot himself in the chest. He returned home late evening and lay awake on the bed and smoking his pipe, Theo his brother arrived after being alerted by the doctor and all through Monday his friends watched over him until one o’clock in the morning. He died in his brother’s arms. He was 37yr old.
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