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ART HISTORY 4450 Post-Impressionism: van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh (1853-90) • •
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biography: son of a minister vocations: – 1869-76: art dealer w/ Goupil (The Hague; London; Paris) – 1876: schoolmaster in England – 1877-79: lay preacher to working poor in Belgium – 1880: abandons religious pursuits; devotes himself exclusively to painting miners & povertystricken weavers; Theo begins to financially support Vincent, which continues until VG's death training: self-taught; briefly attends Antwerp Academy (1886) career: not marked by financial success – moved to Paris in 1886 • lives w/ brother, Theo (art dealer) – correspondences – introduced to artists (e.g., Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Emile Bernard) • discovers color & divisionism • leads to distinctive dashed brushstrokes of later work – died, having sold only one work
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Van Gogh: Early Career (c. 1880-1885) •
The Hague (1881–1883) – cousin-in-law, painter Anton Mauve, encouraged VG towards painting; disagreement over issue of drawing from plaster casts – domestic relationship w/ prostitute, Clasina Maria Hoornik (a.k.a. Sien) and young daughter • July 1882: Sien gives birth to baby boy, Willem (VG’s middle name) • June 1883: VG spends three weeks in hospital suffering gonorrhea • Autumn 1883: abandons Sien and two children – Spring 1883: uncle Cornelis, art dealer, commissions twenty (20) ink drawings of city – Summer 1883: VG begins to paint in oil
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Nuenen (1883–1885) – locale: The Netherlands – autumn 1884: falls in love w/ neighbor's daughter, ten years older than VG • agree to marry, but opposed by both families • she tries to kill herself and VG rushes her to hospital – March 1885: VG's father dies of stroke – Spring 1885: for first time, interest from Paris in his work (i.e., The Potato Eaters) – August 1885: work exhibited for first time in windows of paint dealer, Leurs, in The Hague – September 1885: accused of impregnating young peasant sitters; Catholic village priest forbids villagers from modeling for him
Van Gogh’s Early period The Potato Eaters (1885)
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Van Gogh: Early Career (c. 1880-1885)
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Antwerp (November 1885 - February 1886) – – – – – – – – –
rents room above paint dealer's shop in Rue des Images little money and ate poorly (i.e., bread, coffee, and tobacco his staple intake) spends money his brother Theo sent to him on painting materials and models applies himself to study of color theory spent time looking at work in museums, particularly work of Peter Paul Rubens bought Japanese “ukiyo-e” woodcuts; imitated and incorporated into backgrounds began to drink absinthe heavily treated for syphilis January 1886: matriculates at Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp • studies painting and drawing • despite disagreements over his rejection of academic teaching, he nevertheless took the higher-level admission exams
Van Gogh: Early Career (c. 1880-1885)
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Skull w/ Burning Cigarette (1885) –
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phase: winter in Antwerp • attending art academy • skeletons used to help students understand human anatomy theme: “momento mori” • started to drink absinthe heavily • diagnosed w/ syphilis composition: dynamic ¾ view color: muted; narrow range light/shadow: tenebrism (see Dutch Baroque) brushwork: broad; painterly
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Van Gogh: Early Career (c. 1880-1885) •
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biography: – independent missionary among impoverished miners in Belgium – suffered from extreme poverty, undernourishment & spiritual crisis aesthetic: social realism themes: – genre scenes – lives of peasants and poor laborers • `I have tried to emphasize that those people, eating their potatoes in the lamp-light have dug the earth with those very hands they put in the dish, and so it speaks of manual labor, and how they have honestly earned their food'. brushwork: painterly composition: centralized motifs color: muted light/shadow: chiaroscuro effects
Van Gogh: Parisian period •
Self Portrait (1886-87) –
1886: moves to Paris; lives w/ Theo • studies @ atelier of Cormon (1845-1924) – not so much training that influences VG, but rather students » Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) » Emile Bernard (18681941) • Theo manages art gallery in Montmartre, introduces VG to work of Impressionists: – Monet – Renoir – Pissarro – Degas – Seurat – Gauguin
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(Left) Van Gogh’s Self Portrait (1886) vs. (right) Van Gogh’s Self Portrait (1887-88)
VAN GOGH Parisian period Factories (1887)
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VAN GOGH’s Post-Impressionist Bridges Across the Seine (1887) vs. MONET’S Impressionist The Railway Bridge at Argenteuil (1874)
Van Gogh: Parisian period •
Portrait of Pere Tanguy (1887-88) –
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subject: sold artists' materials in shop that VG frequented; visited informal gallery housed in back (e.g., Seurat and Cezanne) theme: abandons social realism brushwork: combines influence of Divisionism & “impasto” schema of dashes influence: Japanese ukiyo-e prints • patterns stylized volumes • perspective flattened • “assembled” (see influence on Rauschenberg) composition: centralized & iconic motif color: arbitrary, symbolic & expressive • different than Impressionists’ naturalistic reproduction of visual appearances, atmosphere, & light • “I use color more arbitrarily so as to express myself more forcibly” light/shadow: obviated by role of color
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Van Gogh: Arles (February 1888 - May 1889) •
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setting: south of FR – joined briefly by Gauguin: • combined own ideas w/ G’s Synthetism • visit not a success – final argument led to infamous episode of Van Gogh mutilating his ear subject: “terrible passions of human nature” – suffered recurrent nervous crisis w/ hallucinations and depression production: painted more than 200 canvases in 15 months color: immediately struck by Mediterranean hot tonalities – used symbolically to represent his own moods – chromatic experiments lays tone next to tone for effect rather than naturalistic depiction
VAN GOGH Arles period Harvest (1889)
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Van Gogh Arles period Night Café (1888)
van Gogh: Arles period •
The Cafe Terrace (1888) – – – –
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setting: outside of night café narrative: small figures drinking motif: “blue sky spangled with stars” technique: “plein air” • “It amuses me enormously to paint the night right on the spot. They used to draw and paint the picture in the daytime after the rough sketch. But I find satisfaction in painting things immediately.” brushwork: impasto color: assumes role of light/shadow light/shadow: • “… enormous yellow lantern sheds its light on the terrace, the house and the sidewalk, and even causes a certain brightness on the pavement of the street, which takes a pinkish violet tone.” • “Here you have a night picture without any black in it, done with nothing but beautiful blue and violet and green, and in these surroundings the lighted square acquires a pale sulpher and greenish citron-yellow color.”
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Van Gogh: Arles period •
The Postman (1888) –
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subject: "impassioned expressions" of postal employee (J. Roulin) • ardent socialist • devoted father of large family • R tended to VG in aftermath of incident w/ G – committed him to psych ward – wrote to VG's family – provided constant solace recovering painter aesthetic: "the modern portrait“ • renders character not by imitation of sitter's appearance but through independent, vivid color • influences – Daumier expressive and caricatural line – Delacroix color – Gauguin urged less dependence on observation, more reliance on memory and intuition
Van Gogh: Arles period
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Self Portrait w/ Bandaged Ear (1888) – –
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subject: “terrible passions of human ` nature” setting: interior room • wool coat and hat indicates poverty • not enough $$ for wood for stove pose: ¾ view emphasizes mutilation compositions: stable color: arbitrary tones imply absinthe forms: outlined by thick, dark contour brushwork: expressive; directional • agitated, yet controlled dashes • confined by fixed rhythm/pattern • obsessive/compulsive mental state (?)
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Van Gogh: Saint-Rémy (May 1889 - May 1890)
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Self Portrait (1890) –
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setting: at own request, into an asylum at St. Rémy (in southern FR near Arles) production: frenzied (almost 130 paintings) pose: ¾ view hides mutilation composition: stable color: softened to pastels brushwork: expressive; ornamental • agitated, yet controlled • dashes constructed into swirling, twisted shapes • unconfined by fixed rhythm or pattern • symbolic of psychotic mental state
VAN GOGH’s Saint-Rémy period Irises (1890) vs. RENOIR’s Impressionist Roses in a Delft Vase (1880)
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VAN GOGH’s Starry Night (1890)
Van Gogh: Auvers-sur-Oise (May - July 1890) •
Dr. Gachet (1890) –
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biography: • doctor/psychiatrist • specialized in homeopathy • Darwinian & Socialist • as student, frequented seminal Café Guerbois • generous patron and friend to artists Van Gogh • moved to Auvers to be closer to brother Theo • lived w/ Gachet • production: last 70 days spent in hectic program of painting • died following a botched suicide attempt
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VAN GOGH’s Wheat Field with Crows (1890)
IMAGE INDEX • Slide 2: • Slide 4: • Slide 6: • Slide 7: • Slide 8: • Slide 9: • Slide 10:
Photograph of Vincent van Gogh (1876). VAN GOGH. The Potato Eaters (1885), Oil on canvas, 82 x 114 cm., Vincent van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. VAN GOGH. Skull with Burning Cigarette (1885), Oil on canvas, VAN GOGH. Still Life of Shoes (1886), Oil on canvas, 37.5 x 45.5 cm., Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. VAN GOGH. Self-Portrait (1886-87), Oil on artist’s board, mounted on panel, 41 x 32.5 cm, The Art Institute of Chicago. (Left) Van Gogh’s Self Portrait (1886); and (right) SelfPortrait as an Artist (1887-88), Oil on canvas, 65 x 50.5 cm., Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. VAN GOGH. Factories at Asnières, Seen from the Quai de Clichy (1887), Oil on canvas, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO.
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IMAGE INDEX • Slide 11:
• Slide 12: • Slide 13: • Slide 14: • Slide 15:
(Left) VAN GOGH, Bridges across the Seine at Asnieres (1887), Oil on canvas, 20 ½ x 25 ½ in., Sammlung Bührle, Zürich; and (right) MONET, The Railway Bridge at Argenteuil (1874), Oil on canvas, Philadelphia Museum of Art. VAN GOGH. Portrait of Pere Tanguy (1887-88), Oil on canvas, 36 ¼ x 29 ½ ., Musee Rodin, Paris. VAN GOGH. Self Portrait with Pipe and Straw Hat (1888), Oil on canvas on cardboard, 42 x 30 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. VAN GOGH. Harvest at La Crau (June 1888), Oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. (Left) VAN GOGH’s Night Café (1888), Oil on canvas, 70 x 89 cm., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; and (right) GAUGUIN’s At the Café (1888), Oil on canvas, 36 ¼ x 28 in., Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.
IMAGE INDEX • Slide 16: • Slide 17: • Slide 18: • Slide 19: • Slide 20:
VAN GOGH. The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night (1888), Oil on canvas, 81 x 65.5 cm, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands. VAN GOGH. Portrait of Joseph Roulin — The Postman (1888), Oil on canvas, 32 x 25 in., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. VAN GOGH. Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889), Oil on canvas, 60 x 49 cm., Courtauld Institute Galleries, London. VAN GOGH. Self-Portrait (1889), Oil on canvas, 25 ½ x 21 ¼ in., Musee d'Orsay, Paris. (Left) VAN GOGH’s Post-Impressionist Irises (c. 1890), Oil on canvas, 36 1/4 x 29 in., Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam; and (right) RENOIR’s Impressionist Roses and Jasmine in a Delft Vase (c. 1880), Oil on canvas, 32 x 25 5/8 in., The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.
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IMAGE INDEX • Slide 21: • Slide 22: • Slide 23:
VAN GOGH. Starry Night (c. 1890), Oil on canvas, 28 ¾ x 36 ½ in., Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. VAN GOGH. Portrait of Dr. Gachet (1890), Oil on canvas, 26 3/8 x 22 in., Private collection. VAN GOGH. Wheat Field with Crows (1890), Oil on canvas, 20 x 40 3/5 in., Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
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