Ruth Leon recommends… Van Gogh – Perspective

Who was the real Vincent Van Gogh?

135 years ago this week, on 29th July 1890, one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art died. He was only 37 years old. In his short lifetime he sold only one painting although he painted some 2100 artworks, including more than 860 oil paintings. most of which date from the last two years of his life.

Vincent Van Gogh painted landscapes, still lifes, portraits, and self-portraits, characterised by bold colours and dramatic brushwork that contributed to the rise of expressionism in modern art.

Much of what we know about him is drawn from his long and loving correspondence with his younger brother, Theo, who supported him, emotionally and financially, throughout his life.

Mentally unstable all his life, he nonetheless travelled widely from his birth in Holland, to Paris, where he met members of the artistic avant-garde, including Émile Bernard and Paul Gauguin, who were seeking new paths beyond Impressionism. His travels included a stint as an art dealer in London and time as a missionary in Belgium, before settling in the South of France, where he was several times confined to a mental hospital. After his death resulting from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, his influence grew.

His bold use of colour, expressive line and thick application of paint inspired avant-garde artistic groups like the Fauves and German Expressionists in the early 20th century. Van Gogh’s work gained widespread critical and commercial success in the following decades, and he has become a lasting icon of the romantic ideal of the tortured artist. Today, Van Gogh’s works are among the world’s most expensive paintings ever sold.

Who was the real Vincent Van Gogh? In this profile of the life of Vincent Willem van Gogh, we discover the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who, only after he died, became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history.
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