art lessons about vincent van gogh

Bedroom in Arles (1888), Van Gogh Museum

      Vincent Willem van Gogh  ( March 30, 1853 – July 29, 1890) was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose work had a far-reaching influence on 20th century art as a result of its vivid colors and emotional impact. Suffering from anxiety and increasingly frequent bouts of mental illness throughout his life, he died largely unknown at the age of 37 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Van Gogh did not begin painting until his late twenties, most of his best-known works dating from his last two years. In less than a decade, he produced more than 2,000 artworks, consisting of around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches. His work included self portraits, landscapes, portraits, and paintings of cypresses, wheat fields and sunflowers.

      Van Gogh spent his early adulthood working for a firm of art dealers, traveling between The Hague, London and Paris, after which he taught for a time in England. One of his early aspirations was to become a pastor and from 1879 he worked as a missionary in a mining region in Belgium where he began to sketch people from the local community. In 1885, he painted his first major work The Potato Eaters. His palette at the time consisted mainly of somber earth tones and showed no sign of the vivid coloration that distinguished his later work. In March 1886, he moved to Paris and discovered the French Impressionists. Later he moved to the south of France and was taken by the strong sunlight he found there. His work grew brighter in color, and he developed the unique and highly recognizable style which became fully realized during his stay in Arles in 1888.

      The extent to which his mental illness affected his painting has been a subject of speculation since his death. Despite a widespread tendency to romanticize his ill health, modern critics see an artist deeply frustrated by the inactivity and incoherence brought about by his bouts of illness. According to art critic Robert Hughes, Van Gogh's late works show an artist at the height of his ability, completely in control and "longing for concision and grace".

Art Lessons About Vincent Van Gogh: 

• “StarryNight” It’s Elementary!
• Oil andChalk Pastel Art in Grade Four
• Van Gogh’sSunflower Ceramic Relief
• The 1stGrade Sun Flower Painting Art Gallery (Dedicated To Vincent Van Gogh)
• Van GoghSunflower Art Lesson In Oil Pastel
• Van Gogh’sShadowbox Bedroom
• Hangin’ WithVincent 

More Links About Vincent Van Gogh:

• Vincent van Gogh Biography, Style and Critical Reception.
• Vincent van Gogh Gallery. The complete works and letters of Vincent van Gogh.
• Van Gogh Letters – The complete letters of Van Gogh, translated into English and annotated. Published by the Van Gogh Museum.
• Memoir of Vincent van Gogh. By Johanna Gesina van Gogh-Bonger, Vincent's sister in law.
• Van Gogh's Letters, unabridged and annotated.
• Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
• Works by or about Vincent van Gogh in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Vincent van Gogh at the Museum of Modern Art
• Van Gogh at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., United States.
• 'Drama at Arles new light on Van Gogh's self-mutilation' from Apollo, September 2005 by Martin Bailey.
• Painted with Words: Vincent van Gogh's Letters to Emile Bernard, New York Times, 9 September 2007
• Painted with Words: Vincent van Gogh's Letters to Emile Bernard – Facsimiles at The Morgan Library & Museum
• Art Historians Claim Van Gogh's ear 'Cut Off by Gauguin' by Angelique Chrisafis, The Guardian, 4 May 2009
• Union List of Artist Names, Getty Vocabularies. ULAN Full Record Display for Vincent Van Gogh. Getty Vocabulary Program, Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California.
• Admiel Kosman, Treading toward sanctity. Musings and meditations on close to a century's worth of discussions occasioned by Van Gogh's series of paintings of worn shoes. Was the artist's statement primarily aesthetic, or political, or was it religious?