Vincent Van Gogh

In the region of Dutch Brabant, in Groot Zundert, on March 30, 1853, this genius of painting was born, whose work was only possible thanks to the enormous trust placed in his own destiny and the help of his brother Theo. His father, Theodore van Gogh, was a pastor, his mother, Anna-Cornelia Carbentus, was the daughter of a court bookbinder. Honorable family, old traditional, but poor. Since the 16th century, the van Goghs were eminent bourgeoisie, with a certain penchant for the arts. Vincent was the firstborn of six children. Not very sociable, the aloof genius liked to roam the fields, demonstrating his love for nature. No brother, except Theo, four years younger, can keep him company on his solitary ecological forays. This fraternal relationship will be permanent throughout his short life, raising awareness among those who may come into contact with Vincent's letters to Theo.

At the age of 16, the young Vincent van Gogh managed to get a job at Casa Goupil, in The Hague, a French establishment in the Netherlands important art gallery. Thus, van Gogh leaves behind his always cloudy village, the dark and sad Groot Zundert, his nervous mother and the stern Calvinist, his father. He leaves more: the melancholic childhood, the boredom of a sad and lonely boy. Vincent feels out of place in his home, in his land, in that repressive society. He knows that. When accepting the invitation of an uncle, manager of Casa Goupil, he knew he was running away from all this. He stayed in The Hague for three years, from 1869 to 1871. This year he was sent to the Brussels branch, where he stayed for two years. Then, always looking to discover new worlds, he goes to Goupil in London, where he stays for another two years, when he feels the need to express himself, drawing scenes of the Thames in his spare time. First disappointment: he falls in love with Úrsula, daughter of the owner of the guesthouse where he lives, but is repelled. In mid-1874 he returned to Holland.

His father perceives him as dark and tormented. The lack of sun makes him unnerved. Dream about Paris. A fixed idea, reinforced by the image that emanates from the City of Light, the capital of the arts. In 1875, van Gogh was transferred to Paris. Everything enchants him, increasingly seducing him and channeling his spirit into art: he reads Flaubert, Dumas, Hugo, Rimbaud, Baudelaire. He admires Courbet's romantic country scenes and Delacroix's Epic Heroes, the best-selling painters of the time. But he hates his job, which prevents him from living to the fullest. Instead of selling paintings at Goupil, he frequents other galleries, he reads books about art, he forms his own opinion; and the worst: he argues with the clientele. In April 1876 he was dismissed. He is 22 years old, has many disappointments, some illusions and no piano for the future. The medicine and returning to his parents' house, now in the small town of Etten. But the rebellious Vincent represents nothing but disappointment for his father and disappointment for his nervous mother. Only his brother Theo understands him. The year 1876 was extremely depressing for the young Vincent van Gogh. He suffers repeated nervous breakdowns and long periods of mutism and solitude, resulting in profound mysticism. His religious fervor is such that his father, a pastor, considers it exaggerated.

The young van Gogh is once again embarking on the path of escape from society, from his family, from the reality that surrounds him. He first flees to London, where he intended to teach French and German in schools, but he did not master those languages to teach them. He returns to Holland, working for three months in a bookstore in Dordrecht. He decides to follow his father's career: he will be a pastor, but among the poor. "Misery attracts me" - he writes to his brother Theo.

Having failed the Theological Seminary at the University of Amsterdam, he finds a position as a missionary preacher in the coal mines of Borinage, Belgium. The miners are suspicious of that strange man who, moreover, does not follow the orders of his superiors. He is fired in July 1879, a few months after his evangelical experience. He loses his faith and health. He returns home. Make sure that's not your calling. He is 26 years old. He settles in Cuesmes. In solitude, he draws scenes from memory of Borinage. His awakening begins: he wants to be a painter. To do this, he begins to live off the small allowance sent by Theo. Van Gogh walks aimlessly, backpack on his back, stopping here and there, in the cold, biting winter wind. He sleeps on roadsides, in barns, under carts, but always drawing. He writes to Theo in July 1880 a letter in which he describes the anguish in which he finds himself. Theo, moved, decides to dedicate himself to his brother all his life, knowing him to be a painter by destiny. At that time, Vincent is in Brussels, studying anatomy and drawing a lot. He writes to Theo claiming "An art of men", and moves to The Hague, where he studies with Anton Mauve. But he fights with Mauve, as he dislikes academic rules. "I don't want to paint pictures, I want to paint life" - he writes to his brother. Life for Van Gogh is landscapes and people; peasants and miners, fields and wheat fields. The painter Mauve encourages him; His father inhibits him. His model – Christiane – welcomes him. Despite emphasizing in a letter to Theo: "I find in myself a harmony and a calm and pure musicality", his paintings are dark, heavy, gray. Christiane leaves him. The child who gave birth dies; September 1883. He returns to his father's house for the last time, later renting a studio from a Catholic sacristan. His genius emerges in all its fullness.

His destiny is colors, he paints portraits, landscapes, with complete confidence in himself and his future. He gives no respite to his body exhausted from the battle of painting. Another disappointment in love: engagement broken by the girl's parents. On March 27, 1885, pastor Theodore van Gogh died at the door of his home. The loss of his father mortifies him, he leaves the Netherlands and heads to Antwerp, Belgium. In this city a double revelation: Rubens' painting and Japanese prints. Vincent van Gogh, aged 32, is moved to tears. His life stages are rushing forward. In March 1886, Vincent is in Paris. He meets Theo, director of Casa Goupil, rue Montmartre. The brother welcomes van Gogh like a child. They started to live together in the small apartment of Theo rue Laval, now Jean Massé. Vincent frequents Pai Tanguy's store, where he finds works by Hokussai, Hiroshige and Utamaro. He is impressed by "the new way of representing objects and space". He paints the portrait of Pai Tanguy, a picture composed of parts, possessing different tonal values, but forming a whole. He meets Toulouse-Lautrec, gets acquainted with the impressionists-Monet, Renoir, Pissarro. Later he becomes intimate with Gauguin. Impressionism is discussed in every cafe. Then, Seurat's neo-impressionism or pointillism. Vincent makes the practice of constructing the figure through small colored touches, divided on the canvas, but optically recomposed by the pointillists' vision; and of the Impressionists he makes color arbitrariness and paints Self-Portrait and 200 other paintings in two years. Van Gogh's precarious health did not survive these two years of turbulent life in Paris. Toulouse-Lautrec advises him to go to Provence. In February 1888 he was already in Arles, painting outdoors. Calm, peaceful, colorful life. It depicts the work of the field: wheat fields, haystacks, carts, vegetable gardens, blue mountains in the distance. When the summer sun arrives, however, van Gogh enters the most furious, disturbing and productive phase of his career. It releases the color. "I will be an arbitrary colorist." The light illuminates the sunflowers, making this plant his favorite theme: "I want the light that comes from within, I want the colors representing emotions." Gauguin arrives in October of that year to work side by side. Two months of hard and fertile work for both. But differences in behavior between the two end in a physical fight. Gauguin is stronger. Vincent suffers from muscle loss, and in crisis he cuts off a piece of his ear, sending it to his wife, which is the reason for the fight.

He is taken to the Saint-Paul Hospital for nervous patients. He returns home and paints: "Self-portrait with a Cropped Ear". His look (on the screen) is one of astonishment, hurt, melancholy. Crises happen frequently. He works with vigor and fury, but Theo cannot sell his paintings. In May 1889, van Gogh asked his brother to have him hospitalized. Interned in Saint-Remy, he learns to live with crises and paints scenes of the field, of cypresses. Spring arrives, as does inspiration, which is eternalized in "The Starry Night". He meets Dr. Gachet, who moves him in May 1890 to the psychiatric clinic in Auvers-sur-Oise. His painting goes through a new phase. He paints outdoors, paints new objects, the houses of the village, the face of Dr. Gachet, which he immortalizes on canvas. He draws a landscape from memory, a wheat field invaded by black birds, as well as his powerful and tormented painting. Dr. Gachet, impressed, exclaims: "The artist produces a marvel of art".

Van Gogh experiences frequent nervous breakdowns, suffering from hallucinations. He writes to Theo: "I have put everything I have into painting". His brother receives a letter on July 27, 1890, in which Vincent predicts the end. Theo arrives in Auvers-sur-Oise the next day. He finds his brother in bed, next to an untouched canvas. "I wanted to die. Don't be sad, it was my destiny." The artist dies on July 29, 1890, at the age of 37. He is buried in the town cemetery. The grave is always covered with flowers, and visitors leave their initials carved into the bark of the trees that surround it.