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Theodorus van Gogh, a preacher in the Dutch Reformed Church, and Anna Cornelia Carbentus, daughter of a bookseller, marry in 1851. Their
son Vincent Willem van Gogh, the second of six children, is born on |
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In July 1869, Vincent starts an
apprenticeship at Goupil & Cie,
international art dealers with headquarters in |
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Vincent moves to the London Goupil branch in June 1873. Daily contact with works of
art kindles his appreciation of paintings and drawings. In the city's museums
and galleries, he admires the realistic paintings of peasant life by
Jean-François Millet and Jules Breton. Gradually Vincent loses interest in
his work and turns to the Bible. He is transferred in 1874 to Goupil's |
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Vincent returns to |
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Wrestling with his desire to be useful,
in 1880 Vincent decides he can become an artist and still be in God's
service. He writes: "To try to understand the real significance of what
the great artists, the serious masters, tell us in their masterpieces, that
leads to God; one man wrote or told it in a book; another, in a
picture." |
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Vincent spends several weeks in |
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In September 1883 Vincent travels to the
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In part because local clergymen continually
thwart his attempts to find models, Vincent leaves the |
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On |
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Vincent's |
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Interested in portraiture as a source of
income, but unable to afford models while perfecting his skills, Vincent
turns to his own image: "I deliberately bought a good mirror so that if
I lacked a model I could work from my own likeness." He paints at least
20 self-portraits in |
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Soon after arriving in |
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Among his new friends Vincent counts the
painters he refers to as the "artists of the |
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Worn down by his activities in |
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Inspired by the bright colors and strong light of |
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Captivated by the spectacle of spring in
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Gauguin finally arrives in |
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After his discharge from the hospital in
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Vincent converts an adjacent cell into a
studio, and although subject to intermittent attacks, he produces 150
paintings during the year he stays at Saint-Rémy.
His doctor initially confines him to the immediate asylum grounds, so Vincent
paints the world he sees from his room, deleting the bars that obscure his
view. In the asylum's walled garden he paints irises, lilacs, and ivy-covered
trees. Later he is allowed to venture farther afield,
and he paints the wheatfields, olive groves, and
cypress trees of the surrounding countryside. The imposed regimen of asylum
life gives Vincent a hard-won stability: "I feel happier here with my
work than I could be outside. By staying here a good long time, I shall have
learned regular habits and in the long run the result will be more order in
my life." |
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Vincent is sometimes without the stamina
or confidence to execute original works. He regains his bearings by painting
copies after his favorite artists, including
Millet, Rembrandt, and Delacroix. Relying on his collection of prints,
Vincent translates the black and white reproductions into his own intensely
personal color compositions. He makes more than
twenty copies of Millet's peasant scenes, and he reinvents Delacroix's Pieta,
in which the bearded Christ bears some resemblance to himself. After one
particularly violent attack, in which he attempts to poison himself by
swallowing paint, Vincent is forced for a time to confine himself to drawing.
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While in |
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Critic Albert Aurier
publishes a favorable review of Vincent's paintings
in January 1890 in which he links the artist to the Symbolists. The
Symbolists and other Postimpressionist groups such as The Nabis, had gained critical
attention throughout the 1890s for their antirealist artworks. Vincent is
moved by Aurier's article but denies his
significance as an artist in a letter to the writer: "For the role
attaching to me, or that will be attached to me, will remain, I assure you,
of very secondary importance." |
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Searching for an alternative to his
confinement at Saint-Rémy, in May 1890 Vincent
leaves for Auvers-sur-Oise, near |
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Vincent sets about painting portraits of
his new acquaintances and the local landscape, including nearby wheatfields and the garden of the painter Daubigny. Working with great intensity, he produces
nearly a painting a day over the next two months. A series of 12 canvases in
a distinctive panoramic format celebrates country life: "I'm all but
certain that in those canvases I have formulated what I cannot express in
words, namely how healthy and heartening I find the countryside."
Although he worries that he might again become mentally unstable, Vincent
briefly enjoys a peaceful period. |
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In early July Vincent visits Theo in |
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Theo holds a memorial exhibition of
Vincent's paintings in September 1890 in his |
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