Case Study Of Vincent Van Gogh

Debra Ferland
Instructor: Denise Laurin-Donatelle
Intro to the Visual Arts ART1000 P08
06/21/2013
W6A1

Case Study of Vincent van Gogh

For this paper I chose Vincent van Gogh as my artist. He is one of the more interesting artists I have researched. I had a multitude of different artists that I was contemplating on using. In the end
Starry Night managed to capture my attention the most. He had a very unique way of painting. It was very much so different than most of the others that I observed.

Vincent Willem van Gogh, or simply know as Vincent van Gogh, was born on March 30, 1853.
His name was derived from that of his grandfather, and a brother that was stillborn a year before the exact day of which Vincent was born. He drew as a child and continued making drawings during the course of the years leading to his decision to become an artist. His early drawings do not approach the intensity he achieved in his later work. Van Gogh suffered from some breakdowns and fits of depression in the later parts of his life. Art critic Robert Hughes is quotes as saying “From May 1889 to May 1890 he had fits of despair and hallucination during which he could not work, and in between them, long clear months in which he could and did, punctuated by extreme visionary ecstasy." On July 27, 1890, at age
37, Vincent was shot in the chest with a revolver. It is said to believe that van Gogh himself pulled the trigger. No gun was ever recovered. His death, to this day, remains somewhat of a mystery. In just a little more than a decade, he produced more than 2,100 artworks. His collection contained 860 oil paintings and over 1,300 watercolors, drawings, sketches and prints. His vast array of different works included self-portraits, landscapes, still lives, portraits and paintings of cypresses, wheat fields and sunflowers. June of 1889 the masterpiece Starry Night was created. As the title suggests it depicts a blue starry sky looking over a quaint little town. To me two notable things that stand out in the painting, aside from, of course, the starry night, is the chapel of the church and the tree. They are very prominent features in this work of art. The name of the town is Saint-Remy, and the view from which this was painted was from an asylum that looked north of Saint-Remy. Van Gogh said "... it does me good to do what’s difficult. That doesn’t stop me having a tremendous need for, shall I say the word – for religion – so I go outside at night to paint the stars.” Hence the chapel being emphasized so heavily.

Van Gogh was a post-impressionist painter. He used line and color to express his emotions.
You could tell he painted with a sense of urgency. The dark and gloomy earth tones he used for the town are contrasted by the blue and yellow sky. The village below has a sense of calm to it while the stars in the sky are bursting with life and energy. It was said to be believed that van Gogh suffered from lead poisoning and that is attributed to the strange colors used in his later works of art, such as this one. Much movement is depicted in the sky by the whirling and twirling of the stars and wind in the sky. A restless sky overlooking a calm peaceful town, it’s quite beautiful. To me the scale and proportion look to be fairly accurate, especially considering he was in a room looking at this scene.
Naturally the town would look smaller and the stars and the moon would look massive.

From all of his writings, and anything else I could find to read about him, van Gogh seemed to find peace when he finished his painting. It was as if whatever ailed him, this painting gave him a greater sense of calm, his own private version of Heaven.