Funday Times

Continuing a series on famous artists
Vincent Van Gogh
By Smriti Daniel
Even though Vincent Van Gogh is now recognized as one of the most gifted artists of all time, he was very little appreciated while he was still alive. In fact in his own lifetime, he sold only one painting and that was to someone he knew. Today his paintings are amongst the most recognized and prized ever, with their value being estimated at millions and millions of dollars.

Van Gogh began his career as an art dealer and when that didn't seem to work for him, he left the Netherlands (where he had been born) to go to England and work as a teacher. Not surprisingly, that didn't work for him either. So he quit and went back to school to study religion. After deciding (like all of us do at some time or the other) that exams were a waste of time, he dropped out of school. He did however, become a preacher, only to be fired very quickly.

Sad, lonely and without any money to support himself, Van Gogh turned to painting. He had finally found something he loved doing. Interestingly he had no proper training and with the exception of some classes from his cousin, Vincent taught himself everything he knew. You may be interested to know that he adopted a style known as post-impressionism. The post impressionists painted objects and landscapes using a lot of bright colours and shadows. Van Gogh's initial paintings were very dark and gloomy and it was not until that he saw some fabulous Japanese art that he began to bring more colour into his paintings. Van Gogh painted over 30 self portraits, depicting himself at various times of his life.

Although Vincent Van Gogh was undoubtedly a painter of tremendous talent and style, his personal life was deeply unsatisfactory. He was barely able to scratch out a living and so became increasingly depressed. In the last few years of his life, he went a little crazy and at one point even cut of his own ear. If you look at his self portrait, you can see the bandage where his ear should be. On 27th of July, 1890 it all simply became too much for him and he shot himself. He died two days later.

For a man who lived what some would consider a very sad and deprived life, Van Gogh's paintings are bursting with many vivid colours. They don't match the real world as we know it, but they are so beautiful and alive that you feel like stepping into the painting. If you look closely at the paintings, you will see how his short brushstrokes appear almost angry, and how it seems like he painted quickly and impatiently. But they are misleading for in truth Van Gogh spent a long time contemplating his subject and planning his painting before he ever put his brush to canvass.

If you examine his paintings you will be able to note aspects that distinguish his work from that of any other painter. In particular note what some people call his blotchy brushwork and how his pictures seem to be full of light (luminous). You will be able to see his colours separately, in gorgeous streaks that seem to curl around each other, especially in his depiction of stars (look at the picture "Starry Night"). "Crows in a Wheat field" was Van Gogh's last painting before he committed suicide. See how the sky looks dark and angry and also how the road seems to lead no where at all. Can you see some of the loneliness and despair he felt before he took his own life?

If you take his paintings to be a depiction of what he saw, we can easily see that while he may have been desperately unhappy, Van Gogh still saw much beauty in the world and found much to love in simple things. Perhaps that is why he still endures.

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