Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh would become one of the most well-known artists in the world. His paintings have become easily recognizable to cultures throughout the world, and he has become the archetypal “tortured artist.”

The life of Vincent Van Gogh

Van Gogh was born in 1853 and grew up in Holland. He was raised in a religious family with his father being a minister. When his school ended, Vincent followed his uncle’s profession and became an art dealer learning the trade in Holland and then working in England and France. Vincent was successful and initially happy with his work. However, he soon grew tired of the business of art, especially in Paris, and lost interest in the trade. After returning home, Vincent began to study theology. While very passionate and enthusiastic, he failed exams to enter a couple programs. Characteristic of his personality, he was intelligent, able to speak multiple languages, but he did not think that Latin was a language for preaching to the poor. During this period, he worked as a missionary in a coal mining community living with hard working poor common people. As his development as a preacher was stalling, his interest in those around him was increasing. His life as an artist was beginning.

In 1880, at 27 years old, Van Gogh entered the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Belgium. The following winter, living in Amsterdam, Vincent fell in love, had his heart broken, and began painting. The next few years would result in little success both in love and art.

Van Gogh’s Potato Eaters, his first major work, was painted in 1885. By this time, he was still having difficulty finding love, but was beginning to receive interest in his paintings. He was now fully devoting himself to painting: living frugally, studying color theory, and admiring the works of artists like Peter Paul Rubens. Unfortunately, as would be his entire life, his paintings were still difficult to sell. His brother Theo, an art dealer and the recipient of many letters from Vincent, commented that there should be more color in his work. Van Gogh was painting peasants and rural landscapes using dark earth tones. Around this same time,Impressionism, with its bright vivid colors, was becoming popular.

The next year, Vincent moved to Paris where his art began to take on the style that would make him famous. In Paris, he was discussing art with some of the most avant-garde and influential artists of his time – painters like Gauguin, Bernard, and Toulouse-Lautrec. He was using more color, applying the paint with thick, bold brushstrokes, and painted all that surrounded him. Van Gogh arranged to show his work, to positive reviews, but was still unable to sell any pieces.

One of Van Gogh’s dreams as an artist was to start a colony for artists in Arles in the south of France. Vincent moved to Arles where he was joined by Gauguin. While there, Van Gogh entered the most productive and creative period of his life painting his famous Sunflowers. However, it also was a time of great turmoil for Vincent beginning a period of hospital stays for mental illness and physical decline.

After just ten years of painting and producing some 900 paintings, Vincent van Gogh took his own life in 1890. Never fully appreciated in his own time, it wouldn’t take long for the art world to recognize the genius they lost. Within twenty years of his death, there were memorial shows of his works all over the world – influencing generations of artists to come.

Vincent van GoghPainting, Oil on Paper on PanelThe Hague: August, 1882

I like it because maybe it doesn't have a lot of details, but it still looks like he put a lot of effort into making in look like something you would see on a trip to that field.

Vincent van GoghPainting, Oil on CanvasNuenen, The Netherlands: August - September, 1884

I like this painting because the people actually look like bears with clothes and working so it's kind of funny.

Vincent van GoghPainting, Oil on Canvas
Auvers-sur-Oise: May, 1890

I like this painting because Van Gogh paints it in a way that it really makes you wanna live in that village, all calm and smooth and peacefully. Perfect place for a retirement.

Impressionism & Post-Impressionism

Emphasized visible light and color.

Used dull, dark colors, like green, gray or brown. They never used Black.
Vague, as if a glance of the subject

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s painting, Le Moulin de la Galette (painted in Paris, 1876)

Technique involved using little detail

Small brushstrokes, thick paint, blurred outline.
Painters started painting outside, on locations, in touch with nature and the outer world, rather than studios.
They used to paint mostly landscapes, people, streets, and "café" scenes. What they were showing with these paintures was a typical day in the outside world. How they lived in those times.

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grande Jatte, 1884-85

It was developed in France in the late 19th and the early 20th century

Painters where optimistic and they pointed out the beautiful and good things in life.

Van Gogh, “Irises”

Photography

There was also photography in this time and it was also considered as part of the artistic movement.

Instead sought to instill emotion with painting.

Moved away from depicting reality (through photos)

Post-Impressionsim

It had a great reaction against the limitations of impressionism

Developed in the late 19th century, it lasted until the 1880's

Advancement of styles and techniques

More romantic, emotional, avant-garde, and shocking than impressionism

It had bolder colors and sharper outlines

Sought to combine inner world of mind and spirit

Post-Impressionist Painting in Oils and Acrylics by Richard Tuve

Middle Ages

Socio political-economical situation.

During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Europe enjoyed an economic and agricultural boom. A slight warming of the climate and improved agricultural techniques allowed lands that had previously been marginal or even infertile to become fully productive. In the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, however, the climate once again began to cool and agricultural innovations could not maintain the productivity of frontier lands that again became marginal or were abandoned entirely. The decreased agricultural output could no longer support the same level of economic activity and, as early as the middle of the thirteenth century, the economy was beginning to weaken. By early in the fourteenth century and continuing well into that century, a declining population, shrinking markets, a decrease in arable land and a general mood of pessimism were evidence of deteriorating economic conditions.

Periods of the Middle Ages and their characteristics.

The Early Middle Age.

The Early Medieval Era is sometimes still called the Dark Ages.
This era is often considered to begin with the "fall of Rome" and end sometime in the 11th century. It encompasses the reigns of Charlemagne, Alfred the Great, and the Danish Kings of England; it saw frequent Viking activity, the Iconoclastic Controversy, and the birth and rapid expansion of Islam in Northern Africa and Spain. Over these centuries, Christianity spread throughout much of Europe, and the Papacy evolved into a powerful political entity.

The High Middle Age.

The High Medieval Era is the period of time that seems to typify the Middle Ages best. Usually beginning with the 11th century. The High Middle Ages saw such significant events as Norman conquests in Britain and Sicily, the earlier Crusades, the Investiture Controversy and the signing of the Magna Carta. By the end of the 11th century, nearly every corner of Europe had become Christianized.
It is sometimes referred to as the "flowering" of medieval society, thanks to an intellectual renaissance in the 12th century.
There was an explosion of stone castle-building, and the construction of some of the most magnificent cathedrals in Europe.

An illustration of King Edgar, made in 966. Artist unknown.

The Late Middle Age.

The end of the Middle Ages can be characterized as a transformation from the medieval world to the early modern one.
Cataclysmic and awesome events of the 14th century include the Hundred Years War, the Black Death, the Avignon Papacy, the Italian Renaissance and the Peasants' Revolt. The 15th century saw Joan of Arc burned at the stake, the fall of Constantinople to the Turks, the Moors driven from Spain and the Jews expelled, the Wars of the Roses and the voyage of Columbus to the New World. The 16th century was wracked by the Reformation and blessed by the birth of Shakespeare. The 17th century, rarely included within the medieval era, saw the Great Fire of London, a rash of witch hunts, and the Thirty Years War.

Duccio di Buoninsegna, "Madonna and Child"

Evolution of Painting

Cave paintings have been attributed to the cave women, since they were gatherers, and stayed at the caves

Egypt.

Egypt shows the earliest forms of paintings as an art. Most of their paintings are religious; however, there is also representations of their daily life.

Greece and Rome.

Ancient greece had great painters, grat sculptors and great architects. Roman was an art that was influenced by Greece and can, in part, be taken as a descendant of ancient Greek paintings. However, Roman painting does have important unique characteristics.

Middle ages.

Byzantine art, by the 6th century, placed great emphasis on retaining traditional iconography and style, and has changed relatively little through the thousand years of the Byzantine Empire.
Medieval art was produced in many media, and the works that remains in large number include: sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, and mosaics.

 

Renaissance.

Is said to be, by many, the golden age of paintings. It lasted from the 14th to the 17th century.

some famous artists from Italy are, Tintoretto, Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarrotti, and Raphael. They took paintings to a higher level new to man.
On this time it was also the time when they used the perspective, and they started to study the human anatomy and proportion.