On March 30, 1853 Vincent Willem van Gogh was born the eldest son of the
Reverend Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Cornelia Carbentus in Brabant Zundert.
He had two brothers and three sisters: Anna Cornelia (Anna) (1855-1930),
Elizabeth Huberta (Lies) (1859-1936), Theodore (Theo) (1857-1891), Willemien
Jacoba (Wil) (1862-1941) Vincent and Cornelis (Cor) (1867-1900).
After a fragmentary education, he became in 1869 clerk of the Hague branch
of French art and print trade Goupil & Cie, of which his uncle Vincent van
Gogh (1820-1888) was a co-partner. There he developed his knowledge of the fine arts.
In 1876 he was dismissed and he was trying to earn as a teacher and preacher
in the English Ramsgate (1876) and later as an assistant in a bookshop in
Dordrecht (1877). Vain costs after this last failure, Van Gogh, like his
father, decided to study theology in Amsterdam, but even before the exam
he would quit. His subsequent appointment as evangelist of poor miners in the
Belgian Borinage (1879) was also unsuccessful. Van Gogh was desperate.
Eventually advised his brother Theo, who had since 1873 also at Goupil
employed him to become an artist.
Van Gogh made himself the principles of drawing their own through self-study
and copying examples. After he had established in early 1881 with his
parents in Etten (Noord-Brabant), he was inspired by the countryside and
the local peasantry, the example of the painter Jean-François Millet (1814-1875).
Late 1881, Van Gogh moved to The Hague, where he took drawing and painting lessons
from Anton Mauve (1838-1888), member of the Hague School. Since Van Gogh came to
the realization that he wanted to leave him, in imitation of Millet, as peasant to
develop town
After the break with Sien Hoornik (1850-1904), a former prostitute with whom he
had lived since 1882, he moved to the end of 1883 Drenthe. There he studied for
three months the landscape and rural life. During his stay in Nuenen (1883-1885)
continued this his favorite themes. He wrote a lot about his ideas with fellow
painter Anthon van Rappard (1858-1892).
Painting became his main goal. Besides making studies, he also tried to complete
the plan to sell them. Fully fledged paintings The Potato Eaters (1885) this is
the first tangible result.
In 1885, Van Gogh moved to Antwerp, where he took lessons briefly at the academy.
But the traditional teaching methods angered him as fast. In late February 1886,
he moved to Paris where he moved in with Theo who supported him financially
since 1881. Here he came into contact with Impressionism. A short period he worked
in the studio of Fernand Cormon where he met with contemporary artists such as
Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Emile Bernard.
Starting in 1888, Van Gogh fled the busy city life and moved to Arles in
southern France. He had grown into a mature artist with your own style of
painting. Theo Van Gogh supported morally and financially. In return, he was
sent to Van Gogh's work, because they were both convinced that they could contribute
to modern art.
It was a big dream of Van Gogh to form a community of artists in the South
the Studio of the South, with Paul Gauguin (1849-1903) as a guide. In October
1888 Gauguin moved in with him in the Yellow House in Arles. The fellow artists
painted together and discuss art but soon caused tensions between the pair. In
the confused state Van Gogh cut with a razor his left earlobe. As a result, he
spent some time in the hospital in Arles.
After that failed, the Van Gogh to get his life back in order and he was in April
1889 voluntarily to a psychiatric clinic in the nearby Saint-Rémy.
In May 1890, he left the facility and settled in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris.
Here he painted again at a feverish pace, the countryside and rural life.
On July 27, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest, in a field near the village.
Two days later he died in the presence of Theo.