Discover interesting facts from the life of the famous painter, what he did before painting, in what unusual place he gave birth to some of his best works, as well as which woman played a key role in promoting van Gogh's works after his death.
Although unknown and poor during his lifetime, Vincent van Gogh actually had a strong influence on twentieth-century art. He was one of the three greatest painters of post-impressionism, but his works gained the deserved fame only after van Gogh's death.
1. BEFORE PAINTING, HE TRIED HIM IN MANY JOBS
Before he became a world-famous painter (although fame came only after his death), Vincent van Gogh did several jobs.
He worked as an intern in an art trade in The Hague, in companies in London and Paris, as a school teacher in England, and then in a bookstore in the Netherlands. He even worked as a preacher in a religious organization.
2. HIS CAREER WAS RELATIVELY SHORT
When his attempt to become a preacher failed, Van Gogh, who sketched local miners and peasants while living in Belgium, decided to focus on art from 1880 onwards. He was a self-taught painter, who from that moment devoted himself to drawing and painting, and his greatest support (financial and emotional) was his younger brother Theo.
When he went to Paris in 1886 to live with Theo, he saw a lot of impressionist and neo-impressionist works and began to use lighter, stronger colors and to experiment with stroke techniques. This year was crucial in his career.
During his last two years of life, he made the best works, but in his ten-year career, he sold only one of 850 paintings and close to 1,300 drawings he made in his life.
However, in 1990, his Portrait of Dr. Gacheta was sold at auction for a record 82.5 million dollars, which remained as one of the highest prices for one painting ever.
3. HE DID NOT MARRIAGE OR HAVE CHILDREN
Van Gogh was unhappy in love. In the early 1880s, he fell in love with his cousin, the widow Kee Vos-Stricker, who rejected him. His next choice was a former prostitute who served him as a model for Sien Hoornik, but as his family did not approve of this relationship, it soon ended. He later had an affair with an older neighbor, Margot Begemann, who tried to kill herself because her family did not accept van Gogh. He made his last relationship in Paris with art model and cafe owner Agostina Segatori, but that relationship ended quickly.
4. THE MOST FAMOUS WORKS PAINTED IN THE HOSPITAL FOR THE MENTALLY ILL
In May 1889, van Gogh went to an institution for the mentally ill in San Remio, France. Although the artist had been diagnosed with epilepsy by then, researchers have since suggested alternative diagnoses, including bipolar disorder, alcoholism and metabolic disorder, acute intermittent porphyria.
During his stay in a psychiatric hospital, van Gogh painted more than 100 paintings, some of which, such as Starry Night (exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York) and Iris (sold in 1987 for a then-record $ 53.9 million), were classified as his best works.
5. A WOMAN WHO HAD A GREAT ROLE IN CREATING THE POSTHUMN GLORY OF PAINTER
In January 1891, six months after van Gogh's death, his brother Theo also died. His widow, Joe van Gogh-Bonger, inherited a large collection of Vincent's paintings, drawings and letters. Since then, she has carried out her mission of promoting van Gogh's work, mostly borrowing paintings for various exhibitions. In order to tell his life story, she published a collection of his letters in 1914, and in the same year she transferred the remains of her husband to France, where his brother was also buried.
After Joe died, her son Vincent William van Gogh inherited his uncle's work and founded the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 1973.
Vincent van Gogh is one of the most influential and famous Dutch painters after Rembrandt, although he was poor and unknown during his lifetime.