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Vincent Van Gogh: Brothers
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Young Vincent van Gogh visits a grave which bears his own name. The grave is that of a brother, who was still born. Both Vincents were born on exactly the same date, exactly one year apart.
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The central figure in Van Gogh's life was his brother Theo, who continually and selflessly provided financial support. Their lifelong friendship is documented in numerous letters they exchanged from August 1872 onwards. Van Gogh is a pioneer of what came to be known as Expressionism. He had an enormous influence on 20th century art, especially on the Fauves and German Expressionists.
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Vincent's sister, Elizabeth Van Gogh, described his demeanor as a child. He was "intensely serious and uncommunicative, and walked around clumsily and in a daze, with his head hung low." She continued by saying, "Not only were his little sisters and brothers (he was the oldest of 8) like strangers to him, but he was a stranger to himself."
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In 1886 van Gogh went to Paris to live with his brother, a paintings dealer, and became familiar with the new art movements developing at the time. Influenced by the work of the impressionists (see IMPRESSIONISM) and by the work of such Japanese printmakers as Hiroshige and Hokusai, van Gogh began to experiment with current techniques (see UKIYO-E). Subsequently, he adopted the brilliant hues found in the paintings of the French artists Camille Pissarro and Georges Seurat.
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In a letter to his brother, van Gogh described the scene as a symbol of relaxation and peace. Although the room appears to be bathed in sunshine, the very intense color palette, receding perspective, and inclusion of pictures tilting off the wall undermine the restful mood. Van Gogh’s dynamic, visible, and directional brush strokes make the objects in the room seem solid and almost sculptural.
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Van Gogh was a professional failure during his lifetime. Although enormously respected by fellow artists and exhibited in several shows, in his brief but dynamic ten-year career as an artist, he sold very few paintings to someone other than his brother. The public was almost entirely disinterested in the man who we now consider a genius–outside a small circle of artists, critics, friends, doctors, and family members, he was virtually unknown and unrecognized as anything other than a lonely and ridiculous madman, a failure at every enterprise he pursued so vigorously.
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