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By: Ikedi Ani-okoye.

About Van Gogh

When Van Gogh was young he used mostly water colors although finding a confirmed water color by Van Gogh is incredibly challenging. His youth was not dedicated to art, but his adult life was. Around 1880 Van Gogh made the decision to make art his life.

It took him a few years before others were seeking his work although some were disappointed with the results specifically his uncle. Regardless of this setback, Van Gogh continued with his art and practiced many styles. Some of those styles were criticized during that time period but today are considered masterpieces. These criticisms however are what turned Van Gogh onto oil paintings.

Van Gogh and his Brother

In 1886 Van Gogh joined his brother Theo in Paris, with whom he had maintained a steady correspondence throughout his earlier life. It was here that he seriously committed himself to art, and studied at the studio of Fernand Cormon, and encountered Impressionistic artists such as Gaugin, Monet, and Pissarro.

Van Goghs personally style underwent a drastic change at this time, turning away from the darker palette of his earlier work such as The Potato Eaters. Instead, he began to employ the short, thick brushstrokes, and bright, vivid colors for which he is most well known today. It was only then, in the last four years of his life, that he created the majority of his body of work, over 200 paintings.

Van Goghs Famous words

"I should like to do portraits which will appear as revelations to people in a hundred years' time."

Vincent Van Gogh penned those words in 1890, more than a century ago, in a letter to his sister. This artist has indeed captured the souls of seekers of truth and beauty during our time, and, though he was not recognized during his lifetime, Van Gogh is without a doubt an artistic immortal.

Van Gogh's room

"In a word, looking at the picture ought to rest the brain, or rather the imagination."

Van Gogh's "Bedroom at Arles," painted in 1889, was intended to be symbolic of restful peace. A glance at this painting, buzzing with energy and filled with oddities, gives the viewer just the opposite sensation.

The room, though pleasant, all but reels with movement. Whether consciously or not, van Gogh painted the perspective, walls and decorations all atilt, so that we get the impression of a ship's cabin in a stormy sea. Strangely, the two chairs both face toward the bulky wooden bed, and the furniture blocks the two lilac doors. Paintings on the wall jut into the room as if almost ready to fall off, and the walls themselves are not square.

CONCLUSION

Though largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Van Gogh believed himself to be a true artist. His 37 years on this planet were not easy nor pleasant, being full of depressive and violent episodes. But if his body of self-portraits tell us anything, it is that he knew, loved and accepted himself as much as the beloved friends and peasants he depicted with so much care and compassion.