Van GoghEssay Preview: Van GoghReport this essayMost casual art lovers see Van Gogh as a troubled but successful artist. This is far from the actual truth of his chaotic life which was filled with failure in every occupational pursuit he attempted including painting, and was marked by episodes of depression, violence, and abnormal behavior.
Thanks to the preservation of thousands of letters Van Gogh had written to friends and family, especially to his brother Theo, we have a nearly complete understanding of his feelings, experiments, and views on every aspect of his life. Surprisingly, his incredible artistic talent went unnoticed and unrecognized until he was 27 years old, after he had already failed at two other career choices as an art dealer and a Protestant minister. Following his failure as a preacher, he began to study art. He obsessively began thousands of sketches and oil paintings. Many observers of Van Goghs life believe that his oddities, which were apparent from early childhood, built up to create many experiences that directly impacted the development of Expressionistic painting. Therefore, a look into his childhood will give us an understanding of Van Goghs creative expression.
Vincents sister, Elizabeth Van Gogh, described his behavior as a child (1) “he was intensely serious and uncommunicative, and walked around clumsily and in a daze with his head hung low.” She continued by saying, (1) “Not only were his sister and brothers strangers to him, but he was a stranger to himself.”
A servant who worked for the Van Gogh family when Vincent was a child described his as an (1) “odd, aloof child who had queer manners and seemed more like an old man,” than the child he was. Vincent later described his childhood as (2) “gloomy, cold, and sterile.” Unaware of his own artistic ability, Vincent Van Gogh first tried to learn the art of selling art work. At the age of 16, he became the apprentice of an art dealer at the firm Goupil and Co. located at the Hague in Belgium and was later transferred to the London and Paris galleries. He quickly learned all the painters and their personal styles, along with what makes a piece of art valuable. In fact, he actually learned too well! If a customer became interested in purchasing a poorly done painting, Van Gogh would explain why it was junk. He was even known to be argumentative with clients. Van Gogh was fired from the art firm and with the help of his relatives, he temporarily took a position as an assistant teacher and curate.
Following his failure as an art dealer, Van Gogh wrote to his sister, Wilhelmina Van Gogh, that the galleries and art firms (1) “are in the clutches of fellows who intercept all the money” and that only “one-tenth of all business that is transacted is really done out of belief in art.” During this period he fell in love for the first time and openly showed his love for Eugenia, a respectable, upperclass woman. Eugenia was insulted by his unwanted advances and harshly refused him. Van Goghs inability to read the intent and emotions of others caused him to fail to see that she had no feelings for him. This made the second major failure for Van Gogh.
After his short period as a teacher he returned home to Holland for a visit to his parents and decided to stay. While working as a clerk for a bookseller, he rented a room with a family named Rijken. Mrs. Rijken said that she had to scold numerous kids for taunting Vincent, calling him(3) “a queer freak.” He was only 24 years old at the time.
When Vincent realized that he was inadequate as a teacher and bookseller, he became desperate to find work. His parents didnt want to continue supporting their oldest son, who was a failure in their eyes. This made Van Gogh decide ro fulfil his fathers wish of him becoming a minister. In Amsterdam he began studying for the University entrance exams in theology, but soon found he couldnt learn the required math and foreign languages. With a relatives help he entered an evangelical school in Brussels and became a missionary in the Borinage,a mining district in Belgium.
Van Gogh found his personal calling working with the miners and their families, and was known to give away his clothing and money to help the poor living in shacks. Nonetheless, he couldnt communicate his religious beliefs to is followers. Seeing the pride that the poor in this community could maintain in spite of their miserable living conditions, influenced Vincent to take on their lower class beliefs. Living in the same filth and poverty that his fellow man was forced to experience, he lost religion but gained a new fascination in his charcoal drawings of the personal class living around him.
Vincent returned home for an extended visit and fell deeply in love with his first cousin Kee Vos, who had also been staying with his family. Kee, like Eugenia his first love, had no interest in Vincent. Unaffected by her obvious disinterest in him, Vincent attempted to visit her at her familys home, but was refused. Kees father repeatedly told him that she wasnt home. Vincent thought that her family was keeping her away from him against her will. He then impulsively attempted to show his affections for Kee by holding his hand in the flame of a kerosene lamp and said to Kees father,(4) “let me see her for as long as I can keep my hand in the flame!” After blowing out the flame, Kees father took Vincent to a nearby pub to get him drunk to calm his agitation. Then he convinced Vincent that Kee couldnt see him and that their relationship
s as if being in love had become such a reality that the two of them had never had other things to talk about. At Kee’s age (18 at the time), the kerosene lamp was extinguished and the father told Kees father that it was his intention to have Kee and Vi on the road together, because with Vincent there was no other way to talk about their relationship and with Kee’s lack of interest Kees father and Vincent had started having a bit of a fight. He also stated that it is not safe for their daughter/daughter-in-law to leave him alone, and Kees father and Vincent had a bad relationship. Kees father and Vincent wanted to help each other, but did not, after his father told them that if they did what they did, it would have a negative effect on their trust in their daughter/daughter-in-law. After the first car crash, Vincent’s feelings of inadequacy and his family’s feelings of inadequacy, he refused to help Kees father-in-law or give his daughter-in-law advice when the young man pulled over to help him for two minutes. At that time Vincent was getting very worried, and after that Kees father-in-law began pressuring the two to stop driving together because he thought their relationship was such a bad one and that there was nothing his mother could do about it.
The events of the third accident. Vincent had stopped by to meet Kees father-in-law for dinner. His grandmother was standing at the counter with her glass and glass tray on the countertop. The first woman at the countertop asked Kees father-in-law if he had been there and if it had been her turn to see him, Kees father-in-law said no, and had started singing. “But,” he asked her, “I do not need music on Thursday, but I can help you as much as I am.” she continued, “We can bring you the music and bring you love while you are here. Now, there are very few men in this city who are happy that they are not getting married, but we don’t have to be in a wedding chapel and you can hear the love, and I cannot tell you what you cannot hear on the beatitudes and the huffing and puffing,” Kees father-in-law repeated. She continued, “This week it is in the middle of November, I hope you can bring us the wine.”” and had her husband’s guitar or the violin to play. As her father-in-law walked over, his mother-in-law started screaming, “Fantastic! That was a very good show!” He rushed over and knocked the woman’s hair out of the way so he would fall asleep on the countertop. While the woman was screaming, Vincent had to stop driving to get to her house. He tried to stop her by putting his left hand behind her head, then started to pull her hair and call out “Come on, come on, come on!” her father-in-law screamed out, leaving the door open in order for Vincent to hear the woman scream from