Vincent Van Gogh

Born at Groot-Zundert, the Dutch Painter was influenced by the Hague school and English illustrator artists. Anton Mauve encouraged him to paint his first water colours and oils He painted farmer subjects and landscapes in sombre earthy colours.

In 1886 he moved to Paris to join his brother Theo and entered the Atlier Cormon, where he met Toulouse Lautrec and Bernard. Japanese prints, Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism where his main influences.

He achieved his full mature style when he moved to Arles. In December of the same year, he was joined by Gauguin, but violence between them led to his first mental breakdown, and to Gauguin’s departure. Shortly after, he was admitted to the Asylum of St Remy, where violent attacks, followed long periods of lucidity.

In May of 1890 he was under the care of Dr Gachet, at the Auvers-Sur-Oise, where he committed suicide two months later.

Thatched Roofs

1884

This depicts a group of cottages at Neunen in Brabant. The cottages are similar to a group that appear in an oil painting known as 'Village at Sunset'. Van Gogh mentioned this and two other drawings in a letter to a friend, the painter van Rappard, as an example of his recent work. Of one of them, he said, 'I had to do it roughly and quickly for the time was rather short for catching the right effect of light and shade, and the tone of the scene, and Nature as it was at that very moment.' The wintry scene of this drawing relates it to a similar drawing described to van Rappard in a letter of March 1884.

A Corner of the Garden of St Paul's Hospital

 at St Rémy – 1889

There is no mention of this drawing in van Gogh's letters. Its very twisted, writhing forms suggest that it was made at the time van Gogh was staying at the Hôpital St Paul at St Rémy. It appears to be a view of the hospital garden itself. The irises in bloom in the bottom left-hand corner suggest it was made in the early summer. Van Gogh was at St Rémy from 8 May 1889 to 16 May 1890, which suggest this was probably drawn in about June 1889.

Farms near Auvers 1890

A view at Auvers-sur-Oise, a small town just north of Paris. Van Gogh spent the last few months of his life there, from mid-May 1890, when he left an asylum, to his death on 29 July. At the beginning of June, Van Gogh wrote to his sister: 'there are some roofs of mossy thatch here which are superb and of which I shall certainly make something'. This picture, which is unfinished, was probably begun soon afterwards. Painted direct from the motif, it shows how Van Gogh transformed what he saw into something entirely personal, using a vigorous brushwork and curving outlines to express an unsettling vitality and energy.

Ronald Alley. 2014. Artist Biography Vincent Van Gogh. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/vincent-van-gogh-1182 [Accessed 26 May 14].