ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Post - Impressionism and Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh

Updated on June 20, 2012
Starry Night painted by Vincent van Gogh
Starry Night painted by Vincent van Gogh | Source
Self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh  1887
Self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh 1887 | Source
Self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh  1889
Self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh 1889 | Source

Post - Impressionism / Vincent van Gogh

Post - Impressionism, I believe, is best illustrated through the beautiful and haunting works of Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh. I am sure you know about this painter as, yes, he is the one who cut off his left ear. However, it is believed today that he only cut off the lower part of his left earlobe. That is bad enough, though I digress. You probably also know he suffered from dibilitating anxiety and mental illness that plagued him all his life and did affect his painting. But, for all that emotional pain and torment that he experienced, some of the most original, creative and beautiful paintings were the result of Vincent van Gogh's life.

Post - Impressionism

This time period in art obviously followed the Impressionism movement in European art, especially in Paris, France. The term was introduced by art critic Roger Fry in 1910 when he organized an exhibition in London, England, called Manet and the Post-Impressionists. The term describes the development of French art since Manet and it extended Impressionism while at the same time rejecting its limitations.

The Post - Impressionists continued using vivid, bold colors, the thick application of paint, distinctive brush strokes and real-life subject matter. However, now, their paintings emphasized geometric forms and the distortion of the form for expressive effect and the use of unnatural or arbitrary color in the paintings. This naturally led to Cubism and the paintings of Picasso and Braque later on in the 20th century.

Post - Impressionism states the historical manner of French art between 1886 - 1914 and the beginning of WWI. These painters, van Gogh among them, were dissatisfied with the trivality of the subject matter and loss of structure in Impressionist paintings, but the post-impressionists never agreed on a way forward. They stated their position in time - after the Impressionists - but these painters never came together as a cohesive group as the Impressionists had done. The Post-Impressionists' paintings, therefore, were highly individualistic but all were interested in the play of light on their canvasses.

Vincent van Gogh

van Gogh was a Dutch Post - Impressionist painter whose work showed rough beauty, emotional honesty and bold color as seen from the examples here. He had a short life, dying at the age of thirty-seven after years of frequent bouts of mental illness. Although, he did show his work in exhibitions, his work was not well-known when he lived or even immediately after he died. His works are known for the great contribution and far-reaching influence they made on 20th century art.

Vincent drew as a child and continued to draw throughout the years, but did not begin painting seriously until his late 20's. He completed his best known works in the last two years of his life. In just over ten years his work included self-portraits, landscapes, still lifes of flowers, portraits and paintings of cypresses, wheat fields and sunflowers.

It is when he moved to Paris, France in 1886, that he discovered the French Impressionists. Until this time, his paintings had been dark and full of earth tones and shades. When he saw the Impressionist's paintings in Paris, his paintings grew brighter in color and he developed a unique and highly recognizable style. While in Paris he became interested in Japanese woodblock prints and collected a few of these as well as trying his own hand at them. For a while he also tried the elements of pointillism - the technique of a multitude of small colored dots which are applied on the canvas, that when seen from a distance, create a blend of hues to the eye - but then he settled on this own unique style and brushwork. He later moved to the south of France and he was highly affected by the strong sunlight he found there.

During his stay in Arles, France in 1888, he fully realized his unique and creative style. He was enchanted with the local landscape and light. His paintings from this period are painted in yellow, ultramarine and mauve, and grew in intensity of color. It is here that he met and befriended Paul Gauguin but their friendship was a contentious one. Although they painted together, they also fought over painting styles, application of color, and brush strokes. Gauguin, also, is a Post - Impressionist painter, but much different from van Gogh.

What we know about van Gogh today comes from a primary source, a collection of letters between him and his younger brother, Theo, an art dealer. Theo provided Vincent with both financial and emotional support during his short life. Their lifelong friendship and what we know today of van Gogh's thoughts and theories of art are in these letters.

Today, critics see an artist deeply frustrated by the inactivity and incoherence brought about by his bouts of mental illness. But, art critic, Robert Hughes said van Gogh's late works show an artist at the height of his ability, completely in control and "longing for concision and grace." Today, van Gogh's paintings are seen as exquisite art and his paintings are sold for millions of dollars at art auctions.

Tragically, during a recent bout with mental illness, van Gogh died of a gunshot wound to the chest, today, believed to have been self-inflicted, although interestingly, the gun was never found. Although his death undoubtly brought him peace, van Gogh never realized how great his paintings were or that they would be considered priceless today.

What I absolutely love about van Gogh's paintings are the large, heavy brushstrokes. The bold colors are enchanting to me, and the play of light on these paintings is amazing. When I look at his paintings, I feel a strong, bold artist coming through who knows what he is doing. His paintings never come across to me as weak or simple. I believe van Gogh was misunderstood during his life and his art certainly was not appreciated then. His paintings are always eye catching for me and the blend of colors and the swirling brushstrokes, I think, are genius. Below are some of his paintings.

Still Life:  Vase with Twelve Sunflowers  1888
Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers 1888 | Source
View of Arles with Irises   1889
View of Arles with Irises 1889 | Source
Road with Cypress and Star   1890
Road with Cypress and Star 1890 | Source
Olive Trees  1889
Olive Trees 1889 | Source
The Sower  1888
The Sower 1888 | Source
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)