Artist Profile: Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 to Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Cornelius Carbentus, in Groot-Zundert, a predominantly Catholic providence in the southern Netherlands. He was the oldest surviving child of theirs, as there had been a child stillborn a year previous, who had also been named Vincent. He had some younger siblings, though, named Theo, Cor, Elisabeth, Anna, and Willemina, or "Wil." His father worked as a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church. As there are no reports of what Anna did for a living, I assume she was a stay at home mother, taking care of the van Gogh children.
Vincent had a lot of schooling throughout as his childhood. He attended a small school from 1860 where a single teacher taught about 200 students. From 1861, he and his sister, Anna, were taught at their home by a governess. On October 1, 1864, he was put into Jan Provily's boarding school. From September of 1866 he then attended Willem II College. He began taking an interest in drawing, and his work was reported to be well-done and expressive, but don't near the greatness of his later work. In March of 1868 he suddenly returned home.
From there, one of his uncles helped him to get employed with the art dealers Goupil & Cie, afterwards Goupil transferred him to London. He was happy living there, it's said, and he earned more than his father did. Vincent fell in love with the landlady's daughter, Eugenie Loyer, but she rejected him, saying that she was already secretly engaged with a former tenant. After this, he grew to become more isolated than before, and more religious as well. An agreement for his transfer to Paris was arranged, but he grew resentful of how he was treated, and his employment was terminated on April 1, 1876.
Meanwhile, in some other places in the world, the US Civil War was happening, as well as the end of slavery in the United States. Canada received their independence from Britain, and both Canada and the US built trans-continental railroads. The British Empire had also reached its peak under Queen Victoria, and Charles Darwin had revolutionized biology with his theories of evolution.
Vincent went through many struggles throughout his short lifetime leading up to his supposed suicide. He didn't realize he was going to be an artist for the longest time, as he returned from England to take unpaid work as a supply teacher in a small boarding school. He left soon after to become a Methodist minister's assistance. That didn't seem to work out too well, as on Christmas, he returned home and took up work for six months at a bookshop. He spent a lot of time there either doodling or translating Bibles into different languages, hinting he could read English, French, and German. An interesting fact learned from this time period from a roommate was that he ate very frugally and didn't like to eat meat, implying that he was most likely a vegetarian.
To try to make him happy, his family sent him to Amsterdam to study theology in May of of 1877. He stayed with his uncle Jan van Gogh, and studied for his entrance exam with his other uncle Johannes Stricker. After Vincent failed his entrance exam, he tried to take a three-month course at Vlaamsche Opleidingsschool, a Protestant missionary school, but failed this as well. Having to find work, he became a temporary missionary at Petit Wasmes. He seemed even more miserable there, as he gave his comfortable lodgings at a bakery to one of the homeless in his congregation, and took up housing in a small hut where he slept on only straw. He began to whither, neglecting to take care of himself or his personal hygiene, and looked even more filthy when he rubbed coal dust on his face. The baker's wife reported that she could hear him crying at night. He was soon dismissed by the church officials for "undermining the dignity of priesthood." After much pressure from his family to return home to Etten, he did so, and stayed there until March 1880, which brought concern to his parents. He argued with his father, and his father inquired about having him admitted to a lunatic asylum.
Soon, his brother Theo pressured him to go to a formal art school, though Vincent had a strong aversion to these type of schools. After Vincent's parents moved to the Etten countryside, he would take long walks with the recently widowed Kee Vos-Stricker, a cousin. He proposed to her, but she refused him. That November, he wrote a strongly worded letter to Johannes, the mother of Kee, but she refused to meet him and her parents were disgusted by his persistence. He then held his hand in the flame of a lamp to see how long he could manage the pain, but he doesn't recall much about the event and draws the conclusion that his uncle blew out the candle. Johannes further insisted the point that Vincent and Kee were not to be married for Vincent's inability to support himself, let alone a wife. Due to his perception of his uncle and former tutor's hypocrisy, he gave up his religious faith forever. He refused to attend church on Christmas day, and left home for The Hague that day.
Once at The Hague, he visited a cousin-in-law Anton Mauve, who introduced him to oil painting and watercolors, and even gave him money to set up a studio. The two soon had a falling out, but another uncle of Vincent's commissioned 12 ink drawings of the city from Vincent, which he completed soon after arriving there, and seven other drawings in May. Apparently Vincent kept in contact with Mauve after they fell out, but he grew cold towards Vincent after he supposedly learned of his new domestic arrangement with an alcoholic prostitute named Clasina Maria "Sien" Hoornik, and her younger daughter. He had met her near the end of January, when her daughter was five-years-old and was also pregnant. On July 2, she gave birth to a boy named Willem.
Once Vincent's father learned the details of this relationship, and pressured him to end it. At first, Vincent defied it, but then left her in late 1883, which put pressure on Sien to go back into prostitution.
After a series of unfortunate events with Sien, Vincent began to emerge and bloom more as an artist.
In Nuenen, where his parents had recently moved to again, he devoted himself to his artwork. In the late 1884, he met Margot Begemann, the daughter of a neighbor and who was also 10 years older than him. She fell in love with him, and he did too, but less enthusiastically. They decided to get married, but the marriage was opposed by both families. Margot then tried to overdose on strychnine, but was saved after Vincent rushed her to a hospital.
Soon afterwards, an interest had sparked in Paris for his artwork, and he began to work on more paintings. He moved from place to place and used people and scenes to inspire new pieces, and also adapted other palettes from other artists.
The removal of his ear occurred when he discovered a friend was planning on leaving, and attacked this friend with a razor, but the attack was uncorroborated. That night, Vincent removed his left ear, either as one piece or in many, and induced a severe hemorrhage. He delivered the ear to a prostitute named Rachel, who visited both him and his friend frequently. He then was taken to Roulin and collapsed there and would have bled out if he wasn't found by the police and taken to the hospital. The friend, Gauguin, has a different version. He said the ear was left with the doorman for him as a memento. Vincent didn't remember a thing, as he suffered an acute psychotic episode.
After many more tragic events and later to be paintings, Vincent died on July 27, 1890, only 37 years old. He shot himself in the chest with a revolver, but the gun was never found. The bullet didn't kill him immediately, and was deflected by a rib and passed through without doing much damage to his internal organs. It was stopped by his spine, and was unable to walk to the nearest hospital. The doctors there were unable to operate to remove the bullet, so they tended to him as best as they could before leaving the room. Theo rushed to his brother's bedside as soon as he was notified, and found him in decent health. Vincent began to die soon of the infection, though, and finally took his last breath 29 hours later. According to his brother, his last words were, "The sadness will last forever."
The period of time that Vincent is associated with the Post-Impressionism movement, and three of his most famous artworks are Starry Night, Sunflowers, and Bedroom in Arles. Two pieces by this artist that I like are Starry Night, which is a lovely painting from the point of view from a hillside, with a large tree really close, and a town just down the hillside with what appears to be chapel the most prominent building. Above are stars and a large glowing crescent moon. He also painted in what looks like wind or just other colors in the sky. Another painting I like by van Gogh is Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette because I think it's ironic. It is the portrait of a skeleton with a burning cigarette dangling between its teeth.