A History of Rolex Watches
Hans Wilsdorf founded the company we now know as Rolex in 1905. Born in Kulmbach, Germany in 1881, the company, Wilsdorf & Davies, was based in London. By 1908 it had become one of the leading watch companies in the UK. It was in this year that he coined the name Rolex.
Official Chronometer Certification was awarded to Rolex in 1910 from the “Bureau Officiel” in Switzerland, the first time this had ever been given to a wristwatch. This was to be the first of many accolades awarded to the watch, including the Class A Precision from the Kew Observatory in 1914.
In 1926 the Rolex Oyster was released. It was the first wristwatch to be considered waterproof, proven a year later when the watch was worn by the swimmer Mercedes Gleitze in his successful bid to cross the English Channel. This was beneficial to Wilsdorf whom had sponsored the event and gained considerable exposure for his new Oyster Watch. Wilsdorf recognised the importance of advertising and marketing his creation in order to gain publicity and prestige.
1931 saw the creation of the Perpetual Rotor, a mechanism now seen as the basis for self-winding movements. In the following years Rolex released the first Oyster Perpetual Ladydate (1954) the GMT Master with dual time zone function (1955) and the first Day-Date (1956).
Andre Heiniger took over the company following the death of Hans Wildorf on 06 July 1960. Rolex continued to invent and innovate in terms of technical skill and style throughout the 2nd half of the century. The Sea-dweller (1967) was certified as reaching depths of up to 1,220 metres making it the choice for Professional Divers - a point that was quickly adopted in advertising the model. The Explorer II (1978) and Cosmograph Daytona (1988) were also released to international waiting lists securing Rolex as one of the worlds most prestigious watch brands.
A History of Tag Watches
Edouard Heuer founded his workshop in 1860. His aim was to take time measurement more precise. The company has always been known for as the “avant-garde of watchmaking”, in terms of technology, the choice of materials or design. Heuer’s watches have been patented for a chronograph mechanism first in 1882 onto the 1998 launch of the Kirium Ti5 in grade 5 titanium and carbon fiber; from the first chronograph measuring 100ths of a second (1916) to the first analog display quartz chronograph (1983), not forgetting the first automatic chronograph with a microrotor (1969).
Heuer’s continusing presence within the watchmaking world secured his place in history. This mastery is reflected in the impressive number of patents making TAG Heuer one of the key references in Swiss Made watch-making know-how. For 142 years, the company has confirmed its initial vocation: producing watches that constantly push back the frontiers of precision, reliability and aesthetics. That is why the TAG Heuer philosophy is symbolized by the slogan “Swiss Avant-Garde since 1860”.
A History of Audemars Piguet Watches
In 1875, Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet joined forces to produce watches with complex mechanisms. Based in La Brassus in the heart of Vallée de Joux in the Swiss Jura region, Audemars Piguet has been creating and marketing under its own name a range of Haute Horlogerie watches.
In 1972 Audemars Piguet launched the worlds first high end sports watch in stainless steel – The Royal Oak. The watch launched at the Basel watch fair was a radical departure from the current watch trends. The unique octagonal bezel was a revolutionary shape in watchmaking.
Arguably among the finest luxury watch manufacturers in the world, Audemars Piguet boasts a history that is rich with tradition. One of only a handful of watch companies that produces and assembles its own movements and complete timepieces.
A History of Cartier Watches
Cartier was founded in 1847 by Louis-Francois Cartier and was the "Master jeweller" to Europe’s Crowned Heads of State. The first Cartier wristwatch, The Santos, was released in 1904 followed by Jewelled watches in 1906.
Although known for jewellery, Cartier created the Deployment Folding Clasp in 1910, which is now used by numerous watch houses across the Globe. In 1917 the Cartier Tank Francaise was introduced, a model which is today considered a classic example of style and design.
Most contemporary Cartier watches (and jewellery) are based upon the distinctive designs of founder Louis-Francois Cartier.
A History of Breitling Watches
1884 - In St. Imier, in the Jura mountains of Switzerland, Leon Breitling opens a workshop specialising in making chronographs and precision counters for scientific and industrial purposes. In 1914 Leon Breitling dies and the company is passed over to his son Gaston, a year later Gaston creates the first wristwatch chronograph and subsequently provides pilots with the first wrist instruments. By 1923 Breitling had developed the first ever independent chronograph pushpiece.
Gastons son, Willy Breitling takes over control of the company in 1932 and in 1936 Breitling becomes the official supplier to the Royal Air Force. The Chronomat is introduced in 1942 - the first chronograph to be fitted with a circular slide rule. The company also widens its professional clientele to include the American armed forces. 1954 saw the creation of the Navitimer, a wrist instrument equipped with the famous navigation computer. This super chronograph becomes a firm favourite among the pilots across the globe. By this stage, Breitling is already supplying the major international airlines with cockpit clocks. In 1962, Astronaut Scott Carpenter wears the Cosmonaught chronograph during his orbital fligh aboard the Aurora 7 space capsule.
1969 saw Breitling introduce the first ever self winding chronograph. This technical feat represents a major breakthrough for the entire swiss watch industry. 1979 saw the takeover of Breitling from the founders grandson Willy. Ernest Schneider takes the helm. in 1984 The Chronomat is launched and marks the return of the chronograph. It becomes the best selling line in the Breitling collection, a position it has held ever since. Soon afterwards in 1985, the Breitling Aerospace is launched.
Today, Breitling is still established in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the town where Leon Breitling opened his first chronograph factory 110 years earlier.
A History of Omega Watches
Today, seven out of ten people throughout the world are familiar with the OMEGA watch brand - a truly amazing rate of awareness to which few other watch brands can lay claim. The reason behind this success is said to be the reliably fine quality of every OMEGA watch. From its modest beginnings in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1848 the assembly workshop created by 23-year-old Louis Brandt gradually gained renown. Louis Brandt assembled key-wound precision pocket watches from parts supplied by local craftsmen. After Louis Brandt's death in 1879, his two sons Louis-Paul and Cesar took over control of the business.
Louis-Paul and César Brandt both died in 1903, leaving one of Switzerland's largest watch companies - with 240,000 watches produced annually and employing 800 people - in the hands of four young people, the oldest of whom was Paul-Emile Brandt. The economic difficulties brought on by the First World War would lead him to work actively from 1925 toward the union of OMEGA and Tissot then to their merger in 1930 within the group SSIH. By the seventies, SSIH had become Switzerland's no 1 producer of finished watches and no 3 in the world. The severe monetary crisis and recession of 1975 to 1980, SSIH was bailed out by the banks in 1981. In 1985 the holding company was taken over by a group of private investors. Immediately renamed SMH, Societe suisse de microelectronique et d'horlogerie, the new group achieved rapid growth and success to become today's top watch producer in the world. Named Swatch Group in 1998, it now includes Blancpain and Breguet. Dynamic and flourishing, OMEGA remains one of its most prestigious flagship brands.
1st March 1965 - OMEGA's Speedmaster chronograph was "flight-qualified by NASA for all manned space missions" as the only wristwatch to have withstood all of the U.S. space agency's severe tests. On 21 July 1969 - 02:56 GMT, the Speedmaster records man's first steps on the Moon's surface. The Speedmaster became the first watch (and the only watch since) to be worn on the Moon. With this unique accomplishment came a unique nickname: the Moon Watch. April 1970 - the OMEGA Speedmaster rescued the Apollo 13 mission from a potential disaster, earning OMEGA the "Snoopy Award".
1948 saw the advent of the Seamaster, Seamaster 300 in 1957, In 1981, the newly launched Seamaster 120 set a new world free dive record at a depth of 101 metres. The Seamaster is also famous for being the choice watch for James Bond.
A History of Patek Philippe Watches
During the Polish uprising in 1830, Norbert de Patek, a Polish refugee settled in Geneva preferring exile rather than facing prison. Geneva at that time was the capital of watchmaking and fine jewellery. Nine years later together with his friend and fellow-countryman, the gifted watchmaker François Czapek, they set about using their combined talents and founded the watch manufactory of Patek, Czapek & C°, with their headquarters in Geneva.
As the fashion of wearing a watch around the wrist was catching on, watchmakers began challenging the integration of various complications into their new timepieces. Patek Philippe’s first perpetual calendar wristwatch was produced in 1925. In addition to indicating the day, date and month, taking into account the number of days of each month (29, 30, 31) as well as the 29th of February in leap years, it displays the ages and phases of the moon. Patek Philippe’s general production launched the first bracelet chronographs either with or without a split-second mechanism and wristwatches with minute repeating.
A History of Franck Muller Watches
Born in La Chaux-de-Fronds in July 1958 to a Swiss father and Italian mother, Muller’s acumen for things mechanical was soon evident. As a young boy he regularly took apart anything mechanical. At the age of 15 he enrolled in the famous Ecole d’Horlogerie de Geneve.
Three years later Franck Muller graduated first in his class. During the 1970’s when the mechanical watch marker was dead due to the popularity of the quartz watch, Franck Muller spent his time restoring mechanical timepieces for collectors, museums and auction houses. He soon gained a reputation as a master restorer of antique timepieces.
A History of IWC Watches
In 1868, the American engineer and watchmaker, Florentine Ariosto Jones was director of F.Howard & Cie. In Boston, the America leading watchmaking company. He travelled across the Atlantic to Switzerland, where his plan was to found the International Watch Company with the aim to manufacture movements and watch parts for the American market. However he had failed to take into account that the workers in the Geneva region and the remote valleys of the Jura mountains feared for their jobs and were against Jones’ intrusion.
It was probably around this point that Jones met watch manufacturer and industrialist Johann Heinrich Moser who manufactured pocket watches for the Russian tsars. Moser was an industrial pioneer and had recently finished building a hydrostation in Schaffhausen powered by water from the Rhine. Moser showed a great interest in Jones’ plans and so the foundations were set for the first and only watch manufacturers in north-eastern Switzerland: the IWC INTERNATIONAL WATCH CO. in Schaffhausen.
A History of Jaeger LeCoultre Watches
In 1833, Antoine LeCoultre founded the little workshop which was to become the Manufacture Jaeger LeCoultre. Antoine was a self taught watchmaker and a brilliant inventor. He devoted his whole life to achieve total precision and reliability. His work made a lasting impression on the history of watchmaking.
In 1844 Antoine LeCoultre was the first person to measure a micron. Such was the perfection of his watchmaking components no tool could determine their level of inaccuracy. To push the boundaries even further he created the worlds most precise measuring instrument. The Millionometer served as the standard for more than half a century. It measured components to the nearest thousandth of a millimetre.
A History of Bell & Ross Watches
In 1992 a team of designers and specialists of aircraft and space controls joined with a set project to create watches perfectly suiting a professional use, to be part of the great Swiss watchmaking tradition while meeting the demands of men facing extreme situations. Nowadays astronauts, pilots, divers or bomb disposal experts use Bell & Ross watches as tools on their missions.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Austin Stevens
South African-born Austin James Stevens is fascinated by snakes and reptiles. It’s been that way since he was 12.
His life story is both diverse and full of adventure. As a young man, he served in the South African army during the war in Angola. His fellow soldiers gave him the nickname “Snakeman” because of his uncanny ability to track, identify, and remove venomous snakes. It was a skill the soldiers depended on frequently and that nearly cost Stevens his life when he was called in to remove a puff adder, a highly venomous snake, from a machine-gun trench.
The snake struck Stevens on the hand and he was rushed to the nearest hospital. The journey entailed a rough, 300-mile drive by jeep through enemy territory and a 1,000-mile flight aboard an army spotter plane that made an emergency landing in front of the Windhoek Hospital in Namibia. Stevens lay in a coma for five days before doctors were certain he would survive. They then struggled for three months to save his hand from amputation.
After his stint in the army, Stevens received a call from the director of the Transvaal Snake Park. He had heard about Stevens’ extraordinary abilities with snakes and offered him the position of curator of reptiles for a three-month trial period. Three months turned into six years, during which time Stevens received intensive training and became a full-fledged herpetologist.
Stevens’ duties at the park included reptile demonstrations, which became so popular that he was approached by Compass, a South African television program, to appear with live reptiles for a studio show. The program was a hit and led to several more shows.
Established as an experienced herpetologist, Stevens left Transvaal Snake Park, and, in 1981, started working at the Hartebeespoort Dam Snake and Animal Park, the largest privately owned park in Southern Africa. Here he learned about the husbandry of mammals as well and was introduced to the world of filmmaking — many of the park’s animals were trained to perform in feature films.
During this time Stevens set a Guinness World Record in 1986. He spent 107 days and nights in a glass cage with 36 of Africa’s deadliest snakes as a publicity stunt to stimulate public awareness about the plight of the African gorilla and to raise funds for their protection. On Day 96, Stevens was bitten by a cobra but refused to leave the cage and was treated on the spot. Very sick and on his last reserves of stamina, Stevens completed the 107 days, still an unbeaten world record.
Stevens spent the next year creating, designing, and eventually running the Nordharzer Schalangen Paradies Snake Park in Germany and wrote his first book, Snakes in My Bed, a humorous look at the extraordinary life and times of a herpetologist.
Returning to Africa, Stevens settled in Namibia, a desert country with a small population and an abundance of untamed wilderness. In Namibia, he began to seriously concentrate on wildlife photography and writing. To date, he has published more than 150 articles in magazines around the world, many featuring his own photography, and has won numerous photographic awards.
When Stevens was asked to assist in the making of a documentary about hyenas and lions in Botswana, he found himself instantly drawn to filmmaking. He bought a secondhand 16mm camera, and, with only very rudimentary knowledge of the process, he set about making a film about snakes. The film was released by NDR Television in Germany and was later nominated for an award at the Grenoble Film Awards Festival in France. Since then Stevens has been involved with numerous film projects about reptiles, wild dogs, elephants, vultures and most recently, a unique documentary about the life of a Namib Desert chameleon.
When he’s not traveling the world, Stevens lives in Namibia
His life story is both diverse and full of adventure. As a young man, he served in the South African army during the war in Angola. His fellow soldiers gave him the nickname “Snakeman” because of his uncanny ability to track, identify, and remove venomous snakes. It was a skill the soldiers depended on frequently and that nearly cost Stevens his life when he was called in to remove a puff adder, a highly venomous snake, from a machine-gun trench.
The snake struck Stevens on the hand and he was rushed to the nearest hospital. The journey entailed a rough, 300-mile drive by jeep through enemy territory and a 1,000-mile flight aboard an army spotter plane that made an emergency landing in front of the Windhoek Hospital in Namibia. Stevens lay in a coma for five days before doctors were certain he would survive. They then struggled for three months to save his hand from amputation.
After his stint in the army, Stevens received a call from the director of the Transvaal Snake Park. He had heard about Stevens’ extraordinary abilities with snakes and offered him the position of curator of reptiles for a three-month trial period. Three months turned into six years, during which time Stevens received intensive training and became a full-fledged herpetologist.
Stevens’ duties at the park included reptile demonstrations, which became so popular that he was approached by Compass, a South African television program, to appear with live reptiles for a studio show. The program was a hit and led to several more shows.
Established as an experienced herpetologist, Stevens left Transvaal Snake Park, and, in 1981, started working at the Hartebeespoort Dam Snake and Animal Park, the largest privately owned park in Southern Africa. Here he learned about the husbandry of mammals as well and was introduced to the world of filmmaking — many of the park’s animals were trained to perform in feature films.
During this time Stevens set a Guinness World Record in 1986. He spent 107 days and nights in a glass cage with 36 of Africa’s deadliest snakes as a publicity stunt to stimulate public awareness about the plight of the African gorilla and to raise funds for their protection. On Day 96, Stevens was bitten by a cobra but refused to leave the cage and was treated on the spot. Very sick and on his last reserves of stamina, Stevens completed the 107 days, still an unbeaten world record.
Stevens spent the next year creating, designing, and eventually running the Nordharzer Schalangen Paradies Snake Park in Germany and wrote his first book, Snakes in My Bed, a humorous look at the extraordinary life and times of a herpetologist.
Returning to Africa, Stevens settled in Namibia, a desert country with a small population and an abundance of untamed wilderness. In Namibia, he began to seriously concentrate on wildlife photography and writing. To date, he has published more than 150 articles in magazines around the world, many featuring his own photography, and has won numerous photographic awards.
When Stevens was asked to assist in the making of a documentary about hyenas and lions in Botswana, he found himself instantly drawn to filmmaking. He bought a secondhand 16mm camera, and, with only very rudimentary knowledge of the process, he set about making a film about snakes. The film was released by NDR Television in Germany and was later nominated for an award at the Grenoble Film Awards Festival in France. Since then Stevens has been involved with numerous film projects about reptiles, wild dogs, elephants, vultures and most recently, a unique documentary about the life of a Namib Desert chameleon.
When he’s not traveling the world, Stevens lives in Namibia
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Sunflower
Sunflowers (paintings)
Sunflowers or Vase with Twelve Sunflowers (August 1888) is one of two sunflower paintings with twelve sunflowers, the others having fifteen. (Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany)
Sunflowers is a series of still life oil paintings that the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh painted. Among the Sunflowers paintings are three similar paintings with fifteen sunflowers in a vase, and two similar paintings with twelve sunflowers in a vase. Van Gogh painted the first Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, which is now in the Neue Pinakothek Museum in Munich, Germany, and the first Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers, which is now in National Gallery, London, UK, in August 1888 when he was living in Arles southern France. The later similar paintings were painted in January the following year. The paintings are all painted on about 93 × 72 cm (37" × 28") canvases. An earlier series of four still life using sunflowers were painted in Paris in 1887.
Van Gogh began painting the works in late summer 1888 and continued into the following year. One went to decorate his friend Paul Gauguin's bedroom. The paintings show sunflowers in all stages of life, from fully in bloom to withering. The paintings were innovative for their use of the yellow spectrum, partly because newly invented pigments made new colours possible. In a letter to his brother Theo, van Gogh wrote: the sunflower is mine in a way.
In March 1987, even those without interest in art were made aware of van Gogh's Sunflowers series when Japanese insurance magnate Yasuo Goto paid the equivalent of USD $39,921,750 for Van Gogh's Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers at auction at Christie's London, at the time a record-setting amount for a van Gogh. Whether he bought the painting himself or on behalf of his company, the Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company of Japan, the painting currently resides at Seiji Togo Yasuda Memorial Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. After the purchase a controversy arose whether this is a genuine van Gogh or an Emile Schuffenecker forgery.
Sunflowers or Vase with Twelve Sunflowers (August 1888) is one of two sunflower paintings with twelve sunflowers, the others having fifteen. (Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany)
Sunflowers is a series of still life oil paintings that the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh painted. Among the Sunflowers paintings are three similar paintings with fifteen sunflowers in a vase, and two similar paintings with twelve sunflowers in a vase. Van Gogh painted the first Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, which is now in the Neue Pinakothek Museum in Munich, Germany, and the first Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers, which is now in National Gallery, London, UK, in August 1888 when he was living in Arles southern France. The later similar paintings were painted in January the following year. The paintings are all painted on about 93 × 72 cm (37" × 28") canvases. An earlier series of four still life using sunflowers were painted in Paris in 1887.
Van Gogh began painting the works in late summer 1888 and continued into the following year. One went to decorate his friend Paul Gauguin's bedroom. The paintings show sunflowers in all stages of life, from fully in bloom to withering. The paintings were innovative for their use of the yellow spectrum, partly because newly invented pigments made new colours possible. In a letter to his brother Theo, van Gogh wrote: the sunflower is mine in a way.
In March 1987, even those without interest in art were made aware of van Gogh's Sunflowers series when Japanese insurance magnate Yasuo Goto paid the equivalent of USD $39,921,750 for Van Gogh's Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers at auction at Christie's London, at the time a record-setting amount for a van Gogh. Whether he bought the painting himself or on behalf of his company, the Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company of Japan, the painting currently resides at Seiji Togo Yasuda Memorial Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. After the purchase a controversy arose whether this is a genuine van Gogh or an Emile Schuffenecker forgery.
Portrait of Dr. Gachet
Portrait of Dr. Gachet
The first version of Portrait of Dr. Gachet, that was sold in 1990 for $82.5 million. The current location of the painting is not known. The second version of Portrait of Dr. Gachet.
Portrait of Dr. Gachet is one of the most revered paintings by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. He painted two versions in June 1890 during the last months of his life. Both paintings are 67 x 56 cm (26" x 22") in size and are oil paintings on canvas.
The portraits were painted in Auvers-sur-Oise close to Paris, and depict Doctor Gachet with a foxglove plant. Gachet took care of van Gogh during his last months. Gachet was also a hobby painter and became good friends with van Gogh, and he requested that van Gogh paint a second version of the portrait. The foxglove in the painting is a plant from which digitalis is extracted for the treatment of certain heart complaints; the foxglove is thereby an attribute of Gachet.
Of the painting van Gogh wrote to his brother in 1890, "I've done the portrait of M. Gachet with a melancholy expression, which might well seem like a grimace to those who see it. . . . Sad but gentle, yet clear and intelligent, that is how many portraits ought to be done. . . . There are modern heads that may be looked at for a long time, and that may perhaps be looked back on with longing a hundred years later."
Ownership history
The painting was sold by van Gogh's sister-in-law for 300 francs in 1897. In 1911 the painting was acquired by the Stadel Museum (Städtische Galerie) in Frankfurt, Germany where it hung at the museum until 1933 when the painting was removed and put in a hidden room. In 1937 it was confiscated by the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, an arm of the Nazi government that sought to rid pre-war Germany of so-called degenerate art. After being confiscated it came into the possession of Hermann Goring who quickly sold it to a dealer in Amsterdam who in turn sold it to a collector, Siegfried Kramarsky. He brought it with him when he fled to New York and the work was often lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kramarsky's family put the painting up for auction in 1990.
The painting became famous on May 15, 1990, when Japanese businessman Ryoei Saito paid $82.5 million for it at auction in Christie's, New York; this made it the most expensive painting at the time (it has since been surpassed by Picasso's Garçon à la pipe in 2004). Ryoei Saito, who died in 1996, had caused a scandal when he threatened to have the van Gogh painting cremated with him after his death. Saito, 75 years old at the time, the honorary chairman of Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Co., later stated: "What I really wanted to [express] was my wish to preserve the paintings forever." Saito, his aides explained, was using a figure of speech: threatening to torch the oils was just an expression of intense affection for the masterpieces. Later Saito said he would consider giving the paintings to his government or a museum. The whereabouts of the first version are currently unknown. The second version of the portrait is currently in Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France.
The story is the subject of a book, Portrait of Dr. Gachet: The Story of a van Gogh Masterpiece, Money, Politics, Collectors, Greed, and Loss, by Cynthia Saltzman.
The first version of Portrait of Dr. Gachet, that was sold in 1990 for $82.5 million. The current location of the painting is not known. The second version of Portrait of Dr. Gachet.
Portrait of Dr. Gachet is one of the most revered paintings by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. He painted two versions in June 1890 during the last months of his life. Both paintings are 67 x 56 cm (26" x 22") in size and are oil paintings on canvas.
The portraits were painted in Auvers-sur-Oise close to Paris, and depict Doctor Gachet with a foxglove plant. Gachet took care of van Gogh during his last months. Gachet was also a hobby painter and became good friends with van Gogh, and he requested that van Gogh paint a second version of the portrait. The foxglove in the painting is a plant from which digitalis is extracted for the treatment of certain heart complaints; the foxglove is thereby an attribute of Gachet.
Of the painting van Gogh wrote to his brother in 1890, "I've done the portrait of M. Gachet with a melancholy expression, which might well seem like a grimace to those who see it. . . . Sad but gentle, yet clear and intelligent, that is how many portraits ought to be done. . . . There are modern heads that may be looked at for a long time, and that may perhaps be looked back on with longing a hundred years later."
Ownership history
The painting was sold by van Gogh's sister-in-law for 300 francs in 1897. In 1911 the painting was acquired by the Stadel Museum (Städtische Galerie) in Frankfurt, Germany where it hung at the museum until 1933 when the painting was removed and put in a hidden room. In 1937 it was confiscated by the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, an arm of the Nazi government that sought to rid pre-war Germany of so-called degenerate art. After being confiscated it came into the possession of Hermann Goring who quickly sold it to a dealer in Amsterdam who in turn sold it to a collector, Siegfried Kramarsky. He brought it with him when he fled to New York and the work was often lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kramarsky's family put the painting up for auction in 1990.
The painting became famous on May 15, 1990, when Japanese businessman Ryoei Saito paid $82.5 million for it at auction in Christie's, New York; this made it the most expensive painting at the time (it has since been surpassed by Picasso's Garçon à la pipe in 2004). Ryoei Saito, who died in 1996, had caused a scandal when he threatened to have the van Gogh painting cremated with him after his death. Saito, 75 years old at the time, the honorary chairman of Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Co., later stated: "What I really wanted to [express] was my wish to preserve the paintings forever." Saito, his aides explained, was using a figure of speech: threatening to torch the oils was just an expression of intense affection for the masterpieces. Later Saito said he would consider giving the paintings to his government or a museum. The whereabouts of the first version are currently unknown. The second version of the portrait is currently in Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France.
The story is the subject of a book, Portrait of Dr. Gachet: The Story of a van Gogh Masterpiece, Money, Politics, Collectors, Greed, and Loss, by Cynthia Saltzman.
Starry Night Over the Rhone
Starry Night Over the Rhone Vincent van Gogh, 1888 Starry Night over the Rhone (September 1888) is one of Vincent van Gogh's paintings of Arles at night. Van Gogh's fascination with the heavens and stars were the inspiration for some of his most famous paintings, including Cafe Terrace at Night and The Starry Night. This period in Arles was one of the most productive in his short career. His painting of Cafe Terrace at Night preceded Starry Night over the Rhone by less than a month. The Starry Night was painted in June 1889.
The challenge of painting at night intrigued van Gogh. The perspective he chose for Starry Night over the Rhone allowed him to capture the reflections of the gas lighting in Arles across the glimmering blue water of the Rhône River. The sky above is illuminated by the constellation known as Ursa Major or the Great Bear. In the foreground, two lovers enjoy the soft night light as they stroll by the banks of the river.
Depicting color was of great importance to van Gogh. In letters to his brother, Theo van Gogh, he often described objects in his paintings in terms of color. His night paintings, including Starry Night over the Rhone, emphasize the importance he placed in capturing the sparkling colors of the night sky and the artificial lighting that was new to this period.
The challenge of painting at night intrigued van Gogh. The perspective he chose for Starry Night over the Rhone allowed him to capture the reflections of the gas lighting in Arles across the glimmering blue water of the Rhône River. The sky above is illuminated by the constellation known as Ursa Major or the Great Bear. In the foreground, two lovers enjoy the soft night light as they stroll by the banks of the river.
Depicting color was of great importance to van Gogh. In letters to his brother, Theo van Gogh, he often described objects in his paintings in terms of color. His night paintings, including Starry Night over the Rhone, emphasize the importance he placed in capturing the sparkling colors of the night sky and the artificial lighting that was new to this period.
The Drawins Theory
The Darwin Theory
Some people tend to see (perhaps deliberately) only a small part of Darwin's Theory and then ignore the rest. That portion is "man descended from the ape", which of course he didn't say at all in the first place. That phrase when spoken alone tends to upset people and make them defensive. That's why some people tend to keep repeating it over and over, often in a strident voice. Darwin did surmise that man and ape came from a common ancestor. This is an entirely different concept - since he could have used an earthworm instead and been as truthful. In fact the human and a grain of wheat share about 27% of the same DNA structure - the earthworm far more. To make things worse the modern human is characterized by its belief that the sum total of life can be summarized into a bumper sticker making all other knowledge irrelevant.
But then one does not need the Darwin Theory or all of the scientific work done on genetics since Darwin or even an understanding of DNA to understand evolution. Ignore the fossil record! It can never give more than a fragmented record. One need look at only a few facts that are easily verifiable: All of the elements of the earth may be divided into two classes: inanimate things and living things. The dividing line between those two classes are that living things can reproduce themselves and inanimate things can not. Reproduction itself is the engine of evolution. When living things reproduce, they usually do not reproduce perfectly. There will be differences between them and their siblings and parents. Look at two oak trees or two pups from the same litter as compared to each other and to their parents. This is called divergence. If the difference from the parent is so great that it causes the new living thing to die before it reproduces then its lifeline will cease to exist. Its divergence was excessive and the result to that lifeline was fatal. If the difference between parent and child is so small that the child may survive as its parent did, then the lifeline carried between its parent through itself and to its offspring has lived through another test between its lifeline and the trials and tribulations of living. The physical characteristics of the lifeline are changing with each reproduction but the lifeline is remaining equipped as well as or better than is required to survive. Repeat steps 3 , 4 and 5 many billions of times across the earth each year for more than four billion years. Those three steps are called 'evolution'. Imagine the countless directions in form and behavior that would result. Look around you for the results. Verify this process through your own observation. Is this all there is to evolution? Of course not. Is this the end of the problem between religion and science? Of course not. In fact the real problem is only starting. What will the rift be, if this battle is allowed to continue, when biological computers are built, ones that can grow, heal themselves, reproduce and think? And how about nanotechnology with its use of biological material embedded in the human body? And what will the reaction be when biological functions specified in the human DNA are added to, subtracted from and modified to enhance health, demeanor, beauty and ability? And when entirely new life forms are created for specific purposes? Or extinct life forms are resurrected for study or display? And medicine is completely changed from disease diagnosis and medicine to one of modifying the DNA to avoid the disease in the first place. Will the result be human? Or will it be a completely new species?
Where did that first living fragment come from, some 4 billion or more years ago? Scientists will call its chance occurrence a singularity, an event with a near zero probability. Religious people could call that a miracle if they wish to do so, an event with zero probability. The difference between these two concepts is itself near zero. To argue over this difference is foolish.
Some people tend to see (perhaps deliberately) only a small part of Darwin's Theory and then ignore the rest. That portion is "man descended from the ape", which of course he didn't say at all in the first place. That phrase when spoken alone tends to upset people and make them defensive. That's why some people tend to keep repeating it over and over, often in a strident voice. Darwin did surmise that man and ape came from a common ancestor. This is an entirely different concept - since he could have used an earthworm instead and been as truthful. In fact the human and a grain of wheat share about 27% of the same DNA structure - the earthworm far more. To make things worse the modern human is characterized by its belief that the sum total of life can be summarized into a bumper sticker making all other knowledge irrelevant.
But then one does not need the Darwin Theory or all of the scientific work done on genetics since Darwin or even an understanding of DNA to understand evolution. Ignore the fossil record! It can never give more than a fragmented record. One need look at only a few facts that are easily verifiable: All of the elements of the earth may be divided into two classes: inanimate things and living things. The dividing line between those two classes are that living things can reproduce themselves and inanimate things can not. Reproduction itself is the engine of evolution. When living things reproduce, they usually do not reproduce perfectly. There will be differences between them and their siblings and parents. Look at two oak trees or two pups from the same litter as compared to each other and to their parents. This is called divergence. If the difference from the parent is so great that it causes the new living thing to die before it reproduces then its lifeline will cease to exist. Its divergence was excessive and the result to that lifeline was fatal. If the difference between parent and child is so small that the child may survive as its parent did, then the lifeline carried between its parent through itself and to its offspring has lived through another test between its lifeline and the trials and tribulations of living. The physical characteristics of the lifeline are changing with each reproduction but the lifeline is remaining equipped as well as or better than is required to survive. Repeat steps 3 , 4 and 5 many billions of times across the earth each year for more than four billion years. Those three steps are called 'evolution'. Imagine the countless directions in form and behavior that would result. Look around you for the results. Verify this process through your own observation. Is this all there is to evolution? Of course not. Is this the end of the problem between religion and science? Of course not. In fact the real problem is only starting. What will the rift be, if this battle is allowed to continue, when biological computers are built, ones that can grow, heal themselves, reproduce and think? And how about nanotechnology with its use of biological material embedded in the human body? And what will the reaction be when biological functions specified in the human DNA are added to, subtracted from and modified to enhance health, demeanor, beauty and ability? And when entirely new life forms are created for specific purposes? Or extinct life forms are resurrected for study or display? And medicine is completely changed from disease diagnosis and medicine to one of modifying the DNA to avoid the disease in the first place. Will the result be human? Or will it be a completely new species?
Where did that first living fragment come from, some 4 billion or more years ago? Scientists will call its chance occurrence a singularity, an event with a near zero probability. Religious people could call that a miracle if they wish to do so, an event with zero probability. The difference between these two concepts is itself near zero. To argue over this difference is foolish.
The Potato Eaters
The Potato Eaters (De Aardappeleters in Dutch) is a painting by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh that he painted in April 1885 while in Nuenen, Netherlands. It is housed in the Van Gogh Museum of Amsterdam.
With The Potato Eaters, van Gogh tried to make a great work. During March and the beginning of April 1885 he sketched studies for the painting, and corresponded with his brother, who was not impressed with his current work or the sketches van Gogh sent him. He worked on the painting from April 13 until the beginning of May, when it was mostly done except for minor changes which he made with a small brush later the same year.
Van Gogh said he wanted to depict peasants as they really were."I wanted to convey the idea that the people eating potatoes by the light of an oil lamp used the same hands with which they take food from the plate to work the land, that they have toiled with their hands—that they have earned their food by honest means".
He deliberately chose coarse and ugly study models, thinking that they would be natural and unspoiled in his finished work.
With The Potato Eaters, van Gogh tried to make a great work. During March and the beginning of April 1885 he sketched studies for the painting, and corresponded with his brother, who was not impressed with his current work or the sketches van Gogh sent him. He worked on the painting from April 13 until the beginning of May, when it was mostly done except for minor changes which he made with a small brush later the same year.
Van Gogh said he wanted to depict peasants as they really were."I wanted to convey the idea that the people eating potatoes by the light of an oil lamp used the same hands with which they take food from the plate to work the land, that they have toiled with their hands—that they have earned their food by honest means".
He deliberately chose coarse and ugly study models, thinking that they would be natural and unspoiled in his finished work.
Night Cafe
Vincent van Gogh's The Cafe Terrace stands as one of the painter's most remarkable works. It is also, without question, one of the most famous produced in Van Gogh's brief but prolific career.
This work is the first in a trilogy1 of paintings which feature starlit skies. Starry Night Over the Rhone came within a month, followed by the popular Starry Night painted the next year in Saint-Rémy. An interesting companion to these three can be found in the Portrait of Eugene Boch (painted in the same month as Cafe Terrace and Starry Night Over the Rhone)--note the starry motif in the work's background.
Vincent was enthusiastic about The Cafe Terrace and wrote to his sister Wil: In point of fact I was interrupted these days by my toiling on a new picture representing the outside of a night cafe. On the terrace there are tiny figures of people drinking. An enormous yellow lantern sheds its light on the terrace, the house and the sidewalk, and even causes a certain brightness on the pavement of the street, which takes a pinkish violet tone. The gable-topped fronts of the houses in a street stretching away under a blue sky spangled with stars are dark blue or violet and there is a green tree. Here you have a night picture without any black in it, done with nothing but beautiful blue and violet and green, and in these surroundings the lighted square acquires a pale sulphur and greenish citron-yellow colour. It amuses me enormously to paint the night right on the spot. They used to draw and paint the picture in the daytime after the rough sketch. But I find satisfaction in painting things immediately. (W7: 9 and 16 September 1888)
Vincent goes on to tell Wil that there is a description of a similar cafe in the book Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant: " . . . a starlit night in Paris with the brightly lighted cafes of the Boulevard, and this is approximately the same subject I just painted.".2
Van Gogh's works are often inspired by literary references or by the works of other painters (see his copies after Jean-François Millet). Cafe Terrace has a similar style and compositional structure to Avenue de Clichy in the Evening by Anquetin. Regardless of whether Van Gogh was directly inspired by Anquetin's work, the composition of Cafe Terrace is unique among all of Van Gogh's oeuvre. Note how the lines of composition all point directly to the centre of the work where a horse and carriage are found. Everything seems to be drawn inward, like a vortex, and yet the overall tone suggests tranquillity and not turmoil. The overall scheme is dark, but without the slightest trace of black.
More than one hundred years after Vincent painted it, the Cafe Terrace is still in Arles serving drinks to its thirsty patrons. It's now called the Cafe Van Gogh, appropriately enough, and has been remodelled to appear as it did more than a century ago--yellow-lit awning and all. I stopped and had a cognac when I visited Arles in 1995 (you won't find absinthe on the menu any more) and thought of Vincent, so close by in spirit, working feverishly (but contentedly) under the stars.
This work is the first in a trilogy1 of paintings which feature starlit skies. Starry Night Over the Rhone came within a month, followed by the popular Starry Night painted the next year in Saint-Rémy. An interesting companion to these three can be found in the Portrait of Eugene Boch (painted in the same month as Cafe Terrace and Starry Night Over the Rhone)--note the starry motif in the work's background.
Vincent was enthusiastic about The Cafe Terrace and wrote to his sister Wil: In point of fact I was interrupted these days by my toiling on a new picture representing the outside of a night cafe. On the terrace there are tiny figures of people drinking. An enormous yellow lantern sheds its light on the terrace, the house and the sidewalk, and even causes a certain brightness on the pavement of the street, which takes a pinkish violet tone. The gable-topped fronts of the houses in a street stretching away under a blue sky spangled with stars are dark blue or violet and there is a green tree. Here you have a night picture without any black in it, done with nothing but beautiful blue and violet and green, and in these surroundings the lighted square acquires a pale sulphur and greenish citron-yellow colour. It amuses me enormously to paint the night right on the spot. They used to draw and paint the picture in the daytime after the rough sketch. But I find satisfaction in painting things immediately. (W7: 9 and 16 September 1888)
Vincent goes on to tell Wil that there is a description of a similar cafe in the book Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant: " . . . a starlit night in Paris with the brightly lighted cafes of the Boulevard, and this is approximately the same subject I just painted.".2
Van Gogh's works are often inspired by literary references or by the works of other painters (see his copies after Jean-François Millet). Cafe Terrace has a similar style and compositional structure to Avenue de Clichy in the Evening by Anquetin. Regardless of whether Van Gogh was directly inspired by Anquetin's work, the composition of Cafe Terrace is unique among all of Van Gogh's oeuvre. Note how the lines of composition all point directly to the centre of the work where a horse and carriage are found. Everything seems to be drawn inward, like a vortex, and yet the overall tone suggests tranquillity and not turmoil. The overall scheme is dark, but without the slightest trace of black.
More than one hundred years after Vincent painted it, the Cafe Terrace is still in Arles serving drinks to its thirsty patrons. It's now called the Cafe Van Gogh, appropriately enough, and has been remodelled to appear as it did more than a century ago--yellow-lit awning and all. I stopped and had a cognac when I visited Arles in 1995 (you won't find absinthe on the menu any more) and thought of Vincent, so close by in spirit, working feverishly (but contentedly) under the stars.
Life Of Van Gogh
1853
Vincent Willem van Gogh is born on March 30, 1853, in Zundert, in the south of the Netherlands, as the oldest son of Theodorus van Gogh, a preacher and Anna Cornelia Carbentus. Four years later, in 1857,Vincent's favorite brother, Theodorus (Theo), is born. 1869
At the age of 16, in July 1869, Vincent starts an apprenticeship at Goupil & Cie, international art dealers with headquarters in Paris. He works in the Hague at a branch gallery established by his uncle Vincent. In August 1872, from the Hague, Vincent begins writing letters to Theo. Their correspondence continues for almost 18 years. Theo accepts a position at Goupil's in January 1873, working in Brussels before his transfer to the Hague a few months later. Vincent van Gogh at age of 13.
1873
n June 1873, Vincent is moved to Goupil in London. Daily contact with works of art kindles his appreciation of paintings and drawings. He admires the realistic paintings of peasant life by Jean-François Millet and Jules Breton. Gradually Vincent loses interest in his work and turns to the Bible. He is transferred to Paris, to London and Paris again, to then be dismissed from Goupil's in March 1876. Driven by a growing desire to help his fellow man, he decides to become a clergyman. Vincent van Gogh at age of 19.
1876
Vincent returns to England in 1876 to work as a teacher and assistant preacher at a boarding school. In November, Van Gogh delivers his first sermon. His interest in evangelical Christianity and ministering to the poor becomes obsessional. Due to a lack of professional perspectives, he returns to Amsterdam in 1877. When he is refused admittance in theology school, Vincent briefly enters a missionary school near Brussels and in December 1878 leaves for the Borinage, a coal-mining area in southern Belgium, to work as a lay preacher. Vincent identifies with the miners, sleeping on the floor and giving away his belongings. His extreme commitment draws disfavor from the church and he is dismissed. 1880
Vincent's desire to be useful, transforms into the wish to become an artist while still be in God's service. He writes: "To try to understand the real significance of what the great artists, the serious masters, tell us in their masterpieces, that leads to God; one man wrote or told it in a book; another, in a picture." Vincent moves to Brussels and studies independently, sometimes assisted by Dutch artist Anthon van Rappard. Because Vincent has no livelihood, Theo, who is at Goupil's Paris branch, supports him. He did this regularly until the end of Vincent's life. Because of that, Vincent considers his work as the fruit of their combined efforts. 1881-1882
When he decides to become an artist, nobody could have guessed his immense talent. With surprising speed, the clumsy but enthousiastic apprentice develops a strong artistic personality with his color effects and simple but unforgettable compositions. At his parents' house in Etten, he refines his drawing techniques. Vincent leaves at the end of 1881 to rent a studio in La Hague.Vincent makes his first independent watercolor and painted studies in the summer of 1882. His uncle Cornelis van Gogh commissions him to produce 12 views of The Hague. 1883-1884
In September 1883 Vincent travels to the province of Drenthe in the northeastern Netherlands. He paints the landscape and peasants, but lonely and lacking proper materials, he soon leaves for Nuenen, in Brabant, to live with his parents. Following in the footsteps of Millet and Breton, by 1884 Vincent resolves to be a painter of peasant life. Tensions develop when Vincent accuses Theo of not making a sincere enough effort to sell the paintings Vincent has begun to send him. Theo admonishes Vincent that his darkly colored paintings are not in the current Parisian style, where Impressionist artists are now using a bright palette. In 1885, Vincent completes the Potato Eaters, his first large-scale composition and first masterpiece. The potato Eaters / 1885 / Oil on canvas.
1885
After a long stay in the countryside of Brabant, Vincent leaves the Netherlands for the Belgian city of Antwerp in November 1885. He will never return to his native country. Van Gogh is invigorated by Antwerp's urbaneness: "I find here the friction of ideas I want." He has access to better art supplies and is exposed to the collections of Dutch and Belgian art. Among the exotic goods entering Europe through Antwerp are Japanese woodblock prints, which Vincent starts to collect. In January 1886, Vincent enrolls in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp but he withdraws within two months. 1886
n early 1886, Vincent moves in with Theo in Montmartre. It is a crucial period of development for his painting style. Theo, who manages the Montmartre branch of Goupil's (now called Boussod, Valadon & Cie), acquaints Vincent with the works of Claude Monet and other Impressionists. Now he sees for himself how the Impressionists handle light and color, and treat the town and country themes. He begins to meet the city's modern artists, including Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Camille Pissarro. Vincent's Paris work is an effort to assimilate the influences around him; his palette becomes brighter, his brushwork more broken. Like the Impressionists, Vincent takes his subjects from the city's cafés and boulevards, and the open countryside along the Seine River. Through Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, he discovers the stippling technique of Pointillism "What is required in art nowadays," he writes, "is something very much alive, very strong in color, very much intensified." Unable to afford models to perfect his skills, Vincent turns to his own image: "I deliberately bought a good mirror so that if I lacked a model I could work from my own likeness." He paints at least 20 self-portraits in Paris. His experiments in style and color can be read in the series. The earliest are executed in the grays and browns of his Brabant period; these dark colors soon give way to yellows, reds, greens, and blues, and his brushwork takes on the disconnected stroke of the Impressionists. To his sister he writes: "My intention is to show that a variety of very different portraits can be made of the same person." One of the last portraits Vincent paints in Paris, Self-Portrait as an Artist, is a dramatic illustration of his personal and artistic identity. Vincent regularly paints outdoors in Asnières, a village near Paris where the Impressionists often set up their easels. Later, he writes to his sister Wil: "And when I painted the landscape in Asnières this summer, I saw more colors there than ever before." 1887
Among his new friends Vincent counts the painters he refers to as the "artists of the Petit Boulevard" -- Toulouse-Lautrec, Signac, Bernard, and Louis Anquetin-artists who are younger and not as famous as the Impressionists. He organizes a group show of his and his friends' paintings at a Paris restaurant. The artists often gather at Père Tanguy's paint shop, where Vincent regularly sees Gauguin. Tanguy, who generously advances supplies to many young artists, occasionally displays Vincent's paintings in his store window. Vincent buys Japanese prints and studies them intensively. He arranges an exhibition of Japanese woodcuts at a Paris café and his own work takes on the stylized contours and expressive coloration of his Japanese examples. 1888 In early 1888, Vincent leaves for Provence in the south of France: "It appears to me to be almost impossible to work in Paris." He rents a studio in Arles, the "Yellow House," and invites Paul Gauguin to join him. In anticipation of his arrival, Vincent paints still lifes of sunflowers to decorate Gauguin's room. Paul describes the paintings as "completely Vincent." Inspired by the bright colors and strong light of Provence, Vincent executes painting after painting in his own powerful language. "I am getting an eye for this kind of country," he writes to Theo. Whereas in Paris his works covered a large range of subjects and techniques, the Arles paintings are consistent in approach. Vincent enters a period of immense creative activity. He has little to distract him from his painting, for he knows almost no one: "Whole days go by without my speaking a single word to anyone." He befriends the local postman, Joseph Roulin, and paints portraits of his entire family. Captivated by the spectacle of spring in Provence, Vincent paints the blossoming fruit trees and later, in summer, scenes of rural life. He paints outdoors, often in a single long session: "Working directly on the spot all the time, I tried to grasp what is essential." He identifies each season and subject with specific colors: "The orchards stand for pink and white, the wheatfields for yellow." Color also becomes an expressive, emotional tool. For "Bedroom in Arles", he depicts his room with a stark simplicity, using uniform patches of complimentary orange and blue, yellow and violet, red and green.
To Gauguin he writes: "I wanted all these different colors to express a totally restful feeling." Gauguin finally arrives in Arles in October, painting and discussing art for nine weeks with Vincent. Paul makes a portrait of Vincent in front of one of his sunflower canvases, which Vincent describes as "certainly me, but me gone mad." Paul Gauguin / Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers / 1888 / Oil on canvas
Personal tensions grow between the two men. In December, Vincent experiences a psychotic episode in which he threatens Gauguin with a razor and later cuts off a piece of his own left ear. He is admitted to a hospital in Arles and stays there through January of 1889. Theo, in Paris, marries Johanna Bonger in the spring.
1889 After his discharge from the hospital in Arles, he voluntarily admits himself to the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy, 15 miles from Arles. He attributes his breakdown to excessive alcohol and tobacco, giving up neither. Fearful of a relapse, in May 1889 he writes: "I wish to remain shut up as much for my own peace of mind as for other people's." The admitting physician notes that Vincent suffers from "acute mania with hallucinations of sight and hearing." Although subject to intermittent attacks, Vincent converts an adjacent cell into a studio, where he produces 150 paintings. Vincent paints the world he sees from his room, deleting the bars that obscure his view. In the hospital's walled garden he paints irises, lilacs, and ivy-covered trees. Later he is allowed to venture farther afield, and he paints the wheatfields, olive groves, and cypress trees of the surrounding countryside. The imposed regimen of asylum life gives Vincent a hard-won stability. When losing the confidence to execute original works, Vincent regains his bearings by painting copies after his favorite artists, including Millet, Rembrandt and Delacroix. He makes more than twenty copies of Millet's peasant scenes, and reinvents Delacroix's Pieta, in which the bearded Christ bears some resemblance to himself. After one particularly violent attack, in which he tries to poison himself by swallowing paint, Vincent is forced to restrict himself to drawing. While in Arles and Saint-Rémy, Vincent sends his canvases to Theo in Paris. Despite his illness, he paints one masterwork after another, including Irises, Cypresses, and The Starry Night. Theo encourages his brother: "They have an intensity of color you have not attained before . . . but you have gone even further than that. . . . I see that you have achieved in many of your canvases . . . the quintessence of your thoughts about nature and living beings." Others are beginning to notice Vincent's work, too. The progressive Belgian artists' group "Les Vingt" includes six of his paintings in their 1890 exhibition. When Vincent exhibits recent work at the Salon des Indépendants - two canvases in 1889 and ten in 1890 - friends in Paris assure him of their success. "Many artists think your work has been the most striking at the exhibition," writes Gauguin. Theo's son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, is born in January 1890. 1890 After his long period of confinement at Saint-Rémy, Vincent leaves for Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris in May 1890. Though removed from the immoderate pace of life in Paris, he is close enough that he can easily visit Theo. Vincent places himself in the care of Paul Gachet, a homeopathic physician and himself an amateur painter. Vincent warms to Gachet immediately, writing to Theo that he had "found a perfect friend in Dr. Gachet, something like another brother." Gachet advises Vincent to concentrate entirely on his painting. Vincent paints portraits of his new acquaintances and the surrounding landscape, including nearby wheatfields and the garden of the painter Daubigny. Working with great intensity, he produces nearly a painting a day over the next two months. Vincent briefly enjoys a peaceful, mentally stable period. In early July Vincent visits Theo in Paris. Theo is considering setting up his own business, and he warns Vincent that they will all have to tighten their belts. Strongly affected by Theo's dissatisfaction, Vincent grows increasingly tense: "My life is also threatened at the very root, and my steps are also wavering." On July 27, 1890, Vincent walks to a wheatfield and shoots himself in the chest. He stumbles back to his lodging, where he dies two days later, on July 29, with Theo at his side. He is buried in Auvers on July 30. Among the mourners are Lucien Pissarro, Emile Bernard, and Père Tanguy. Bernard describes how Vincent's coffin is covered with yellow flowers, "his favorite color . . . . Close by, too, his easel, his camp stool, and his brushes had been placed on the ground beside the coffin." Vincent and Theo van Gogh's grave site: Auvers-sur-Oise, France
Vincent's paintings are left to Theo, but his true legacy will be realized in his powerful influence on artists of the twentieth century. Theo holds a memorial exhibition of Vincent's paintings in September 1890 in his Paris apartment. His own health suffers a precipitous decline, and on January 25, 1891, Theo dies. His widow returns to the Netherlands with their infant son and her husband's legacy, the collection of Vincent's paintings. After Johanna's death in 1925 the collection is inherited by her son, Vincent Willem van Gogh (1890-1978). On the initiative of the Dutch state, which pledges to build a museum devoted to Van Gogh, Vincent Willem van Gogh, in 1962, transfers the works he owns to the newly formed Vincent van Gogh Foundation. Construction of the museum building, designed by the modernist Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld, begins in 1969. The museum officially opens its doors in 1973. Since then, the building houses the largest collection of works by Vincent van Gogh, on loan from the Vincent van Gogh Foundation.
Vincent Willem van Gogh is born on March 30, 1853, in Zundert, in the south of the Netherlands, as the oldest son of Theodorus van Gogh, a preacher and Anna Cornelia Carbentus. Four years later, in 1857,Vincent's favorite brother, Theodorus (Theo), is born. 1869
At the age of 16, in July 1869, Vincent starts an apprenticeship at Goupil & Cie, international art dealers with headquarters in Paris. He works in the Hague at a branch gallery established by his uncle Vincent. In August 1872, from the Hague, Vincent begins writing letters to Theo. Their correspondence continues for almost 18 years. Theo accepts a position at Goupil's in January 1873, working in Brussels before his transfer to the Hague a few months later. Vincent van Gogh at age of 13.
1873
n June 1873, Vincent is moved to Goupil in London. Daily contact with works of art kindles his appreciation of paintings and drawings. He admires the realistic paintings of peasant life by Jean-François Millet and Jules Breton. Gradually Vincent loses interest in his work and turns to the Bible. He is transferred to Paris, to London and Paris again, to then be dismissed from Goupil's in March 1876. Driven by a growing desire to help his fellow man, he decides to become a clergyman. Vincent van Gogh at age of 19.
1876
Vincent returns to England in 1876 to work as a teacher and assistant preacher at a boarding school. In November, Van Gogh delivers his first sermon. His interest in evangelical Christianity and ministering to the poor becomes obsessional. Due to a lack of professional perspectives, he returns to Amsterdam in 1877. When he is refused admittance in theology school, Vincent briefly enters a missionary school near Brussels and in December 1878 leaves for the Borinage, a coal-mining area in southern Belgium, to work as a lay preacher. Vincent identifies with the miners, sleeping on the floor and giving away his belongings. His extreme commitment draws disfavor from the church and he is dismissed. 1880
Vincent's desire to be useful, transforms into the wish to become an artist while still be in God's service. He writes: "To try to understand the real significance of what the great artists, the serious masters, tell us in their masterpieces, that leads to God; one man wrote or told it in a book; another, in a picture." Vincent moves to Brussels and studies independently, sometimes assisted by Dutch artist Anthon van Rappard. Because Vincent has no livelihood, Theo, who is at Goupil's Paris branch, supports him. He did this regularly until the end of Vincent's life. Because of that, Vincent considers his work as the fruit of their combined efforts. 1881-1882
When he decides to become an artist, nobody could have guessed his immense talent. With surprising speed, the clumsy but enthousiastic apprentice develops a strong artistic personality with his color effects and simple but unforgettable compositions. At his parents' house in Etten, he refines his drawing techniques. Vincent leaves at the end of 1881 to rent a studio in La Hague.Vincent makes his first independent watercolor and painted studies in the summer of 1882. His uncle Cornelis van Gogh commissions him to produce 12 views of The Hague. 1883-1884
In September 1883 Vincent travels to the province of Drenthe in the northeastern Netherlands. He paints the landscape and peasants, but lonely and lacking proper materials, he soon leaves for Nuenen, in Brabant, to live with his parents. Following in the footsteps of Millet and Breton, by 1884 Vincent resolves to be a painter of peasant life. Tensions develop when Vincent accuses Theo of not making a sincere enough effort to sell the paintings Vincent has begun to send him. Theo admonishes Vincent that his darkly colored paintings are not in the current Parisian style, where Impressionist artists are now using a bright palette. In 1885, Vincent completes the Potato Eaters, his first large-scale composition and first masterpiece. The potato Eaters / 1885 / Oil on canvas.
1885
After a long stay in the countryside of Brabant, Vincent leaves the Netherlands for the Belgian city of Antwerp in November 1885. He will never return to his native country. Van Gogh is invigorated by Antwerp's urbaneness: "I find here the friction of ideas I want." He has access to better art supplies and is exposed to the collections of Dutch and Belgian art. Among the exotic goods entering Europe through Antwerp are Japanese woodblock prints, which Vincent starts to collect. In January 1886, Vincent enrolls in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp but he withdraws within two months. 1886
n early 1886, Vincent moves in with Theo in Montmartre. It is a crucial period of development for his painting style. Theo, who manages the Montmartre branch of Goupil's (now called Boussod, Valadon & Cie), acquaints Vincent with the works of Claude Monet and other Impressionists. Now he sees for himself how the Impressionists handle light and color, and treat the town and country themes. He begins to meet the city's modern artists, including Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Camille Pissarro. Vincent's Paris work is an effort to assimilate the influences around him; his palette becomes brighter, his brushwork more broken. Like the Impressionists, Vincent takes his subjects from the city's cafés and boulevards, and the open countryside along the Seine River. Through Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, he discovers the stippling technique of Pointillism "What is required in art nowadays," he writes, "is something very much alive, very strong in color, very much intensified." Unable to afford models to perfect his skills, Vincent turns to his own image: "I deliberately bought a good mirror so that if I lacked a model I could work from my own likeness." He paints at least 20 self-portraits in Paris. His experiments in style and color can be read in the series. The earliest are executed in the grays and browns of his Brabant period; these dark colors soon give way to yellows, reds, greens, and blues, and his brushwork takes on the disconnected stroke of the Impressionists. To his sister he writes: "My intention is to show that a variety of very different portraits can be made of the same person." One of the last portraits Vincent paints in Paris, Self-Portrait as an Artist, is a dramatic illustration of his personal and artistic identity. Vincent regularly paints outdoors in Asnières, a village near Paris where the Impressionists often set up their easels. Later, he writes to his sister Wil: "And when I painted the landscape in Asnières this summer, I saw more colors there than ever before." 1887
Among his new friends Vincent counts the painters he refers to as the "artists of the Petit Boulevard" -- Toulouse-Lautrec, Signac, Bernard, and Louis Anquetin-artists who are younger and not as famous as the Impressionists. He organizes a group show of his and his friends' paintings at a Paris restaurant. The artists often gather at Père Tanguy's paint shop, where Vincent regularly sees Gauguin. Tanguy, who generously advances supplies to many young artists, occasionally displays Vincent's paintings in his store window. Vincent buys Japanese prints and studies them intensively. He arranges an exhibition of Japanese woodcuts at a Paris café and his own work takes on the stylized contours and expressive coloration of his Japanese examples. 1888 In early 1888, Vincent leaves for Provence in the south of France: "It appears to me to be almost impossible to work in Paris." He rents a studio in Arles, the "Yellow House," and invites Paul Gauguin to join him. In anticipation of his arrival, Vincent paints still lifes of sunflowers to decorate Gauguin's room. Paul describes the paintings as "completely Vincent." Inspired by the bright colors and strong light of Provence, Vincent executes painting after painting in his own powerful language. "I am getting an eye for this kind of country," he writes to Theo. Whereas in Paris his works covered a large range of subjects and techniques, the Arles paintings are consistent in approach. Vincent enters a period of immense creative activity. He has little to distract him from his painting, for he knows almost no one: "Whole days go by without my speaking a single word to anyone." He befriends the local postman, Joseph Roulin, and paints portraits of his entire family. Captivated by the spectacle of spring in Provence, Vincent paints the blossoming fruit trees and later, in summer, scenes of rural life. He paints outdoors, often in a single long session: "Working directly on the spot all the time, I tried to grasp what is essential." He identifies each season and subject with specific colors: "The orchards stand for pink and white, the wheatfields for yellow." Color also becomes an expressive, emotional tool. For "Bedroom in Arles", he depicts his room with a stark simplicity, using uniform patches of complimentary orange and blue, yellow and violet, red and green.
To Gauguin he writes: "I wanted all these different colors to express a totally restful feeling." Gauguin finally arrives in Arles in October, painting and discussing art for nine weeks with Vincent. Paul makes a portrait of Vincent in front of one of his sunflower canvases, which Vincent describes as "certainly me, but me gone mad." Paul Gauguin / Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers / 1888 / Oil on canvas
Personal tensions grow between the two men. In December, Vincent experiences a psychotic episode in which he threatens Gauguin with a razor and later cuts off a piece of his own left ear. He is admitted to a hospital in Arles and stays there through January of 1889. Theo, in Paris, marries Johanna Bonger in the spring.
1889 After his discharge from the hospital in Arles, he voluntarily admits himself to the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy, 15 miles from Arles. He attributes his breakdown to excessive alcohol and tobacco, giving up neither. Fearful of a relapse, in May 1889 he writes: "I wish to remain shut up as much for my own peace of mind as for other people's." The admitting physician notes that Vincent suffers from "acute mania with hallucinations of sight and hearing." Although subject to intermittent attacks, Vincent converts an adjacent cell into a studio, where he produces 150 paintings. Vincent paints the world he sees from his room, deleting the bars that obscure his view. In the hospital's walled garden he paints irises, lilacs, and ivy-covered trees. Later he is allowed to venture farther afield, and he paints the wheatfields, olive groves, and cypress trees of the surrounding countryside. The imposed regimen of asylum life gives Vincent a hard-won stability. When losing the confidence to execute original works, Vincent regains his bearings by painting copies after his favorite artists, including Millet, Rembrandt and Delacroix. He makes more than twenty copies of Millet's peasant scenes, and reinvents Delacroix's Pieta, in which the bearded Christ bears some resemblance to himself. After one particularly violent attack, in which he tries to poison himself by swallowing paint, Vincent is forced to restrict himself to drawing. While in Arles and Saint-Rémy, Vincent sends his canvases to Theo in Paris. Despite his illness, he paints one masterwork after another, including Irises, Cypresses, and The Starry Night. Theo encourages his brother: "They have an intensity of color you have not attained before . . . but you have gone even further than that. . . . I see that you have achieved in many of your canvases . . . the quintessence of your thoughts about nature and living beings." Others are beginning to notice Vincent's work, too. The progressive Belgian artists' group "Les Vingt" includes six of his paintings in their 1890 exhibition. When Vincent exhibits recent work at the Salon des Indépendants - two canvases in 1889 and ten in 1890 - friends in Paris assure him of their success. "Many artists think your work has been the most striking at the exhibition," writes Gauguin. Theo's son, Vincent Willem van Gogh, is born in January 1890. 1890 After his long period of confinement at Saint-Rémy, Vincent leaves for Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris in May 1890. Though removed from the immoderate pace of life in Paris, he is close enough that he can easily visit Theo. Vincent places himself in the care of Paul Gachet, a homeopathic physician and himself an amateur painter. Vincent warms to Gachet immediately, writing to Theo that he had "found a perfect friend in Dr. Gachet, something like another brother." Gachet advises Vincent to concentrate entirely on his painting. Vincent paints portraits of his new acquaintances and the surrounding landscape, including nearby wheatfields and the garden of the painter Daubigny. Working with great intensity, he produces nearly a painting a day over the next two months. Vincent briefly enjoys a peaceful, mentally stable period. In early July Vincent visits Theo in Paris. Theo is considering setting up his own business, and he warns Vincent that they will all have to tighten their belts. Strongly affected by Theo's dissatisfaction, Vincent grows increasingly tense: "My life is also threatened at the very root, and my steps are also wavering." On July 27, 1890, Vincent walks to a wheatfield and shoots himself in the chest. He stumbles back to his lodging, where he dies two days later, on July 29, with Theo at his side. He is buried in Auvers on July 30. Among the mourners are Lucien Pissarro, Emile Bernard, and Père Tanguy. Bernard describes how Vincent's coffin is covered with yellow flowers, "his favorite color . . . . Close by, too, his easel, his camp stool, and his brushes had been placed on the ground beside the coffin." Vincent and Theo van Gogh's grave site: Auvers-sur-Oise, France
Vincent's paintings are left to Theo, but his true legacy will be realized in his powerful influence on artists of the twentieth century. Theo holds a memorial exhibition of Vincent's paintings in September 1890 in his Paris apartment. His own health suffers a precipitous decline, and on January 25, 1891, Theo dies. His widow returns to the Netherlands with their infant son and her husband's legacy, the collection of Vincent's paintings. After Johanna's death in 1925 the collection is inherited by her son, Vincent Willem van Gogh (1890-1978). On the initiative of the Dutch state, which pledges to build a museum devoted to Van Gogh, Vincent Willem van Gogh, in 1962, transfers the works he owns to the newly formed Vincent van Gogh Foundation. Construction of the museum building, designed by the modernist Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld, begins in 1969. The museum officially opens its doors in 1973. Since then, the building houses the largest collection of works by Vincent van Gogh, on loan from the Vincent van Gogh Foundation.
VanGogh
In July 1869, at the age of 16, he obtained a position with the art dealer, Goupil & Cie in the Hague, through his Uncle "Cent", who had built up a good business which became a branch of the firm. After his training, Goupil transferred him, in June 1873, to London (where he lodged in Stockwell). There he became increasingly isolated and fervent about religion, and suffered from unrequited love. His father and uncle despatched him to Paris, where he became increasingly resentful at treating art as a commodity and manifested this to the customers. On April 1, 1876, it was agreed that his employment should be terminated.
His religious emotion grew to the point where he felt he had found his true vocation in life, and went to England to do unpaid work, first as a supply teacher in a small boarding school overlooking the harbour in Ramsgate, and then as a Methodist minister's assistant in Isleworth, Middlesex, wanting to "preach the gospel everywhere".
At Christmas he returned home and worked in a bookshop in Dordrecht for six months. His family sent him to university in Amsterdam, where he studied the theology entrance exam, for a year, before having to give up. He then studied, but failed, a three-month course at a Brussels missionary school, and returned home yet again in despair about himself.
In 1878 Van Gogh became a preacher in the coal-mining district of La Borinage in Belgium, following his father's profession, but taking Christianity to a literal extreme, wishing to live like the poor and share their hardships to the extent of sleeping on straw. This did not endear him to his flock, or to the appalled church authorities, who dismissed him for "undermining the dignity of the priesthood". On his own initiative, he stayed for a further year, during which time he became increasingly interested in the everyday people and scenes around him, which he recorded in drawings.[edit]
Beginning artist (Nuenen) 1880-86
In 1880, Vincent followed the suggestion of his brother Theo and took up art in earnest. In autumn 1880, he went to Brussels, intending to follow Theo's recommendation to study with the prominent Dutch artist Willem Roeloff, who persuaded Van Gogh (despite his aversion to formal schools of art) to attend the Royal Academy of Art. There he not only studied anatomy, but the standard rules of modelling and perspective, all of which, he said, "you have to know just to be able to draw the least thing."
In April 1881 went to live in the countryside with his parents in Etten and continued drawing, using neighbours as subjects. That summer his recently widowed cousin, Kee Vos, visited and became the focus for Van Gogh's (unreturned) amour. Van Gogh went to The Hague where he called on his cousin-in-law, the painter Anton Mauve, who encouraged him towards colour by giving him a box of watercolours. In the autumn in Amsterdam, Kee refused even to see him and he burned his left hand in a candle flame to prove his commitment. At Christmas he quarrelled violently with his father, even refusing a gift of money.
In January 1882 he left for The Hague, where he was taught for a while by Mauve, but soon fell out with him, disapproving of drawing from plaster casts. He lived with an alcoholic prostitute, Clasina Maria Hoornik (known as Sien) and her young daughter. His uncle Cornelis, an art dealer, commissioned 20 ink drawings of the city from him. He spent 3 weeks in hospital for gonorrhoea. In the summer, Van Gogh began to paint in oil.
In Autumn 1883, after a year with Sien, he left her reluctantly, feeling family life was irreconcilable with his artistic development. He moved to the Dutch province of Drenthe in the north of the Netherlands, and in December, driven by loneliness, to stay with his parents who were by then living in Nuenen, North Brabant, also in the Netherlands.
In Autumn 1884, a neighbour's daughter, Margot Beggeman, ten years different in age, accompanied Van Gogh constantly on his painting forays and fell in love, which he reciprocated (though less enthusiastically). They agreed to marry, but were opposed by both families. The Potato Eaters (1885)
On March 26, 1885, Van Gogh's father died of a stroke. Van Gogh grieved deeply. For the first time there was interest from Paris in some of his work. In spring he painted what is now considered his first major work, The Potato Eaters (Dutch Aardappeleters). In August his work was exhibited for the first time, in the windows of a paint dealer, Leurs, in The Hague. In September he was accused of making one of his young peasant sitters pregnant and the Catholic village priest forbad villagers from modelling for him.
It should be noted that during this time Van Gogh's palette was of sombre earth colours, particularly dark brown, and as yet he had shown no sign of developing the vivid colouration which distinguishes his later, best known work. (When Vincent complained that Theo was not making enough effort to sell his paintings in Paris, Theo replied that they were too dark and not in line with the current style of bright Impressionist paintings.) During his two year stay in Nuenen, he had completed numerous drawings and watercolours, and nearly 200 oil paintings.
In November 1885 he moved to Antwerp, studied colour theory and looked at work in Museums, particularly Peter Paul Rubens, gaining encouragement to broaden his palette to carmine, cobalt and emerald green. He also bought some Japanese woodblocks in the docklands.
In January 1886 he matriculated at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp, studying painting and drawing. Despite disagreements over his rejection of academic teaching, he nevertheless took the higher level admission exams. For most of February he was ill, run down by overwork and a poor diet (and excessive smoking).[edit]
Transitional artist (Paris) 1886-88 rue Lepic 54, Paris
In March 1886 he moved to Paris, soon studying at Cormon's studio, where he meets fellow students, Emile Bernard and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Later he and Bernard exchange paintings to commemorate this occasion.
In May 1886 his mother and sister Wil moved to Breda. 70 of Van Gogh's abandoned paintings were bought by a junk dealer, who burnt some and sold others at very low prices.
Theo introduced Vincent to the Impressionist circle, including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Edgar Degas, Camille and son Lucien Pissarro (with both of whom he became friends), Paul Signac and Georges Seurat. Van Gogh liked Impressionism's use of light and color, more than its lack of social engagement (as he saw it).
He especially loved the technique known as pointillism (where many small dots are applied to the canvas that blend into different hues when seen from a distance. He was also strongly committed to the use of complementary colours in proximity—especially blue and orange—in order to enhance the brilliance of each. (He wrote in a letter: "I want to use colours that complement each other, that cause each other to shine brilliantly, that complete each other like a man and a woman.")
In June he took a flat with Theo at 54 Rue Lepic in Montmartre, and adopted the pointillist style to paint Paris scenes. He used the paint store run by Julien "Père" Tanguy, who introduced him to more artists.
In the winter of 1886 he met and befriended Paul Gauguin, who had just arrived in Paris. For a time Theo found shared life with Vincent "almost unbearable".
In Spring 1887 Tanguy commissioned two portraits of himself.
In 1888, when city life and living with his brother proved too much, Van Gogh left Paris, having painted over 200 paintings during his two years in the city.[edit]
Mature artist 1888-90 Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers, August 1888 (Neue Pinakothek, Munich)[edit]
Arles, February 1888 - May 1889
He arrived on 21 February 1888, at the Hotel Carrel in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, France, where he intended to found a Utopian art colony . His companion for two months was the Dutch artist, Christian Mourier-Petersen. In March, he painted local landscapes, using a gridded "perspective frame". Three of his pictures were shown at the Paris Salon des Artistes Indépendents. In April he was visited by the American painter, Dodge MacKnight, who was resident in Fontvieille nearby. The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night, September 1888
In May he paid 15 francs a month to rent the four rooms in the right hand side of the "yellow house" (so called because its outside walls were yellow) in Place Lamartine. Because of a disagreement about the price, he stayed at Joseph and Marie Ginoux' station café and became friends with them. In June he visited Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. He gave drawing lessons to a Zouave second lieutenant, Paul-Eugène Milliet, who also became a companion. He was introduced to Eugenè Boch, the Belgian writer and painter, who stayed at times in Fontvieille (they exchanged visits in July). Gauguin agreed to join him in Arles. In August he painted sunflowers; Boch visited again. Finally in September he moved into the "yellow house" with minimal furnishing. The Red Vineyard, November 1888, a rare painting sold during Van Gogh's lifetime (for 400 francs (US$74 today). (Pushkin Museum, Moscow)
On 23 October Gauguin eventually arrived in Arles, after repeated requests from Van Gogh. During November they painted together, Van Gogh deferring to Gauguin's lead that this should be (uncharacteristically for Van Gogh) from memory. Van Gogh painted The Red Vineyard.
In December the two artists visited Montpellier and viewed works by Courbet and Delacroix in the Museé Fabree. However, their relationship was deteriorating badly. They quarrelled fiercely about art. Van Gogh felt an increasing fear that Gauguin was going to desert him, and what he described as a situation of "excessive tension" reached a crisis point on December 23, 1888, when Van Gogh stalked Gauguin with a razor and then cut off the lower part of his own left ear, which he wrapped in newspaper and gave to a prostitute called Rachel in the local brothel, asking her to "keep this object carefully". Gauguin left Arles and did not speak to Van Gogh again. Van Gogh was hospitalised and in a critical state for a few days. He was immediately visited by Theo (whom Gauguin had notified), as well as Madame Ginoux and frequently by Roulin.
In January 1889 Van Gogh returned to the "yellow house", but spent the following month between hospital and home, suffering from hallucinations and paranoia that he was being poisoned. In March the police closed his house, after a petition by thirty townspeople, who call him fou roux ("the redheaded madman"). Signac visited him in hospital and Van Gogh was allowed home in his company. In April he moved into rooms owned by Dr. Rey, after floods damaged paintings in his own home. Theo married Johanna Bonger in Amsterdam. Starry Night, June 1889 (The Museum of Modern Art, New York[edit]
Saint-Rémy, May 1889 - May 1890
On May 8, 1889, Van Gogh, accompanied by a carer, Rev. Salles, was admitted to the mental hospital of Saint-Paul-de Mausole in a former monastery in Saint Rémy de Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, France, a little less than 20 miles from Arles. It was run by a former naval doctor who had no specialist qualifications. Van Gogh had two small rooms, one for use as a studio. During his stay there, the clinic and its garden became his main subject. At this time some of his work was characterised by swirls, as in one of his best-known paintings, Starry Night. He took some short supervised walks, which gave rise to images of cypresses and olive trees, but because of the shortage of subject matter due to his limited access to the outside world, he painted interpretations of Millet's paintings, as well as his own earlier work (in September 1889 two of Vincent's Bedroom in Arles), and in February 1890 four of L'Arlésienne (Madame Ginoux), identical to a charcoal sketch by Gauguin.[edit]
Auvers-sur-Oise, May - July 1890
In May 1890, Vincent left the clinic and went to the physician Dr. Paul Gachet, in Auvers-sur-Oise near Paris, where he was closer to his brother Theo. Dr. Gachet had been recommended to him by Pissarro, as he had previously treated several artists and was an amateur artist himself. Here Van Gogh created his only etching, a portrait of the melancholic Doctor Gachet. As it turned out the doctor was as much in need of help as his patient: Van Gogh commented that Gachet was "sicker than I am, I think, or shall we say just as much". [1]
Wheat Field with Crows with its turbulent intensity is often, but mistakenly, thought to be Van Gogh's last work (Jan Hulsker lists seven paintings after it). Daubigny's Garden is a more likely candidate. There are also seemingly unfinished paintings, such as Thatched Cottages by a Hill in the National Gallery, London.
Van Gogh's depression , (one he had for quite sometime) deepened, and on July 27, 1890, at the age of 37, he walked into the fields and shot himself in the chest with a revolver. Without realising that he was fatally wounded, he returned to the Ravoux Inn, where he died in his bed two days later. Theo hastened to be at his side and reported his last words as "La tristesse durera toujours", (French for "the sadness will last forever"). He was buried at the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise.
Theo had contracted syphilis (though this was not admitted by the family for many years) and, not long after Vincent's death, was himself admitted to hospital. He was not able to come to terms with the grief of his brother's absence, and died six months later on 25 January at Utrecht. In 1914 Theo's body was exhumed and re-buried beside Vincent's.[edit]
Legacy[edit]
Art Vincent and Theo van Gogh's graves at the cemetery of Auvers-sur-Oise
Van Gogh's fame grew steadily after his death. Large exhibitions were organized in Paris (1901), Amsterdam (1905), Cologne (1912), New York City (1913) and Berlin (1914). These had a great influence over a new generation of artists. The French Fauves, including Henri Matisse, extended both his use of colour and freedom of applying it, as did German Expressionists in the Die Brücke group. 1950s Abstract Expressionism is seen as benefiting from the exploration Van Gogh started with gestural marks. In 1957, English artist Francis Bacon did several paintings based on reproductions of Van Gogh's The Painter on his Way to Work (which had been destroyed in World War II). In 1997 Cameron Cross began "The Van Gogh Project" to erect giant easels with Van Gogh's sunflower paintings around the world. [2]In 1999 the Stuckists art movement saw themselves as a continuation of Van Gogh's vision; co-founder, Billy Childish staged a show of interpretations, "Handing the Loaded Revolver to the Enemy".[3][edit]
Other
Van Gogh's letters, most of them to Theo, were published in 1914.
The artist's life forms the basis for Irving Stone's biographical novel Lust for Life (later turned into a film).
In 1972 in honour of Van Gogh, singer Don McLean wrote the ballad Vincent — also known as "Starry Starry Night", the song's opening words, which refer to the painting Starry Night. It was also sung by Josh Groban in 2002 and the punk band NOFX did a version on a rarities and b-sides double album.
In 1986-87, the composer Einojuhani Rautavaara wrote an opera, Vincent, based on several events in Van Gogh's life, and later used some of the same themes in his 6th symphony, Vincentiana.[edit]
Notable works Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold for US$82.5 million, whereabouts now unknown(1885) The Potato Eaters(1888) Bedroom in Arles(1888) Cafe Terrace at Night(1888) The Red Vineyard(1888) The Night Cafe(1888) Starry Night Over the Rhone(1889) The Starry Night(1889) Irises †(1889) Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers(1889) Portrait de l'artiste sans barbe †(1890) Portrait of Dr. Gachet †(1890) Wheat Field with Crows(1890) Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat
† Denotes paintings which are recent recordholders for the highest price paid for a painting at an auction: see list of most expensive paintings. On March 30, 1987, Irises was sold for a record US$53.9 million at Sotheby's; on May 15, 1990, his Portrait of Dr. Gachet was sold for US$82.5 million at Christie's, thus establishing a new price record (which was exceeded in 2004 by a Picasso painting).
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is dedicated to Van Gogh's work and that of his contemporaries. The Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo (also in the Netherlands), has another considerable collection of his paintings.[edit]
Influences on Van Gogh
(see also above)The Hague School.Jean-François Millet (1814–1875), painter who also focused on peasant life.Emile Zola (1840–1902), writer whose novels Van Gogh admired.Japonisme, especially Japanese woodblock prints.Adolphe Monticelli 1824–1886, French painter, whom Van Gogh considered one of the greats.Impressionism.Pointillism as practised by Georges Seurat (1859–1891) and Paul Signac (1863–1935).Paul Gauguin (1848–1903).[edit]
Illness Vincent van Gogh from Madame Tussaud's Wax museum
Debate has raged over the years as to the source of Van Gogh's mental illness and its effect on his work. Over 150 psychiatrists have attempted to label his illness, and some 30 different diagnoses have been suggested.[1] Some of the theories which have been suggested include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, syphilis, poisoning from swallowed paints, and temporal lobe epilepsy. Any of these could have been the culprit and been aggravated by malnutrition, overwork, a fondness for the alcoholic beverage absinthe, and insomnia. Some people have argued, in the case of temporal lobe epilepsy, that the disease may have led to his prolific body of work. (TLE cases tend to show symptoms of hypergraphia and hyperreligiosity and it has been suspected by some as being sources of religious visions and creativity.)
In the November 2005 issue of Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Paul L. Wolf, M.D., presented his analysis of how disease, drugs, and chemicals might have influenced the retinal vision of Van Gogh. Wolf speculates that the Yellow Color Vision defect in van Gogh developed as a side effect of his love of a type of liqueur known as absinthe, containing a neurotoxin called thujone found in wormwood oil.
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Fresh Meat 75,000 lbs Fresh Fish 11,000 lbs Salt & dried fish 4,000 lbs Bacon and Ham 7,500 lbs Poultry and game 25,000 lbs Fresh Eggs 40,000 Sausages 2,500 lbs Potatoes 40 tons Onions 3,500 lbs Tomatoes 3,500 lbs Fresh Asparagus 800 bundles Fresh Green Peas 2,500 lbs Lettuce 7,000 heads Sweetbreads 1,000 Ice Cream 1,750 lbs Coffee 2,200 lbs Tea 800 lbs Rice,dried beans etc.10,000 lbs Sugar 10,000lbs Flour 250 barrels Cereals 10,000 lbs Apples 36,000 Oranges 36,000 Lemons 16,000 Grapes 1,000lbs Grapefruit 13,000 Jams and Marmalade 1,120 lbs Fresh Milk 1,500 gal Fresh Cream 1,200 qts Condensed Milk 600 gals Fresh Butter 6,000lbs Linens
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3,364 bags of mail and between 700 and 800 parcels. One Renault 35 hp automobile owned by passengerWilliam Carter. One Marmalade Machine owned by passenger Edwina Trout.
Oil painting by Blondel, "La Circasienne Au Bain"owned by Hokan Björnström-Steffanson. Seven parcels of parchment of the Torah owned by HershL. Siebald. Three crates of ancient models for the Denver Museum. 50 Cases of toothpaste for Park & Tilford 11 bales of rubber for the National City Bank of NewYork Eight dozen tennis balls were lost which were to goto R.F. Downey & Co. A cask of china headed for Tiffany's. Five Grand Pianos. Thirty cases of golf clubs and tennis rackets for A.G.Spalding. A jewelled copy of The Rubáiyát by Omar Khayyám, withillustrations by Eliku Vedder sold for £405 at auctionin March of 1912 to an American bidder. The bindingtook two years to execute, and the decoration embodiedno fewer than 1,500 precious stones, each separatelyset in gold. Four cases of opium
Passenger Facilities : 2 Parlor Suites each with a 50 foot private promenadeand 67 other First Class Staterooms & Suites.Decorating designs included: Louis Seize, Empire,Adams, Italian Renaissance, Louis Quinze, LouisQuatorze, Georgian, Regency, Queen Anne, Modern Dutchand Old Dutch. Some had marble coal burningfireplaces. Gymnasium with rowing machines, a stationary bicycleand an electric horse. A heated swimming pool (the first ever built into avessel). Squash court on F deck. Turkish bath. 2 Barber shops with automated shampooing and dryingappliances available for all classes.. First & Second class smoking rooms (for the men). Reading and writing rooms (for the ladies). First & Second class libraries. 10,488 square foot First Class Dining Saloon. Seatingcapacity 554. Authentic Parisien Café with French waiters. A Veranda Cafe with real palm trees. A piano in the Third Class common room/saloon (aluxury for its day). Electric light and heat in every stateroom. 4 electric elevators complete with operators. (3 infirst class, 1 in second class) A state of the art infirmary staffed by 2 physiciansthat included an operating room. A fully equipped darkroom for amateur photographers totry their skills. A 5 kilowatt Marconi wireless radio station forsending and receiving passenger's telegrams. A 50 phone switchboard complete with operator forintra-ship calls. Other Facts
In 1912, skilled shipyard workers who built Titanicearned £2 ($10) per week. Unskilled workers earned £1or less per week. A single First Class berth wouldhave cost these workers 4 to 8 months wages. Fee to send a wireless telegram: 12 shillings andsixpence/$3.12 ($36 today), for the first 10 words,and 9 pence per word thereafter. Passenger telegrams sent & received during the voyage:over 250. Cost of the Titanic (in 1912): $7,500,000 Cost to build Titanic today: $400,000,000 Crew Salaries
Captain E.J. Smith, Titanic: £105 a month Captain Rostron, Carpathia: £53 per month Seaman Edward Buley: £5 a month Look-out G.A. Hogg: £5 and 5 shillings a month Radio Operator Harold Bride: £48 per month Steward Sidney Daniels: £3 and 15 shillings a month Stewardess Annie Robinson: £3 and 10 shillings a month
(Note: The range of salaries was quite extreme in1912. In today's money, Captain Smith earned about$72,500 per year while Stewardess Robinson earned only$2400 per year!)
Length: 882 feet, 8 inches/268 metres Gross tonnage: 46,328 tons Net tonnage: 24,900 tons Total capacity: 3547 passengers and crew, fully loaded
Decks: 9 in total (counting the orlop deck) the boatdeck, A,B,C,D,E,F,G and below G boiler rooms. Beam: 92.5 feet/28 meters Height: 60.5 feet waterline to Boat Deck, 175 feetkeel to top of funnels. Depth: 59.5 feet Draft: about 34 feet Engines: 2 reciproctating 4 cylinder, tripleexpansion, direct - acting, inverted engines: 30,000hp77 rpm. 1 low pressure Parsons turbine: 16,000hp165rpm Propellers: 3 ; Center turbine: 17 feet ; Left/Rightwings: 23 feet 6 inches Boilers: 29 (24 double ended boilers and 5 singleended boilers) Furnaces: 159 providing a total heating surface of144,142 sq. feet Steam pressure: 215 P.S.I. Watertight compartments: 16, extending up to F deck Lifeboat davits: 14 double acting Welin's with Murraysdisengaging gear Lifeboats: 20 total as follows: 14 wood lifeboats each 30'0" long by 9'1" by 4'0" deepwith a capacity of 65 persons each2 wood cutters 25'2" long by 7'2" by 3'0" deep with acapacity of 40 persons each4 Englehardt collapsible boats 27'5" by 8'0" by 3'0"deep with a capacity of 47 persons each
Lifeboat Total Rated Capacity: 1,178 persons Personal floatation devices: 3560 life jackets and 49life buoys Fuel requirement: 825 tons of coal per day Water consumption: 14,000 gallons of fresh water perday Top Speed: 23 knots A First Class Stateroom The Third Class Dining Room The Barbershop Titanic's Bow Today Titanic's Bow under construction The Anchor Chain The Boat Deck The Titanic Docked The last photograph taken of the Titanic Titanic Newspaper Headline Olympic next to the Titanic being fitted Titanic's Propeller Painting of Titanic The Marconi Radio Room Captain Smith The Grand Staircase Another view of the Grand Staircase Another View Titanic at Sea One of the Watertight Doors TITANIC PROVISIONS
Fresh Meat 75,000 lbs Fresh Fish 11,000 lbs Salt & dried fish 4,000 lbs Bacon and Ham 7,500 lbs Poultry and game 25,000 lbs Fresh Eggs 40,000 Sausages 2,500 lbs Potatoes 40 tons Onions 3,500 lbs Tomatoes 3,500 lbs Fresh Asparagus 800 bundles Fresh Green Peas 2,500 lbs Lettuce 7,000 heads Sweetbreads 1,000 Ice Cream 1,750 lbs Coffee 2,200 lbs Tea 800 lbs Rice,dried beans etc.10,000 lbs Sugar 10,000lbs Flour 250 barrels Cereals 10,000 lbs Apples 36,000 Oranges 36,000 Lemons 16,000 Grapes 1,000lbs Grapefruit 13,000 Jams and Marmalade 1,120 lbs Fresh Milk 1,500 gal Fresh Cream 1,200 qts Condensed Milk 600 gals Fresh Butter 6,000lbs Linens
Aprons: 4,000 Blankets: 7,500 Table Cloths: 6,000 Bed Covers: 3,600 Eiderdown Quilts: 800 Single Sheets: 15,000 Table Napkins: 45,000 Bath Towels: 7,500 Fine Towels: 25,000 Roller Towels: 3,500 Double Sheets: 3,000 Pillow-slips: 15,000 Ales and Stout 15,000 bottles Wines 1,000 bottles Spirits 850 bottles Minerals 1,200bottles Cigars 8,000 57,600 items of crockery 29,000 pieces of glassware 44,000 pieces of cutlery. Among these:
Tea Cups: 3,000 Dinner Plates: 12,000 Ice Cream Plates: 5,500 Soufflé Dishes: 1,500 Wine Glasses: 2,000 Salt Shakers: 2,000 Pudding Dishes: 1,200 Finger Bowls: 1,000 Oyster Forks: 1,000 Nut Crackers: 300 Egg Spoons: 2,000 Grape Scissors: 1,500 Asparagus Tongs: 400
TITANIC CARGO CLAIMED AS LOST
3,364 bags of mail and between 700 and 800 parcels. One Renault 35 hp automobile owned by passengerWilliam Carter. One Marmalade Machine owned by passenger Edwina Trout.
Oil painting by Blondel, "La Circasienne Au Bain"owned by Hokan Björnström-Steffanson. Seven parcels of parchment of the Torah owned by HershL. Siebald. Three crates of ancient models for the Denver Museum. 50 Cases of toothpaste for Park & Tilford 11 bales of rubber for the National City Bank of NewYork Eight dozen tennis balls were lost which were to goto R.F. Downey & Co. A cask of china headed for Tiffany's. Five Grand Pianos. Thirty cases of golf clubs and tennis rackets for A.G.Spalding. A jewelled copy of The Rubáiyát by Omar Khayyám, withillustrations by Eliku Vedder sold for £405 at auctionin March of 1912 to an American bidder. The bindingtook two years to execute, and the decoration embodiedno fewer than 1,500 precious stones, each separatelyset in gold. Four cases of opium
Passenger Facilities : 2 Parlor Suites each with a 50 foot private promenadeand 67 other First Class Staterooms & Suites.Decorating designs included: Louis Seize, Empire,Adams, Italian Renaissance, Louis Quinze, LouisQuatorze, Georgian, Regency, Queen Anne, Modern Dutchand Old Dutch. Some had marble coal burningfireplaces. Gymnasium with rowing machines, a stationary bicycleand an electric horse. A heated swimming pool (the first ever built into avessel). Squash court on F deck. Turkish bath. 2 Barber shops with automated shampooing and dryingappliances available for all classes.. First & Second class smoking rooms (for the men). Reading and writing rooms (for the ladies). First & Second class libraries. 10,488 square foot First Class Dining Saloon. Seatingcapacity 554. Authentic Parisien Café with French waiters. A Veranda Cafe with real palm trees. A piano in the Third Class common room/saloon (aluxury for its day). Electric light and heat in every stateroom. 4 electric elevators complete with operators. (3 infirst class, 1 in second class) A state of the art infirmary staffed by 2 physiciansthat included an operating room. A fully equipped darkroom for amateur photographers totry their skills. A 5 kilowatt Marconi wireless radio station forsending and receiving passenger's telegrams. A 50 phone switchboard complete with operator forintra-ship calls. Other Facts
In 1912, skilled shipyard workers who built Titanicearned £2 ($10) per week. Unskilled workers earned £1or less per week. A single First Class berth wouldhave cost these workers 4 to 8 months wages. Fee to send a wireless telegram: 12 shillings andsixpence/$3.12 ($36 today), for the first 10 words,and 9 pence per word thereafter. Passenger telegrams sent & received during the voyage:over 250. Cost of the Titanic (in 1912): $7,500,000 Cost to build Titanic today: $400,000,000 Crew Salaries
Captain E.J. Smith, Titanic: £105 a month Captain Rostron, Carpathia: £53 per month Seaman Edward Buley: £5 a month Look-out G.A. Hogg: £5 and 5 shillings a month Radio Operator Harold Bride: £48 per month Steward Sidney Daniels: £3 and 15 shillings a month Stewardess Annie Robinson: £3 and 10 shillings a month
(Note: The range of salaries was quite extreme in1912. In today's money, Captain Smith earned about$72,500 per year while Stewardess Robinson earned only$2400 per year!)
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