Van Gogh's life was not smooth and he suffered from intermittent mental disorder, but the cruel reality did not erase his desire for life and passion for painting. Even in the last year of his life, he has been painting in a small house in a mental hospital.

Why did his paintings undergo earth-shaking changes and influences after his death? Even if it sells at sky-high prices, I think his paintings have certain artistic value. His sudden death has made all his previous paintings orphans in this world. Besides, I wonder if it has anything to do with his brother being an art agent.

In Jiang Xun's Talk about the Master of Art-Embracing Van Gogh, Van Gogh gives the impression that he is a Dutch painter with red hair, green eyes like a cat and a full face of beard, who rushes in and out with an easel on his back every day. ......

1 van Gogh's early works

1885 Van Gogh's most important work, The Potato Eater, saw a family growing potatoes during the day eating dinner through a gap in the door panel, and the only food on the table was potatoes. In the photo, there are five people sitting around a table, and one of them has his back to the photo completely. The other two groups felt as if they were talking. Although there is no language in the painting, it looks like a drama, as if there are voices, as if they can be heard talking.

In the picture, a woman on the left is sharing potatoes with a fork, but she stops and looks at the man next to her with wide eyes, as if to say: There are so few potatoes, how can we share them? An elderly woman on the right is carrying a black pot and pouring coffee into four bowls. There is unsweetened milk, because both are expensive and can't be bought at all. Then an old woman next to her reached out to the woman who was pouring coffee with a white porcelain bowl in her hand, and then a strange expression appeared on her face. It seems to say, can I have some more? A little more?

The color of the whole painting is very dark, but there is a kerosene lamp hanging above the dark house, and only the lamp gives off a glimmer. This lamp just illuminates the potatoes on the table, so the brightest light in the whole dark tone of this picture is the lamp and potatoes, which have become the only hope and warmth and the only food in this family.

Van Gogh came into contact with art very early. He has a very strong view on art. He thinks that art pays attention to life and the most painful people in life, so his paintings are not gorgeous, which makes you feel the true sincerity of life.

His works of art have never been valued by anyone in his life, probably because he has been painting the corners that people in our society are most unwilling to see.

Before this, 1882, he painted an early work "Despair", in which an old man sat in front of a so-called fireplace (because it was simple), his head hanging between his hands, showing a kind of pain in life.

Van Gogh's painting history is only seven years. 1879 July, the church dismissed him, and he could no longer be a priest. 1880- 1882 was his most desperate three years. When he returned to his hometown, he didn't know what he was going to do, so he began to paint seriously for a long time. When he has few friends, he regards painting as his friend. But painting, he has no formal training. Although he once bought and sold works of art in an art agency, it doesn't mean that he can paint. So he came to The Hague, the Netherlands, to study painting, because his cousin was there. His cousin is a famous painter and also has a studio to teach students.

During the period of 1883, he painted mostly the pain, despair and sadness in life.

2 ? Van Gogh is in Paris

1886, his younger brother who worked in an art institution asked him if he wanted to come to Paris, so Van Gogh came to Paris from Holland in the north. The environment and climate in the south are quite different from those in the north. When we look at Van Gogh's paintings, we will find that the colors of his paintings in 1886- 1887 begin to brighten. So the influence of the environment on a painter is unimaginable. His time in Paris was influenced by impressionism. The style of painting has changed from the gloomy feeling of Holland to the bright and cheerful feeling of France.

Color often represents a person's mood. Van Gogh's mood in Paris changed, and he became more and more happy here.

He painted a figure painting "Father Donkey" with Japanese prints as the background. Father Donkey is actually the owner of a painting shop in Montmartre, France. His wife is fierce because these poor painters often come to pay for things. Van Gogh liked Japanese ukiyo-e prints very much at that time, and France also had many different cultures. Here, from a very rural and localized Dutch painter, Van Gogh began to go international and eventually became an international and cosmopolitan painter.

Before Van Gogh 1886, most of his works were workers, farmers and miners. , give a person a kind of heavy real work very tired feeling. After 1886, he went to Paris. 1887 is very important to him. He turned to his younger brother Theo, a famous local art agent. He suddenly moved from a very unhappy life to a glamorous world for him, and he also met many other unknown painters.

Van Gogh found his own style in arles.

1888 In February, Van Gogh packed his bags and went to arles, a very remote town near Provence in the south of France. Because the weather in Paris is very gray, he wants to go to the south. The farther south he goes, the brighter the sky becomes. He wants to pursue a kind of sunshine. This kind of sunshine is not only the sunshine of nature, but also Van Gogh's yearning for beauty, brilliance and enthusiasm.

We say that painters must find their own style, their own style. A painter will never be famous for imitating others, because you will always be second to others. So Van Gogh soon found himself in arles, got rid of the influence of painters in Paris, and drew the real Van Gogh with rough and wild brushstrokes. The real Van Gogh may only be 1888- 1890, because he committed suicide at 1890.

He once painted a suspension bridge in Arles, which is still there. The suspension bridge is so small that it can be opened and closed with iron cables. If a boat passes by, you can pull it up. Because it was damaged in the war, people later built a wooden suspension bridge there. Because Van Gogh painted it, many people will travel there now.

Van Gogh painted and sketched everywhere in arles, but he was also lonely. Because he is remote and has few friends, he has been writing letters to keep in touch with the outside world through letters. Van Gogh later left many letters to his younger brother and friends. Later, he drew a postman, because the postman often sent him letters, and later they became good friends. He is eager to share and talk, and hopes that his friend Gauguin can come and paint with him.

When he was in Al, the blue sky and bright sunshine made his paintings very bright and his strokes became very big. At this time, his favorite painting material is sunflower.

The seven sunflowers he painted are in art galleries all over the world. At first glance, these sunflowers all seem to be similar, some are more, some are less, and they are mainly yellow, and the background color will be different.

Jiang Xun said that his favorite is the fourth sunflower. He thinks the yellow in this painting is very rich. Yellow contains a kind of gold and a kind of brilliance, like the flammability of life pursued by Van Gogh. He hopes that life can burn to the most brilliant state, like the color of fire, like the color of stars, like the color of the sun.

Part of the original painting can show a certain feeling of flowers. We know that there are many sunflower seeds among sunflowers. When Van Gogh painted this part, because sunflower seeds are one by one, there is a strong texture, especially when they are picked and dried. If it is difficult to draw with a painting, he will use an oil painting pen to paint on the stamens and green sunflower seeds, so he will always paint on the canvas. Especially when the light hits it, it looks more stereoscopic and has a cone-shaped aesthetic feeling.

He piled the paint on the canvas like clay, which was very thick. Finally, the texture formed the texture, which, like a flame, is also the self-expression of his own inner fanaticism. At the same time, he began to paint many self-portraits, and he began to realize that he was different from ordinary people. He is easily overexcited and can't sleep, so at this time he began to paint and drew a lot of self-portraits. He looked in the mirror and wanted to study himself and understand himself. The most creative is the anxious, excited and sleepless Van Gogh.

In fact, apart from painting self-portraits, every painting painted by a painter is painting himself.

4 Van Gogh in a mental hospital

Van Gogh was imprisoned in a room in Saint Remy's sanatorium in southern France, which has now become a tourist attraction. There is a single bed in that small house, thick wooden door, a small window on the door, and a big lock on the door. He lived from 1888 to 65438+February, and didn't leave until 1890, that is, in this year, he created amazing great works.

He painted in front of the window of that small room. He painted the stars in the sky at dawn, noon, dusk and night, and drew his greatest work, Starry Sky.

At that time, medical conditions were limited, and there was no psychiatry at all. The so-called mental hospital is a monastery, where he didn't get treatment, so he may just be locked up. The greatest medicine that can cure him is painting, not artistic creation. Facing the blank canvas and the only window in the room, he turned the landscape outside the window into a wonderful painting. That window really became the window of the soul, and all the scenery outside the window became his desire for life.

There are some hills outside the window of that room, some hills made of rocks, and in front of them is a large wheat field. During this year, from sowing to germination, to growth, to heading, piles of wheat ears are heading. This is a year. But every day, from the dawn of the first light shining on the distant wheat field, he began to draw, and then a cloud passed by and slowly rotated in the sky. He was drawing the pile of white clouds. He has been looking at the clouds. He had never seen clouds spread like this, so he could put them away at will. The cloud is like a hand to comfort him, full of warm feeling.

The dawn and dusk he painted, in fact, the scenery has not changed, or the hills, wheat fields ... have turned into light. Seeing the farmer harvesting in the wheat field, he also painted the bare harvested wheat field, the beauty of the sunset at dusk, and then the sunset turned the whole sky into dark blue, and the night in the Mediterranean was also blue, and then one star after another began to light up. He observed the moving direction of each star. The starry sky shows us the enthusiasm of the most lonely and lonely person to talk to the universe.

This is a suffering heart, a tortured heart, a heart that is trying to heal itself, but he is an absolutely lonely heart.

In his last year, he painted nearly 2000 paintings! This is an unlikely number for ordinary people, drawing 3-5 pictures a day on average. During this time, his paintings have reached amazing creative energy, and each painting is very, very wonderful. Van Gogh at this time completely ignored academic techniques. For him, oil painting is just a tool of expression. He can stack many deep pigments on the canvas to form a sculptural texture, and the color is very gorgeous and strong. Therefore, when we stand in front of his paintings, we will be infected by his strong emotions and even burst into tears.

His painting "Apricot Blossom" looks like the painting of the ancient Southern Song Dynasty. This painting gives people a very quiet feeling, and there is no irritability or anxiety at all. It shows that Van Gogh is sometimes anxious, sometimes quiet, sometimes indifferent, and sometimes eager to embrace the world.

This work is a gift from Van Gogh to his younger brother Theo, and also to commemorate his newborn daughter. February is the season of apricot blossom, and the new life of the family seems to bring a kind of euphoria.

5? Van Gogh's last painting

Van Gogh spent the last six months in Ouwei, a small town in the north of Paris, France. His friends and relatives hoped that he could get better treatment and care here, but he committed suicide.

Ovi has a small church with a Gothic spire. Van Gogh painted it. The church he painted has a very special purple-blue background. The structure inside is a bit staggered, and it seems that there is no way to support it. It's a bit like what psychologists say: what a person calls normal is actually supported by many tiny things like toothpicks. In fact, we don't know which toothpick will break, and we will collapse. The so-called psychological normality is actually maintained precariously in many complicated balances.

In fact, after he committed suicide, his body was buried behind this church, and now all the mourners go to this church. It seems that when he saw the church, he had already seen the end of some fate.

Flocks of crows flying over the wheat fields are the last painting painted by Van Gogh.

Crows often steal wheat, so farmers hate crows, so they prepare a gun. This gun is a shotgun, which can't kill people, but it is loud enough to frighten crows in the field to fly. Van Gogh shot himself in the heart with this gun on July 27th, 1890, and the painting he painted happened to be a group of black crows flying from golden wheat fields. Many people think that. Because this gun is a shotgun, it can't kill people, but it hurts and bleeds all the time, so he didn't die until the 29th and was buried behind the church, ending his legendary life.

The above content is compiled from the audio of "Jiang Xun on the Master of Art-Embracing Van Gogh"

After listening to the story of Van Gogh, people feel so distressed. I even think that if he had not resigned from the Gubis Art Institute when he was young, his later life would not have become so embarrassing, but everything started from his heart. If he is given a new choice, he may still make the same decision as before. At that time, he wanted to be a priest, but things did not develop according to people's wishes, and the priest did not take it for granted. Later, he chose to be an unknown painter and let his life be supported by his younger brother Theo. He has a good relationship with his younger brother, and I think his younger brother is also great, because without his selfless dedication and silent encouragement, and without the collection of Van Gogh's paintings, it is impossible for later people to see these immortal paintings of Van Gogh.

Van Gogh never knew he was a genius. He dare not even call himself a painter. His artistic confidant is only his younger brother. Perhaps the happiest thing in Van Gogh's life is to have a younger brother who understands and supports him and can help him all his life.

Unfortunately, when he was alive, his paintings were worthless and could not be recognized and respected. When he died, his paintings were sold at sky-high prices. How many people visited the place where he once lived, as if he had become a celebrity and idol that attracted thousands of people's attention overnight. Fate seems to have played a big joke on him. If there is a soul in heaven, I wonder how it will feel.

Recommend my last article: The Story of Van Gogh.