The Brush is Mightier Than the Sword:
Vincent Van Gogh
If there was a list of the ten most tragic artists ever, Vincent Van Gogh would be in the top two or three. He was unappreciated in his lifetime and so depressed at the end that he killed himself.
Unlike most painters, Van Gogh didn’t decide to paint until he was an adult.. As a young man he tried many jobs such as an art dealer, a school teacher, a bookseller. He even was a preacher for a while like his dad. But none of these occupations seemed to fit him or make him happy. That was when he decided to become a painter.
For the next few years, Van Gogh went to many art schools and studied very hard. His early drawings were of poor people he had helped as a preacher. Van Gogh was nearly 30 years old when he did his first painting which was also of poor people. He called it “Two Women in the Peat.” He used very dark colors to show how hard it was to be poor. His next few paintings were mostly done with dark colors and not very happy looking.
One day Van Gogh came across some Japanese artwork that he liked because of its bright colors and strong lines and shapes. After that his paintings got a lot brighter and more beautiful. Sometimes he would paint so fast he didn’t have time to mix his paint so he used it right out of the tube. Because of this he was always running out and always having to buy more. Sometimes he would even stop getting food to buy more paint and he was often hungry. Some say that he even ate paint for food because he had nothing else.
We know a lot about how Van Gogh felt because he was always writing to his younger brother Theo. Theo was a kind brother and always helped Vincent, sending him money when he could and encouraging him to paint. In 1886 Theo convinced Vincent to move to Paris France and live with him. At that time France, particularly Paris, was the center of the world of art. Since Theo was in the business of buying and selling paintings it seemed like a pretty good place to be.
Two or three years later Van Gogh decided to leave Paris and move to a small country town called Arles. He said that it would be a good place for him and other artists to get together and talk about their different ideas. Despite all his efforts, the only one to come along was Paul Gauguin and that was a big mistake. Gauguin seemed to hate everything that Van Gogh did in Arles and they fought a lot. On one of these occasions they got into such a big fight that Gauguin went back to Paris. After that, Van Gogh was never the same again. He would be angry at himself and not paint for days. People tried to help him but to no avail. Once he became so mad he cut off some of his own ear. He even did a painting called “Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear.”
Hardly anyone bought or was interested in Van Gogh paintings in his lifetime. People just weren’t intrigued by the colors and the movement in the pictures Van Gogh made.
His last painting was called “Wheat Field with Crows.” The painting shows a dark, scary looking sky with crows that look like bats and a road running off into blackness. Soon after that painting was finished Van Gogh shot himself and died two days later.
Though Van Gogh was such a sad person, he did some of the most beautiful paintings the world has ever seen. To this day people are still marveling at the paintings of Van Gogh because of their bright and strong colors and probably more than any painter in history Van Gogh put his feelings into his work. That is why he is arguably one of the best painters ever.
