The Legend of Vincent van Gogh: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Famous Painter
Vincent van Gogh cut his ear off. That is pretty much all I remembered about van Gogh from my school. I knew he painted the sunflowers and Starry Night and used bold colours in his artwork. What do you know about Vincent van Gough?
I tend to have a slightly obsessive trait. When I find something or someone that interests me, I just have to know everything about them. Call it ADHD, call it Complex PTSD, call it what you will, but I need to get this blog out there before I lose interest in Vincent and move on to my next obsession.
I started learning about Vincent van Gogh for my Degree in Arts and Humanities a few months ago. I felt so in awe of him that I took my learning further and binged a lot of information on the internet about the artist (the Van Gogh Website is incredible); I found an awesome 4 part podcast about him (check out Creative Codex on Spotify). I even took a trip to York for the moving Van Gogh Immersive experience in York.
And now… here I am… sitting in my Vincent van Gogh top, writing this blog, like an absolute nerd.
There is something very special about Vincent, and maybe after reading this, the next time you see one of his artworks, you might experience something a little deeper than “ooo, nice colours”.
So, let’s get to it. Here are 5 things that make Vincent van Gogh an absolute legend.
900 Paintings in 10 Years
Together with his brother, Theo, Vincent worked as an art dealer for a company called Goupil & Cie. After several years, he became disenchanted with his role and also had frequent clashes with his superiors (who did not appreciate his unorthodox approach to selling art. However, his time as an art dealer gave him great insight and a deep appreciation for art.
Vincent left to pursue a job as a preacher (which I will talk about later in this blog!), but things didn’t work out for him. Alone and penniless, his brother Theo, still working for Goupil & Cie, offered to help Vincent by encouraging him to become an artist. He even supported Vincent financially so that Vincent could begin his creative journey. He was 27. What is truly unique is that during the last 10 years of his life, he created more than 900 paintings and even more sketches and drawings.
However, during his lifetime, he only sold 1 painting. That leads me on to my next point…
Vincent was ahead of his time
How can it be?! Vincent van Gogh, the most famous artist in the world, only sold one of his paintings during his lifetime?
In his early artistic days, van Gogh painted many peasant scenes. He felt passionate about exposing the truth about poverty and wanted to convey what it really was to have nothing. During this time, people were painting peasants, but they were painting them in big open spaces, smiling with their freshly washed bonnets. In his piece entitled The Potato Eaters, Van Gogh paints a different picture: A very dark and crowded room where 6 people gathered around a table to eat potatoes. The peasants look depressed and have bony, working hands. This was not a painting that the wealthy art-consuming community would want to hang on their walls.
His style significantly changed; in later years, he dropped the dark, moody colours, but his art still wasn’t selling. The fact of the matter is people in the 19th century didn’t get it. People thought his use of colour was too vulgar and his paintings were too abstract. In the 19th century, if somebody wanted a painting of a night sky, they would want it to look like just that.
People liked their art to be lifelike, to look just like the thing, rather than being an interpretation of the thing.
Despite this, Van Gogh stuck to his guns, painting his truths in bold, beautiful colours. He was a true artist, putting his art and soul into everything he painted. Van Gogh was not in it for the money or the fame. It was much deeper than that.
The preacher, the prophet, the artist
Following in his father’s footsteps, Vincent left his career as an art dealer to become a preacher. He volunteered as a pastor in a poor mining village in Brussels, where he taught, visited the sick, and shared biblical teachings. Vincent was generous and gave away his belongings to those in need. However, when he gave away his accommodations over a bakery to a homeless man, his superiors considered it too extreme and ostracized him from the church. Vincent’s selfless actions were seen as eccentric, crazy, and undermining. He gave up everything to serve others, only to be criticized.
The universe had other plans for Vincent.
Vincent’s loving brother stepped in and inspired the art that we all love so much today.
I feel art is a spiritual practice. The best songs I have written have been the ones where I haven’t had to think about what I am writing; it is as if I am channelling something bigger than myself. Creating is a way to connect to whatever you believe in: god, the universe, a higher power, or the divine. Although Vincent lost his role as a preacher, he continued to connect and serve in his paintings.
He painted Starry Night in an asylum
Thats right! Vincent painted Starry Night as he looked out his east-facing window one morning in June 1889, just before sunrise. In fact, he painted many of his famous pieces while confined at Saint-Paul-de Mausol asylum in Arles, France.
Penniless, alone and confined, he could have given up. Luckily for us, he did not. What touches me so much about this is that when he painted Starry Night, he wasn’t painting to please anyone; he wasn’t painting to sell; he was doing the only thing he could do in such dire circumstances — expressing himself: connecting to that higher power and finding comfort in that. Looking at Starry Night, I see Vincent’s soul; it is beautiful.
More than Sunflowers
When Vincent wasn’t painting, he was creating beautiful, atmospheric pictures with his words. He wrote over 600 letters to his brother Theo, many available to read online.
Within these letters, you get a glimpse of Vincent, not just the artist, but the man. Vincent’s letters show that he believed in living in the present moment, that he had a love for nature and saw the beauty in everything. Here is one quote from a letter written to Theo:
“Do right and don’t look back, and things will turn out well. Always continue walking a lot and loving nature, for that’s the real way to learn to understand art better and better. It often seems to me that the night is much more alive and richly coloured than the day.”
Looking at Vincent’s work, his love for nature is apparent. He found “comfort in contemplating sunflowers” and painted a total of 11 sunflower canvases. For him, they represented light and gratitude. Sunflowers were unrefined and unsophisticated for other artists, but this is precisely what Vincent loved and put them.
You will have seen the famous Sunflowers in a Vase painting, but did you know there are actually 5 of these, all slightly different and now, in all other parts of the world? You can see them all here, and find out a few things that you may not already know about Van Goghs Sunflowers.
https://youtu.be/DppVD1i78qU?si=pUddQ6fIc1Vm_dJs
When Vincent van Gogh left his human body at 37, his death left a mark on the world of art. He had only been painting for a decade, yet he had already created a body of work that was both revolutionary and deeply emotional. At his funeral, his friends brought sunflowers; the very same flowers had captivated Vincent’s imagination and inspired some of his most famous paintings. These vibrant and cheerful blooms became a symbol of his life and legacy, a testament to his passion and vision. Even today, more than a century later, we can still feel his art’s power and the world’s beauty as he saw it.
Vincent van Gogh was more than just a painter. He was a preacher, a servant, and a true artist who put his soul into everything he created. His paintings continue to inspire and touch the hearts of people worldwide, and his legacy lives on. The famous Sunflowers in a Vase painting and the story behind it show us that even the simplest things in life can carry deep meaning and beauty. Vincent’s dedication and passion for his work remind us to pursue our own passions and pour our hearts into everything we do.
“Normality is a paved road, it’s comfortable to walk on but no flowers grow there” Vincent van Gogh
To find out more about Vincent, check out these awesome links!
