Vincent van Gogh is one of the most famous and influential artists from the 19th century. His acclaimed works like ‘Starry Night’ and ‘The Potato Eaters’ have inspired many artists over the past 130 years who have studied his emphatic brushwork and striking use of colour. The lurid details of his personal life are as well-known as his art – everyone has heard of his mental and emotional struggles and the infamous story of him cutting off his own ear.
Van Gogh has become the poster child for the so-called ‘suffering artist’, but he has also left a lasting legacy on the world of art that can be seen in many modern and postmodern works. We take a closer look at some of the artistic influences that inspired Vincent Van Gogh and how he, in turn, inspired newer generations of artists.
A Brief History of Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent Van Gogh’s career as an artist spanned only a decade, cut short in 1890 by his untimely death, but his interest in art dates back to his childhood. Even as a child, his talent was evident, though he wouldn’t have the chance to hone his skill until his later years. He worked briefly for an art dealer in his youth and went on to try his hand at several other jobs, all of which left him dissatisfied. It was at the urging of his brother Theo that Van Gogh decided to pursue art more seriously.
In the span of 10 years, Vincent Van Gogh went on to create over 2,100 works of art, among them around 900 paintings. His work was exhibited in galleries and received much critical acclaim, though he only sold one painting in his lifetime. After facing multiple personal and professional struggles, Van Gogh tragically took his own life. Post-mortem, there was a renewed critical and commercial appreciation for his work. Several of his paintings have sold for record-breaking prices at auction in recent years, including some rarely seen pieces sold by Sotheby’s Paris in 2021.
Early Artistic Influences
Vincent Van Gogh studied art formally as a child and again as a young man, but was largely self-taught, drawing on influences from masters of the craft, his contemporaries, and his own observations of the world around him.
During his time working at the art dealership Goupil & Cie, he developed an interest in the most well-known Dutch painters such as Rembrandt, and he was especially drawn to the works of the French artists Jean-Francois Millet and Camille Corot, both known for their paintings of rural landscapes. They helped plant the seed for Van Gogh’s own interest in depictions of rural and working-class life in his later work.
Learning From the Hague School
When he began to pursue art as a career in 1880, Van Gogh studied with the Dutch master Willem Roelofs and upon his suggestion, joined the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels to work on his technical skills such as anatomy and perspective. Two years later he would move to the Hague and study alongside his cousin Anton Mauve.
Mauve was a renowned landscape painter and one of the leading figures in the ‘Hague School’, a name given to the artists who lived and worked in the Hague in the late 19th century and had a strong influence on contemporary Realist painters in Europe. Van Gogh primarily worked with watercolour, but Mauve helped him to expand his artistic horizons and experiment with oil painting.
A Love Affair with Colour
During the mid-1880s, Van Gogh was greatly inspired to depict peasant life as a result of his own experiences. Over that period he produced works such as ‘The Potato Eaters’, which showed the struggles of the European working class while facing criticism for his overuse of darker colours. Examining the works of Dutch masters like Rembrandt and Hals led him to start using brighter hues, though it was the work of Flemish painter Paul Peter Reubens that really changed his perspective on how colour could be used effectively to create mood.
At the same time, Van Gogh discovered contemporary Japanese art and its impact on European artists, especially in Paris. By studying the way Japanese artists used colour, Van Gogh was able to enhance and expand his own palettes.
The Legacy of Van Gogh’s Art
There are two elements that define Van Gogh’s work – his vibrant use of color, seen in later works such as ‘Starry Night’, and the way his paintings represented his emotional state. After his death, Van Gogh’s work gained new popularity throughout Europe, but it would be some time before his paintings were exhibited in his home country. Many artists belonging to the Hague School were displeased with Van Gogh’s more colorful works, which stood in stark contrast to the muted grey palettes that were more popular in Dutch art at the time.
Van Gogh’s bold use of colour had a significant impact on many artists at the turn of the 20th century, such as the Fauve movement in France which emphasised boldness of expression over realistic depictions. The German Expressionism movement was born out of this same idea, using art as a means to represent the emotions of the artist, in much the same way that Van Gogh used to paint.
More modern styles such as Art Deco, pop art, and many others can be traced back to these earlier movements, all of which carry echoes of Van Gogh in them.
Final Thoughts
Vincent Van Gogh has attained an almost mythical status in the realm of popular culture because of his many emotional struggles, but his work has had a tremendous influence on many forms of art that exist today. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam provides a perfect opportunity to discover his work and the way it evolved in the span of his short career. Viewers of his work would also have a better appreciation for the influence that Van Gogh has had and will no doubt be able to see how the work of their favorite artists or art styles are advancing Van Gogh’s unique artistic legacy.
