Van Gogh Wall Art Prints

 
“For my part, I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”

When it comes to the art of painting and a misinterpreted life, clearly Vincent van Gogh aces it all.
 
Early life: 
Born to a protestant minister: Theodorus van Gogh and mother Cornelia, on March 30, 1853, at Groot-Zundert, Brabant, Netherland, Gogh’s first jinx started right from his birth. The year before he was born his mother gave birth to a stillborn child named Vincent. They had a grave named for him, so apparently, the Vincent grew up seeing his own name engraved upon the tomb. He had three younger sisters and a younger brother Theo, who helped him financially and to whom he later wrote letters.

Vincent was inclined towards painting since the very beginning. In his adolescent years, he joined his uncle at Goupil and Cie, the prominent art dealing company first in The Hague, Netherlands, then he moved to London and then finally to Paris where the company held its headquarters. While in London, Van Gogh fell in love with a lady who did not approve of it back. This was another misery to add up to his life as he did not marry anyone or had any issues after the denial.
 

The Call of Art: 
The next misfortune seemed as it was waiting in the queue, but this one leads him to acknowledge his way to painting. Van Gogh tried his hand on various jobs after that only to face rejection. After dismissal from Goupil due to his odd demeanour towards his fellow mates, he taught in England for a brief period and sold books in the Netherlands only to quit after that.

In 1879, he then moved to Belgium and practised clergy alike his father. But all this to no avail as his behaviour caused people to shun him away. Finally, he decided to take up painting in 1880 when he learned the art from various art schools in Belgium and The Netherlands. He was further influenced by his cousin-in-law, Anton Mauve, the famous Dutch painter and the member of The Hague art school.
 
Influences:
Many painters and styles influenced Van Gogh during his last ten years but one thing that influenced him the most was his own forlorn life. Van Gogh considered art to be an outflow of his suppressed emotions and a shriek on his abandonment by the world due to his mental illness.

The various styles he followed were Impressionism, Post-impressionism where he used stark symbols and bright colours to exhibit the painting as a metaphor, Japonism and Pointillism consisting of painting by coordinating dots. Van Gogh was influenced by various painters like Claud Monet, Rembrandt (who is considered to be the best Dutch painter to ever exist), Jean Millet, Anton Mauve and Paul Gauguin, who happened to be a dear friend of Van Gogh.

Famous artworks:
Among his over 2000 artworks, are the The Starry Night ( 1889), the Almond Blossom (1890), and the Wheat Field with Cypresses (1889).

Mental illness and struggles:
Van Gogh was never diagnosed with Borderline Personality disorder, but probably he had one. Partly due to the effect of caffeine and alcohol and anorexic conditions for too long and partly, because of the melancholy that his life had been since the beginning. He suffered from epileptic attacks, grave mood swings, delusions and severe anxiety. The symptoms were evident right from his days in Goupil. He got into unwanted tussles with his colleagues during his stay in Paris and Arles.

He even talked about his deteriorating mental stability in his letters to his brother Theo. In 1888, a day before Christmas, he chopped off his left earlobe because of a fight he got into, with his friend Gauguin. In 1889, he was sent to a mental asylum in Saint-Rémy province near Arles. Here, the outer view from a window of asylum inspired him to paint one of the best artworks of Van Gogh: The Starry Night.