Book Creator | Vincent van Gogh - A tribute to an artist

Vincent van Gogh

A tribute to an artist

1853 - 1890

By A' class Model General Lyceum of Heraklion

Editor in chief: Michael Tourampelis
Editors:
Brillaki Rodanthi
Chatzidaki Irene
Parasyri Lydia
Petrakis Nikos
Prinianaki Erato
Rigaki Kalliopi
Roditaki Maria
Spyridaki Stella
Tochtami Konstantina
Art designers:
Brillaki Rodanthi
Prinianaki Erato

School year 2020-21

Welcome to our e-book about Vincent van Gogh, our Vincent!! Now that the unit has been completed, we would like to share our point of view about his art, feelings and thoughts and our side about the ups and downs of his life. Each one of us who attended this unit of fascination has a different story to tell, since we all got influenced in different ways, while exploring the artist’s small but outstanding world. Some of us got caught trying to appreciate life and others questioning every detail of how this crazy world works. In the end, however, we can all agree that storylines as riveting as Van Gogh’s can change our perspective. Through the difficult times we live in, the students, sitting alone in a house staring at the walls, trying to create scenarios about what is going on behind them, created our school’s unique kind of book, full of paintings, expressions and creativity, based on a unit from our English book about Vincent, because we are teenagers and teenagers are always curious and willing to leave their mark. However, the one who helped us to write, was our teacher who also introduced the artist’s story to us. We hope that you will not only enjoy it but it will also make you read his mind the way we tried to do!

The editorial team

Biography

Vincent van Gogh

Known to most of us Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most admirable painters of all the time. He was born on March 30 1853, in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. Van Gogh’s father, Theodorus van Gogh, was a country minister and his mother was an artist. His parents had in fact seven children one of whom died a little bit after his birth. He was the eldest out of his other five siblings. When he was 15 years old his family was facing financial problems and he was forced to drop out of school. His first contact with art came when he moved to the Groupil gallery in London where he was acquainted with English culture. In autumn of 1881 he decided to go to Βrussels and start his art with his brother as his only supporter. As we know they had such a close relationship that they were as best friends. Also his brother Theo was the one that introduced him to painting.
But as we will see below his personality was weird that’s why he had almost no friends and he could not have a good relationship with his siblings except his brother Theo. He was “forced” to find a job while he was still young so he could financially support his family. He started working as an art dealer in The Hague at the age of sixteen. Some years later in 1880 Vincent followed his brother Theo's suggestion to take up painting. Firstly and for a brief period he took painting lessons from Anton Mauve. But because of the divergence of their artistic views they would separate later. He liked playing with the light and the tones of the brush strokes but however his favourites were dark tones, a fact that contributed to his separation from his teacher and made him unique. Later on in 1886 he moved to Paris where he shared a house with his brother Theo. There he came into interaction with some impressionists like: Bernard, Edgar Degas, and Paul Gauguin. At this time of his life he started putting color into his paintings. He also came in touch with pointillism and by combining these two he created his own style. He is not regarded as an impressionist but as a post-impressionist. It means that the artist uses color and lines to express an emotional response to the subject rather than to describing it accurately. Vincent was so devoted to his work that he was skipping sleep. That in combination with his unstable character caused him health problems. His sister described him as a serious and introspective child, highly emotional and lacking self-confidence. Next, he moved to Arles where he was hoping to found an art school. His friend Gaugin helped him but they didn’t come up to good results. Because of his weird character Vincent couldn’t collaborate with other people without getting them mad. After a lot of arguments Gaugin left him. After some dangerous actions towards him he moved to asylum where he painted some of the most popular of his paintings like: "The Starry-Night". In 1890 he left the asylum and moved to Auvers. As time was passing by his depression became worse and worse. Despite his visits to the physician Dr. Gachet it wouldn’t ameliorate. On July 27 he shot himself in the chest. It had as a result his death after a couple of days.

Roditaki Maria
Parasyri Lydia