Painting
Vincent Van Gogh
Best works ofVincent Willem Van Gogh
Born in 1853, archetype of “tormented artist” given the vicissitudes of his life, born self-taught, maximum exponent of post-impressionism, his paintings permeate cultures around the world. Raised in a religious family. Like many artists, his inclination towards drawing was early.
In 1880 he entered the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and in 1881 he would define the style that would make him famous, his first great work “Potato Eaters” would be painted in 1885, a period in which he dedicated himself fully to painting; peasants and rural landscapes are the theme in the middle of dark earth tones, the popularity of impressionism would invite him to paint everything around him using more colour and thick and audacious brushstrokes, although for the date he could not sell any work.
He moved to Arles, France, where his life was more productive, creative and conflictive, here reference is made to the loss of his ear lobe, his physical deterioration and his stay in a hospital for mental illness. In ten years of painting, he produced 900 paintings and more than 1600 drawings. He died in 1890, without being appreciated in his time, later he would be influential in the German expressionist generations and the Fauvists.
10 Most Famous Works of Van Gogh
1. The Potato Eaters-1885- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
It is the first canvas that satisfies the artist, where perhaps his motivations are wet by his experience as a preacher, in this one, with a realistic tone, dark colors, hard and loaded strokes, builds the masterpiece of the Dutch period. He tries to characterize people’s humility, their misery and hopelessness in a natural tone, showing their naivety without apparent make-ups, so traces of earth can be seen on the faces of the peasants as a gadget of dramatic expressiveness away from the bourgeoisie.
2. The Harvest – 1888 – Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
Influenced by Japanese printmaking and in an effort to exalt the countryside and the work of the peasant, Van Gogh, with Mont Mayour as background, paints “The Plain of Crau” in the open air, as he is also known in this one, the artist, during his years in Arles, shows a scene dominated by the summer sun on the plain of the place and reflects the essence of French rural life, its spirituality and the harshness of working in the countryside.
3. Langlois Bridge at Arles-1888-Wallraf-Ritchartz Museum, Germany
Another of the most important works of Van Gogh dedicated to Arles in which he would demonstrate his Neo-Impressionist style, in this one, the artist focuses his interest on the Dutch-style wooden bridges over the Rhone, for which he exalts them with lively and cheerful tones, a very short brushstroke and a lighting system that floods the scene, movement, another of the attention points, is achieved with aqueous effects especially in the area where the washerwomen carry out their work.
4. Bedroom in Arles- 1888-First version Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
The artist invites the spectator to appreciate the interior of the room that will house him during his stay in Arles, on this motif, source of inspiration, he painted three almost identical paintings, they are loaded with a personal imprint typical of the post-impressionist style, in which he uses shades that help him express the tranquility that he felt in the place, for this reference the Japanese style recreating the room in a simple way with a bed and two chairs.
5. The Starry Night-1889- Museum of Modern Art of New York
At the end of his days, Van Gogh was imprisoned in the sanatorium of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, from there he would exhaust his superb resource of starry nights to submerge humanity in its night skies. Considered the masterpiece of the post-impressionist style and “magnum opus” of its creator, “The Starry Night”, is the most reproduced, was painted in moistened oil and fine brushes showing his vision and state of mind from the window of the hospital that would house him thirteen months before his death.
6. Sunflowers-1888-Neue Pinakothek, Munich
Another of the most important works of Van Gogh…with a decorative motif impregnated with his favourite elements: nature, sunflowers and yellow, Van Gogh created his Arlesian series on the subject between 1888 and 1889. “The Sunflowers” were an attempt to impregnate and add to his house aspects associated with his vision of life. For that reason he introduced audacious processes in the handling of the color, the original yellow tone that boasts the flowers was worked technically to capture the essence of these, so that the creation of these pictures is loaded with many symbolisms.
7. Sower at Sunset-1888-Kroller Muller Museum, The Netherlands
The Vangoghian sun spreads with force in every corner of this landscape piece in which a peasant of Arles exercises his task at dawn or dusk, as it is convenient to appreciate it, the villager stands out in the middle of earthy tones and a vibrant yellow that seizes the work in contrast to the loose and blue brushstrokes that closed the neo-impressionist style of the composition. It is considered one of the artist’s most famous paintings given the history behind it.
8. Self-portrait-1889- Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Of the 27 self-portraits that Van Gogh produced between 1886 and 1889, this is one of the most beautiful and significant. It was painted during September 1889 with a dynamism given by the wavy lines that capture the entire composition. The brilliant palette of analogous blue tones in complementarity with vibrant orange, create a cold and calm atmosphere that frames a personality delimited with stylistic formulas. In the different self-portraits the physiognomy of the artist varies.
9. Portrait of Dr. Gachet-1890-Private Collection in Tokyo
A thoughtful and suspicious Doctor Gachet is portrayed in a preludious chromaticism that highlights the foreground in which he is resting on a table, the scene is completed by a book and a digital plant as an attribute of his capacities. The doctor, vehement of the arts, would support and attend to Van Gogh in the repeated episodes of anguish that besieged him, his immortalized melancholic pose is “the heartbreaking expression of our time”, as the artist himself would point out.
10. Wheatfield with Crows-1890-Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Considered Vincent’s last painting, before his death. For some, “Trigal con Cuervos or Trigal Bajo la Tormenta” as it is also known, is impregnated with symbolism. Visually, the work identifies a cloudy sky, a wheat field riddled with crows flying randomly and a path that seems to reach a blind spot in the middle of the wheat field. Metaphorically, it is an allegory of the drama close to the artist’s death, as an anticipated premonition of his death.
These are in our opinion the most famous works of Van Gogh. Thank you very much and you are invited to visit other artists with us.