Home » Visual & Performing Arts » Famous Artists » Celebrating Autumn with Vincent van Gogh

Celebrating Autumn with Vincent van Gogh

© Tricia Dake

Vincent van Gogh – artist, preacher, self-mutilator, mental patient – no doubt his name conjures up numerous images not all from his paintings. For me, upon hearing his name however, I usually visualize what is considered to be his most famous work – Starry Night (1889)

http://www.moma.org/docs/collection/pain...

Like many other art historians, this is perhaps my favorite painting among his works. But van Gogh painted many other more colorful works during his sojourn in the south of France. And as we move into the last days of the autumn of this year, I thought his fall pictures might aid us in the appreciation of the season.

Unlike so many successful artists Vincent van Gogh lacked formal artistic schooling. Instead he simply worked in art galleries first at the age of sixteen as an apprentice to his uncle and later as a salesman in the art gallery of his brother Theo. Unfortunately for Vincent he soon discovered he hated dealing art and fortunately for us he discovered he loved painting. In addition to his work in art galleries, Vincent also worked as a French tutor and, like his father before him, as an evangelist. His famous work - The Potato Eaters (1885)

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gog...

was inspired by the poor people of a Belgian mining community, who Vincent knew as a preacher. This gloomy work is wrought with Expressionism and emotion. A meal shared among friends and family should evoke feelings of warmth, but this is a sad picture, cold and poverty stricken. Vincent was so moved by the miners’ situation that he practiced what he preached and gave away his own goods to the poor.

Although Vincent despised dealing art, it was the exposure to Impressionists such as Georges Seurat and Edgar Degas while he was working in his brother’s gallery that revolutionized his work with color. For me, I love Vincent’s sunnier works. Certainly his sunflowers are a summer inspiration

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/p... Still Life: Vase with twelve Sunflowers (1889)

and his blooming trees call forth the hopefulness of spring

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/p... Peach Tree in Blossom (1888),

but his autumn works – well - autumn seems to exemplify Vincent van Gogh’s life. He suffered bouts of insanity, these symbolically being the darker days of autumn, but these bouts were interspersed with lucid moments when he was able to paint - thereby characterizing the sunny events of harvest.

These are a few of my favorites:

Willows at Sunset (1888) http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/p... The red and blue of this painting seem to dominate it. The starkness of the blue-black-brown willows in the red field stands out against a stunning sunset.

The copyright of the article Celebrating Autumn with Vincent van Gogh in Famous Artists is owned by . Permission to republish Celebrating Autumn with Vincent van Gogh in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.