|
|
|
Vincent Van Gogh
Sunflowers
Working At A Furious Pace, Van Gogh Finished Four Sunflower Paintings In August,
Hoping Eventually To Produce Twelve.
|
|
|
Van Gogh (1853-90) is normally regarded as a tragic, isolated figure, but there were times in his
life when his outlook was extremely positive. This Van Gogh famous
|
|
|
(above) 14 Sunflowers
|
painting and sketches of sunflowers colouring was produced during one of these
optimistic periods; Van Gogh art is
radiant, glowing with life, an eloquent reflection of his joyful mood.
In February 1888, Van Gogh moved from Paris to Arles, in the south of France. He had
recently become very enthusiastic about Japanese prints and hoped that Arles, with
its warmer climate and brighter light, would be something akin to a "Japan of the South."
He was also keen to found an artists' colony there, and his brother Theo, as willing as
ever, did his best to help him. In the summer of 1888, Theo persuaded Paul Gauguin to
join Vincent van gogh in Arles, sharing his house. With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear
that this was a bad idea. Paul Gauguin was attracted principally by the money that Theo was
offering and regarded the entire venture as a convenient business
|
|
arrangement. For Vincent van gogh , it was the fulfillment of a dream
and he pursued it wholeheartedly. The
consequences are well known. Within months, relations
between the Paul Gauguin and Van Gogh had deteriorated badly, leading to the crisis point in
December 1888 when van Gogh cut off part of his ear.
This painting dates from the happy period before the friendship went sour. While he was
awaiting Paul Gauguin's arrival, Vincent decided to decorate his friend's room with a series
of sunflowers pictures. He did not choose this subject because of the flowers themselves,
but on account of meaning of sunflowers colouring. In Japan, yellow was the color of friendship and van Gogh
wanted to make his home as welcoming as possible.
|
|
Shaz Color Picker Desktop, make your own color formats or
point your mouse in any part of the screen and get the color
formats in RGB, HTML, HEX, HSB, and CMYK
(Try the application above)
|
Working at a furious pace, he finished
four sunflower paintings in August, hoping eventually to produce twelve.
When Paul Gauguin saw these pictures, he was very impressed. Paul Gauguin painted a portrait sketches of
Vincent van Gogh at work on one of the canvases and tried to swap some of his
own sketches for one of the sunflower paintings.
Even after their quarrel, Van Gogh continued to produce further versions of this theme
He intended to use two of these later sunflowers pictures as two sunflowers side panels on a portrait
he was painting of Madame Roulin, the wife of the local postman.
Three of the most famous sunflowers paintings are van gogh 12 sunflowers,
14 sunflowers vincent van gogh, and two cut sunflowers by van gogh.
|
Van Gogh's friends were well aware of his fondness for these blooms, and when he died, they placed huge sunflowers on
his coffin. Always popular, van Gogh sunflower paintings gained added fame in 1987, when
one was sold for £24 million, which, at the time, was the highest price paid for a
painting at auction.
Style and technique Van Gogh's style developed rapidly in the late 1880s. During his spell
in Paris between 1886 and 1888, he absorbed the ideas of the impressionists and the
symbolists and their love of Japanese prints and these varied influences can all be detected
in his mature works. His bold use of color, his spontaneous brushwork and his taste for
thickly applied paint were highly original, as was his emotive approach. "Instead
of trying to reproduce exactly what I have before my eyes," van Gogh said,
"I use color more arbitrarily, in order to express myself forcibly" As a result, he has
often been claimed as a forerunner of the expressionists.
Vincent van Gogh, one of the founding
fathers of modern painting, is best known for his vivid
colors, his vibrant painting style, and his short but highly
productive career. His productivity is even higher than
generally realized, as many of his known paintings cover
a previous composition ( the formal aspects of visual composition are like the grammar of a language.
In art, the way the formal elements are arranged can make or break a good picture idea.
Radial balance is not very common in artist's compositions, but it is
like a sunflower with everything arranged around a center.
a sunflower can have many meanings and feelings beyond its radiant feeling
like Vincent Van Gogh's extraordinarily textured painted sunflowers.
Once we have contemplated those thickly expressed colors and textures
with their luscious painterly surface, every sunflower we see
becomes an aesthetic experience filled with spiritual sensations).
This is thought to be the case in
one third of his early period paintings. Van Gogh would
often reuse the canvas of an abandoned painting and paint
a new or modified composition on top. These hidden
paintings offer a unique and intimate insight into the
genesis of his works. Yet, current museum based imaging
tools are unable to properly visualize many of these hidden
images. In recent decades his work
has undergone extensive art historical and technical study. One
striking feature that emerged is Van Gogh’s frequent reuse of
paintings in order to recycle the canvas. The artist would simply
paint a new composition on top of an existing work. This is usually
attributed to the artist’s lifelong economic hardship and the rapid,
energetic evolution of his artistic ideas. Visualizing such hidden
paintings is of interest to both specialists in the field of Van Gogh
and the public alike. Covered paintings in general provide an
insight into the making of artworks and the underlying conceptual
changes. In the case of Van Gogh, they also present a touchstone
for comparison with preparatory drawings and the abundant
literary record. The extensive correspondence with his brother
Theo van Gogh, an art dealer based in Paris, is full of remarks by
Vincent on his work.
References: 1. “Masterworks”, by Iain Zaczek. Published by The Brown Reference Group, London.2003.
2. Delft University of Technology publication
|
|
|
|
