History of Vincent Van Gogh

History and Mental illness of Vincent Van Gogh;

Starry Night

Amani Shami

Art Appreciation 111 201

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Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most iconic Dutch painters of all time. His use of

abstract took the world by surprise and is still considered remarkable to this day. Van

Gogh suffered from mental illness all his life such as depression, bipolar, epilepsy, and

there are also theories of him having schizophrenia. Van Gogh poured out his internal

issues through art onto a canvas. By doing so, he created sensational masterpieces

that were recognizable worldwide such as the Starry Night. It is important we educate

ourselves on Van Gogh and better understand how his mental illness influenced his

artwork, and the methods that he used to create his art.

Van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter (Biography.com Editors 2014).

He was most known for his use of color, emotion, and autographic line. Van Gogh was

born on March 30, 1853, in Groot Zundert, Netherlands and died on July 29th, 1890 in

France from a self-inflicted gunshot wound (Rosa 2017). Van Gogh did not die instantly,

but from an infection from the wound and by the time he was almost dead, he said

himself that he was not ready to die and wanted to continue to live on.

Van Gogh struggled with sadness and depression throughout his life. He once

ate yellow paint because his mental illness led him to believe it would give him the

happiness he had been desperately longing for. Not only did Van Gogh suffer from

mental illness, but he also consumed absinthe and became addicted, which did not help

his mental state at all (Bulmer 2002). Absinthe is an alcoholic drink that is more than

100-proof (Milne 2018). “It gets its hallucinogenic reputation from the chemical thujone,

which occurs naturally in the drink. Thujone can cause convulsions and even death in

high enough concentrations” (Milne 2018). It is believed that his consumption of

absinthe caused him to have epilepsy later on in life (Bulmer 2002).

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Van Gogh fell in love with a woman, but she rejected him causing him to become

severely depressed, so he turned to religion (Biography.com Editors 2014). Not only did

he turn to religion because of this denied love, but he also wanted to follow into his

father’s footstep (Biography.com Editors 2014). Van Gogh became almost obsessed

and desired to enter the field of ministry, but failed time after time because of his

stubbornness and unwillingness to follow the rules (Biography.com Editors 2014). He

was also reluctant to learn the language Latin, a skill he must possess to become a

minister (Biography Editors 2014). Van Gogh referred to Latin as a “dead language of

poor people” ((Van Gogh) Biography.com Editors 2014). After failing to become a

minister, he decided to pursue his artistic career (Biography.com Editors 2014)

In the fall of 1880, van Gogh decided to move to Brussels and become an artist.

Though he had no formal art training, his brother Theo offered to support van

Gogh financially. He began taking lessons on his own, studying books

like Travaux des champs by Jean-François Millet and Cours de dessin by

Charles Bargue. (Biography.com Editors 2014)

In 1888, Van Gogh checked himself into a mental institution in Saint Remy-de-Provence

due to a mental breakdown (Richardson, Rusyniak, Rusyniak, Rodning 2017). During

his stay, he produced the infamous painting starry night. The scene depicted in the

painting was Van Gogh’s view from the window of his hospital room. Starry Night would

later be described as expressive. Expressive art is when the artist expresses their

emotion through artwork, a technique that appears frequently in Van Gogh’s paintings.

His use of autographic line and color is what has made this painting so memorable.
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Starry Night is one of the most well-known and famous paintings worldwide. It’s

popularity could be compared to Leonardo Da Vinci, The Last Supper, 1495-98.

Van Gogh was known for his use of dark colors such as black, blues, and

greens, but also the bright color contrast of yellow. Van Gogh created a swirling sky that

makes the viewers eyes gaze throughout the painting, thus, creating the Brownian

motion. Brownian Motion is when the viewer has nowhere to rest their eyes, they are

continually moved throughout the artwork. Van Gogh used a dot-to-dot technique to

create the sky, and it appears that he used a heavy hand while painting his brush

strokes. It looks as if he was consumed with a negative emotion such as anger or

sadness. The prominent color patterns he incorporated included black, blue, green,

yellow, and white. To the left of the painting is a cypress tree, it has been well

speculated that the symbolization of the cypress tree is Van Gogh himself (Caldarone

2010). The church in the painting was not actually present in real-life. It is speculated

that Van Gogh placed the church in the painting because of his religious background.

The texture of this artwork looks like Van Gogh used the impasto technique; it looks as if

his painting would feel three dimensional because of the many layers of paint he uses.

The painting gives you a relaxed and calm feeling. Like it could almost put you to sleep.

The overall content of the starry night is very successful.

Precipitated by ingestion of intoxicants, his delusions, illusions, and

hallucinations grew more vivid daily. Yet the vibrant colors and the flowing wavy

lines he created were expressions of his greatest artistic

achievements (Richardson, Rusyniak, Rusyniak, & Rodning 2017).

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It is no question that Van Gogh’s legacy still thrives to this day. “In his lifetime,

Van Gogh created 900 paintings and made 1,100 drawings and sketches, but

only sold one painting during his career” (The Art Story Contributors 2018).

Examples of Van Gogh’s art influence can be seen throughout art history (The Art

Story Contributors 2018). His techniques of brush strokes and use of color

indicate his psychological state (The Art Story Contributors 2018). Van Gogh’s

use of expressionism influenced numerous of artists and his techniques still

apply to art to this day. Van Gogh’s life story touched the souls of the people of

the world, and that is what has allowed him to live on. From growing up in a

religious family in a small town to becoming one of the most influential artist of all

time, Van Gogh transformed the world of art and expressionism. Van Gogh

motivated artists to pursue their career despite their mental state or background.

It is saddening that Van Gogh was not alive to experience his popularity.

By becoming educated in Van Gogh’s life, we have a better understanding

of his artwork. Van Gogh struggled mentally, but that is what made him so unique

and intriguing. He poured out his internal issues through art onto a canvas. By

doing so, he created sensational masterpieces that were recognizable world-

wide such as the Starry Night.

“Real painters do not paint things are they are… they paint them as they

themselves feel them to be” (Vincent Van Gogh).

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References/ Bibliography

Bulmer, D. (2002). The Illness of Vincent Van Gogh. Retrieved November 29, 2018, from
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.159.4.519

Richardson, B., Rusyniak, A., Rusyniak, G., & Rodning, C. (2017, August 21). Neuroanatomical Interpretation of the
Painting Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. Retrieved November 29, 2018, from
https://academic.oup.com/neurosurgery/article/81/3/389/4090948

Vincent van Gogh Overview and Analysis. (2009). Retrieved November 29, 2018, from
https://www.theartstory.org/artist-van-gogh-vincent.htm

Vincent van Gogh. (2017, August 14). Retrieved November 29, 2018, from
https://www.biography.com/people/vincent-van-gogh-9515695

Images
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The Starry Night - Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France Posters by Vincent van Gogh at AllPosters.com. (n.d.). Retrieved

November 29, 2018, from https://www.allposters.com/-sp/The-Starry-Night-Saint-Remy-de-Provence-France-

Posters_i15530066_.htm