Q:Why did Vincent van Gogh's artistic style undergo significant changes throughout his career?
A:
So Vincent Van Gogh is my all time favorite artist. And since I’m an artist I have read a lot about him. I also had the privilege of seeing the Vincent Van Gogh show this past fall that is touring and I believe is housed in New Orleans.
Van Gogh started out as a missionary. He wasn’t well liked and he felt like a failure.
He took up painting in his late 20s and began teaching himself to paint. Those early paintings were drab, sad and depressing. One of them is called “the potato eaters” and shows some peasants all in muted browns eating potatoes because that’s all they had.
But then something amazing happened.
Van Gogh went to Paris. And when he went to Paris, he saw the impressionists and what they were doing there. He immediately began using vibrant colors and his paintings completely changed.
As I was studying Van Gogh for a class I teach to high school students, I realized that Van Gogh was an expert in color theory. An absolute expert. His combinations of color are what makes his paintings so beautiful and vibrant.
Van Gogh was also undoubtedly influenced by his friendship with Gauguin, whom he lived with for a while, but I can’t see the influence there anywhere near as much as that first influence of the Paris avant-garde art scene.
Thats my take on it anyway.
Thoughts?