Dutch Post-Impressionist Painter, 1853-1890 Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 ?C 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist artist. Some of his paintings are now among the world's best known, most popular and expensive works of art. Van Gogh spent his early adult life working for a firm of art dealers. After a brief spell as a teacher, he became a missionary worker in a very poor mining region. He did not embark upon a career as an artist until 1880. Initially, Van Gogh worked only with sombre colours, until he encountered Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism in Paris. He incorporated their brighter colours and style of painting into a uniquely recognizable style, which was fully developed during the time he spent at Arles, France. He produced more than 2,000 works, including around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches, during the last ten years of his life. Most of his best-known works were produced in the final two years of his life, during which time he cut off part of his left ear following a breakdown in his friendship with Paul Gauguin. After this he suffered recurrent bouts of mental illness, which led to his suicide. The central figure in Van Gogh's life was his brother Theo, who continually and selflessly provided financial support. Their lifelong friendship is documented in numerous letters they exchanged from August 1872 onwards. Van Gogh is a pioneer of what came to be known as Expressionism. He had an enormous influence on 20th century art, especially on the Fauves and German Expressionists.  Related Paintings of Vincent Van Gogh :. | Two Lovers | Death's-Head Moth (nn04) | Madame Ginoux | Arles:Vew from the Wheat Fields (nn04) | Orchard with Blossoming Apricot Trees (nn04)_ |
Related Artists:
Makart, Hans
Austrian Academic Painter, 1840-1884 Austrian painter. He studied (1860-65) at the Akademie in Munich under the history painter Karl Theodor von Piloty whose influence is evident in Makart's Death of Pappenheim (1861; Vienna, Hist. Mus.). Makart visited London and Paris in 1862 and Rome in 1863. The Papal Election (1863-5; Munich, Neue Pin.) reveals Makart's skill in the bold use of colour to convey drama as well as his virtuoso draughtsmanship. Two decorative triptychs, Modern Cupids (1868; Vienna, Zentsparkasse), and the Plague in Florence (1868; Schweinfurt, Samml. Schefer), brought Makart both fame and disapproval (mostly because they lacked a literary original) when exhibited in Munich in 1868. His plan for the second work
Stanley, Owen
1811 - 1850,was commander of HMS Rattlesnake on a four year exploratory expedition to New Guinea, 1846?C1850. Stanley was the son of Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwich. He left naval college at the age of fifteen, and served under Phillip Parker King on HMS Adventure and John Franklin in the Mediterranean. In 1836 he sailed to the Arctic as scientific officer on HMS Terror under George Back. In 1838 he was given command of HMS Britomart and sailed to Australia, returning in 1843. In December 1846 Stanley sailed from Portsmouth in charge of HMS Rattlesnake, with the purpose of surveying the seas around the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait. The ship called at Madeira, Rio de Janeiro, Simon's Town and Mauritius, arriving in Sydney in July 1847.
Octavius Oakley
1800-1867 was a Victorian watercolourist. Oakley initially worked for a cloth manufacturer near Leeds in Yorkshire. He developed into a specialist of portraits in watercolour and enjoyed the patronage of the Duke of Devonshire. From living in Derby where he depicted rustic scenes, he moved to Leamington Spa in Warwickshire in 1836, but returned to London in the 1840s and worked there until his death, producing paintings of street scenes and gypsies and their lifestyle. His emphasis on gypsy paintings which he exhibited at the Royal Watercolour Society earned him the name 'Gypsy Oakley'. Oakley met Thomas Baker in Leamington Spa where Baker was living and working and in 1841