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 :. | Skull (nn04) | View of Arles | Portrait of a woman in Blue (nn04) | Still Life wtih Three Books (nn04) | L-Arlesienne |
Related Artists:
David, Jacques-Louis
French Neoclassical Painter, 1748-1825 Jacques-Louis David is famous for his huge, dramatic canvasses of Napoleon and other historical figures, including Oath of the Horatii (1784), Death of Marat (1793) and The Sabine Women (1799). Early in his career he was a leader in the neoclassical movement; later his subjects became more modern and political. David was himself active in the French Revolution as a supporter of Robespierre and is sometimes called the chief propagandist for the Revolution; after the Reign of Terror ended he was briefly imprisoned for his actions. When Napoleon took power David became his court painter and created several grand canvasses of the Emperor, including the heroic Napoleon Bonaparte Crossing the Alps (1801) and the enormous Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine (1807). David also painted Napoleon in His Study (1812),
Blanchet, Louis-Gabriel
French Painter, 1705-1772 French painter, active in Rome. He won second place in the Prix de Rome competition in 1727 and thereafter settled in Rome, where he enjoyed the patronage of Nicolas Vleughels, Director of the Acad?mie de France, and the Duc de Saint-Aignan (1684-1776), who at that time was French Ambassador to the Holy See. In 1752 Blanchet painted the Vision of Constantine (Paris, Louvre), a copy of Giulio Romano's fresco in the Sala di Costantino in the Vatican. He was, however, principally a portrait painter. His portrait of Tolozan de Montfort (1756; Lyon, Mus. B.-A.) is a fine example of his elegant, rather nervous style and his distinctive use of colour. In the same year Blanchet executed a portrait of the contemporary painter Johann Mandelberg (1730-86; Copenhagen, Kon. Dan. Kstakad.). Other surviving works of his include St Paul (signed and dated 1757; Avignon, Mus. Calvet) and his full-length portrait of P. P. Lesueur and E. Jacquier (1772; Nantes, Mus. B.-A.).
PERUGINO, Pietro
Italian painter, Umbrian school (b. 1450, Citta della Pieve, d. 1523, Perugia). Italian painter and draughtsman. He was active in Perugia, Florence and Rome in the late 15th century and early 16th. Although he is now known mainly as the teacher of Raphael, he made a significant contribution to the development of painting from the style of the Early Renaissance to the High Renaissance. The compositional model he introduced, combining the Florentine figural style with an Umbrian use of structure and space,