VAN GOGH, VINCENT. - Dutch painter, b. at Groot-Zundert on 30 March 1853, d. by suicide at Auvers-sur-Oise on 29 July 1890.
His painting epitomizes the various aspects of half a century of artistic experience: inspired, during the Dutch period (1880-85), by the realist-social themes of Millet and Israels (The Potato Eaters), it opened, during the brief Parisian period (1886-88), to the purely pictorial influences of Impressionism (The Guinguette, View of Montmartre), Pointillism (Restaurant Interior), and Japanese prints, only to assert itself, during the Provençal period (1880-90), with startling originality. With V. G., Expressionism announces and establishes itself through the emotional power of colour and the deforming impetuosity of line; bound to the earth by more than earthly ties, he sought to interpret the meaning of being (The Wheatfield, The Harvest, The Sower), of cosmic infinity (Starry Night), of the vital impulse and the elements (Field of Poppies, Cypresses, Sunflowers), and of sad human destiny (A Ward in the Hospital at Arles, The Pavers, Night Café; and in many portraits). His vision not infrequently becomes sombre and hallucinatory (Huts of Monticelli); nevertheless, in comparison with the formal excesses of later Expressionists, he remains a classic. His letters to his brother Théo (Amsterdam 1914-25) and to Bernard (Paris 1911) are famous.