Van Gogh : An Eminent Artist  (GS Paper 1 : Art and Culture )

22 Oct Van Gogh : An Eminent Artist  (GS Paper 1 : Art and Culture )

Context

• Recently an artwork of Van Gogh which had been looted by Nazi’s during 2nd world war  was auctioned in an exhibition and the artist lovers appreciated this art work 

• Features of the Artwork of the Van Gogh

• He used water colour in his art work

• Initially Van Gogh used only two colours black and white in his painting 

• Initially he remained focused on the learning techniques of the paintings, how colours should be used in the painting of landscape and emotions also . When he satisfied with his learning 

• He began adding in colors and his bold palette became one of the most recognizable features of his later work.

• His depiction of figures is too light so sometimes the landscape can be admired without the need for color. 

• Initially he used dark and melancholy colors only in his painting so that those colours would suit his subjects at the time mainly for the painting of the pictures of miners and peasant farm laborers. 

• Gradually he changed his style  and when he moved to Paris in 1886 and was greatly influenced by the work of the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists, he opted new style of painting 

• After that he started to use a lighter palette of reds, yellows, oranges, greens, and blues, and experimented with the broken brush strokes of the Impressionists. 

• He also attempted the pointillist technique of the Neo-Impressionists whereby contrasting dots of pure color are optically mixed into the resulting color by the viewer. 

• He was highly  influenced by Japanese techniques of painting so he painted dark outlines around objects, filling these in with areas of thick color.

• He used various colours as per his moods and for yellow colour he used sunflowers 

• Van Gogh started to imitate Gauguin’s technique of painting from memory during this time which resulted in his paintings becoming more attractive and less realistic.

•  Van Gogh’s emerging style saw him emotionally reacting to subjects through his use of color and brush work. 

• Use of pencil, black chalk, red chalk, blue chalk, reed pen and charcoal

• He made his drawing on a variety of papers 

• He used any material available to him.

• His drawing looks very veriful because he used colours as per the requirement .

• He made almost 150 watercolor paintings during his lifetime. 

• He used watercolor just to assimilate the colors but gradually water colour has become unique characteristic of his artwork 

• During the latter part of the 19th century he went on to create a series of ten graphic works: nine lithographs and one etching. 

• The potato Eaters was his masterpiece and  it reached to millions of the people

• His subjects of the artwork was Figure, Landscapes, Cityscapes, Scenery

About Van Gogh

• Initially belonging from Holland or Netherland, Van Gogh , an eminent painter of the 19th century born on 30 Mar 1853. His art work is related with Post-Impressionism

• He  was a specific  artist who worked with a sense of urgency which often caused him a great deal of stress.

• He expressed emotion from his brush and In his painting we see boldness also 

When Germany controlled some of the regions of Europe , Nazies had looted the art work of Van Gogh , but the protection of the artworks is definitely appreciable.  

(Dr Anshul Bajpai)

plutus ias daily current affairs 22 Oct 2021

Dr. Anshul Bajpai

Plutus IAS Current Affairs Team Member