Artist of the Month

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh was born on March 30th 1853 in Holland.  Vincent had 5 brothers and sisters.

Vincent's parents did not encourage him to become an artist .   Vincent had many jobs before he began doing art full time. His many jobs were:

gallery worker

preacher

Teacher

Social worker

                  Clerk

                  Artist

On the right side of the screen there is a self-portrait of Vincent.  A self-portrait is a painting or drawing of a person done by that person. Vincent painted may self portraits of himself throughout his life time. Vincent used quick wide brush strokes  and bright colors when painting.  Vincent's earlier paintings were dark.  The painting below is titled  "The Potato Eaters."  The colors used are very dark and the subject of the painting is very sad. Vincent  wanted to paint people the way they lived.  In this painting Vincent shows a poor farm family eating their evening meal of potatoes.

Vincent's best friend was his brother Theo.  The wrote to Theo everyday and Theo sent money to Vincent so he would not starve.  On of his closest artist friend was Paul Gauguin.  Gauguin and Vincent lived together until they had a fight and Gauguin left.   

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